Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–September 12

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Nick Young (1840)
Bob Groom (1884)
Fred Luderus (1885)
Spud Chandler (1907)
Charlie Keller (1916)
Andy Seminick (1920)
Stan Lopata (1925)
Albie Pearson (1934)
Mickey Lolich (1940)
John Montague (1947)
Scotti Madison (1959)
Thom Brennaman (1963)
Keith Hughes (1963)
Luis Castillo (1975)
Carmen Pignatiello (1982)

And a happy birthday as well to CarterHayes.

Catcher Charles Scott “Scotti” Madison did not play for the Twins, but was drafted by them. Born and raised in Pensacola, Florida, he was drafted by the Twins in the third round of the 1980 draft out of Vanderbilt. Madison was started at AA Orlando and did not do well, batting only .230. Dropped down to Class A Visalia in 1981, he hit much better, and was traded to the Dodgers that offseason with Paul Voight in a trade that brought Bobby Castillo and Bobby Mitchell to the Twins. Madison slumped again when promoted to AA and AAA in 1982, but did better after that, batting over .300 in a 1983 split between AA San Antonio and AAA Albuquerque. He was purchased by the Tigers organization during 1984 spring training, and after a solid season at AA Birmingham and a good 1985 split between Birmingham and AAA Nashville, Madison was given a brief callup by the Tigers. He got another brief chance with the Tigers in 1986, but then became a free agent and signed with the Royals. He was named the most popular player on the Omaha Royals in 1987, and got to Kansas City briefly in both 1987 and 1988, and became a free agent again, signing with Cincinnati. In 1989, he played in 40 games with the Reds, his longest stint in the big leagues, getting 108 at-bats. He played third base for Cincinnati, despite not having played there much in the minors. Madison's career ended after that year: he had a career batting average of .163 in 166 at-bats. Now living in Georgia, Scotti Madison is the founder of RAPHA Products Group, an international sourcing company focused on locating and delivering innovative, quality products to the U.S. marketplace and selected foreign countries. The company's flagship product is the Triggerlite flashlight.

Outfielder Keith Wills Hughes did not play for the Twins, but was in AAA for them in 1992. He was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and signed with Philadelphia as a free agent in 1981. He hit .329 with 15 homers in Class A in 1983, and in mid-1984 was traded to the Yankees in a deal that involved Shane Rawley. He hit .307 for the Yankees in AA in 1986. Hughes was with the Yankees briefly in 1987 but was traded back to Philadelphia in early June in a deal involving Mike Easler. He was with the Phillies for about two months that season, then was traded to Baltimore. He was with the Orioles the majority of the 1988 season, used mostly as a reserve right fielder. He was back in the minors in 1989, and after that season he was traded once again, this time to the Mets. He hit .309 in AAA and earned a September call-up, but was released after the season. He signed back with the Yankees for 1991, spent the season in AAA, and signed with Minnesota for 1992. He was in AAA Portland all year, hitting .271/.344/.416 in 221 at-bats. A free agent again after that season, he signed with Cincinnati, again spending most of the year in AAA but getting four at-bats in the majors. He was out of baseball in 1994, came back in 1995 to spend the season in AAA with the Royals, and then his playing career was over for good. As a major league player, he hit .204/.286/.284 in 201 at-bats. Keith Hughes now lives in Philadelphia and is a regional manager for EBC Carpet Services, a company which provides customized carpet maintenance programs for commercial businesses.

Second baseman Luis Antonio (Donato) Castillo played for the Twins in 2006-2007. He was born in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, went to high school in Humacao, Dominican Republic, and was signed by the Florida Marlins as a free agent in 1992 at age 16. He had a high batting average, although with almost no power, throughout the minor leagues, posting a career minor-league average of .303. He came up to the Marlins in 1996 as a part-time player, and did not get a full-time major league job until 1999, He made the most of it, hitting .302 and stealing 50 bases. Castillo remained the starting second baseman for the Marlins through 2005, hitting over .300 five times, making three all-star appearances, winning three gold gloves, and playing on two world championship teams. In the 2005-06 off-season, he was traded to the Twins for Scott Tyler and Travis Bowyer. Castillo was the starting second baseman for the Twins in 2006 and the first four months of 2007, and continued to hit as he had, batting .299/.357/.363 as a Twin. At the end of July, 2007, he was traded to the Mets for Drew Butera and Dustin Martin. Castillo hit poorly during an injury-plagued 2008, bounced back to hit .302 in 2009, but again hit poorly in an injury-plagued 2010.  The Mets released him in spring training; he signed with Philadelphia, but was released again nine days later, apparently bringing his major league career to an end. At last report, Luis Castillo was living in Caldwell, New Jersey.  His Wikipedia entry notes that, in his spare time, he enjoys playing dominoes and billiards; presumably he has had plenty of time to indulge those hobbies this summer.  No further information about what Luis Castillo has been doing since the Phillies released him was readily available.

