August 17

Johnny Rawlings (1892)

Rudy York (1913)

Donald Honig (1931)

Jim Davenport (1933)

John Buzhardt (1936)

Diego Segui (1937)

Boog Powell (1941)

Ron Boyer (1944)

Skip Lockwood (1946)

Butch Hobson (1951)

Alex Cole (1965)

Jorge Posada (1971)

Mike Maroth (1977)

Chad Qualls (1978)

Brett Myers (1980)

Dustin Pedroia (1983)

Kyle Farmer (1990)

Author Donald Honig has written nearly forty books about baseball.

Ron Boyer is the brother of Clete Boyer and Ken Boyer. He played in the Yankees’ farm system for eight years, reaching AAA.

Outfielder Alexander Cole played for the Twins in 1994-1995.  He was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, attended Manatee Community College of Bradenton, Florida, and was taken by St. Louis in the second round of the 1985 January draft. A speedy singles hitter with no power at all, he didn’t hit enough singles to really establish himself after getting to AAA in 1986. Cole moved around a few times in AAA–he did not hit enough to make the team he was with want to keep him, but he was so fast that there was always someone who wanted him. Traded from St. Louis to San Diego to Cleveland, Cole made his debut with the Indians in July of 1990. He posted good batting averages as a part-time player in 1990 and 1991, but after a poor start in 1992 he was traded to Pittsburgh. After the 1992 season, the Colorado Rockies selected Cole in the expansion draft. He played for the Rockies in 1993, but hit only .256 as a semi-regular center fielder and became a free agent.  He was signed by the Twins at the start of spring training in 1994 and stayed in Minnesota for two years. Cole did well as a part-time player for the Twins in 1994, hitting .296 with an OBP of .375.  Unfortunately, he was injured much of 1995 and became a free agent after that season.  He hit , batting .304 with a .381 OBP in 424 at-bats. He again became a free agent after the 1995 season and signed with Boston for 1996, his last year in the big-leagues. Cole was in the Marlins organization for part of 1997 and then spent a few years playing independent ball before calling it a career after the 2001 season. Sadly, life after baseball does not seem to have gone well for him: in 2002, Cole was sentenced to 18 months in prison possession of heroin with the intent to distribute, and in 2006, a $30,000 judgment was entered against him for running up credit card bills under someone else’s name.  He does appear to have straightened out his life after that, and split his time between Florida and North Carolina.  Alex Cole passed away on August 19, 2023, at the young age of fifty-eight.

Left-hander Michael Warren Maroth did not play for the Twins, but was in their farm system in 2010.  Born and raised in Orlando, Florida, he attended the University of Central Florida and was drafted by Boston in the third round in 1998.  He showed some promise in the Red Sox’ system, but was traded to Detroit at the July, 1999 deadline for Bryce Florie.  He struggled in the Tigers’ system until 2002, when he went 8-1, 2.82 in eleven starts for AAA Toledo.  He made his big league debut that season, making 21 starts for the Tigers and not pitching too badly.  The next year, 2003, Detroit made a serious run at having the worst record in the history of baseball, and Maroth became a symbol of their futility, losing 21 games.  He was not that horrible, but he wasn’t all that good, either, posting an ERA of 5.73 and a WHIP of 1.45.  He was in the rotation for two more seasons and was fairly average.  He was off to a good start in 2006 but was injured, missing most of the year.  He was back in the rotation in 2007 but did not pitch well and was traded to St. Louis in June.  He did worse there and was allowed to become a free agent after the season.  He signed with Kansas City for 2008, but was released in late April and was out of baseball the rest of the year.  He signed with Toronto for 2009 but was released in late March and was out of baseball again.  The Twins signed him for 2010 and sent him to Rochester.  He got off to a decent start, but was injured after only three starts.  He made a rehab appearance in late July, but that was it for him as a Twin.  He became a free agent after the season and pitched in winter ball, but did not sign with anyone for 2011 and officially retired on January 25, 2011.  He has since spent some time as a minor league pitching coach, most recently as the pitching coach of Gwinnett in the Braves organization.  Mike Maroth was the pitching coach for the University of Central Florida in 2023, but was not retained for 2024.  At last report, he was offering private pitching instruction under the name of "Mike Maroth Baseball".

