Tag Archives: Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday–January 23

Ben Shibe (1838)
Red Donahue (1873)
Bobby Burke (1907)
Randy Gumpert (1918)
Chico Carrasquel (1926)
Frank Sullivan (1930)
Joe Amalfitano (1934)
Don Nottebart (1936)
Paul Ratliff (1944)
Kurt Bevacqua (1947)
Charlie Spikes (1951)
Alan Embree (1970)
Mark Wohlers (1970)
Erubiel Durazo (1974)
Brandon Duckworth (1976)
Juan Rincon (1979)

Ben Shibe was the owner of the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901 until his death in 1922.  Shibe Park was named in his honor.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 23

Happy Birthday–January 22

Ira Thomas (1881)
Amos Strunk (1889)
Art Ehlers (1897)
Prince Oana (1910)
Chris Pelekoudas (1918)
Dave Leonhard (1941)
Senichi Hoshino (1947)
Mike Caldwell (1949)
Leon Roberts (1951)
Jeff Treadway (1963)
Jimmy Anderson (1976)
Chone Figgins (1978)
Carlos Ruiz (1979)
Ubaldo Jimenez (1984)

Art Ehlers did not play in the majors, but he spent his life in baseball.  He owned several minor league teams at various times and was the general manager of the Philadelphia Athletics and the Baltimore Orioles.  He also was a longtime scout for the Orioles.

Prince Oana played in the minors for twenty-three years, batting .304.  He also had a pitching record of 80-54.

Chris Pelekoudas was a National League umpire from 1960-1975.  He is best remembered for his run-ins with Gaylord Perry over the latter's use of illegal substances on the baseball.

Senichi Hoshino is a long-time player, manager, and executive in Japanese baseball.

We also want to wish a happy birthday to Rhubarb_Runner’s daughter.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 22

Happy Birthday–January 21

Mike Tiernan (1867)
Lew Fonseca (1899)
Sam Mele (1922)
Danny O'Connell (1927)
Johnny Oates (1946)
Bill Stein (1947)
Mike Krukow (1952)
Dave Smith (1955)
Mike Smithson (1955)
Jose Uribe (1959)
Andy Hawkins (1960)
Darryl Motley (1960)
Chris Hammond (1966)
Tom Urbani (1968)
Rusty Greer (1969)
Jason Ryan (1976)

Tom Urbani was drafted by Minnesota in the twenty-ninth round in 1989, but did not sign.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 21

Happy Birthday–January 20

Everett Mills (1845)
C. I. Taylor (1875)
William Eckert (1909)
Jimmy Outlaw (1913)
Joe Dobson (1917)
Gene Stephens (1933)
Camilo Pascual (1934)
Dave Boswell (1945)
Cecil Espy (1963)
Ozzie Guillen (1964)
Kevin Maas (1965)
Marvin Benard (1970)
Brian Giles (1971)
David Eckstein (1975)
Matt Albers (1983)
Geovany Soto (1983)

Everett Mills holds the record for most at-bats in a season without drawing a walk (342).

 C . I. Taylor founded the first African-American professional baseball team, the Birmingham Giants, in 1904.

General William Eckert was the commissioner of baseball from 1965-1968,

Marvin Benard played in the major leagues for nine years and could never get announcers to stop calling him "Marvin Bernard".

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to FTLT’s firstborn and to Twayn's younger daughter.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 20

Happy Birthday–January 19

Chick Gandil (1888)
Lee Head (1899)
Rip Radcliff (1906)
Chet Trail (1944)
Jon Matlack (1950)
Rich Gale (1954)
Brad Mills (1957)
Rick Adair (1958)
Chris Sabo (1962)
Jim Morris (1964)
Orlando Palmeiro (1969)
Phil Nevin (1971)
Jeff Juden (1971)
Chris Stynes (1973)
Amaury Telemaco (1974)
Byung-Hyun Kim (1979)
James Beresford (1989)

Lee Head played in the minors for twenty-one seasons.  He batted .304, but he was best known for his ability to avoid striking out.  In 1933 he struck out three times in 468 at-bats.  In 1935 he did even better, striking out once in 402 at-bats.

