June 16

Lefty Phillips (1919)
Max Surkont (1922)
Ernie Johnson (1924)
Richard Jacobs (1925)
Bob Miller (1926)
Ken Johnson (1933)
Joe Decker (1947)
Ron LeFlore (1948)
Salome Barojas (1957)
Wally Joyner (1962)
Calvin Schiraldi (1962)
Kevin Young (1969)
Chris Gomez (1971)
Kerry Wood (1977)
Jonathan Broxton (1984)

The Bob Miller born today, although a pitcher, is not the Bob Miller who pitched for the Twins.

Today is also the birthday of Twins’ farmhand Michael Gonzales (1988).

Right-hander George Henry "Joe" Decker played for the Twins for four years in the mid-1970s.  He was born in Storm Lake, Iowa, went to high school in Petaluma, California, and was drafted by the Cubs in the ninth round in 1965.  He took a while to get started, pitching one year in rookie ball and two at Class A.  His first good season in the minors came in 1968, a season split between A and AAA.  He followed that up with a good year at AAA Tacoma, making his major league debut as a September call-up in 1969.  He was with the Cubs for much of the next two years, sometimes starting, sometimes relieving, but not pitching particularly well in either role.  Decker returned to the minors for most of 1972 and after the season was traded to Minnesota with Bob Maneely and Bill Hands for Dave LaRoche.  He was in the Twins' starting rotation the next two years and pitched pretty well, winning 16 games in 1974 with a 3.29 ERA.  He pitched 248.2 innings, however, by far the most of his career.  After that he struggled with injuries and was never an effective pitcher again.  The Twins released him in June of 1976 and he signed with Detroit, finishing the year at AAA.  He signed with the Cubs for 1977, was released on Independence Day, and finished the season in the Mexican League.  Decker signed with Seattle for 1978 and had a couple of decent years in AAA, making it back to the majors for about six weeks in 1979.  He was apparently out of baseball in 1980-1981, then attempted a comeback in 1982, pitching in AAA for Seattle for two more seasons before ending his playing career after the 1983 campaign.  As a Twin, Joe Decker was 29-34, 4.09.  He pitched in 89 games, 80 of them starts, and worked 503.1 innings.  He continued to enjoy playing baseball, and pitched in the Seniors League in 1989-1990.  He moved to Fraser, Michigan, where he passed away on March 2, 2003 following a fall down stairs.  He is buried in his original home town of Storm Lake, Iowa.

Infielder Christopher Cory Gomez played for the Twins in 2003.  He was born in Los Angeles, went to high school in Lakewood, California, and attended Cal State--Long Beach.  He was drafted by Detroit in the third round in 1992.  He did not hit particularly well in the minors, but made the big leagues in mid-July of 1993.  In 1994 he hit .257 with 8 homers as a part-time middle infielder, which was good enough for fourth in Rookie of the Year voting.  He stayed with the Tigers in a mostly regular middle infield role until June of 1996, when Gomez was traded to San Diego.  He was immediately installed as the regular shortstop for the Padres, a position he held through 1998.  He was not particularly good, but he hit around .260 and so was considered good enough to keep the job.  In 1999, however, Gomez started dealing with injuries, and was out much of the 2000 season.  He batted poorly in 2001 and was released in late June.  Tampa Bay signed him and he bounced back, hitting .302 the rest of the way.  He went back to his typical .265 in 2002 and was released after the season.  Minnesota signed him and he played in 58 games as a utility infielder.  His line was .251/.279/.354 in 175 at-bats.  Gomez moved on to Toronto for 2004 and had a good year, for him, batting .282 as a part-time player.  He went to Baltimore in 2005 and went on to have the best years of his career.  His playing time was limited, but as an Oriole for nearly three seasons Gomez hit .302 in 520 at-bats.  Despite that, the Orioles put him on waivers, and he was selected by Cleveland in early August.  Gomez played for Pittsburgh in 2008, hitting .273, and then became a free agent again.  He signed with Baltimore again for 2009, but was released at the end of spring training and his playing career was over.  His career covered 16 seasons, which is not bad for a guy with a lifetime OPS of .685.  It turns out there are a lot of people named Chris Gomez in the world; some of them are even involved in baseball in some way.  However, it could not be determined which of those, if any, was “our” Chris Gomez.