Jouett Meekin (1867)
Dummy Taylor (1875)
John Titus (1876)
Tom Yawkey (1903)
Mark Scott (1915)
Joe Foy (1943)
Jack Billingham (1943)
Tom Shopay (1945)
Charley Walters (1947)
Rick Lysander (1953)
Alan Trammell (1958)
The birthday list (2009)

Tom Yawkey was the owner of the Boston Red Sox from 1933 until his death in 1978.

Mark Scott was the host of “Home Run Derby”.

Third baseman Joseph Anthony Foy did not play for the Twins, but was originally signed by them.  He was born in New York and went to high school in the Bronx.  He signed with the Twins in 1962.  He hit .285 in Class D Erie, drawing 109 walks in 490 plate appearances.  He was chosen by Boston in the 1962 minor league draft.  Foy hit pretty well throughout the minors; his best year was probably 1965, when he hit .302 with 14 home runs for AAA Toronto.  He was the regular third baseman for the Red Sox the next season, a position he held for three years.  He could not duplicate his minor league success in the majors, although his numbers look better when viewed in the low-offense context of the late 1960s.  He hit .246 in his years with Boston, but he continued to draw walks--his OBP in those years was .344.  He also hit double-digit home runs each season.  Foy was taken by Kansas City in the expansion draft and was the Royals' third baseman in 1969.  He hit .262 with an OBP of .354 and 11 homers for the expansion team.  After the season, however, Foy was traded to the Mets in the deal that brought Amos Otis to Kansas City.  He had a down year and was left unprotected after the season.  Washington chose him in the Rule 5 draft, but Foy was released mid-way through the 1971 season, ending his career.  Even in his last years, when he was hitting in the .230s, he was still drawing walks, posting OBPs around .370.  After his career ended, Joy Foy returned to the Bronx.  He passed away from a heart attack on October 12, 1989 at the age of 46.

Right-hander Charles Leonard Walters pitched in six games for the Twins in 1969.  He was born in Minneapolis and went to high school there.  Walters signed with the Twins as a free agent in 1966 after attending a tryout camp.  He pitched very well in the low minors, and was jumped to the majors from Class A at the start of the 1969 season.  He had both started and relieved in the minors, but was placed in the bullpen with the Twins.  Walters was unscored upon in his first five appearances, giving up only three hits in 5.1 innings.  In his sixth appearances, however, he gave up four runs on three hits and two walks in 1.1 innings.  He was sent back to the minors after that, and never made it back to the big leagues.  He did not pitch particularly well in AA Charlotte, and in March of 1970 was traded to Washington with Joe Grzenda for Brant Alyea.  He did not pitch badly in 1970 or 1971 in the minors, but had a down year in 1972 in AA which ended his career.  Charley Walters has for many years been a sports columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press.  The nickname "Shooter" was given to him by Bob Allison.

Right-hander Richard Eugene Lysander pitched for the Twins from 1983-1985.  He was born in Huntington Park, California, attended California State--Los Angeles, and was drafted by Oakland in the 19th round in 1974.  He was used as a starter in the low minors, but shifted to relief on his promotion to AAA midway through the 1976 season.  He struggled in AAA in that role, was sent back to AA a couple of times, and returned to starting in 1981.  He made his major league debut in 1980, pitching in five games for the Athletics without success.  Lysander was traded to Houston after the 1981 season, pitched in AAA for the Astros in 1982, and was traded to the Twins in January of 1983 for Bob Veselic.  He made the Twins out of spring training in 1983 and was with them for all of that year and parts of two others.  He was used mostly out of the bullpen, although one of his five starts was a memorable complete-game, eleven-hit shutout of California.  He pitched fairly well for them in 1983, then started 1984 in the minors but came up in late June and pitched fairly well again.  He did not pitch well in 1985, again spent some time in the minors, and was released after the season.  That pretty much ended his career, but he pitched in the seniors league in 1989 and made a brief, unsuccessful comeback in 1990, pitching ten games in AAA for Toronto.  Lysander's son, Brent, pitched in the Oakland organization in 2007 and 2008 and was in independent ball in 2009.  His daughter, Kelsey, was a star soccer player at Notre Dame.  At last report, Rick Lysander was living in La Jolla, California and was involved with youth baseball there.  He also was taking part in various instructional camps and charitable events.

Sam Rice (1890)
John Wesley Donaldson (1892)
Muddy Ruel (1896)
Pete Monahan (1902)
Tommy Henrich (1913)
Frankie Gustine (1920)
Jim Wilson (1922)
Roy Face (1928)
Shigeo Nagashima (1936)
Clyde Wright (1941)
Bill Gullickson (1959)
Shane Spencer (1972)
Livan Hernandez (1975)
Ryan Langerhans (1980)
Justin Verlander (1983)
Jose Morales (1983)

John Wesley Donaldson pitched in the Negro Leagues and averaged nearly twenty strikeouts per game for the All Nations team in the 1910s.  He pitched three consecutive no-hitters in 1913.

Pete Monahan played in the minors from 1921-1940, batting .301 and collecting 2,462 hits, but never played in the major leagues.

Third baseman Shigeo Nagashima played for the Yomiuri Giants from 1958-1974 and is considered by some to be the greatest player in the history of Japanese baseball.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 20 →

Ray Ryan (1883)
George Mogridge (1889)
Sherry Smith (1891)
Jake Kline (1895)
Huck Betts (1897)
Joe Gordon (1915)
Herm Wehmeier (1927)
Frank House (1930)
Manny Mota (1938)
Dal Maxvill (1939)
Bob Miller (1939)
Jerry Morales (1949)
John Mayberry (1949)
Bruce Kison (1950)
Marc Hill (1952)
Rafael Ramirez (1958)
Kevin Tapani (1964)
John Valentin (1967)
Shawn Estes (1973)
Jamey Carroll (1974)
Chad Moeller (1975)

Ray Ryan was involved in minor league baseball for six decades.  He had one baseball card, a part of the T206 tobacco series.  This is the series that produced the famous Honus Wagner card.

Jake Kline was the baseball coach at Notre Dame from 1934-1975.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 18 →

Pat Pieper (1886)
Nemo Leibold (1892)
Wally Pipp (1893)
Ed Brandt (1905)
Red Barber (1908)
Rod Dedeaux (1914)
Roger Craig (1930)
Cliff Gustafson (1931)
Dick Bosman (1944)
Dave Roberts (1951)
Jaime Easterly (1953)
Mike Hart (1958)
Michael Jordan (1963)
Scott Williamson (1976)
Juan Padilla (1977)
Josh Willingham (1979)

Pat Pieper was the public address announcer for the Chicago Cubs from 1916-1974.  For the first sixteen of those years, he made the announcements with a megaphone.

Rod Dedeaux and Cliff Gustafson were highly successful college baseball coaches, Dedeaux with USC and Gustafson with Texas.

Already known as a basketball star, Michael Jordan played one year of minor league baseball for AA Birmingham in the White Sox organization before returning to the less-challenging sport.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–February 17 →