William Hulbert (1832)
Mike Sullivan (1866)
Lena Blackburne (1886)
Rube Bressler (1894)
Billy Sullivan (1910)
Vern Stephens (1920)
Ewell Blackwell (1922)
Jim Bunning (1931)
Greg Thayer (1949)
John Castino (1954)
Dwight Lowry (1957)
Al Leiter (1965)
Todd Sears (1975)
David Riske (1976)
John Lackey (1978)
Bud Smith (1979)
Kyle Gibson (1987)
Mike Sullivan (1866)
Lena Blackburne (1886)
Rube Bressler (1894)
Billy Sullivan (1910)
Vern Stephens (1920)
Ewell Blackwell (1922)
Jim Bunning (1931)
Greg Thayer (1949)
John Castino (1954)
Dwight Lowry (1957)
Al Leiter (1965)
Todd Sears (1975)
David Riske (1976)
John Lackey (1978)
Bud Smith (1979)
Kyle Gibson (1987)
William Hulbert was one of the founders of the National League
and was its president from 1877 until his death in 1882.
Infielder Lena Blackburne discovered and marketed the mud from
the driver beds near the Delaware River in New Jersey that has been rubbed on
every major league baseball used since the 1950s.
Right-hander Gregory Allen
Thayer played for the Twins in 1978.. Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he went to
high school in St. Cloud, Minnesota, attended St. Cloud State, and was drafted
by the Giants in the 32nd round in 1971. He was small for a professional
pitcher, standing 5' 11" and weighing 182 pounds. Thayer spent two years
in the low minors for San Francisco, pitching neither well nor terribly, but
was released in April of 1973. He was out of baseball that season, but the
Twins signed him in September. Thayer was in AA Orlando most of the next four
seasons, compiling an ERA of around 3.00. For some of that time, his
roommate was Terry Ryan. He was only promoted above AA once in that span, in
1975, when he pitched 39 innings for AAA Tacoma. One suspects the main reason
for that was control problems; he averaged about 5 walks per nine innings.
Thayer made the Twins at the start of the 1978 season, pitching in a middle
relief/mopup role. He did about as well as you would expect someone in that
role to pitch, but still walked too many batters: he was 1-1 with a 3.80 ERA in
20 appearances, giving up less than a hit per inning but walking 30 in 45
innings. He was sent back to the minors in late June. Thayer was in AAA Toledo
through 1979, but continued walking people. He moved on to the Toronto
organization in 1980, but his professional career was over after that. He did
not give up baseball, however. In 1992, he pitched for the Sartell Muskies
amateur team, helping them win the Class C state championship. He makes regular
appearances at an annual Minnesota Twins alumni game hosted by the St. Cloud
River Bats and at last report was a coach for the Sauk Rapids legion baseball
team.
Infielder John Anthony Castino played for the Twins from
1979-1984. He was born in Evanston, Illinois and went to high school in
Winnetka, Illinois. He then attended Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.
He was drafted by the Twins in the third round in 1976. In 1977, he hit .326
with 17 home runs at Class A Visalia. He continued to hit well the next year at
AA Orlando, and was installed as the regular third baseman for the Twins in
1979. Castino hit .285 that year and shared the Rookie of the Year award with
Alfredo Griffin. He hit .302 in 1980, but then began to decline, due partly to
back problems. A move to second base in 1982 probably did not help matters,
either. He bounced back with a solid 1983 campaign, hitting .277 with 11
homers, but after that his injuries became too much for him. He played eight
games in 1984, and then his career was over. In just over five seasons, John
Castino hit .277/.329/.398 for the Twins. After leaving baseball, he got an MBA
from the University of St. Thomas and was the senior vice president of Wealth
Enhancement Group, a Minneapolis-based financial planning and advisory services
firm, until his retirement in 2013. Upon retiring, he moved to New Smyrna
Beach, Florida.
Catcher Dwight Lowry had seven at-bats for the Twins in 1988. He
was born in Lumberton, North Carolina and attended the University of North
Carolina. He was drafted by the Tigers in the 11th round in 1980. He did not
hit well in the minors; his best year was 1982, when he hit .277 in his second
year at Class A Lakeland. He reached AA in 1983 and AAA in 1984, He was in the
majors part of that year, serving as Lance Parrish's backup in April, May, and
September for Detroit's World Championship team. Lowry was back in the minors
in 1985, but spent most of 1986 with the Tigers, again as the backup catcher.
