June 7

Bones Ely (1863)
George Moriarty (1884)
Ed Wells (1900)
Dusty Boggess (1904)
Rosey Gilhousen (1913)
Herb Score (1933)
Roger Nelson (1944)
George Mitterwald (1945)
Don Money (1947)
Thurman Munson (1947)
Bobby Marcano (1951)
Bill Hohn (1955)
Tim Laudner (1958)
Heathcliff Slocumb (1966)
Donaldo Mendez (1978)

Catcher George Eugene Mitterwald played for the Twins in 1966 and from 1968-1973.  He was born in Berkeley, California, went to high school in Hayward, California, and attended Chabot College in Hayward.  He signed with the Twins as a free agent in 1965.  He had an excellent year at Class A St. Cloud in 1965, then settled in as a rather mediocre minor league hitter.  He got a September call-up in 1966 and another in 1968 before coming to the majors to stay.  He was the backup to Johnny Roseboro in 1969, then became the mostly regular catcher.  He remained in that role from 1970-1971, but in 1972 Mitterwald had a poor year even by his standards, and shared the job with Glenn Borgmann, Phil Roof, and Rick Dempsey.  He regained the starting job in 1973 and had his best year as a Twin, hitting .259 with 16 home runs.  The Twins apparently decided that was as good as it was ever going to get and traded him that Mitterwald to the Cubs that off-season for Randy Hundley.  As a Twin, George Mitterwald hit .239/.304/.373 in 1,578 at-bats.  He was then a part-time catcher for the Cubs for the next four years.  Mitterwald became a free agent after the 1977 campaign and signed with Seattle.  He played poorly in AAA for the Mariners and his playing career came to an end.  He then went into coaching and managing, serving as the bullpen coach for Oakland (1979-1982), as the manager of Modesto (1983-1985) and Orlando (1986-1987), and as bench coach for the Yankees (1988).  He managed in the independent Northern League from 1996-1998.  He was inducted into the Chabot College Hall of Fame in 2000.  No information about what George Mitterwald has been doing since then was readily available.

Catcher Timothy Jon Laudner was a catcher for the Twins throughout the 1980s.  He was born in Mason City, Iowa, went to high school in Minneapolis, and attended the University of Missouri.  He was drafted by Minnesota in the third round of the 1979 draft.  Laudner had indifferent minor league numbers for two season, then hit .284 with 42 homers with Orlando in 1981.  That got him a call-up in late August, and when Butch Wynegar was traded in May of 1982 Laudner became the regular catcher.  Unfortunately, the 42-home-run season turned out to be a fluke; he never hit more than 16 in any other season, majors or minors.  Because he never showed power and his average never really developed, either, Laudner was never the full-time catcher after 1982, sharing the job with Dave Engle (1983-84), Mark Salas (1985-1986), Sal Butera (1987), Tom Nieto (1987-1988), and Brian Harper (1988-1989).  Despite that, Laudner made the all-star team in 1988.  He was hitting .290 at the end of June that year, but fell to .251 by year's end.  Laudner never played for another organization, retiring after the 1989 campaign.  He hit .225/.292/.391 with 77 homers in 2,038 at-bats.  After his playing career ended, he worked in the heating and air conditioning industry for a while, then got back into baseball.  Tim Laudner currently is as an instructor and part-owner of Big League Baseball Camp in Minnetonka and also works as a part-time analyst for Fox Sports North.

Shortstop Donaldo Alfonso Mendez did not play for the Twins, but was in their farm system for a couple of months in 2006.  Born and raised in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, he signed with Houston as a free agent in 1995.  He stayed in the low minors and did not hit anything until 2000, when he batted .270 and stole 39 bases for Class A Michigan.  His OPS was still only .683, but that was enough for San Diego to take him in the rule 5 draft and keep him in the majors all season.  A reserve shortstop, he appeared in 46 games, got 118 at-bats, and hit .153.  Not surprisingly, he was back in the minors in 2002.  He never really did learn to hit; his lifetime average in the minors was .239, a figure that falls to .228 when you take out his years in independent leagues.  He stayed with the Padres through 2003, getting another month in the majors in his final year with them.  He moved on to Pittsburgh in 2004 and San Francisco in 2005.  He was hitting .272 with Newark in the Atlantic League when the Twins signed him on July 6, 2006.  He went to Rochester and actually put up very good numbers in limited playing time:  in 19 games, he batted 29 times and hit .270/.300/.621 with three homers.  The Twins were not fooled, and allowed him to become a free agent after the season.  He played in independent leagues through 2008, then ended his playing career.  At last report, Donaldo Mendez was working for the Gonzalez Sports Academy in San Diego.