Infielder James Kyle Farmer has played for the Twins since 2023.  Born and raised in Atlanta, he attended the University of Georgia and was drafted by the Dodgers in the eighth round in 2013.  He was a steady batter throughout the minors, never producing eye-popping stats but always posting solid numbers.  He reached AA in 2015, AAA in 2017, and the majors in late 2017.  He started 2018 in the majors as a part-time third baseman, but did not hit much and was sent down in mid-May, coming back as a September call-up.  He was traded to Cincinnati after the 2018 season.  He was a utility player for them in 2019-2020, was their starting shortstop in 2021, and was their mostly regular shortstop in 2022, although he saw significant time at third base.  He had decent batting averages, but mediocre on-base percentages and little power.  After the 2022 season he was traded to Minnesota for Casey Legumina.  He went back to the utility role for the Twins, seeing substantial time at third, second, and short.  His offensive numbers were about at his career numbers in 2023, but were down in 2024.  He became a free agent and signed with Colorado for 2025, but his offensive numbers did not improve.  He turns thirty-five today.  He's had a decent career, but if you can't hit in Colorado, you probably can't hit.  We wish him well, but it appears that Kyle Farmer's playing career may be nearing an end.

August 16

Hick Carpenter (1855)

Baby Doll Jacobsen (1890)

Fats Fothergill (1897)

George Scales (1900)

Tiny Bonham (1913)

Gene Woodling (1922)

Puddin’ Head Jones (1925)

Buck Rodgers (1938)

Gene Brabender (1941)

Mike Jorgensen (1948)

Al Holland (1952)

Nick Leyva (1953)

Rick Reed (1964)

Xavier Hernandez (1965)

Terry Shumpert (1966)

Quinton McCracken (1970)

Damian Jackson (1973)

Roger Cedeno (1974)

Ryan Hanigan (1980)

Yu Darvish (1986)

Martin Maldonado (1986)

Akil Baddoo (1998)

Nick Leyva was a long-time minor league coach and manager and major league coach.  He managed the Philadelphia Phillies from 1989-1991.

Right-hander Richard Allen Reed pitched for the Twins from 2001-2003.  He was born in Huntington, West Virginia, attended Marshall University, and was drafted in the 26th round by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986. He made his major league debut with Pittsburgh in 1988.   He spent the next eight years bouncing back and forth between AAA and the majors, first with the Pirates, then with Kansas City, Texas, and Cincinnati.  He always pitched well in the minors, but never could stick in the majors.  His major league ERAs tell the reason why, but he never got much of a chance and his WHIPs were pretty decent many of those years, suggesting bad luck may also have been a factor.  He was a replacement player in 1995, knowing that he would pay a price for it but believing he had no choice due to the medical bills incurred by his ill mother. After playing at AAA for all of 1996 with the Mets, Reed finally made the big-leagues to stay in 1997 at the age of 32. He was a rotation starter for the Mets, and a good one, from 1997 through July of 2001, when he was traded at the deadline to Minnesota for Matt Lawton.  He was apparently unhappy about leaving New York, but did not complain publicly about it at the time. Reed did not pitch well for the Twins that year, but had a solid year in 2002, helping the team to the playoffs. After a poor 2003, when he was 38, the Twins released him. He signed with Pittsburgh that off-season, but did not make the team and called it a career.  As a Twin, he was 25-25, 4.47, 1.30 WHIP in 390.2 innings.  He appeared in 72 games, 65 of them starts.  He became the pitching coach at Marshall University in 2005 and stayed there several years, but then decided to step away from baseball for good.  At last report, Rick Reed was living in retirement in Huntington, West Virginia.

Outfielder Quinton Antoine McCracken played in 24 games for the Twins in 2001.  He was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, went to high school in South Brunswick, North Carolina (where he started on the football and basketball teams and ran track in addition to playing baseball), and attended Duke.  He was drafted by Colorado in the twenty-fifth round in 1992.  He was a high average hitter, hitting .359 in a 1995 season split between AA and AAA.  He was also fast, stealing 60 bases at Class A Central Valley in 1993.  He came up to the Rockies at the end of 1995 and stayed through 1997 as a part-time centerfielder.  He hit .291 over that time, but was left unprotected in the expansion draft and was chosen by Tampa Bay.  He hit .292 in 1998, but he got off to a bad start in 1999 and then was injured in late May, missing the rest of the season.  He split 2000 between AAA and the Devil Rays, then was released.  He signed with St. Louis for 2001, but failed to make the team.  The Twins signed McCracken on April 13 and sent him to AAA Edmonton, where he hit .338.  They brought him to the majors for about six weeks; he got 64 at-bats, making six starts in the outfield and eight at designated hitter (a foreshadowing of Jason Tyner’s use in that role).  His batting ability stayed in AAA, however; he hit .219/.275/.313.  He became a free agent after the season, signing with Arizona.  He made a surprising comeback there, hitting .309 as a half-time outfielder in 2002.  He went back down in 2003, however, and was traded to Seattle after the season for Greg Colbrunn and cash.  He played poorly with the Mariners, was released in June, and signed back with the Diamondbacks, where he again made a comeback, hitting .288 as a reserve the rest of the way.  He again could not sustain it the following year, and became a free agent after the 2005 season.  McCracken signed with Cincinnati for 2006, but played sparingly and was released in early July.  The Twins re-signed him a couple of weeks later and sent him to Rochester; he hit .284 there, but was not promoted and again became a free agent after the season.  He played for independent Bridgeport in 2007, then his playing career came to an end.  For a twenty-fifth round draft choice, though, he had a pretty good career.  Quinton McCracken was assistant director for player development for the Arizona Diamondbacks through 2012, and worked for the Houston Astros from 2013-2018, serving as their director of player personnel the last two seasons.  He was the third base coach for the Durham Bulls in the Tampa Bay organization in 2019.  There was no minor league season in 2020, and in 2021 he became a special assistant for baseball operations and player development for the Milwaukee Brewers.  In 2024 he became manager of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in the MLB Draft League.