He played sparingly in both AAA and the majors in 1987, but then was released
by the Tigers. He actually had played about as well as you could expect a
backup catcher to play: a .282 average with 5 homers in 220 at-bats. The Twins
signed Lowry in October of 1987. He was with them coming out of spring training
in 1988, but after going 0-for-7 was sent to the minors in late April, never to
return. Out of baseball in 1989, Lowry came back in 1990, hitting .310 in 187
at-bats for the Expos' AAA team in Louisville. When that did him no good,
however, he turned to coaching and managing in the Tigers' organization. He was
the Tigers' Player Development Man of the Year in 1996. Sadly, while managing
the Jamestown Jammers in 1997, Dwight Lowry died of a heart attack on July 10
at the age of 39. The Tigers named their player development award the Dwight
Lowry award. Dwight Lowry was inducted into the South Atlantic League Hall of
Fame in 1998.
First baseman Todd Andrew Sears played for the Twins in
2002-2003. He was born in Des Moines, went to high school in Ankeny, Iowa, and
then attended the University of Nebraska. He was drafted by the Rockies in the
third round in 1977. He spent three years in Class A, putting up solid and
steadily increasing numbers. He started 2000 in AA, and was traded in July to
Minnesota for Butch Huskey and Todd Walker. He was promoted to AAA Edmonton in
2001, and hit over .300 there for two consecutive years. He also hit 33 home
runs in that span, and got a September call-up to the Twins in 2002. He had two
stints with the Twins in 2003, totalling about a month and a half, and was with
Rochester the rest of the year. In September, Sears was traded to the Padres
for Alex Garcia. He spent the rest of the season in San Diego, but would never
play in the majors again. He was with the Padres' organization in 2004, went to
the Marlins for 2005, started 2006 with the Mariners, was released in June, and
went back to the Marlins for the rest of 2006 and all of 2007 before finally
calling it a career. As a Twin, Todd Sears hit .260/.326/.390, with two home
runs and 11 runs batted in. Sears went back to college after his pro career
ended, receiving a degree in business administration from the University of
Nebraska in August of 2009. At last report, he was the owner and operations
manager of Complete Game Baseball, a baseball instructional school in the
Kansas City area.
Left-hander Robert Allan “Bud” Smith did not play for the Twins,
but made three appearances at AAA Rochester in 2005. He was born in Torrance,
California, went to high school in Bellflower, California, attended Los Angeles
Harbor Community College, and was drafted by St. Louis in the fourth round in
1998. He pitched very well in the minors and advanced rapidly, reaching the
majors in June of 2001 at age 21. He made sixteen appearances for the
Cardinals, fourteen of them starts, and went 6-3, 3.83 with a 1.22 WHIP and a
no-hitter. He finished fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting, and big things
were expected. They didn’t happen. He developed shoulder problems. Smith
underwent various surgeries over the years to repair the damage, but nothing
really worked. He started 2002 in the Cardinals’ rotation and went 1-5, 6.94.
He was sent to the minors and traded to Philadelphia in late July. He never got
back to the big leagues. The shoulder continued to bother him; he stayed in the
Phillies’ organization through 2004, but appeared in only 21 games. The
Phillies let him go, and Smith signed with Minnesota as a free agent for 2005.
He made three relief appearances in Rochester, going 1-0, 4.76 in 5.2 innings.
He played for Long Beach in the Golden Baseball League in 2006-2007, then his
playing career ended. At last report, Bud Smith was a pitching instructor at
ProKids Baseball Academy in San Juan Capistrano, California, where he works
with ex-Twin Mike Lamb.
Right-hander Kyle Benjamin Gibson made ten starts for the Twins
in 2013. Born and raised in Greenfield, Indiana, he attended the
University of Missouri and was drafted in the first round by Minnesota in 2009.
He pitched well at three different spots in 2010, struggled when promoted
to AAA in 2011, then underwent Tommy John surgery. He made thirteen
appearances in 2012, most of them rehab appearances in the low minors. He
pitched very well for Rochester in 2013, going 7-5, 2.92, 1.16 WHIP. He
was promoted to Minnesota for about two months, and that did not go so well.
He began 2014 in the Twins' rotation, however, and was a solid
contributor there in 2014-2015. In 2016, however, he was part of the
total system failure: he went 6-11, 5.07, 1.56 WHIP in a season in which
he missed a month due to injury. So far in his career he is 32-38, 4.59,
1.41 WHIP. It seems like he's a young player, but in fact he turns twenty-nine
today. If he's going to take a step forward, he'd better do it pretty
soon.
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