Saturday, July 5, 2014

July 5


Jack Farrell (1857)
Robert Brown (1876)
Charles Stoneham (1876)
Bump Hadley (1904)
Jack Krol (1936)
Curt Blefary (1943)
Gary Matthews (1950)
Rich Gossage (1951)
Dave Eiland (1966)
Tim Worrell (1967)
Bo Porter (1972)
Jesse Crain (1981)
Jorge Polanco (1993)
Robert Brown owned various teams in Vancouver from 1910-45.  He was also president of the Western International League in 1953.  He is a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
Charles Stoneham owned the New York Giants from 1919 until his death in 1936.
Jack Krol was a long-time minor league manager and major league coach. coaching for St. Louis from 1977-80 and San Diego from 1981-86.
Right-handed reliever Jesse Alan Crain has played for the Twins since 2004.  He was born in Toronto, went to high school in Boulder, Colorado, and then attended the University of Houston.  He was drafted by Minnesota in the second round in 2002.  A reliever throughout his career, he had some tremendous seasons in the minors, posting a minor league career ERA of 2.00 and a WHIP of 0.94 in 180 minor league innings.  He was called up to the Twins in August of 2004, and with a brief exception has been there ever since.  He was very good through 2006, although his ERA and his WHIP went up every year.  In 2007, he started poorly, was injured, missed most of the season, and has not been as good since.  He was decent, but no more, in 2008, but had a bad year in 2009, going back to AAA Rochester for a little over a month.  The demotion may have done him some good, as he pitched much better when he was brought back.  He got off to a rough start in 2010, but eventually righted the ship and had a pretty good season.  He became a free agent after the season and signed with the White Sox, for whom he pitched very well for two and a half seasons.  He was named to the all-star team in 2013, but was injured in late June and has not pitched since.  He became a free agent and signed with Houston, but so far remains on the disabled list.  As a Twin, Jesse Crain was  33-21, 3.42, with a 1.26 WHIP and three saves.  He appeared in 376 games, pitching 382 innings.  He’s 33 today.  What happens next depends on how well he can come back from his injury.
Infielder Jorge Luis (Pacheco) Polanco made his major league debut on June 26 of this season.  He was born in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic and signed with Minnesota as a free agent in 2009.  As he was only sixteen, it took a little while for his offense to develop.  In 2012, however, he hit .313 with an OPS of .903 at Elizabethton and followed that up by hitting .308 with an OPS of .813 at Cedar Rapids in 2013.  He began 2014 at Fort Myers, hitting .289 with an OPS of .767 when he was called up to Minnesota due to injuries to infielders.  He is not expected to stay in Minnesota long, and may well be back in Fort Myers by the time you read this.  On the other hand, he already has more hits and RBIs in his Twins career than Corky Miller.  It will probably be a while before Jorge Polanco gets to Minnesota to stay, but perhaps it won't be as long as you might think.

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