Left-hander Carmen Peter Pignatiello did not play for the Twins, but was in AAA with them for about a month in 2009. He was born in Hammond, Indiana, went to high school in Lenox, Illinois, and was drafted by the Cubs in the twentieth round in 2000. He was a starter for much of his minor league career, but began switching to relief in 2005. He did pretty well in that role in 2006 and 2007, spending about three weeks in the majors with the Cubs in 2007, pitching two innings in four games. He began 2008 in the majors, appearing in two more games and pitching two-thirds of an inning before being sent back to AAA. He had a bad year in AAA that season and became a free agent after the season was over. The Twins signed him and sent him to AAA Rochester, where he pitched seven innings in four games, posted an ERA of 14.14, and was released on May 1. He finished the year with Schaumberg of the independent Northern League; then his playing career came to and end.  In his major league career, he appeared in six games, pitched 2.2 innings, and posted an ERA of 6.75.  Carmen Pignatiello was the pitching coach for the Joliet Slammers of the Frontier League in 2011.

33 thoughts on “Happy Birthday–September 12”

  2. I was born at 9:59 am. For many years, my favorite childhood TV show was The Price is Right, which came on at 10:00 in our market. The family joke was that I showed up just in time for the show. Well, a couple decades years later I had the privilege of appearing on the stage with my old pal, Bob Barker. Little did I know the clip would later appear on YouTube bearing the title "Epic Dice Game Loss." I'll poke a little fun at myself by posting it below:

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-_OO4nuwq0

      1. Boy, I wish I could remember now. What I do recall is that it was much heavier than I anticipated. I was just about into the best physical shape of my life, and it still felt hard to spin. I wonder if it had a brake on it or something to gin up resistance.

        1. i always wince a bit when when old ladies spin the wheel. that thing's gonna take someone's head off one of these days.

          happy birthday, CH.

      1. I didn't have one at the time (my parents crushed mine after I went to boot camp), and was living out in the Mojave, so it would have been tempting. The taxes would have been pretty steep, but I suppose I could have sold the car and kept whatever was left.

        1. the economics of game shows must be just tremendous for the networks/producers. They were the original "reality TV" shows, with cheap sets, cheap labor, virtually no scripting, and, in the case of TPiR, cheap and/or unobtainable prizes.

          I mean, seriously, you were supposed to role four straight winners?

          1. No, if you don't roll exactly, you guess if the correct number is higher or lower than what you rolled. So assuming it isn't correct, 1 or 6 is the best to roll. CH rolled pretty much the worst number he could have, leaving higher and lower as even as possible.

            1. I would've guessed higher on his last roll, since the last number often is a 5, but CH did kinda blow the ending by telling us the title of the clip.

                1. Honestly, I was on pins and needles to see exactly how he could possibly have an epic dice game loss. It lived up to the hype.

            2. so, what are your a priori odds of winning the car?

              something like this (assuming uniform-random distribution of numbers):

              1/3rd of the time, you roll a 1 or a 6, which is either exact or your guess is trivial.
              1/3rd of the time, you roll a 2 or a 5. 1/6th of those are exact. In the other cases, 4/5ths of the time you will be right going with the odds.

              1/3rd of the time, you roll a 3 or a 4, 1/6th of those are exact. In other cases, 3/5ths of the time you will be right going with the odds.

              you have to do this four times.

              so, if I did my math right, your probability of winning this game is about 0.482??? Does that sound right, math dudes? I'm actually surprised it is this high.

                  1. More precisely, in the 11111-16666 range.
                    I think I've seen them do it more recently with a vehicle in the 20's.

          2. Yep, producers love reality shows for business, even if they aren't fans of watching the stuff. Screenwriters are encouraged to have at least one reality pitch, since reality makes up about a third of all television, and if screenwriters don't come up with the concepts, someone else will.

            1. Unfortunately, your idea is a ripoff of Mark Burnett.
              Fortunately, that won't stop anybody if you call it Spookymilk Foreigner or Spookymilk Journey.

              1. Practically every reality competition is a ripoff of Survivor at this point...I'm not so much ripping them off as coming out and saying specifically that it's the game I'm playing.

                ...but, yes, if I change a single word I'd be fine. Nice work if you can get it.

                1. And Survivor is a ripoff of Burnett's own Eco-Challenge. Well, not really. The Eco-Challenge was an excellent show, sort of a team-based iron man race that took more than a day to complete. I wish he hadn't dropped it to do Survivor.

      2. Yeah, that was a pretty big damper on that particular birthday. Pops called me that morning, just after we both found out. There wasn't much to say, but we each wanted to talk to the other.

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