Happy Birthday–October 29

Charlie Ebbets (1859)
Solly Hofman (1882)
Pete Richert (1939)
Jim Bibby (1944)
Darrell Brown (1955)
Terry Felton (1957)
Jesse Barfield (1959)
R. A. Dickey (1974)
Karim Garcia (1975)
Scott Randall (1975)
Dana Eveland (1983)
Jose Mijares (1984)
Shaun Anderson (1994)

Charlie Ebbets was the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1898-1925.  Ebbets Field was named after him.

Outfielder Darrell Wayne Brown played for the Twins in 1982 and 1983. He was born in Oklahoma City, went to high school in Los Angeles, and attended East Los Angeles College and California State--Los Angeles. He was drafted by the Tigers in the third round in 1977. He had been drafted three times previously: by Houston (1st round, January 1975), San Francisco (1st round [secondary phase], June 1975), and Milwaukee (1st round [secondary phase], June 1976). Brown hit for a mediocre average with no power in the minors, but he was fast and a good defender. He got a cup of coffee with Detroit in 1981 and then was traded to Oakland. He spent most of 1982 in AAA, appeared in 8 games for the Athletics, and then was released. The Twins signed him and made him a semi-regular outfielder for 1983-84. He actually hit a little better in the majors than his minor-league record would have suggested, posting batting averages in the .270s, though with few walks and little power. Brown was released by the Twins in 1985 spring training. He went to the Detroit, Baltimore, San Francisco, Seattle, and Texas organizations over the next two years, but never made it back to the big leagues. He made a comeback of sorts in the mid-90s, playing two years of independent ball, but then was gone for good. As a Twin, Darrell Brown hit .277/.303/.322. He was inducted into the Cal State—Los Angeles Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988 and into the California Community College Hall of Fame in 2022.  He has been a scout for Atlanta, the Cubs, Arizona, and Toronto, and was a scout for the Detroit Tigers at last report.

Right-hander Terry Lane Felton pitched for the Twins from 1979-1982. He was born in Texarkana, Arkansas, went to high school in Baker, Louisiana, and was drafted by the Twins in the second round in 1976. He spent most of four seasons, 1978-1981, in AAA Toledo, pitching in a total of seven games for the Twins over that span. He was with the Twins for all of 1982, making 48 appearances, six of them starts. He gave up substantially less than a hit per inning, but suffered from wildness and a tendency to give up the home run ball. Felton was 0-13 in 1982, which, coupled with an 0-3 in 1980, made him 0-16, the highest number of losses without a win ever to start a big-league career. Sadly, it would also be the highest number of losses without a win to finish a big-league career; Felton was returned to the minors in 1983 and never made it back to the big leagues. The record is as much bad luck as poor pitching. The Twins had an awful team in 1982, losing 102 games, and Felton became emblematic of that awfulness, but he was hardly the worst pitcher on the team. In fact, Felton had three saves that year. He had a poor year in 1983 with AAA Toledo, however, and after another poor year for the Dodgers' AA team in 1984 he was out of baseball. At last report, Terry Felton was a captain in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana sheriff's department.

Right-hander Robert Alan Dickey played for the Twins in 2009. Born and raised in Nashville, he attended the University of Tennessee. Dickey was drafted by the Rangers in the first round in 1996, but played for the U. S. Olympic team before signing in September. He advanced to AAA by 1999, but stalled there, spending over three years at Oklahoma (with the exception of a brief call-up in 2001) before getting to the big leagues in 2003. Dickey alternated between starting and relieving and was not particularly successful at either. Still, he was with Texas almost all of 2003 and 2004. He went back to the minors for most of 2005 and 2006; it was during this period that he began to work on the knuckleball. Dickey became a free agent after the 2006 season. He moved on to the Brewers' organization for 2007, but did not play in the big leagues with them. A free agent again after that season, he signed with the Twins as a free agent on November 29, but was taken by Seattle in the Rule 5 draft a week later. He was offered back to the Twins at the end of spring training of 2008, but was instead traded to the Mariners for Jair Fernandez. He spent most of 2008 with Seattle, but did not pitch well and was released. Once again signing with the Twins, he spent much of 2009 with them, but was sent to the minors in early August and later was removed from the forty-man roster. As a Twin, R. A. Dickey was 1-1 with a 4.62 ERA in 35 appearances, all but one in relief. Six years ago, this biography closed with “As a 35-year-old knuckleballer, it seems likely that the R. A. Dickey story is not quite over yet.” That sure turned out to be true. He signed with the Mets and went 11-9, 2.84, 1.19 WHIP in 2010. He was seventh in the league in ERA and was in contention for Comeback Player of the Year, an award he might have won except for the fact that he’d never really been anywhere in the first place before that season.  He turned in another fine season for the Mets in 2011, going 8-13, 3.28, 1.23 WHIP.  In 2012 he turned in the best season of his career, going 20-6, 2.73, 1.05 WHIP, leading the league in innings and strikeouts, and winning the Cy Young Award.  A free agent after the season, he signed with Toronto and could not duplicate his success, but still pitched well and continued to do so through 2015.  He was not quite as good in 2016-17 but was still a reliable pitcher, both in 2016 with Toronto and in 2017 with Atlanta.  There's no reason to think he couldn't have pitched another season or two, but he apparently decided he'd had enough and retired.  R. A. Dickey was inducted into the Greater Knoxville Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.  At last report, he had founded and was working with Honoring the Father Ministries, which brings baseball and religion to the youth of Latin America.

