December 11

Old Hoss Radbourn (1854)

Art Wilson (1885)

Fred Toney (1888)

Swish Nicholson (1914)

Hal Brown (1924)

Lee Maye (1934)

Mike Henneman (1961)

Thomas Howard (1964)

Jay Bell (1965)

Derek Bell (1968)

Frankie Rodriguez (1972)

Joe Blanton (1980)

Infielder Jay Stuart Bell did not play for the Twins, but was drafted by them. Born on Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, he attended high school in Pensacola, and was drafted by Minnesota with the eighth pick of the 1984 draft. He was not in the Twins' system long--on August 1, 1985, he was traded to Cleveland with Richard Yett, Curt Wardle, and Jim Weaver for Bert Blyleven. His minor league numbers were okay, but nothing to get terribly excited about; his best year in the minors was probably 1987, when he hit .260 with 17 homers. Bell got a September call-up in 1986 and spent parts of 1987 and 1988 in Cleveland, but was not particularly impressive. One has to remember his age, however; in 1988 he was still only 22 years old. In March of 1989, Bell was traded to Pittsburgh. He was a part-time player in 1989, but became the regular shortstop in 1990. Bell would remain a big-league regular for the next twelve years. He really first rose to prominence in 1991, when he hit .270 with 16 homers and finished 12th in MVP voting. He made his first all-star team in 1993, when he hit .300 for the only time in his career. He also won a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger award that season. Bell remained in Pittsburgh through 1996, was traded to Kansas City for 1997, and signed with Arizona as a free agent for 1998. In 1999, he made the all-star team again and finished 13th in MVP voting. He started to slip in 2001, and battled injuries much of 2002. Bell signed with the Mets for 2003, finishing up his career that season as a reserve infielder/pinch-hitter. Bell was known as an excellent fielder and a superb bunter, twice leading the league in sacrifice bunts. Bell was a coach for Arizona through 2006, but then retired to spend more time with his family.  Eventually, however, he must have decided he had spent enough time with them, because in 2011 and 2012 he was the batting coach of the AA Mobile BayBears.  In 2013 he was the batting coach of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and in 2014 will be the bench coach for the Cincinnati Reds.  He is also on the advisory board of Baseball Assistance Team, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping major league, minor league, and Negro league players through financial and medical difficulties.

Pitcher Francisco “Frankie” Rodriguez spent the bulk of his major league career with Minnesota. He was born in Brooklyn and went to high school there. He was drafted by Boston in the second round in 1990, but did not sign until June of 1991, instead attending junior college.  While there, he was named College Player of the Year by Baseball America. Rodriguez was drafted as a shortstop, but after one season in Class A Elmira, in which he hit .271, he was converted to pitching. He advanced one level per season, reaching the big leagues in 1995. He pitched only nine games for the Red Sox, though, because in July he and J. J. Johnson were traded to Minnesota for Rick Aguilera. Rodriguez was immediately inserted into the starting rotation. He won 13 games in 1996, which got some people excited, but his ERA was 5.05 and his WHIP was 1.43. Still, he was 23, and the thought was that he would only get better. It didn't work out that way. He struggled in 10 starts in 1997 and was sent to the bullpen. He actually did pretty well as a reliever, posting a 2.88 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP in that role. He could not repeat that success in 1998. He did poorly both as a starter and a reliever, and was sent back to AAA Salt Lake for half the year. Rodriguez started 1999 in Salt Lake, but did poorly in nine starts and was placed on waivers in late May. Seattle selected him and he finished 1999 with the Mariners. He remained in Seattle for most of 2000, but did not pitch well and was released after the season. Rodriguez got a last shot with Cincinnati in 2001 and did well in the Louisville bullpen. He spent about three weeks with the Reds that year; his numbers look awful, but are skewed by two bad outings. Still, Cincinnati released him after the season. Rodriguez made a brief comeback with the independent Newark Bears in 2008, pitching for them for about a month, but then was done for good. As a Twin, Frankie Rodriguez was 25-32 with a 5.20 ERA. He appeared in 117 games, 75 of them starts. He is currently living in the New York City area.  He is an instructor with ProSwingNY, is a baseball program director at the Williamsburg Community Center, and coaches youth baseball.