Outfielder Akil Neomon Baddoo did not play for the Twins, but was in their minor league system from 2016-2020.  He was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, went to high school in Conyers, Georgia, and was drafted by Minnesota in the second round in 2016.  He struggled in the Gulf Coast League that season, but had an outstanding year with Elizabethton in 2017.  He was okay, but nothing special in Low-A in 2018 and struggled in High-A in 2019.  However, he was only twenty years old that season.  For his minor league Twins career, he batted .249/.357/.467 with 21 homers in 862 at-bats.  There was, of course, no minor league season in 2020, and the Twins left him unprotected after that year.  Detroit claimed him in the rule 5 draft and gave him a chance.  He got off to a hot start, leading people to think the Twins had given up on a star.  He cooled off, however, and had a poor 2022, going back to the minors for a while.  He was in the majors for most of 2023 and was the Tigers' semi-regular left-fielder, but did not hit.  He split 2024 between AAA and the majors but did not hit.  He has hit better in AAA in 2025, but did nothing in seventeen major league at-bats.  So far in his major league career he is batting .224/.305/.369 in 1016 at-bats.  He turns twenty-seven today.  It's possible that he'll improve, and we certainly wish him well, but it's looking less and less likely that he'll hit in the big leagues.

August 15

Charles Comiskey (1859)

Doggie Miller (1864)

Jack Warner (1872)

Bill Sherdel (1896)

Jim Snyder (1932)

Joey Jay (1935)

Jose Santiago (1940)

Cap Peterson (1942)

Duffy Dyer (1945)

Joe Lis (1946)

Billy Conigliaro (1947)

Tom Kelly (1950)

Joe Cowley (1958)

Randy Johnson (1958)

Jeff Huson (1964)

Scott Brosius (1966)

Chris Singleton (1972)

Oliver Perez (1981)

Jarrod Dyson (1984)

Luke Keaschall (2002)

Second baseman James Robert Snyder played briefly for the Twins in 1961-1962 and 1964.  He was born in Dearborn, Michigan, went to Eastern Michigan University, and was signed as an amateur free agent by the St. Louis Browns in 1952. He spent the next ten years in the minors, playing in the organizations of St. Louis/Baltimore (1952-56, 1957), the White Sox (1956, 1958-60), the Cubs (1957), Philadelphia (1958, 1960), and Cincinnati (1961). Snyder never hit much in the minors, leading one to suppose that he was a very good defensive player. It also leads one to believe that he was a good guy and that people liked him–if he was a jerk, they would have gotten rid of him.  His best minor league season was 1960, when he hit .287 with two AAA teams at age 27.  The Twins purchased Snyder from Indianapolis (AAA) in September of 1961, and he spent the rest of that season and portions of 1962 and 1964 with Minnesota.  He did not hit any better in the Twins’ organization:  in three seasons at AAA, he hit .261 with eight homers.  He began 1962 in Minnesota, but was sent out in early May after appearing in twelve games, six of them as a pinch-runner.  He did not come back until 1964, when he was with the Twins for about six weeks.  Apparently, he was a good bunter; in 1964, Snyder had only 88 plate appearances with the Twins, but was fifth in the league in sacrifice bunts, with 11.  As a Twin, Jim Snyder hit .140/.185/.198 in 86 at-bats. After playing in the Senators organization in 1965, Snyder retired as an active player and embarked on a fairly successful career as a minor-league manager, with a winning percentage of .514 in 16 seasons. He has also been a major league coach, and managed the Seattle Mariners for a portion of 1988, going 45-60.  His last job in baseball appears to have been as a director of instruction for the White Sox, serving in that role from 1994-2005.  Jim Snyder passed away on March 9, 2021 in Lutz, Florida at the age of eighty-eight.

