Monthly Archives: February 2024

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 10

Due to personal time constraints, this is a reprint from last year which has not been updated.

Horace Wilson (1845)
Jim Keenan (1858)
Curt Welch (1862)
Billy Evans (1884)
Herb Pennock (1894)
Bill Adair (1913)
Allie Reynolds (1917)
George Sobek (1920)
Randy Jackson (1926)
Billy O'Dell (1933)
Dick Bogard (1937)
Jim Barr (1948)
Larry McWilliams (1954)
Lenny Dykstra (1963)
Lenny Webster (1965)
Jayhawk Owens (1969)
Alberto Castillo (1970)
Bobby Jones (1970)
Kevin Sefcik (1971)
Lance Berkman (1976)
Cesar Izturis (1980)
Alex Gordon (1984)
Duke Welker (1986)
Jeanmar Gomez (1988)
Liam Hendriks (1989)
Max Kepler (1993)
Jorge Lopez (1993)

Horace Wilson was an American professor English at Tokyo University.  He is credited with introducing baseball to Japan in either 1872 or 1873.

Billy Evans was the youngest umpire in major league history, starting his career at age 22.  He was an American League umpire from 1906-1027.  He would later become general manager of the Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers, and was president of the Southern Association from 1942-1946.

Bill Adair was a long-time minor league player (1935-1956) and manager (1949-1973).  He also was the scout credited with signing Andre Dawson and Tim Raines.

George Sobek was a long-time scout for the White Sox, credited with signing Denny McLain, Steve Trout, and Mike Squires.  He also played in the NBA and was a long-time college basketball referee.

Another long-time scout, Dick Bogard played in the minors for six years, managed for three, and was a scout for nearly thirty years, mostly for Houston and Oakland.  He is credited with signing Walt Weiss, Jason Giambi, and Ben Grieve.

Jim Barr was drafted six different times before finally signing.  Minnesota drafted him in the sixth round of the January Secondary draft in 1970, but he did not sign.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 10 →

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 9

Due to personal time constraints, this is a reprint from last year which has not been updated.

Harry Pulliam (1864)
Heinie Zimmerman (1887)
Specs Toporcer (1899)
Bill Veeck (1914)
Jodie Phipps (1918)
Vic Wertz (1925)
Erv Palica (1928)
Clete Boyer (1937)
Eddie Solomon (1951)
Mookie Wilson (1956)
Pete O'Brien (1958)
John Kruk (1961)
Doug Linton (1965)
Todd Pratt (1967)
Vladimir Guerrero (1975)
Dioner Navarro (1984)

Harry Pulliam was president of the National League from 1903-1909.

Bill Veeck was the owner of the Cleveland Indians (1946-49), St. Louis Browns (1951-53), and Chicago White Sox (1958-61, 1975-81).

Pitcher Jodie Phipps played in the minors from 1939-1957, winning 275 games.  He also managed in the minors for seven seasons.

We would also like to wish a happy birthday to LBR.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 9 →

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–February 8

Bug Holliday (1867)
Bob Cobb (1899)
Don Heffner (1911)
Danny Carnevale (1918)
Buddy Blattner (1920)
Dewey Soriano (1920)
Hoot Evers (1921)
Willard Marshall (1921)
Joe Black (1924)
Larry Dolan (1931)
Fritz Peterson (1942)
Bob Oliver (1943)
Aaron Cook (1979)

Bob Cobb was the president of the AAA Hollywood Stars from 1938-1957. He later was involved in bringing an American League expansion team to Los Angeles. In addition, he opened the famous Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles in 1928.

Danny Carnevale was a minor league player (1937-1953) and manager (1947-55, 1962-63, 1972; five league championships) and was also a scout for many years.

Dewey Soriano was a minor league pitcher in the 1940s. He was later co-owner and president of the Seattle Pilots.

Larry Dolan has owned the Cleveland Indians since 2000.

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to ubelmann.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 8 →

WGOM Videos

MC5 – Ramblin’ Rose

Video

Wayne Kramer guitarist of MC5 passed away this past weekend, he is also listed as a co-writer of most of the MC5 catalog. With his passing the only original member still alive is the drummer Dennis Thompson. Coming out of Detroit, MC5 had a short but fiery stint in the late 1960s and definitely could be considered proto-punks. Their live acts were incendiary and the band got in a bunch of trouble for their revolutionary views. Kick out the Jams is definitely a must hear album.

I actually had a one degree separation to Kramer, as a good friend of mine did a documentary on the MC5 that was getting good reviews in the film festival circuit. However, when they wanted to have a more widespread distribution, Kramer wouldn't release the rights to the music without more $$$ and the movie/DVD release languished. My friend and his wife won all court battles but the movie was never released. So he was kinda a dick too. He also threatens Dave with a gun on camera, so that was (not) cool.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC5:_A_True_Testimonial

Btw, I actually have one of the few non-bootleg copies of the MC5 - A true Testimonial DVD if anyone is ever interested in seeing a copy. The band is quite fascinating and the story was fair and well done.

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