Right-hander Scott Philip Randall did not play for the Twins, but was in their minor league system twice. He was born in Fullerton, California, went to high school in Goleta, California, attended Santa Barbara City College, and was drafted by Colorado in the eleventh round in 1995. He was decent in the minors until he was promoted to AAA for nine starts in 1999, where he was pretty bad. After that season he was traded to Minnesota for Chris Latham. He made fourteen starts for AAA Salt Lake, did not do much, was placed on waivers, and was chosen by Texas. The Rangers released him in late March of 2001 and after a month he signed back with Colorado. He again flopped at AAA and was allowed to become a free agent after the season, signing with Minnesota for 2002. He made five starts at New Britain and fifteen at AAA Edmonton and had what was easily his best year, going a combined 14-0, 3.30, 1.20 WHIP. Surprisingly, that did not get him anywhere, and he was allowed to become a free agent again. Cincinnati signed him for 2003 and sent him to AAA, where he went back to being what he had been. Despite that, he was brought up to the majors in late August and stayed the rest of the season, going 2-5, 6.51 in fifteen appearances, two of them starts. He was back in AAA in 2004, then was released in early July. He signed with Montreal and was traded to Kansas City four days later, for whom he finished the season in AAA. In 2005 he signed with Colorado one more time, but it was his last hurrah; he was released on July 8 and his playing career came to an end. For whatever reason, 2002 was the only good season he had above AA. At last report, Scott Randall was living in the Colorado Springs area and was the owner of Pressed4Time, a dry cleaning and laundry service.  He was also an assistant baseball coach for the University of Colorado--Colorado Springs.

Left-handed reliever Jose Manuel Mijares pitched for the Twins from 2008-2011. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela and signed by the Twins as a free agent in 2002. He was used primarily as a reliever throughout his minor-league career. He generally averaged more than a strikeout per inning, but never pitched as many as seventy innings in a season. Called up to the Twins in September of 2008, he stayed there in 2009 with the exception of five games at Rochester. He appeared ready to take a prominent bullpen role for the Twins in 2010, but was injured much of the season and when healthy was generally used as a LOOGY, appearing in 47 games but working only 32.2 innings.  He was given that prominent bullpen role at the start of the 2011 campaign but promptly gave it back, going 0-2, 4.59, 1.69 WHIP with 30 walks in 49 innings (58 appearances).  He became a free agent after the 2011 season and signed with Kansas City.  He pitched well as a LOOGY there, but was placed on waivers and claimed by San Francisco, where he continued to thrive in the LOOGY role and picked up a World Series ring.  In 2013, however, he pitched poorly, going 0-3, 4.22, 1.78 WHIP.  A free agent after the season, he signed with Boston for 2014 but was released in spring training and does not appear to have pitched anywhere in 2014.  He signed with Cincinnati for 2015 but was again released in spring training and then was suspended for fifty games for violating baseball's drug policy.  As a Twin, Mijares pitched 153.2 innings in 186 major league games. He had an ERA of 3.16 and a WHIP of 1.32.  He pitched in winter ball through 2016, but then his playing career came to an end.  It appeared that Jose Mijares had returned to Venezuela at last report.

Right-hander Shaun Anderson appeared in four games for the Twins in 2021.  He was born in Coral Springs, Florida, went to high school in Plantation, Florida, attended the University of Florida, and was drafted by Boston in the third round in 2016.  He had a good season in high A in 2017, but was traded to San Francisco in July.  He rose rapidly in the Giants' organization, reaching AAA in 2018 and making his major league debut in 2019.  A starter at that point, he did not pitch very well in the majors and switched to relief in 2020, a role in which he did substantially better.  He was traded to the Twins after the 2020 season for LaMonte Wade.  He was sent to AAA, made three appearances for the Twins in May and one in June, then was waived and claimed by Texas.  After two weeks, the Rangers waived him and he was claimed by Baltimore.  He made seven appearances for the Orioles, was waived again, and was claimed by San Diego, where he finished the season.  He was waived again after the season and claimed by Toronto, where he had a fine season in AAA and made on more major league appearance.  He transitioned back to starting that year.  He was a free agent after the 2022 season and went to Korea, but came back to sign with Philadelphia in July of 2023.  A free agent after the season, he played briefly in the Mexican League in 2024, then signed with Texas in April.  He made two appearances with the Rangers and was sold to Miami, where he played mostly in AAA but appeared in four more major league games.  He turns thirty today.  His AAA record in 19-9, 3.72, 1.25 WHIP.  His major league record is 3-7, 6.10, 1.70 WHIP in 69 games (152 innings).  He's moved around a lot, but the good news is that he's always found someone who wants him to pitch for them.  The chances are Shaun Anderson turn up again somewhere in 2025.

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