First baseman Joseph Anthony Lis played for the Twins in 1973-1974.  Born and raised in Somerville, New Jersey, he was signed by Philadelphia as a free agent in 1964. After a slow start in the minors, he began to develop some power, hitting over 30 homers in class A in 1967 and 1968 and again in AAA in 1970. Lis was with the Phillies in 1971 and part of 1972, also spending part of 1972 in AAA. After that season, he was traded with Ken Reynolds and Ken Sanders to the Twins for Cesar Tovar. Lis played for the Twins for the next year and a half before being sold to Cleveland in June of 1974.  He was a semi-regular in 1973, sharing first base with Harmon Killebrew, but got very little playing time in 1974 before he left the Twins. He got back on the treadmill between AAA and the majors through 1976, winning the International League MVP award in 1976, and then was chosen by Seattle in the expansion draft prior to the 1977 season. He played a handful of games for the Mariners in 1977, but then went back to AAA, playing in the Indians, White Sox, and Tigers organizations, as well as a year with the Kintetsu Buffaloes, through 1979, when he retired. As a Twin, Lis played in 127 games, batting 294 times and hitting .238/.321/.374 with 9 homers and 28 RBIs.  After leaving baseball, he moved to Evansville, Indiana.  After trying several occupations, he started the Joe Lis Hitting School in Evansville, which he operated until his death. Joe Lis passed away from prostate cancer on October 17, 2010 in Evansville, Indiana.

First baseman Jay Thomas Kelly played for the Twins in 1975 and then managed them from 1986-2001.  He was born in Graceville, Minnesota, went to high school in South Amboy, New Jersey, and was drafted by the Seattle Pilots in the 8th round of the 1968 amateur draft.  He was in the Seattle/Milwaukee organization for three years, but averaged averaged .232 over the last two of them and was released at the end of spring training in 1971.  The Twins signed him and sent him to AA Charlotte.  He hit .294 there, and the next year he was promoted to AAA Tacoma, where he spent most of the next four seasons. Kelly put up solid but unspectacular numbers there, with his best year coming in 1974 when he hit .308 with 18 homers, numbers which sound better than they are in the context of the Pacific Coast League. Kelly came to the Twins in 1975, spending exactly two months with the big club. He played in 49 games during that time, batting .181/.262./.244 in 127 at-bats with 1 homer and 11 runs batted in. Kelly was sold to Baltimore at the start of the 1976 season and spent a year in AAA with them before returning to the Minnesota organization in 1977. He was a player-manager in the minors that year before turning to managing full-time in 1979. Kelly pitched in four minor-league games while he was a manager, starting two of them, and actually pitched pretty well, going 1-0 with a 1.88 ERA in 24 innings. As I assume everyone here knows, he became a coach with the Twins and then took over managing in the fall of 1986, winning two world championships before retiring after the 2001 season.  He was named American League Manager of the Year in 1991.  He had chances to manage other teams, but apparently was not interested.  Tom Kelly is currently a special assistant to the general manager for the Twins.

“Not the” Randy Johnson, outfielder/first baseman Randall Stuart Johnson played for the Twins in 1982.  Born in Miami, he was chosen by the White Sox in the third round of the 1979 January draft. He had some strong years in the minors, hitting .282 with 25 homers at AA Glens Falls in 1980 at age 21.  He got about five weeks in the majors that year, used mostly as a pinch-hitter by the White Sox. Back in Glens Falls in 1981, he hit only .255 but belted 32 home runs.  After the season, he was the player named later in a trade which also sent Ivan Mesa and Ronnie Perry to the Twins for Jerry Koosman. He spent all of 1982 with the Twins, batting .248/.325/.419 as a part-time DH. It was not good enough, however, and he spent the next two years at AAA for the Twins. Johnson was traded back to the White Sox at the start of 1985 spring training along with Ron Scheer for Roy Smalley. He rounded out his career with the White Sox AAA Buffalo affiliate in 1985 as a part-time outfielder, hitting just .224, and then his playing career came to an end.  ”Randy Johnson” is, or course, a rather common name, and when you search for a Randy Johnson connected with baseball you tend to get the other guy.  No information about what our Randy Johnson is doing these days was readily available.

Second baseman Luke T. Keaschall came up to the Twins in 2025.  He was born in Watsonville, California, attended the University of San Francisco and Arizona State, and was drafted by Minnesota in the second round in 2023.  He hit for high averages in college and drew quite a few walks, but did not hit for much power until his final year at Arizona State.  He quickly proved too good for high A in 2024 and did well when promoted to AA.  He was decent, but nothing special, in a handful of games of AAA, but was promoted to the Twins in mid-April anyway and hit very well for a week, after which he was injured.  He came back in early August and has hit very well so far.  He turns twenty-three today.  Many Twins fans have high hopes for him, and we're certainly not down on him, but time will tell whether the high hopes will come to fruition.

