Tuesday, June 13, 2017

June 13

Jim Mutrie (1851)
Bill Bergen (1878)
Gene Desautels (1907)
Mel Parnell (1922)
Dave Rosenfield (1931)
Tom Cheek (1939)
Marcel Lachemann (1941)
Antonio Pulido (1951)
Ernie Whitt (1952)
Darrell May (1972)
Pedro Strop (1985)
Jonathan Lucroy (1986)
Jim Mutrie managed teams in New York for nine years.  He has been called the founding father of baseball in New York City.
Catcher Bill Bergen spent eleven seasons in the majors.  He appeared in 947 games and had 3,028 at-bats.  His lifetime stats are .170/.194/.201.  Everything you read about him says he was a tremendous defensive catcher, and one assumes he must have been.
Dave Rosenfield was the general manager of the Tidewater/Norfolk Tides for over forty-five years.
Tom Cheek was the voice of the Toronto Blue Jays from 1977-2004.
Antonio Pulido was a closer in the Mexican League for many years, getting 197 saves.  He also had 70 saves in the Mexican Pacific League.

Left-hander Darrell Kevin May did not play for the Twins, but he went to spring training with them in 2006.  He was born in San Bernardino, California, went to high school in Rogue River, Oregon, attended Sacramento City College, and was drafted by Atlanta in the 46th round in 1992.  For such a low draft choice he went through the minors quickly, reaching AA in 1994, AAA in 1995, and getting a two-game September call-up in 1995.  Then, oddly, he was waived before the 1996 season and claimed by Pittsburgh.  He spent most of the season in AAA and did okay, though nothing special, made five appearances with the big club, then was waived again in early September, this time being claimed by the Angels.  He made the Angels out of spring training in 1997, had a terrible April, but was pitching better in May, having made three scoreless appearances of 5.1 innings, when he was sent back to AAA.  He came back in mid-July and didn't do a whole lot.  He was almost always a starter in the minors, but almost always a reliever in the majors, and while that's not really an excuse it probably didn't help him any, either.  He was released in spring training of 1998 and went to Japan.  At that point, he was going into his age 26 season and had major league numbers of 2-2, 6.31, 1.72 WHIP, nobody probably missed him.  He pitched in Japan for four years and had some success, although he certainly didn't dominate the league or anything.  Kansas City signed him for the 2002 season and he spent 2002-04 in the Royals' rotation.  He actually had a good year in 2003, going 10-8, 3.77, 1.19 WHIP.  He couldn't repeat that, however, and was traded to San Diego after the 2004 season.  He didn't do much for them, was traded to the Yankees in early July, and spent most of the reason of the season back in AAA.  A free agent after the 2005 season, he signed with Minnesota, but was released at the end of spring training.  The Reds signed him and sent him to AAA.  He did pretty well there in eight starts, but he was thirty-four by this time, and they released him in June, ending his playing career.  His career numbers aren't much:  26-43, 5.16, 1.45 WHIP.  He never led the league in anything except in 2004, when he led in losses with nineteen.  Still, he played in parts of seven major league seasons and appeared in 161 games, which isn't bad for a forty-sixth round draft choice.  At last report, Darrell May was a high school baseball coach for St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Austin, Texas.  He also gives private lessons under the name of DMay Baseball.

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