May 24

Fred Jacklitsch (1876)

Jack Pfiester (1878)

Joe Oeschger (1892)

Willy Miranda (1926)

Ellie Rodriguez (1946)

Rob Ducey (1965)

Carlos Hernandez (1967)

Todd Rizzo (1971)

Danny Bautista (1972)

Bartolo Colon (1973)

Brad Penny (1978)

Infielder Guillermo (Perez) “Willy” Miranda did not play for the Twins, but was in their minor league system in 1961 at the end of his career.  He was born in Velasco, Cuba and signed with Washington as a free agent in 1948.  He was in the Washington farm system through 1951, spending three of those four seasons at AA Chattanooga.  He did not hit much, averaging around .240, but got about six weeks in the majors as a reserve in 1951, going 4-for-9 in sparing use.  He made the big leagues for good in 1952, although he moved around for a while.  Washington traded him to the White Sox after the 1951 season, the White Sox traded him to the Browns in mid-June, the Browns put him on waivers two weeks later and he was selected by the White Sox again, he was traded back to the Browns after the 1952 season, he was sold to the Yankees in mid-June of 1953, and he was traded to the former Browns, now the Baltimore Orioles, after the 1954 season (the latter trade involved seventeen players, the largest swap between two teams in baseball history).  He was a reserve in those years, known as a slick fielder, as tremendous with the glove as he was awful with the bat (many contemporaries proclaimed him the best-fielding shortstop they’d ever seen, while at the plate one manager said that “his weakness is pitched balls.”)  The Orioles made him their regular shortstop in 1955, and he responded with his best offensive season.  He still only hit .255 with no power, but it was enough for him to retain the shortstop job in 1956.  He dropped to .217 that year, however, and his days as a regular were over.  He stayed with the Orioles as a reserve through the 1959 season, but was traded to the Dodgers in mid-March of 1960.  He spent the season in AAA and then found his way to the Minnesota system, playing at AAA Syracuse in 1961.  He hit pretty much as he always had, majors or minors:  .230/.307/.295 in 278 at-bats.  That brought his playing career to an end.  For his major league career, Willy Miranda hit .221/.282/.271 in 1,914 at-bats over nine seasons.  After his career ended, Miranda moved back to Baltimore.  Willy Miranda passed away from lung cancer on September 7, 1966.

Left-hander Todd Michael Rizzo did not play for the Twins, but was in their farm system in 2000.  He was born in Media, Pennsylvania, went to high school in Concordville, Pennsylvania, and signed with the Dodgers as a free agent in 1992.  He pitched in A ball for them that season, but did not do much and was released in June of 1993.  He pitched in the Texas-Louisiana League in 1994 and caught the attention of the White Sox, who signed him for the 1995 season.  Used exclusively in relief, he climbed the ladder at a pace of a level a season, posting good ERAs with high WHIPs.  He was in AAA in 1997 and started 1998 in the majors.  The Sox appear to have tried to use him as a LOOGY, but in a small sample size left-handers absolutely murdered him (11-for-19) while he did okay against righties (5-for-20).  He went 0-0, 13.50 in 6.2 innings spread over nine appearances, which sounds worse than it was as all the runs scored on him came in three of the nine outings.  Still, he was back in the minors by the end of April.  He stayed there most of the rest of his career, getting one more brief shot at the majors for a week in July of 1999 with similar results.  He became a free agent after the season and signed with Minnesota.  Rizzo was with AAA Salt Lake all of the 2000 season, going 6-4, 3.39, 1.44 WHIP in 72.1 innings (62 appearances).  He moved on after the season, pitching in the Dodgers’ and Giants’ organizations in 2001 and then playing for Camden in the independent Atlantic League from 2002-2006 with the exception of a stint in the Baltimore system in 2003.  At last report, Todd Rizzo was an instructor for The Hit Doctor in the Philadelphia area.  He's also still pitching, as he led Wayne to the finals of the Delco Baseball League, an amateur baseball league in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.