Tuesday, April 10, 2012

April 10

Ross Youngs (1897)
Bubba Hyde (1908)
Chuck Connors (1921)
Frank Lary (1930)
Robert Nederlander (1933)
Wes Stock (1934)
Joe Gibbon (1935)
Bob Watson (1946)
Lee Lacy (1948)
Tom Lundstedt (1949)
Ken Griffey (1950)
Mike Devereaux (1963)
Starvin’ Marvin Freeman (1963)
Alberto Reyes (1971)
Mike Lincoln (1975)
Andre Ethier (1982)

Better known as an actor, Chuck Connors was a first baseman for the Chicago Cubs in 1951.  He also played professional basketball, and was the first player to break the glass backboard with a slam dunk in a professional basketball game.

Catcher Thomas Robert Lundstedt played in 18 games for the Twins in 1975.  He was born in Davenport, Iowa, went to high school in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, and then attended the University of Michigan.  He was drafted by the Cubs in the first round of the secondary phase of the June draft in 1970.  He started very slowly, but gradually improved in the minors.  His best season was 1973, when he hit .295 with 11 homers for AAA Wichita.  He made his major league debut that year, going 0-for-5 as a late-season call-up.  He started 1974 in the majors, but was hitting .094 in 32 at-bats when he was injured in mid-June and missed the rest of the season.  After the season, Lundstedt was traded to Minnesota for Mike Adams.  He split the season between AAA and the majors, coming to the Twins for three stints that totalled about two months.  He got 28 at-bats as a Twin, hitting .107/.219/.107 (his career batting average, in 65 at-bats, was .092.  His playing career ended after that season.  He has been more successful since then, becoming an expert on real estate investment and taxation.  He has traveled throughout the country, giving over 2,500 seminars on those subjects.  His website, tomlundsted.com, bills him as "the funniest investment and tax guy in America."

Right-hander Michael George Lincoln pitched for the Twins from 1999-2000.  He was born in Carmichael, California, went to high school in Orangevale, California, and attended the University of Tennessee.  Minnesota drafted Lincoln in the thirteenth round in 1996.  He had a very good year in Ft. Myers in 1997 and followed it up with another fine year in New Britain in 1998.  He made the Twins' starting rotation at the start of 1999, but unfortunately things did not go well for him, and he was sent back to AAA in mid-July after going 3-10, 6.84.  He had another good minor league year in 2000, but again pitched poorly in a five-week trial in the majors.  The Twins released him after the season:  as a Twin, Mike Lincoln was 3-13, 7.70 with a WHIP of 1.83.  He appeared in 26 games, 19 of them starts, and pitched 97 innings.  Lincoln signed with Pittsburgh for 2001 and stayed three years, splitting all three seasons between AAA Nashville and the majors.  He converted to the bullpen in 2001 and pitched very well there, both at AAA and in the big leagues.  He had a bad year in the majors in 2003, however (in only 36.1 innings), and was allowed to become a free agent.  He signed with St. Louis for 2004, but pitched for only a month before missing the rest of the season with injury.  He had Tommy John surgery, missed all of 2005, then had Tommy John surgery again.  He was out of baseball for nearly four years before attempting a comeback with Cincinnati in 2008.  He was fairly decent that year, but was pitching poorly in 2009 when he was again injured in mid-June, missing the rest of the season.  He has again come back, however, and was in the Cincinnati bullpen again at the start of 2010.  It did not go well, he was injured again, and his season came to an end at the end of May.  That was the end of his playing career as well; he was a free agent after the season and was not signed by anyone. Mike Lincoln is now the majority owner of Lincoln's Sports Grille in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

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