November 11

Joe Battin (1853)

Freddy Parent (1875)
Rabbit Maranville (1891)
Al Schacht (1892)
Pie Traynor (1898)
Hal Trosky (1912)
George Case (1915)
Ike Delock (1929)
Ron Musselman (1954)
John Hobbs (1955)
Cory Snyder (1962)
Roberto Hernandez (1964)
Damion Easley (1969)
Jason Grilli (1976)

Sadly, Joe Battin wasn't much good at battin'.  An infielder, he batted .225/.241/.281.  His career spanned ten seasons, though, so I assume he was really good at fieldin'.

Al Schacht played in the majors for three years, but was better known as "The Clown Prince of Baseball".

On this Veterans' Day, we would like to thank all current and former members of the military for their service.

Outfielder George Washington Case did not play for the Twins, but he was their first base coach in 1968.  He was born in Trenton, New Jersey, went to high school in Hightstown, New Jersey, and began his professional career with York/Trenton in the NYP League in 1936.  He batted .332 in 113 games there in 1937 and in September was a starting out fielder for Washington.  He showed he belonged twenty-two games he batted .289/.312/.400.  He was still just twenty-one, but he would not go back to the minors.  He was a starting outfielder for Washington through 1945, seeing more time in left than anywhere else but getting a substantial number of games at all three outfield positions.  He batted over .300 three times and over .290 two more times.  He was not a home run hitter--his season high was five, in 1940 and 1942--but he did average twenty-five doubles in those years.  He also drew around fifty walks a season and averaged over forty stolen bases, with a high of sixty-one in 1943 (he led the league in stolen bases five times while with Washington).  He made three all-star teams.  He didn't seem to have declined much through 1945, but he had some shoulder problems, and so was traded to Cleveland before the 1946 season.  He led the league in stolen bases for a sixth time but otherwise had a poor year, batting just .225 with an OPS of .576.  He was traded back to Washington for 1947, but was injured much of the season, did not do much when he did play, and retired after that.  He coached at Rutgers University from 1950-1960, was a coach for Washington from 1961-1963, managed in the Pacific Coast League for a couple of years, and was the Twins' first base coach in 1968.  He also worked as a minor league instructor for the Yankees and Seattle.  George Case passed away on January 23, 1989, in his home town of Trenton, New Jersey.

Right-hander Ralph Ronald Musselman did not play for the Twins, but was in their farm system for a couple of months in 1987.  Born and raised in Wilmington, North Carolina, he attended Clemson and was drafted by Seattle in the fifth round in 1977.  He had apparently been rather highly regarded, as he has been drafted twice previously.  He struggled early in his career, spending three years in class A and not having much success until his third season there, when he became mostly a relief pitcher.  He started to climb after that, getting to AAA in 1981.  After a solid year in the Salt Lake City bullpen in 1982, Musselman made his major league debut for Seattle in August and was not awful for the last month and a half of the season.  After that season, however, he was traded to Texas for Pat Putnam.  He moved back to starting for AAA Oklahoma City, but was unsuccessful.  He went back to the bullpen in 1984 and pitched better, but was sold to Toronto in early June.  He appeared in 36 games for the Blue Jays over the next two seasons and again was not awful.  He was a free agent after the 1985 season, signed with Cleveland, was released in spring training, signed back with Toronto, and was back in the minors for 1986.  He had his best year in the minors for Syracuse that season, making 20 starts and 13 relief appearances, but by then he was 31 and no longer a prospect.  A free agent again after the season, the Twins signed Musselman for 1987 and sent him to AAA Portland.  He was pretty awful there, going 3-10, 6.62 in 14 appearances, 10 of them starts.  The Twins sent him to the Orioles in mid-June as the player to be named later in a deal that netted the Twins Ricky Jones.  He did fairly well in AAA Rochester, but did not make it back to the majors and ended his playing career after the season.  As a big leaguer, he was 4-2, 3.73, 1.51 WHIP in 89.1 innings.  He appeared in 48 games, 4 of them starts.  After leaving baseball, he returned to Wilmington and went into the landscaping business.  More recently, he is pursuing a career as a realtor in the Wilmington area.  He is the father of professional golfer Lucas Glover, but divorced Glover's mother many years ago and has had little contact with Glover since.

Left-hander John Douglas Hobbs appeared in four games for the Twins in 1981.  He was born in Philadelphia, went to Lynchburg College, one of two big leaguers the school has produced (Lefty Thomas).  He was drafted by Seattle in the seventh round in 1978.  He spent six seasons in the minors, and frankly, it’s hard to see why, as he never had much success above low Class A.  He did strike out a lot of guys, though.  After nearly two high-A seasons in which he went 18-16, 4.91, 1.74 WHIP, he was promoted to AA for the first time in 1980.  His combined numbers for the 1980 season were 9-14, 4.39, 1.50 WHIP, and he was unsurprisingly left unprotected in the Rule 5 draft.  The Twins saw that he struck out 124 batters in 160 innings, and saw that they were desperate for pitchers, so they drafted him.  He was in AAA Orlando most of the year and went 11-7, although with a 4.08 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP.  That was good enough for the Twins to bring him up to the majors and give him four appearances.  In 5.2 innings, he went 0-0, 3.18, 1.94 WHIP, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and 6 walks.  Those are his career numbers, as he never got back to the big leagues.  He spent two more undistinguished seasons in Orlando, then his playing career came to an end after the 1983 campaign.  After leaving baseball he was employed by Univision, starting as a regional sales representative and eventually becoming head of the Dallas sales office.  He then joined the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation in 1999 and oversaw its growth from 37 to 72 stations.  It merged with Univision in 2003 to become Univision Radio and Hobbs came with them, become executive vice president/director of corporate sales.  He joined the Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) in March of 2013 as executive vice president of corporate sales, staying there through 2015.  At last report, he was the president of reVOLVER podcasts, a "premier bilingual podcast and video streaming platform that targets a fast growing Latino audience."