August 14

Paul Dean (1912)
Earl Weaver (1930)
Joel Horlen (1937)
Bert Cueto (1937)
Mark Fidrych (1954)
Don Carman (1959)
Mark Gubicza (1962)
Mike Cook (1963)
Mark Loretta (1971)
Juan Pierre (1977)
Clay Buchholz (1984)
Jeremy Hazelbaker (1987)
David Peralta (1987)
Tim Tebow (1987)
Josh Bell (1992)

Earl Weaver was the long-time manager of the Baltimore Orioles.

Mark Gubicza was an analyst on for FSN on Twins pre-game and post-game shows in 2004.

Quarterback Tim Tebow played minor league baseball in the Mets organization from 2016-2019.

Right-hander Dagoberto (Concepcion) Cueto pitched for the Twins in their inaugural season of 1961.  He was born in San Luis Pinar, Cuba, and was signed by Washington as an amateur free agent in 1956. He worked his way up from Class D, pitching well at nearly every stop. There apparently was some indecision about whether Cueto should be a starter or a reliever, as he did some of both every year except 1959, when he was used exclusively in relief at Class A Charlotte. Cueto was called up to the Twins in June of 1961 and spent about six weeks with the club. He appeared in seven games, five of them starts, compiling a 1-3 record with a 7.17 ERA in 21.1 innings. Returned to the minors in late July, he was traded to the Dodgers in July of 1962 for Jay Ward.  He pitched well for them the rest of the season, but did not get back to the major leagues.  Cueto pitched briefly in the Angels organization in 1963 and the Pittsburgh organization in 1964, but spent most of those years in the Mexican League.  He apparently then played for amateur teams in the Charlotte, North Carolina area.  He also worked for a furniture store and for Embree-Reed, Inc. Bert Cueto passed away on October 25, 2011 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Right-hander Michael Horace Cook pitched for the Twins in 1989.  Born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, he attended the University of South Carolina and was drafted by the California Angels in the first round of the 1985 amateur draft. He was rushed to the majors, making his big-league debut for the Angels in a two-week stint in 1986.  He bounced between California and AAA Edmonton in 1987-88, never pitching all that well for either team. After the 1988 season, Cook was traded to the Twins with Rob Wassenaar and Paul Sorrento for Kevin Trudeau and Bert Blyleven. He started 1989 with the Twins, went down after a month, and came back as a September call-up.  He pitched in fifteen games for the Twins in 1989, all in relief, going 0-1 with a 5.06 ERA and a 1.83 WHIP in 21.1 innings. He spent the rest of that year and all of 1990 with AAA Portland as a starter, and was released at the end of spring training in 1991. After that he was in the Seattle (1991), St. Louis (1992), Baltimore (1993-1994) and New York Mets (1994) organizations, making it back to the big leagues for two appearances with Baltimore in 1993.  Cook was used exclusively in relief in his last three minor league seasons and posted good ERAs in the last two.  It did him no good, however, as his playing career ended after the 1994 season.  Mike Cook is a member of the Charleston Baseball Hall of Fame.  At last report, it appeared that Mike Cook was living in Brockport, New York.

Outfielder Jeremy Philip Hazelbaker did not play for the Twins, but was in AAA for them for about a month and a half in 2018.  He was born in Muncie, Indiana, went to high school in Selma, Indiana, attended Ball State University, and was drafted by Boston in the fourth round in 2009.  He did well in the lower minors but stalled out when he reached AAA in 2012.  He didn't have a good season in AAA until 2015, but when he did he hit .333 with an OPS of .998.  He was twenty-seven by then, but after a strong winter league season he started 2016 as a reserve outfielder for the Cardinals, with whom he had signed as a free agent in May of 2015.  He was there for all but a month of the season and had a slugging average of .480, but a batting average of just .235.  The Cardinals waived him after the season and he was claimed by Arizona.  He was a reserve outfielder for the Diamondbacks for about half of 2017 and batted .346 with an OPS of 1.020, but while he played in forty-one games he had just fifty-two at-bats.  He was sold to Tampa Bay in April of 2018, played in AAA for them, and then was sold again, this time to Minnesota, in mid-July of the same year.  They also sent him to AAA, where he batted .198/.311/.385 in 106 plate appearances.  He went to Korea for the start of 2019, but came back at mid-season and signed with Sioux City of the independent American Association, where he finished the season.  That brought his playing career to an end.  His major league numbers are .258/.327/.500 in 285 plate appearances.  At last report, Jeremy Hazelbaker was living in Castalian Springs, Tennessee.  He was a developmental specialist for Hitting Hub, which provides personalized baseball training.

