March 10

Gene DeMontreville (1873)
Art Herring (1906)
John Briggs (1944)
Wayne Twitchell (1948)
Greg Pavlick (1950)
Steve Howe (1958)
John Cangelosi (1963)
Mike Timlin (1966)
Aaron Bates (1984)

First baseman/outfielder John Edward Briggs played with the Twins for about half of the 1975 season.  Born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey, he attended Seton Hall and signed with Philadelphia as a free agent in 1962.  He spent only one year in the minors--1963, when he hit .297 with 21 homers for Class A Bakersfield.  Briggs joined the Phillies in 1964 and stayed until early 1971, but never got as many as 400 at-bats in a season.  He was used primarily as a pinch hitter in 1964 but then received semi-regular play.  A left-handed batter, he played almost exclusively against right-handed pitching.  Briggs had a good eye at the plate:  he hit only .251 as a Phillie, but had an OBP of .349.  He was traded to Milwaukee in April of 1971, where he was able to shed his platoon status and become a full-time player.  He did not do particularly better or worse as a full-time player than he had as a part-timer, although his home run number went up due to increased at-bats.  He actually received six points in the MVP voting in 1973, a year when he hit .246 with 18 homers, 57 RBIs, and 15 stolen bases.  In June of 1975, Briggs was traded to Minnesota for Bobby Darwin.  As a Twin, John Briggs hit .231/.371/.360 in 264 at-bats, hitting seven homers and driving in 39 runs.  He was released in February of 1976 and went to Japan for a year, ending his playing career after the season.  After that, John Briggs returned to his home town of Paterson, New Jersey, and at last report was a sergeant in the Paterson Sheriff's Department.  As he turns 68 today, one suspects he may have retired by now, but that could not be confirmed.

Left-handed reliever Steven Roy Howe pitched for the Twins for about a month in 1985.  He was born in Pontiac, Michigan and attended the University of Michigan.  He was drafted by the Dodgers in the first round in 1979.  He was a starter at AA San Antonio and pitched very well, going 6-2, 3.13 with a WHIP of 1.05.  He began 1980 with the Dodgers and won the Rookie of the Year award, going 7-9 with 17 saves and an ERA of 2.66 in 59 appearances.  He did an excellent job in relief for the Dodgers through 1983, making the all-star team in 1982.  After the 1983 season, however, Howe was suspended for a year due to drug use.  He was not the same when he came back, and the Dodgers released him in July of 1985.  The Twins signed him in early August.  He made 13 appearances for them, going 2-3, 6.16 in nineteen innings.  He could not conquer his drug problems, however, and left the team in early September.  Howe played some independent ball in 1986 and signed with Texas in July of 1987.  He was in the big leagues with the Rangers for the last two months of the season and did okay, but drugs hit him again, and he was once again out of baseball.  He did not play again until 1990, when he played for an independent team.  Howe signed with the Yankees in 1991 and it appeared that the story might have a happy ending, as he pitched well out of the Yankee bullpen for four years.  He pitched poorly in 1995, however, and in 1996 he again had drug problems.  He pitched well for independent Sioux Falls in 1997, but injured his arm and was out of baseball for good.  After his playing career ended, he wrote an autobiography and worked as a self-employed framing contractor in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.  Steve Howe passed away in an automobile accident on April 28, 2007 in Coachella, California.

First baseman Aaron Bates has not played for the Twins yet, but is currently in their farm system.  He was born in New York, went to high school in San Jose, California and Soquel, California, attended both San Jose State and North Carolina State, and was drafted by Boston in the third round in 2006.  In 2007, playing mostly in the California League, he hit .306/435/.560 with 28 home runs.  Unfortunately, he has not been able to repeat those power numbers, hitting no more than twelve homers in any year since.  He reached AAA in 2009 and even spent a week in the majors that season, going 4-for-11 with a pair of doubles just before the all-star break.  He stayed in the Red Sox organization through 2010, but after hitting only .240 in a full year at Pawtucket he was let go in 2011 spring training.  He went unsigned until early May, when the Twins picked him up and sent him to Rochester.  He had a fine season there, hitting .316/.408/.439.  He has always drawn a good number of walks, posting a career OBP of .378 in six minor league seasons.   The Twins did not give him a September call-up in 2011 despite needing a first baseman.  Bates was a minor league free agent after 2011, but re-signed with the Twins organization for 2012.  One wishes him well, but one has to believe that his chances of having much of a major league career are slim at best.