May 3

George Gore (1857)

Garry Herrmann (1859)
Eppa Rixey (1891)
Red Ruffing (1905)
Goose Tatum (1921)
Chuck Hinton (1934)
Chris Cannizzaro (1938)
Davey Lopes (1945)
Dan Iassogna (1969)
Darren Dreifort (1972)
Ryan Dempster (1977)
Homer Bailey (1986)
Ben Revere (1988)
Mike Morin (1991)

Garry Herrmann was the president of the Cincinnati Reds from 1903-1920 and was chair of the National Commission from its creation in 1903 until the commissioner's office was created in 1920.  It is puzzling that he is not in the Hall of Fame.

Better known as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters, Goose Tatum played in the Negro Leagues for several years in the 1940s.

Dan Iassogna has been a major league umpire since 1999.

Outfielder Ben Daniel Revere played for the Twins from 2010-2012.  He was born in Atlanta, went to high school in Lexington, Kentucky, and was drafted by Minnesota in the first round in 2007.  He mostly rose one level at a time, playing in rookie ball in 2007, Class A in 2008, advanced A in 2009, AA in 2010, and AAA in 2011 before being called up to the big club because of injuries. He hit over .300 each minor league season, with a high of .379 in Beloit in 2008.  He hit ten triples in each of his first two seasons in the minors, but only hit four in each of the next two seasons.  He had little power and did not draw a lot of walks in the minors (his high was 40 in 2009).  He does have speed, stealing around forty bases a year in the minors.  He wasn’t terrible with Minnesota in 2011, but he wasn’t very good, either, hitting .267/.310/.309.  He started 2012 in Minnesota as a fourth outfielder, but was sent back to Rochester for about a month, then came back and was a regular most of the season.  After the 2012 season, he was traded to Philadelphia for Trevor May and Vance Worley.  As a Twin, he hit .278/.319/.323 with 74 stolen bases in 254 games.  Installed as the regular center fielder for the Phillies, he was hitting .305 in mid-July of 2013 when an injury ended his season.  He was back as the regular center fielder in 2014 and hit .306. He was doing about the same in 2015 when he was traded to Toronto at the end of July.  At the end of the season he was traded to Washington.  At that time, we said, "As long as he continues to bat close to .300, he is likely to continue to have a regular job in the big leagues.  If he stops doing that, though, he may fade rather quickly."  Well, in 2016 he stopped doing it, and sure enough, he no longer had a regular job in the big leagues:  he batted .217 and was mainly a defensive replacement and pinch runner by the end of the season.    He was a free agent after the season and signed with the Angels and bounced back some as a part-time player.  He signed with Cincinnati for 2018, was released in spring training, was signed by the Angels again, went to AAA, and was released again in late July.  He signed with Texas for 2019 but does not seem to have played anywhere for them.  He turns thirty-one today.  He's a fine defensive player and has plenty of speed, but as someone once said about the five tools, none of the other four matter much if you can't hit.  Unless he starts hitting soon, Ben Revere will need to figure out what he's going to do with the rest of his life.

Right-hander Michael William Morin has not played for the Twins yet, but he begins 2019 in AAA for them.  He was born in Andover, Minnesota, went to high school in Overland Park, Kansas, attended the University of North Carolina, and was drafted by the Angels in the thirteenth round in 2012.  A reliever all the way, he pitched well in the low minors and reached the majors at the end of April of 2014.  He had a fine season for the Angels that year, but struggled in 2015, going back to the minors for a couple of months.  In 2016 he spent almost the entire season in the majors, but his numbers again were not very good.  It looks like he either was really on or really off in those years--he wasn't uniformly terrible, but he'd occasionally have a really, really bad outing that made his overall numbers look awful.  He was back in AAA in 2017 and did well there, but struggled in six appearances with the Angels and they finally gave up on him, letting him go to Kansas City on waivers in September.  The Royals waived him after the season and he moved on to Seattle, again pitching well in AAA but not well in three appearances in the majors.  The Twins signed him as a free agent in 2019 and he's been pitching well for Rochester.  His numbers puzzle me.  I don't claim to be the world's greatest statistical analyst so maybe someone can help me out--his WHIP is good, his FIP is good, he strikes out a good number of people, doesn't walk a ton, doesn't give up a lot of homers--and yet he just somehow doesn't seem to get the job done consistently.  Maybe he slips into a flaw in his delivery somehow, or tips his pitches sometimes, or something.  I'm just guessing, of course.  He turns twenty-eight today.  He seems like he should be a good relief pitcher--maybe the Twins organization can help him become one.