August 13

Fielder Jones (1871)
George Susce (1907)
Lou Finney (1910)
Sid Gordon (1917)
Jerry Neudecker (1930)
Vinegar Bend Mizell (1930)
Mudcat Grant (1935)
Tony Cloninger (1940)
Fred Stanley (1947)
Jerry Crawford (1947)
Andre Thornton (1949)
Tom Niedenfuer (1959)
Jim Reboulet (1961)
Jay Buhner (1964)
Tom Prince (1964)
Mark Lemke (1965)
Alex Fernandez (1969)
Jarrod Washburn (1974)
Will Ohman (1977)
Corey Patterson (1979)
Dallas Braden (1983)
Boone Logan (1984)
Hansel Robles (1990)
Randal Grichuk (1991)
Taijuan Walker (1992)

Jerry Neudecker was an American League umpire from 1966-1985.  He was the last major league umpire to use an outside chest protector.

Jerry Crawford was a major league umpire from 1976-2010.  He is tied with Bruce Froemming for the most postseason games umpired, 111.

Jim Reboulet is the brother of ex-Twin Jeff Reboulet. He was in the minors for six years, reaching AAA. He had three seasons with sixty or more stolen bases.

Right-hander James Timothy “Mudcat” Grant pitched for the Twins from 1964-1967.  He was born in Lacoochee, Florida, went to high school in Dade City, Florida, and was signed as a free agent by Cleveland in 1954. He pitched quite well in the minors, going 70-28 with an ERA under 3.20 and averaging over 200 innings per season.   He made the Indians out of spring training in 1958. Grant was a solid member of the Cleveland rotation for six years, making the all-star team in 1963.  He also did some singing as part of a nightclub act.  When he got off to a poor start in 1964, he was traded to Minnesota for George Banks and Lee Stange. Something clicked for him when he came to the Twins, as he had his best years in Minnesota: for the rest of 1964, he was 11-9 with a 2.82 ERA, in 1965 he went 21-7 with a 3.30 ERA and finished sixth in the MVP voting, and he went 13-13 in 1966 with a 3.25 ERA. Four consecutive years of pitching between 228 and 270 innings appeared to take its toll, however; 1966 was Grant’s last good year as a starter, and after the 1967 season, he was traded to the Dodgers with Zoilo Versalles for Bob Miller, Ron Perranoski, and Johnny Roseboro. He then had a relatively successful career as a relief pitcher, saving 24 games for Oakland in 1970 and leading major league baseball in appearances with 80. The last year of his 14-year major league career was split between Oakland and Pittsburgh; he also pitched for Iowa in the Oakland organization in 1972. Grant pitched in 129 games as a Twin, 111 of them starts, and went 50-35 with a 3.35 ERA. There are various stories about who gave him the nickname “Mudcat”, with the most popular being that he was given it by Cleveland teammate Larry Doby or a minor-league teammate named LeRoy Irby.  He has served on the board of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the Baseball Assistance Team, and the Major League Baseball Alumni Association. In recent years, Grant has been promoting education about the history of blacks in baseball. His book, “The Black Aces”, profiles African-American pitchers who have won twenty games in the majors, along with Negro League pitchers who might have done so had they had they opportunity.   He is the uncle of Domonic Brown, an outfielder for Philadalphia from 2010-15.  Mudcat Grant passed away on June 11, 2021 in Los Angeles at the age of eighty-five.
Catcher Thomas Albert Prince played for the Twins from 2001-2003. He was born in Kankakee, Illinois, and was drafted by Pittsburgh in 1984 in the 4th round of the secondary phase of the January draft. Prince did not hit particularly well in the low minors, but showed moderate power and got a reputation as a good defensive player.  He surprisingly hit .307 at AA Harrisburg in 1987, nearly fifty points higher than he had ever hit in the minors.  That was good enough for him to make his debut in Pittsburgh as a September call-up that season. He spent parts of the next seven seasons with the Pirates, sticking for the whole year only in 1993, which was the only year he got more than 100 at-bats for Pittsburgh.  He never hit for them, posting batting averages of over .200 only twice in those seven years.  Let go by the Pirates after that season, Prince spent parts of the next four years with the Dodgers, again only getting 100 at-bats once, in 1997, although he did hit .200 or above every year.  He spent 1999-2000 with the Phillies, and was signed as a free agent by the Twins after the 2000 campaign. With the Twins, Prince was who they thought he was: a reserve catcher who was good defensively and couldn’t hit. In 2 1/2 years in Minnesota, he got 361 at-bats and hit .219/.300/.374 with 13 homers and 44 RBIs. Released by the Twins in July of 2003, he signed with the Royals, spending most of the rest of the year in Omaha. He retired after that year at the age of 38.  Tom Prince managed to play in parts of seventeen major league seasons and get 1,190 major league at-bats with a lifetime batting average of .208.  He was affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates for several years, mostly as a minor league manager.  From 2017-2019 he was the bench coach for Pittsburgh.  He left the Pirates organization after 2019, however, and managed the Toledo Mud Hens in the Detroit organization in 2021.  He was let go after the season and does not seem to have gotten another baseball job.  Thus, no information about what Tom Prince is doing now was readily available.