Chet Trail is the only player to have been on a World Series roster who never appeared in a major league game, regular season or post-season.

Third baseman Brad Mills was drafted by Minnesota in the 16th round of the 1977 January draft, but did not sign.

Rick Adair was in baseball from 1979-2013.  Most recently, he was the pitching coach of the Baltimore Orioles.  He is the nephew of former Twins pitching coach Art Fowler.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 19

Happy Birthday–January 18

Eddie Moore (1899)
Danny Kaye (1913)
Mike Fornieles (1932)
Chuck Cottier (1936)
Satch Davidson (1936)
Curt Flood (1938)
Carl Morton (1944)
Billy Grabarkewitz (1946)
Sachio Kinugasa (1947)
Scott McGregor (1954)
Dave Geisel (1955)
Brady Anderson (1964)
Mike Lieberthal (1972)
Wandy Rodriguez (1979)

Entertainer Danny Kaye was one of the original owners of the Seattle Mariners.

Satch Davidson was a National League umpire from 1969-1984.

Sachio Kinusaga played in 2,215 games in Japan from 1970-1987.

We would also like to wish a happy birthday to Scot's oldest son.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 18

Happy Birthday–January 17

Louis Santop (1890)
Hank Leiber (1911)
Lum Harris (1915)
Mayo Smith (1915)
Don Zimmer (1931)
Keith Lieppman (1949)
Antonio Munoz (1949)
Pete LaCock (1952)
Darrell Porter (1952)
Mark Littell (1953)
Jerry Turner (1954)
Doug Simunic (1956)
T. R. Bryden (1959)
Chili Davis (1960)
SBG (1965)
Tyler Houston (1971)
Rob Bell (1977)

Catcher Louis Santop was a star in the Negro Leagues, hitting .349 over fifteen seasons.

Keith Lieppman has been Oakland's Director of Player Development since 1992.

Antonio Munoz was a long-time star in Cuba, winning eight home run titles and becoming the all-time leader in walks.

Doug Simunic has been the manager of the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks since 1996.

Right-hander Thomas Ray Bryden did not play for the Twins, but was in their minor league system in 1988.  He was born in Moses Lake, Washington, went to high school in Enumclaw, Washington, and was signed by California as a free agent in 1981.  After two ineffective minor league years as a starter, he was moved to the bullpen in 1983.  He did substantially better there, reaching AA in 1984.  He worked mostly in AAA in 1985 and had a bad year, but pitched very well in spring training in 1986 and made the major league team.  Bryden made sixteen appearances with the Angels through early June, going 2-1, 6.55, 1.72 WHIP with 21 walks in 34.1 innings.  He was sent back to AAA after that and did well, but did not make it back to the major leagues.  In 1987, he was still in AAA, posting a record of 9-1 despite a 6.35 ERA and a 1.69 WHIP in 72.1 innings.  The Angels were not fooled by his won-lost record and released him after the season.  Bryden signed with Minnesota and spent 1988 in AAA Portland.  He made 30 appearances there, 13 of them starts, and went 8-8, 4.99, 1.56 WHIP in 113.2 innings.  That brought his playing career to an end.  No information about T. R. Bryden since that time was readily available.

