Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–August 24

2 Comments

Harry Hooper (1887)
Hank Gowdy (1889)
Hal Woodeshick (1932)
Tony Bernazard (1956)
Cal Ripken (1960)
Tim Salmon (1968)
Kevin Correia (1980)
Nick Adenhart (1986)

No major league players with connections to the Minnesota Twins were born on this day.  We do come close with Hal Woodeshick, who played for Washington in 1960, but then was chosen by the new Washington in the expansion draft in 1961.

2 thoughts on “Happy Birthday–August 24”

  2. Hank Gowdy also has a tangential connection with the franchise.

    In June 1923, with Stallings long gone, the Braves once again mired in mediocrity, and Gowdy off to a miserable .125 start, McGraw brought the veteran catcher back to the Giants in a four-player deal. Though he never played more than part-time, Hank posted the best offensive statistics of his career in his two-year stint in New York, batting consistently in the .320s and establishing a career high with four home runs in 1924. He also played in two more World Series. In the 12th inning of Game Seven of the 1924 fall classic at Griffith Stadium, Gowdy literally stepped into the spotlight again, this time as a goat. With one out and no one on, Washington's Muddy Ruel popped up what looked like an easy foul. Gowdy tore off his mask, tossed it to the ground, and promptly stepped in it. "It held me like a bear trap," Gowdy later recalled. He staggered around and couldn't reach the ball, which dropped to the ground. Given new life, Ruel doubled and later became Washington's winning run when Earl McNeely hit a hopper over Freddy Lindstrom's shoulder at third. Sportswriters, calculating the winning team's share, called Gowdy's misfortune "a $50,000 muff."

    That SABR biography project is a seriously dangerous rabbit hole.

Comments are closed.