Right-hander Hansel Manuel Robles was with the Twins for four months in 2021.  Born and raised in Bonao in the Dominican Republic, he signed with the Mets as a free agent in 2008.  He pitched very well in the low minors but was brought along very slowly.  He was mostly a starter at that point, but began a conversion to relief in AA in 2014.  He made five AAA appearances in 2015 and then reached the majors, having a fine season out of the bullpen for the Mets.  He did well again in 2016 but struggled some in 2017, resulting in a two-month stint in AAA.  He got off to a poor start in 2018 and was waived by the Mets in late June.  He was claimed by the Angels and turned his season around, pitching very well for them for the last three months of the season.  He had another fine season in 2019 but 2020 was a different story.  When he was on he was really on, but when he was off he was awful, so his numbers do not look good at all.  The Twins signed him as a free agent for 2021.  He pitched well for them at times, but was not consistent enough for the Twins to rely on him.  In forty-five games (forty-four innings), he went 3-4, 4.91, 1.39 WHIP with ten saves.  The Twins traded him to Boston at the July deadline for Alex Scherff.  He did fairly well for them in 2021, but pitched poorly in 2022 and was released in early July.  He signed with the Dodgers a couple of weeks later and pitched poorly the rest of the season in AAA.  He turns thirty-three today and hasn't had a good year since 2019.  He pitched well in winter ball, though, and had an excellent season in the Mexican League in 2023.  He did not pitch as well in winter ball last season.  He signed a minor league contract with Seattle for 2024.  He does not appear to have pitched for them, but he does not appear to have been released, either, so perhaps there's an injury.  He turns thirty-four today.  It seems very unlikely that we'll ever see him in the majors again, but you never know.  As we've said before, as long as you're still playing somewhere, you still have a chance.

August 12

This is a reprint from last year.

Christy Mathewson (1880)
Ray Schalk (1892)
Harlond Clift (1912)
Fred Hutchinson (1919)
Bob Buhl (1928)
Kevin Cooney (1950)
Matt Clement (1974)
Lew Ford (1976)
Zach Cosart (1985)
Chris Owings (1991)

A notoriously bad hitter, even for a pitcher, Bob Buhl had a lifetime average of .089 and went the entire 1962 season without getting a hit (0-for-70).  Oddly, he equaled his career high in walks that year with six, which goes to show something or other.

Kevin Cooney was an eleventh round draft choice of the Twins in 1972.  He pitched in the Twins’ organization for two seasons, then a shoulder injury ended his playing career.  He then became a college baseball coach.  He was the head coach at Montclair State from 1984-1987 and at Florida Atlantic from 1988-2008.

