Happy Birthday–May 28

Spider Baum (1882)
Jim Thorpe (1887)
Warren Giles (1896)
John Allyn (1917)
Bob Kuzava (1923)
Frank Saucier (1926)
Kirk Gibson (1957)
Bill Doran (1958)
Duane Ward (1964)
Mike Maksudian (1966)
Mike Defelice (1969)
Jhonny Peralta (1982)
Lester Oliveros (1988)

Spider Baum won 325 games in the minors between 1902-1920.  267 of those wins came in the Pacific Coast League.

Frank Saucier is the player Eddie Gaedel pinch-hit for in 1951.

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Game 47: Tigers 4, Twins 3

The Tigers complete the three-game sweep in Minnesota. It's easy enough to pin this one on Capps. After all, he did snatch a win out of P.J.'s (and the Twins') hands by giving up the go-ahead runs in the top of the 9th. However, it was his first blown save in 10 chances and the boys missed plenty of opportunities with men in scoring position (3-10) today.  They had their chance again in the 9th. DSpan led off the home-half with a single but then Revere popped out on his bunt attempt and Mauer lined out to left for the 2nd out. Willingham managed a walk after Span had stole 2nd. 1st and 2nd, two outs and Mountie strode to the plate 0-for-the-day. He promptly flied out to right to end the game. Again, if Capps takes care of business, none of that matters. But bagging on him is just too easy. I don't think it's too much to ask of the top of the order to push one run across, especially when the first man up reaches base. If you disagree, that's fine (I'm know the probability of scoring a run improves with the lead-off man aboard, but I don't know what the chances of scoring a run in any given inning is - and I'm just too tired to go find out). Either way, this game weekend season sucked.

P.S. Kundos to Padre & NBB for holding down the game log!

Happy Birthday–May 27

Frank Snyder (1894)
Pinky Higgins (1909)
Terry Moore (1912)
George O’Donnell (1929)
Jerry Kindall (1935)
Fred Bruckbauer (1938)
Jim Holt (1944)
Gary Nolan (1948)
Terry Collins (1949)
Mark Connor (1949)
Mark Clear (1956)
Ed Nunez (1963)
John Jaha (1966)
Jeff Bagwell (1968)
Frank Thomas (1968)
Todd Hundley (1969)

Mark Connor pitched in the Twins’ minor league system from 1971-1972 before he suffered a career-ending arm injury.  He has been a pitching coach for the Yankees, Arizona, Toronto, Texas, and Baltimore.  He also was the head baseball coach at the University of Tennessee.

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Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.