Happy Birthday–April 9

Doc White (1879)
Hippo Vaughn (1888)
Wade Johnston (1898)
Vic Sorrell (1901)
Fred Frankhouse (1904)
Claude Passeau (1909)
Zip Payne (1909)
Joe Brinkman (1944)
Peter Gammons (1945)
Nate Colbert (1946)
Kirk McCaskill (1961)
Hal Morris (1965)
Graeme Lloyd (1967)
Rudy Hernandez (1968)
A. J. Ellis (1981)
David Robertson (1985)
Luis Arraez (1997)

Cecil "Zip" Payne was a long-time minor-league player and manager, collecting 2,179 hits.

Joe Brinkman and Derryl Cousins hold the record for most games umpired together, 2,123.

Rudy Hernandez was an infielder in the Mets organization from 1987-1991, reaching AA.  With the exception of 2004, he has been a manager or coach in the Twins' organization since 2001.  He is currently a batting coach for the Twins.

We would also like to wish a happy birthday to Mama MagUidhir.

Infielder Luis Sangel Arraez played for the Twins from 2019-2022.  He was born in San Felipe, Venezuela and signed with the Twins as a free agent in 2013.  He went up about a level a season, playing in the Dominican Summer League in 2014, the Gulf Coast League in 2015, and the MIdwest League in 2016.  He missed most of 2017, presumably due to injury, split 2018 between high-A and AA, started 2019 in AA, moved up to AAA, and by mid-May was in the majors, eventually taking over the second base job from Jonathan Schoop.  He was more than worthy of it, batting .334/.399/.439.  He was the regular second baseman in 2020, and while a down stretch in August led to some doubts, he ended up batting .321/.364/.402 in the shortened season.  He was moved to a utility role in 2021 but ended up starting over a hundred games while playing second, third, and left field.  He did not hit quite as well in 2021, but still batted .294 with an OBP of .357.  He played first, second, and DH in 2022 and won the batting title, batting .316.  That off-season he was traded to Miami for Pablo Lopez, Brian Chourio, and Jose Salas.  He had the best season of his career so far in 2023, batting .354 with ten home runs and winning another batting title.  As a Twin, he batted .314/.374/.410 in 1412 at-bats.  He turns twenty-seven today.  Pablo Lopez has been really good for the Twins, so you can't say it was a bad trade so far, but Luis Arraez should be a productive major league batter for some time to come.

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