June 11

Roger Bresnahan (1879)

Ernie Nevers (1902)

Dan Topping (1912)

Frank Thomas (1929)

Jimmy Stewart (1939)
Danny Morris (1946)
Dave Cash (1948)
Tom Austin (1951)
Mike Fuentes (1958)
Brian Gorman (1959)
Mike Davis (1959)
Odalis Perez (1978)
Bobby Keppel (1982)
Jose Reyes (1983)

Football great Ernie Nevers, born in Willow River, Minnesota, pitched for the St. Louis Browns for parts of three seasons (1926-1928).

Dan Topping was part-owner of the New York Yankees from 1945-1966.

Tom Austin is a long-time college baseball coach.

Outfielder Mike Fuentes was drafted by Minnesota in the fifth round in 1980, but did not sign.

Brian Gorman has been a major league umpire since 1993.

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to UncleWalt.

Right-hander Danny Walker Morris pitched a total of six games for the Twins from 1968-1969.  Born in Greenville, Kentucky, Morris signed with the Twins as a free agent in 1964.  He had an excellent year in Class A Wisconsin Rapids in 1965, going 16-8, 2.16 with a WHIP of 1.00 in 225 innings.  He struggled for a while as he went up the minor league ladder, but had a good year in 1968 at AAA Denver, going 16-15 with a 3.94 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP.  He got a September call-up that year and did well in limited duty, posting a 1.69 ERA in 10.2 innings.  That was as good as it would get for Morris, however.  He was with the Twins for about three weeks in June of 1969, but did not pitch well there or at Denver that season.  He continued to struggle at AAA in 1970 in Evansville and 1971 in Portland.  He had a good year at AA in 1972, but again had trouble in eight AAA appearances.  He never went to another organization, and his playing career came to an end after the 1972 season.  As a Twin, Danny Morris was 0-2, 2.81 in 16 innings.  He appeared in six games, three of them starts.  As you might guess, this world contains lots of people named Danny Morris; however, no information about “our” Danny Morris was readily available.

Right-hander Robert Griffin Keppel pitched for the Twins for a little over half of  2009.  Born in St. Louis, he was drafted by the Mets in the first round in 2000.  He was a starting pitcher most of his minor league career.  He appears to have battled injuries much of the time, as his games and innings pitched numbers make it appear that he may have missed at least a little time nearly every season.  His effectiveness went up and down; Keppel’s best year was probably 2003, when he went 9-4, 2.97 with a WHIP of 1.20 in 109 innings.  He was released by the Mets in May of 2005 despite the fact that he had made five pretty good starts at AAA Norfolk.  He was out of baseball the rest of the season, signing with Kansas City the next February.  Keppel made eight appearances (six starts) with the Royals in 2006, but did not pitch well either there or at AAA and became a free agent after the season.  He signed with Colorado for 2007 and made four relief appearances for the Rockies in April, but again had a poor year both there and at AAA.  He moved on to the Marlins organization for 2008, again pitched poorly, and signed with Minnesota for 2009.  In Rochester, he had his first good season in some time, going 3-3, 2.49 with a 1.15 WHIP in 55.2 innings before being called up to the Twins in late June.  He stayed the rest of the season, going 1-1, 4.83 with a 1.56 WHIP in 54 innings.  He made 37 appearances, all in relief.  The Twins released him in January of last year.  He signed with the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan in 2010, had a couple of fine seasons there, missed most of 2012 due to injury, then made eight mostly poor starts for Nippon Ham in 2013.  He came back to the United States, signed a minor league contract with Cincinnati for 2014, but apparently did not make the team, as he did not pitch anywhere in 2014 and does not appear to be pitching anywhere this year.  He does some volunteer work with LifeTeen, a Catholic youth ministry program.  He and his wife have recently started publishing a magazine, "The Nines", which is a men's lifestyle publication.