Happy Birthday–July 5

Jack Farrell (1857)
Robert Brown (1876)
Charles Stoneham (1876)
Bump Hadley (1904)
Jack Krol (1936)
Curt Blefary (1943)
Gary Matthews (1950)
Rich Gossage (1951)
Dave Eiland (1966)
Tim Worrell (1967)
Bo Porter (1972)
Jesse Crain (1981)
Marco Estrada (1983)
Nick Anderson (1990)
Jorge Polanco (1993)
Shohei Ohtani (1994)

 Robert Brown owned various teams in Vancouver from 1910-45.  He was also president of the Western International League in 1953.  He is a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Charles Stoneham owned the New York Giants from 1919 until his death in 1936.

Jack Krol was a long-time minor league manager and major league coach. coaching for St. Louis from 1977-80 and San Diego from 1981-86.

Right-handed reliever Jesse Alan Crain played for the Twins from 2004-2010.  He was born in Toronto, went to high school in Boulder, Colorado, and then attended the University of Houston.  He was drafted by Minnesota in the second round in 2002.  A reliever throughout his career, he had some tremendous seasons in the minors, posting a minor league career ERA of 2.00 and a WHIP of 0.94 in 180 minor league innings.  He was called up to the Twins in August of 2004, and with a brief exception was there through 2010.  He was very good through 2006, although his ERA and his WHIP went up every year.  In 2007, he started poorly, was injured, missed most of the season, and was not been as good after that.  He was decent, but no more, in 2008, but had a bad year in 2009, going back to AAA Rochester for a little over a month.  The demotion may have done him some good, as he pitched much better when he was brought back.  He got off to a rough start in 2010, but eventually righted the ship and had a pretty good season.  He became a free agent after the season and signed with the White Sox, for whom he pitched very well for two and a half seasons.  He was named to the all-star team in 2013, but was injured in late June and has not pitched since.  He became a free agent and signed with Houston, but spent all of 2014 on the disabled list.  A free agent again, he signed with the White Sox and pitched briefly for their rookie league team in Arizona in 2015, but that was all.  He became a free agent after the season and went unsigned, ending his playing career.  As a Twin, Jesse Crain was  33-21, 3.42, with a 1.26 WHIP and three saves.  He appeared in 376 games, pitching 382 innings.  At last report, he was living in Arizona.  He has started the Crain Family Foundation, which assists families and children who are in financial hardship due to unforeseen life events.

Right-handed reliever Nick Paul Anderson did not play for the Twins, but was in their farm system for three seasons.  He was born in Crosby, Minnesota, went to high school in Brainerd, Minnesota, attended Mayville State University (the only major league player that school has so far produced), and was drafted by Milwaukee in the thirty-second round in 2012.  He did not sign, however, and instead spent the summer of 2012 and 2013 pitching for Rockford in the Frontier League.  He did not play in 2014, but he went back to the Frontier League in 2015, pitched very well, and in August of 2015 the Twins signed him.  He was dominant in Cedar Rapids for the rest of that season and the start of 2016, did fairly well in Fort Myers the rest of 2016, dominated both in Fort Myers and in Chattanooga in 2017, and pitched well in Rochester in 2018.  He was then traded to Miami that off-season for Brian Schales.  He made the team out of spring training in 2019 and did fairly well, but was traded to Tampa Bay at the July deadline.  He then began to dominate, going 5-1, 1.43, 0.96 WHIP in 42 games (37.2 innings) after the trade.  Unfortunately, he tore a ligament in his elbow during 2021 spring training and has not pitched since.  He turns thirty-one today.  He had been tremendous so far.  Whether he can be again when he comes back from his injury is something only time will tell.

Infielder Jorge Luis (Pacheco) Polanco has been in the majors with the Twins since 2014.  He was born in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic and signed with Minnesota as a free agent in 2009.  As he was only sixteen, it took a little while for his offense to develop.  In 2012, however, he hit .313 with an OPS of .903 at Elizabethton and followed that up by hitting .308 with an OPS of .813 at Cedar Rapids in 2013.  He began 2014 at Fort Myers, was called up to Minnesota in late June due to injuries to infielders, and then went back to Fort Myers, eventually being promoted to AA.  He started 2015 in AA, was promoted to AAA, and appeared in four more games in the majors.  He split 2016 between Rochester and Minnesota, struggling in his first appearance with the Twins but doing well upon his return in late July.  He was the Twins starting shortstop for 2017.  He had a miserable first four months, but saved his job, and possibly his career, by batting .373 with an OPS of 1.099 in August.  He then was suspended for the first half of the 2018 season for using performance enhancing drugs, but came back to have a fine second half.  He did even better the first half of 2019 and made his first all-star team.  He fell off in the second half but still had a fine season, batting .295 with 22 homers and an OPS of .841.  He was not able to match those numbers in 2020, posting an OPS of just .658.  Moved to second base for 2021, his numbers have rebounded somewhat, but are still not close to his 2019 peak.  For his career, Polanco has batted .274/.333/.432 in 2405 plate appearances.  He turns twenty-eight today.  He's not a great defender, so he's going to have to contribute with his bat if he's going to remain a regular.  He could do that, but the question is whether he will.