Switch-hitting outfielder Charles Theodore "Chili" Davis was with Minnesota from 1991-1992 and was used almost exclusively as a designated hitter.  He was born in Kingston, Jamaica, one of four major league players to be born in Jamaica.  He attended high school in Los Angeles, and was drafted by San Francisco in the 11th round in 1977.  He hit well in three minor league seasons and made the Giants out of spring training in 1981, but was seldom used and was sent back to AAA in early May.  Davis had a huge year in AAA Phoenix, hitting .350 with 19 homers and an OPS over 1.000.  He was the regular center fielder for the Giants in 1982, and remained a big league regular for the rest of his long career.  He finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting in 1982, hitting .261 with 19 homers.  His best year as a Giant was 1984, when he hit .315 with 21 home runs and an OPS of .875.  He made his first all-star team that year, making the team again in 1986.  Davis became a free agent after the 1987 season and signed with the California Angels.  He put in three solid seasons for the Angels from 1988-1990.  He received a few MVP votes in 1989, but there was nothing about that season that made it particularly better than his other Angel seasons, as they were all good.  A free agent again after the 1990 campaign, Davis signed with Minnesota.  He had started doing some DH-ing in 1990, and was the regular designated hitter for the Twins for two seasons.  He put up good numbers for the Twins in those two seasons:  he hit .282/.385/.476, with 41 home runs and 159 RBIs.  He finished 14th in MVP voting in 1991, when the Twins won the World Series.  Davis was once more a free agent after the 1992 season, and returned to the California Angels.  He was an Angel for four years this time, and after a disappointing 1993 went on to produce three of his best seasons, hitting over .300 and averaging 25 homers for those years.  He was traded to Kansas City for 1997, the only time in his career he was ever traded.  After a good year there, he became a Yankee for 1998, but was hurt early in the season and missed most of the year.  Healthy again in 1999, Davis had another solid season, hitting .269 with 19 homers at age 39.  He retired after that season.  He has been coaching for several years, three of them with the Australian national baseball team.  He was the batting coach for the Dodgers’ instructional league team in 2010, the batting coach for AAA Pawtucket in 2011, was the batting coach for the Oakland Athletics from 2012-2014, and has been the batting coach for the Boston Red Sox since 2015.

SBG made contact on the first pitch ever thrown to him in an organized baseball game as a seven year old, rolling out to shortstop off of a pitch from his 10 year old cousin. He played baseball for SBGville for 11 years with only moderate success. He was a left handed first baseman for most of those seasons, but making contact was always a problem. His last season was played for the same team that his cousin played for, as SBGville didn't field a team. Jim Kaat used to say that Chili Davis had a slider speed bat. After his baseball career was over, SBG discovered that he has a slowpitch softball speed bat. After not having hit a single homerun as a baseball player (his last at bat ended with a ground rule double), SBG displayed pretty good power, hitting well north of 100 home runs in about 12 years of softball. After his playing career ended, he lived and worked in the Twin Cities area for several years.  He continues to live there, but now regularly commutes to beautiful downtown Fargo, where he is currently employed.

Happy Birthday–January 16

Jimmy Macullar (1855)
Art Whitney (1858)
Jimmy Collins (1870)
Ferdie Schupp (1891)
Buck Jordan (1907)
Dizzy Dean (1910)
Jim Owens (1934)
Ron Herbel (1938)
Joe Bonikowski (1941)
Tsuneo Horiuchi (1948)
Dave Stapleton (1954)
Steve Balboni (1957)
Marty Castillo (1957)
Dave Jauss (1957)
Jack McDowell (1966)
Ron Villone (1970)
Jack Cust (1979)
Albert Pujols (1980)
Matt Maloney (1984)
Jeff Manship (1985)

Jimmy Macullar holds the career record for most games by a left-handed-throwing shortstop (325). Oddly, he batted right-handed.

Pitcher Tsuneo Horiuchi made nine all-star teams in Japan and won seven Gold Gloves.  On October 10, 1967 he pitched a no-hitter and also hit three home runs.

Dave Jauss is a long-time minor league manager, scout, and major league coach.

Marty Castillo was drafted by Minnesota in the twenty-first round in 1975, but did not sign.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 16

Happy Birthday–January 13

Ernie Calbert (1887)
Fred Schulte (1901)
Ron Brand (1940)
Makoto Matsubara (1944)
Mike Tyson (1950)
Bob Forsch (1950)
Odell Jones (1953)
Gene Roof (1958)
Kevin Mitchell (1962)
Kevin McClatchy (1963)
Elmer Dessens (1971)

Ernie Calbert won six minor league home run titles.  He also once pitched a minor league no-hitter.

Makoto Matsubara was an eleven-time all-star in Japan.

Kevin McClatchy was the CEO of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1996-2007.

When Elmer Dessens made his major league debut in 1996, he was the first big leaguer in thirty-five years to have the first name "Elmer".

There do not appear to be any players with connections to the Minnesota Twins who were born on this day. The closest we come is Gene Roof, whose brother, Phil, played for the Twins.

We would, however, like to wish a happy birthday to The Dread Pirate.