August 11

Danny Murphy (1876)
Bobo Newsom (1907)
Bob Scheffing (1913)
Bill Monboquette (1936)
Vada Pinson (1938)
Sal Campisi (1942)
Jim Hughes (1951)
Dennis Lewallyn (1953)
Bryn Smith (1955)
Melky Cabrera (1984)
Pablo Sandoval (1986)

I don't have a year, but it appears that August 11 is also the birthday of Walter McNeil, better known as Wally the Beer Man.

Right-handed reliever Salvatore John Campisi appeared in six games for the Twins in 1971.  Born and raised in Brooklyn, he attended Long Island University, where he had led the nation in ERA at 0.27, and was signed as a free agent by the St. Louis in 1964. He pitched well in the minors, regularly posting ERAs under three, but made a rather slow rise.  He spent a year in rookie ball and two years in A ball before finally getting to AA in 1967 and AAA in 1968.  Campisi was a starter in rookie ball but was primarily a reliever after that.  He made his major-league debut with the Cardinals in 1969 and spent almost all of 1970 with them. Control trouble, which was never a problem in the minors, plagued him in the majors, as he walked over six per nine innings with St. Louis. In the off-season, the Cardinals traded Campisi to the Twins with Jim Kennedy for Charlie Wissler and Herman Hill. He made the team out of spring training, but he pitched only 4.1 innings in six games with Minnesota, with no win-loss record and a 4.15 ERA, before being sent down to AAA. He was let go after that season, and his playing career came to an end.  He walked only 2.5 batters per nine innings in 718 minor league innings, but averaged 6.7 in 63.1 major league innings. Sal Campisi was inducted into the Long Island University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.  At last report, it appeared that Sal Campisi was living in Lakeland, Florida.

Right-handed palm ball specialist James Michael Hughes pitched for the Twins from 1974-1977.  He was born in Los Angeles, went to high school in Playa del Rey, California, and was drafted by Minnesota in the thirty-third round in 1969.  He had poor control early in his minor league career, a problem which got better as he went up the minor league ladder.  Unfortunately, he became easier to hit at higher levels as well, so that he regularly posted WHIPs around 1.5 with the exception of 1972, when he had his best year as a minor leaguer, going 13-9, 2.58, 1.17 WHIP for Class A Lynchburg.  In 1974, he went 10-12, 4.83, 1.43 WHIP, which was deemed good enough for a September call-up.  He spent the next two years in the Twins’ rotation.  By far the better year was 1975, when he went 16-14, 3.82 in 249.1 innings with 12 complete games, although also with a WHIP of 1.47.  His WHIP was about the same in 1976, but he went 9-14, 4.98.  He began 1977 in the Twins’ bullpen, but was sent to AAA after only two appearances, never to return.  He had a poor year in Tacoma and was released after the season.  Hughes signed with the White Sox for 1978 but was released in late March.  He signed with Texas a few days later, but made only eight AAA appearances with them.  He was in AAA for the Dodgers in 1979, posting an ERA of 3.00 but a WHIP of 1.61 in 36 innings.  His playing career came to an end after that.  There are lots and lots of people named “Jim Hughes”; many of them are even involved in baseball in one way or another.  No information about what happened to “our” Jim Hughes after he left baseball was readily available.