Outfielder Jon Lewis “Lew” Ford played for the Twins from 2003-2007.  He was born in Beaumont, Texas, went to high school in Port Neches, Texas, attended Dallas Baptist University, and was drafted by the Red Sox in the twelfth round in 1999. He hit well in their minor league system (although as a 22-year-old in the NY-P league and a 23-year-old in the Sally League). The Twins acquired him in September of 2000 for Hector Carrasco. Ford got to AA in 2001 and AAA in 2002.  The latter was his best minor league season, as he hit .318 with 20 homers in a year split between New Britain and Rochester.  Ford came up to the Twins in May of 2003, did well in limited playing time that year and became a regular the following season. 2004 was by far his best year: he hit .299 with 15 homers and 72 RBIs, and actually received a ninth-place vote for MVP that year. Ford declined after that, losing his starting spot in 2006 when he hit only .226. He split time in 2007 between AAA and Minnesota and was released after the season. As a Twin, he batted .272/.349/.402 with 32 homers and 172 RBIs. After leaving the Twins, Ford went to Japan to play for the Hanshin Tigers. He signed a minor-league contract with Colorado in March of 2009, but failed to make the Rockies. He spent most of 2009 playing for the Long Island Ducks, although he did play briefly for AAA Louisville in the Cincinnati organization.  Ford began 2010 playing in Mexico, but was released in mid-May despite the fact that he was hitting .314 with 13 doubles and 5 homers in 140 at-bats.  He went back to the Ducks for 2011 and played very well.  He was doing even better for them in 2012 when he signed with the Baltimore organization in mid-May.  He was sent to AAA Norfolk, continued to hit well, and in late July, after an absence of about four and a half years, Lew Ford was back in the big leagues.  He was a free agent after the season, re-signed with Baltimore, missed much of the season with injury, and ended 2013 back with the Long Island Ducks.  He was with them again in 2014.  In 2015 he played both with the Ducks and with Tijuana in the Mexican League, hitting well in both places.  He was back with Long Island for 2016-19 and continued to hit well there, batting .303 in 2019.  He turns forty-seven today.  Two years ago, we said, "It appears that the Atlantic League has not played in 2020, so Lew Ford's playing career may be over.  But given his history, I wouldn't bet too heavily on it."  I hope you didn't, because he batted .311 for Long Island in 2021, batted .270 for them in 2022, and batted .340 for them in 2023.  He became the manager of the Ducks in 2024, and has so far not played, although it wouldn't be shocking if he got into a game or two before the season ended.  At any rate, the cry of "LEEEEWWWWWWWWW" can still be heard in a baseball park, which makes me rather happy.

August 11

Danny Murphy (1876)
Bobo Newsom (1907)
Bob Scheffing (1913)
Walter McNeil (1934)
Bill Monboquette (1936)
Vada Pinson (1938)
Sal Campisi (1942)
Jim Hughes (1951)
Dennis Lewallyn (1953)
Bryn Smith (1955)
Melky Cabrera (1984)
Colby Rasmus (1986)
Pablo Sandoval (1986)

Walter McNeil is better known as Wally the Beer Man, long-time vendor at Minnesota Twins games.

Right-handed reliever Salvatore John Campisi appeared in six games for the Twins in 1971.  Born and raised in Brooklyn, he attended Long Island University, where he had led the nation in ERA at 0.27, and was signed as a free agent by the St. Louis in 1964. He pitched well in the minors, regularly posting ERAs under three, but made a rather slow rise.  He spent a year in rookie ball and two years in A ball before finally getting to AA in 1967 and AAA in 1968.  Campisi was a starter in rookie ball but was primarily a reliever after that.  He made his major-league debut with the Cardinals in 1969 and spent almost all of 1970 with them. Control trouble, which was never a problem in the minors, plagued him in the majors, as he walked over six per nine innings with St. Louis. In the off-season, the Cardinals traded Campisi to the Twins with Jim Kennedy for Charlie Wissler and Herman Hill. He made the team out of spring training, but he pitched only 4.1 innings in six games with Minnesota, with no win-loss record and a 4.15 ERA, before being sent down to AAA. He was let go after that season, and his playing career came to an end.  He walked only 2.5 batters per nine innings in 718 minor league innings, but averaged 6.7 in 63.1 major league innings. Sal Campisi was inducted into the Long Island University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.  At last report, it appeared that Sal Campisi was living in Lakeland, Florida, where he owned a car dealership, Regal Automotive.

Right-handed palm ball specialist James Michael Hughes pitched for the Twins from 1974-1977.  He was born in Los Angeles, went to high school in Playa del Rey, California, and was drafted by Minnesota in the thirty-third round in 1969.  He had poor control early in his minor league career, a problem which got better as he went up the minor league ladder.  Unfortunately, he became easier to hit at higher levels as well, so that he regularly posted WHIPs around 1.5 with the exception of 1972, when he had his best year as a minor leaguer, going 13-9, 2.58, 1.17 WHIP for Class A Lynchburg.  In 1974, he went 10-12, 4.83, 1.43 WHIP, which was deemed good enough for a September call-up.  He spent the next two years in the Twins’ rotation.  By far the better year was 1975, when he went 16-14, 3.82 in 249.1 innings with 12 complete games, although also with a WHIP of 1.47.  His WHIP was about the same in 1976, but he went 9-14, 4.98.  He began 1977 in the Twins’ bullpen, but was sent to AAA after only two appearances, never to return.  He had a poor year in Tacoma and was released after the season.  Hughes signed with the White Sox for 1978 but was released in late March.  He signed with Texas a few days later, but made only eight AAA appearances with them.  He was in AAA for the Dodgers in 1979, posting an ERA of 3.00 but a WHIP of 1.61 in 36 innings.  His playing career came to an end after that.  There are lots and lots of people named “Jim Hughes”; many of them are even involved in baseball in one way or another.  At last report, it appeared that "our" Jim Hughes was living in Orange, California.