Jack Ryan (1868)
Moonlight Graham (1877)
Carl Mays (1891)
Joe Hoerner (1936)
Bruce Bochte (1950)
Jody Davis (1956)
Donnie Hill (1960)
Greg Gagne (1961)
Jeff Reed (1962)
Randy Knorr (1968)
Sammy Sosa (1968)
Aaron Heilman (1978)
Moonlight Graham (1877)
Carl Mays (1891)
Joe Hoerner (1936)
Bruce Bochte (1950)
Jody Davis (1956)
Donnie Hill (1960)
Greg Gagne (1961)
Jeff Reed (1962)
Randy Knorr (1968)
Sammy Sosa (1968)
Aaron Heilman (1978)
Aaron Heilman was drafted by Minnesota in the first round in
2000, but did not sign.
Infielder Donald Earl Hill
played in twenty-five games for the Twins in 1992. Born in Pomona, California,
he attended Arizona State and was drafted by Oakland with the first pick in the
secondary phase of the 1981 draft. He started slowly, but in 1983 he hit .314
with fourteen homers in a half-season at AAA, earning a trip to the majors.
Hill was the starting shortstop for the Athletics for the last couple months of
1983, batting .266. Given the starting job in 1984, he hit .180 in April and
found himself back in AAA. Brought back in July as a reserve, he did better,
but still only hit .230 for the season. He bounced back to have good years at the
bat in 1985 and 1986, hitting in the .280s, although with few walks and little
power. In December of 1986, he was traded to the White Sox, and his career went
down hill after that. He went from a semi-regular in 1987 to a part-time player
in 1988 to being released in 1989 spring training. Oakland signed him, sent him
to AAA, and released him in August. He signed with the Angels in January of
1990, and was there for two years as a reserve infielder. A free agent after
the 1991 season, Hill came to the Twins. He spent the first half of 1992 in
Minnesota and did a good job at the plate, hitting .294, although in only 51
at-bats. He was released in July, and was not picked up by anyone. At last
report, Donnie Hill was a golf instructor at Strawberry Farms Golf Course, a
course developed by former major leaguer Doug DeCinces in Orange County,
California.
Gregory Carpenter Gagne was the shortstop for the Twins in their
World Championship years. Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, he attended
Somerset High School in Somerset, Massachusetts, and was drafted by the Yankees
in the fifth round in 1979. He started slowly, but had a solid year in 1981 at
Class A Greensboro, hitting .297 with a .445 slugging percentage. In April of
1982, Gagne was traded along with Paul Boris and Ron Davis to the Twins for Roy
Smalley. He got cups of coffee with the Twins in 1983 and 1984, was the
semi-regular shortstop in 1985 (sharing the position with Alvaro Espinoza and
the returned Smalley) and became the regular in 1986. A solid defensive player,
he could be counted on to hit somewhere around .250 with about ten home runs
every season. A free agent after the 1992 season, Gagne signed with Kansas
City, where he played for three years. His best season came in 1993, when he
hit .280 with 10 homers and finished 22nd in the MVP voting. A free agent after
the 1995 campaign, he signed with the Dodgers and played for them for two more
years, retiring after the 1997 season. As a Twin, Greg Gagne batted
.249/.292/.385 with an OPS+ of 83; oddly, his OPS+ for each of the teams he
played for was 83. Gagne tied a major league record by hitting two
inside-the-park homers in one game on October 4, 1986. After his retirement,
Gagne moved back to Somerset. He was the head baseball coach for Bishop
Feehan High School in Attleboro, Massachusetts for eleven years. His
biography in wikipedia says he is "revered" by Twins fans, which is
probably overstating it, but he is remembered fondly. Gagne was inducted
into the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame in September of 2010.
Catcher Jeffrey Scott Reed played for the Twins from 1984-1986,
at the beginning of a career that stretched for parts of seventeen seasons.
Born and raised in Joliet, Illinois, Reed was taken by Minnesota with the 12th
pick of the 1980 draft. He had a big year in Class A Visalia in 1982, hitting
.329. He was never able to repeat that success, but got big-league cups of
coffee in 1984 and 1985 and was the Twins' backup catcher in 1986. In February
of 1987, Reed was traded with Al Cardwood, Neal Heaton, and Yorkis Perez to
Montreal for Tom Nieto and Jeff Reardon. He was the Expos' backup catcher for a
year and a half, and then was traded to Cincinnati. Reed was a part-time player
for Cincinnati through 1991, doing a solid job for the Reds. He was injured for
most of 1992, and was a free agent after the season. Signing with San
Francisco, Reed was the Giants' backup catcher through 1995. A free agent again
after that season, he moved on to Colorado, where Reed enjoyed his best
seasons. In his three and a half years with the Rockies, Reed hit .286 as a
part-time catcher, hitting 36 home runs. He slipped to .255 in 1999, however,
and was released in July. He caught on with the Cubs, finished the season
there, and played for them again in 2000, but hit only .214 in a reserve role.
He went to spring training with the Cubs in 2001, but did not make the team.
Reed played with the Phillies' AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre that year. Scranton is
apparently the home of the Jeff Reed fan club, founded in 1988 by a young fan
who was looking for an alternative hero to the more popular players of the day,
much like a young Jeff A once chose Sal Butera as his favorite player. Reed
remains extremely popular in Scranton. As a Twin, Jeff Reed hit .224/.293/.311
for an OPS+ of 64. For his career, though, he spent parts of seventeen years in
the big leagues, and there aren't too many people who can say that. Since 2002,
Jeff Reed has been batting coach coach for the Elizabethton Twins.
No comments:
Post a Comment