Wednesday, July 25, 2012

July 25


John Tener (1863)
Cy Williams (1913)
Whitey Lockman (1926)
Larry Sherry (1935)
Buddy Bradford (1944)
Fred Scherman (1944)
Mick Kelleher (1947)
Biff Pocoroba (1953)
Marc Sullivan (1958)
Doug Drabek (1962)
Torey Lovullo (1965)
Ed Sprague (1967)
Billy Wagner (1971)
Guillermo Mota (1973)
Javier Vazquea (1976)
Kevin Kouzmanoff (1981)

Left-hander Fred Scherman did not play for the Twins, but started his career in their organization.  Born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, he had a rare bone disease when he was young, and wore a leg brace from age six to age nine, walking only with crutches.  As soon as the leg brace was removed, he began playing little league baseball.  Eventually, he attended Ohio State and was signed by Minnesota as a free agent in 1964.  He had a fine year at Class A Orlando, going 14-13, 2.33 with a WHIP of 1.11 in 201 innings.  He was then drafted by Detroit in the first-year player draft.  He spent the bulk of his career with the Tigers.  He pitched well throughout his minor league career but was promoted slowly, reaching AA for two games in 1966 and reaching AAA in 1968.  He had been a starter, and had pitched fairly well in that role, but was shifted to the bullpen in 1967.  He flourished in that role, but went back to the starting rotation at AAA in 1969.  He made ten starts there and was in the big leagues for a substantial part of the season, but was rarely used.  In 1970, however, Scherman became an integral part of the Detroit bullpen and remained one for four years.  He had twenty saves in 1971 (when he threw 112 relief innings) and twelve more in 1972.  He had a down year in 1973, though, and was traded to Houston after the season.  The leg disease had left one leg shorter than the other, and at this point in his career this caused him to develop back trouble.  He did not do much for the Astros and was sold to Montreal in June of 1975.  He was with the Expos for a year and a month and was released in July of 1976.  He pitched in AAA for Pittsburgh in 1977, but had a nondescript year and his playing career came to an end.  He apparently coached in Japan for a while.  At last report, Fred Scherman was living in retirement in Tipp City, Ohio.

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