February 8

Bug Holliday (1867)

Bob Cobb (1899)

Don Heffner (1911)

Danny Carnevale (1918)

Buddy Blattner (1920)

Dewey Soriano (1920)

Willard Marshall (1921)

Hoot Evers (1921)

Joe Black (1924)

Larry Dolan (1931)

Fritz Peterson (1942)

Bob Oliver (1943)

Aaron Cook (1979)

Bob Cobb was the president of the AAA Hollywood Stars from 1938-1957.  He later was involved in bringing an American League expansion team to Los Angeles.  In addition, he opened the famous Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles in 1928.

Dewey Soriano was a minor league pitcher in the 1940s.  He was later co-owner and president of the Seattle Pilots.

First baseman/outfielder Robert Lee Oliver did not play for the Twins, but was in their farm system in 1968.  He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and signed with Pittsburgh as a free agent in 1963.  He put up some good, solid numbers in the minors, getting a September call-up in 1965, when he appeared in three games.  He hit double-digit homers in every minor-league season but one, and hit .260 or better each season in a low-average era.  He hit .285 with 17 home runs in 1967 in AA, after which he was traded to Minnesota for Ron Kline.  Sent to AAA Denver, he hit .297 with 20 homers, which not only did not get him called up to the majors but resulted in his being left unprotected in the expansion draft, where he was selected by Kansas City.  It appears that some bad strikeout and walk numbers may have led to the lack of enthusiasm for him on the part of the Twins; despite hitting .297, he had an OBP of only .328, drawing 24 walks while striking out 94 times.  Those numbers were pretty much in line with the rest of his career.  The expansion Royals gave him more-or-less regular play for three seasons, in which he did about what he would have been expected to do:  walk seldom, strike out a lot, but put some balls over the fence.  Traded to the California Angels in May of 1972, he did the same thing for two more seasons.  He stopped hitting home runs in 1974, however, and as that was his only real skill as a player his career quickly faded.  He was traded to Baltimore in September of that year, sold to the Yankees in December of 1974, and was released in mid-July of 1975 ending his major league career.  He kept trying to come back; he signed with the White Sox in January of 1976, was sold to Philadelphia in April of that year, went to Pittsburgh for 1977, and was back with the White Sox for 1978 before his playing career came to an end.  His career major league numbers are .256/.295/.400, with 94 home runs in 2,914 at-bats.  From 1969-1973, he averaged 17 homers per season.  He is the father of major league pitcher Darren Oliver.  He is currently the owner and operator of the Bob Oliver Baseball Academy in Rio Linda, California, a non-profit organization that seeks to empower our youth by teaching them the fundamentals of baseball and life skills which will help them achieve as students, athletes, and adults.  The academy also prides itself in helping athletes, and others, with diabetes and its related illnesses.