January 28

George Wright (1847)
Ducky Holmes (1869)
Bill Doak (1891)
Lyn Lary (1906)
Bob Muncrief (1916)
Pete Runnels (1928)
Harry Dunlop (1933)
Bill White (1934)
Fredi Gonzalez (1964)
Kevin Tolar (1971)
Jermaine Dye (1974)
Magglio Ordonez (1974)
Lyle Overbay (1977)

Left-hander Kevin Anthony Tolar did not play for the Twins, but was in spring training with them in 2004.  Born and raised in Panama City, Florida, he was drafted by the White Sox in the ninth round in 1989.  He definitely gets points for persistence, because it would take him eleven years to reach the majors.  He was in rookie ball in 1989 and in Class A from 1990-1993 for the White Sox; they didn’t hit him very well, but he struggled due to control problems, walking from six to eight batters per nine innings.  The White Sox gave up on him and released him in April of 1994.  He was out of baseball that year, but signed with Pittsburgh in 1995.  The Pirates converted him to relief, where he didn’t exactly get pinpoint control, but he did improve.  He split 1995 between Class A and AA with the Pirates, was in AA for Cleveland in 1996, mostly in AA with the Mets in 1997, with AA for Pittsburgh and AAA in Cincinnati in 1998, and in AAA with Pittsburgh in 1999.  He pitched well in AAA in 2000 for Detroit and finally made his major league debut, getting a September call-up.  He again pitched well in AAA for Detroit in 2001, spending about a month in the majors.  He was back in AAA in 2002 for Pittsburgh.  He went to Boston in 2003 and started the season in the majors, but lasted only three weeks before going back to AAA.  He signed with Minnesota for 2004, but was released at the end of spring training.  He signed with the Cubs and played in AAA with them that season.  He split 2005 in AAA with Arizona and Toronto, split 2006 between the Mexican League and the Atlantic League, and was in the Atlantic League at the start of 2007.  He signed to play for a team in Taiwan in June of 2007, and played for Aragua in the Venezuelan Winter League from 2006-2008.  He appeared in twenty major league games, going 0-0, 6.62.  He pitched 17.2 innings, allowing 13 hits and 16 walks.  He appeared in 680 minor league games, 307 of them in AAA.  Overall, he was 70-56, 3.50 with 45 saves in the minors; in AAA, he was 31-11, 3.73 with 22 saves.  It appears that Kevin Tolar is currently an affiliate for GeneWize, a health and wellness company which is a division of Capsalus, and is located in his home town of Panama City.