July 11

Pop Schriver (1865)
Jimmy Slagle (1873)
Milt Stock (1893)
Bob Allison (1934)
John Sevcik (1942)
Ed Ott (1951)
Donne Wall (1967)
Andy Ashby (1967)
Javier Lopez (1977)
Yorman Bazardo (1984)
Bryan Augenstein (1986)

Outfielder William Robert ”Bob” Allison played his entire career with the Washington/Minnesota franchise, beginning in 1958 and ending in 1970.  Born and raised in Raytown, Missouri, he attended the University of Kansas (where he starred in football as well as baseball) and signed with Washington as a free agent in 1955.  His minor league numbers were not all that impressive, although he did hit .307 in AA Chattanooga in 1958.  He got a September call-up that year and never went back to the minors again.  He was the starting center fielder for Washington in 1959, hit .261 with 30 homers, led the league in triples with nine, was Rookie of the Year and made his first all-star team.  He moved to right field in 1960, and while he did not match his numbers from his first year, he had another fine season.  He came to Minnesota with the team in 1961.  He stayed in right field through 1963, moved to first base in 1964, and moved to left field in 1965, where he stayed the rest of his career.  From 1961-1968 (excluding 1966, when he missed most of the season due to a broken left hand), he averaged .260 with 28 home runs, 21 doubles, and an OPS of .850.  He led the league in OPS in 1963 and made the all-star team in 1963-1964.  It shows the power of the Twins in those years that he was the second banana to Harmon Killebrew and then the third banana to Killebrew and Tony Oliva.  Allison fell to part-time status in 1969 and was largely a bench player in 1970.  For his career, Bob Allison hit   He chose to retire after the 1970 season.  He went to work for the Coca-Cola Company, becoming general manager of the company’s Twins Cities Marketing Division.  He suffered from ataxia, a neurological disorder, and passed away April 9, 1995 in Rio Verde, Arizona.  The Twins now give the Bob Allison award for the Twins player who best exemplifies determination, hustle, tenacity, competitive spirit, and leadership both on and off the field.

Catcher John Sevcik had sixteen at-bats for the Twins in 1965.  He was Oak Park, Illinois, went to high school in Berwyn, Illinois, and then attended the University of Missouri.  He played for the Sturgis (SD) Titans in the Basin League in 1963, and was signed by the Twins as a free agent in 1964.  He was in Class A at Wisconsin Rapids that season, did fairly well, and found himself as the third catcher on the Twins in 1965, backing up Earl Battey and Jerry Zimmerman.  He appears to have been with the team the whole season–at least, he did not play in the minors and was in at least one major league game almost every month–but he played very sparingly.   He appeared in one game in April, one in May, six in June, one in July, two in September, and one in October.  He made only three starts.  In his 12 games, he went 1-for-16 with a walk and a sacrifice.  His hit was a double.  Sevcik went back to the minors after that season, staying in the Twins’ organization through 1971.  He was a part-time player every season for them, averging 72 games and 232 at-bats.  His lifetime OPS in the minors was .683.  Sevcik’s playing career ended after the 1971 season.  For several years, John Sevcik was living in San Antonio and was an executive for the Jim Beam company.  He is now retired and living in Austin, Texas.

Right-hander Yorman Michael (Osario) Bazardo did not play for the Twins, but was in their farm system for the first part of 2011.  He was born in Maracay, Aragua, Venezuela, and signed with Florida as a free agent in 2000.  He pitched quite well in the low minors, but advanced slowly, probably due to his young age.  He reached AA in 2005, even getting one appearance in the majors in late May (1.2 innings 0f a blowout loss).  He was traded to Seattle at the trade deadline that season.  He did pretty well in AA for them in 2006, especially considering he was still only 21.    He was traded to Detroit that off-season.  He had a fine season in AAA in 2007 and made eleven very good appearances for the big club.  He started 2008 in the majors, but after only three appearances he was sent down.  He had a bad year in AAA and became a free agent, signing with Philadelphia.  The Phillies released him at the end of spring training, and he moved on to Houston. He did okay in AAA for the Astros and spent the last two months of 2009 in the major leagues.  It looks like that will be his major league swan song, though.    He was again a free agent after the season and signed with Minnesota for 2011.  He went to Rochester, didn’t do much, and was released in mid-June.  He finished the season pitching for Camden in the Atlantic League.  He did not play in 2012, at least as far as b-r.com is concerned, but he has continued to play in Caribbean winter leagues and is playing in Italy in 2013.  In his big league career so far, he appeared in 25 games (eight starts), going 3-4, 6.86, 1.69 WHIP in 60.1 innings.  He is 29 today and is pitching very well in Italy.  It seems really unlikely that he'll ever return to the majors, but stranger things have probably happened.

Right-hander Bryan Christopher Augenstein did not play for the Twins, but was in their minor league system for two months in 2013.  Born and raised in Sebastian, Florida, he attended the University of Florida, and was drafted by Arizona in the seventh round in 2007.  He pitched very well in the low minors, but struggled when promoted to AAA in 2009.  Despite that, he made two starts for the Diamondbacks in May and got a September call-up, making five appearances out of the bullpen.  He struggled in AAA again in 2010 and was placed on waivers by Arizona after the season.  St. Louis claimed him and surprisingly, he made the Cardinals out of spring training.  Unsurprisingly, he did not do well in five appearances, although one really bad appearance makes his numbers look worse than they would have been otherwise.  He did better in AAA in 2011, but was not really good, and was released after the season.  Tampa Bay signed him and sent him to AAA again for 2012.  He actually had a fairly good season working out of the bullpen (he had been converted to relief in 2011), but did not get called up and was released by the Rays after the season.  Minnesota signed him for 2013, but he was injured, did not pitch for any of the Twins affiliates, and was released at the end of May.  He has not been picked up by anyone at this writing.  In his major league career, he was 0-2, 8.34, 1.90 WHIP in 22.2 innings.  He pitched in twelve major league games, which is twelve more than most people reading this have pitched in, starting two of them.  He's only twenty-seven, so he certainly could get picked up by somebody if he can show he's healthy, and if he does, who knows?  Maybe he'll get another shot at the big leagues.