August 9

Due to personal time constraints, this is a reprint from last year which has not been updated.

John Grim (1867)
John Galbreath (1897)
Jack Tighe (1913)
Ralph Houk (1919)
Julian Javier (1936)
Claude Osteen (1939)
Paul Lindblad (1941)
Tommie Agee (1942)
Chris Wheeler (1945)
Bill Campbell (1948)
Ted Simmons (1949)
John Moses (1957)
Matt Young (1958)
Deion Sanders (1967)
Troy Percival (1969)
Pat Mahomes (1970)
Ryan Radmanovich (1971)
Matt Morris (1974)
Mike Lamb (1975)
Brian Fuentes (1975)
Jason Frasor (1977)
Drew Butera (1983)
Jason Heyward (1989)

John Galbreath was the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1946-1985.

Jack Tighe was a long-time minor league player, manager, and scout.  He also managed the Detroit Tigers from 1956-1957.

Ralph Houk is best known as a manager of the New York Yankees, but he was also a special assistant to the general manager for the Twins from 1987-1989.

Chris Wheeler was a broadcaster for the Philadelphia Phillies from 1977-2013.

Better known for his Hall of Fame NFL career, Deion Sanders was a major league outfielder for nine seasons, leading the league in triples in 1992.  He hit .263/.319/.392 in 2,123 at-bats.

Right-handed reliever William Richard Campbell pitched for the Twins from 1973-1976.  He was born in Highland Park, Michigan, went to high school in Pomona, California, and was signed by the Twins as an amateur free agent in 1970.  A starting pitcher in the minors, he pitched very well there, posting career minor league marks of 28-18, 2.62, 1.16 WHIP in 415 innings.  He made the Twins out of spring training in 1973 as a reliever and flourished there.  He was the Twins’ closer in 1974 and 1976; despite the fact that he’d had a good year as closer in 1974, the Twins used Tom Burgmeier as their primary closer in 1975, even placing Campbell in the rotation for a few weeks.  Even when he was the closer, he was not used as a modern closer would be–he often pitched more than one inning, and was often used in games where the Twins were tied or behind.  This usage enabled him to get 17 relief wins in 1976, one off the major league record, along with 20 saves.  He also led the league in appearances that year, working in 78 games and pitching 167.2 innings.  He also finished seventh in Cy Young balloting and eighth in MPV voting.  He became a free agent at the end of that year, one of the first of many to leave the Twins in that era.  As a Twin, Bill Campbell appeared in 216 games, pitched 460.2 innings, and went 32-21 with 51 saves and a 3.13 ERA.  He signed with Boston and had a fine year as closer in 1977, saving 31 games and making the all-star team, but then his high workload may have started taking its toll, as he began suffering from injuries and ineffectiveness.  Still, he remained with the Red Sox for five seasons before becoming a free agent again and signing with the Cubs.  He had two decent years in their bullpen, leading the league with 82 appearances in 1983.  He played for Philadelphia in 1984, St. Louis in 1985, and Detroit in 1986, pitching well for each team.  He pitched briefly for Montreal in 1987, but did not pitch well and was released in May, ending his playing career.  He was a pitching coach in the minors for a few years.  For some time, Bill Campbell was working for the Fox Valley Sports Academy of Elgin, Illinois.  At last report, he was retired and living in the Chicago area.

Outfielder John William Moses played for the Twins from 1988-1990.  He was born in Los Angeles, attended the University of Arizona, and was a 16th round draft choice for the Seattle Mariners in 1980.  He hit for a decent average in the minors and drew a pretty good number of walks, although he had no power.  Moses reached the majors in 1982 and spent parts of the next six seasons with Seattle, with 1987 his only full season there.  Moses hit .322 in 621 at-bats over two seasons at AAA Calgary from 1985-1986.  He was a semi-regular center fielder for the Mariners from 1986-1987, but only hit around .250.  Released after the 1987 season, he was signed by the Twins just before the 1988 campaign.  He spent the next three years as a part-time player, often being used as a defensive replacement or a pinch-runner when not in the starting lineup.  His best year as a Twin was 1988, when he hit .316.  He was considered a base stealer, and had double digit stolen bases five times in his career, but his success rate was only sixty-four percent in his career.  He had a total of 620 at-bats in 349 games with the Twins, batting .276/.335/.358. with four home runs and 57 RBIs.  He left the Twins after the 1990 season and bounced around quite a bit, being a part of the Boston, Colorado, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Seattle organizations over the next two years, spending time in the big leagues with the latter two.  He last played in 1992 with Seattle.  He has stayed in baseball since then, coaching in both the majors and the minors.  He was the batting coach for the AA Corpus Christi Hooks in the Texas League in 2011, and was named the league’s coach of the year.  No word on what he did in 2012, but since 2013 he has been in the Atlanta Braves organization, currently serving as the batting coach of AAA Gwinnett.

Right-hander Patrick Lavon Mahomes pitched for the Twins from 1992-1996.  He was born in Bryan, Texas, went to high school in Lindale, Texas, and was drafted by Minneota in the sixth round in 1988.  He pitched very well in the minors, but not so well in the majors.  In 43 AAA starts for Minnesota, he went 23-14, 3.26, 1.31 WHIP.  He made the Twins out of spring training in 1992.  He spent parts of 1992-93 in the minors before sticking in 1994, his best year, when he went 9-5 with a 4.72 ERA.  In every other season as a Twin, his ERA was over six.  A move to the bullpen in 1995 did not improve matters.  As a Twin, he was 18-28, 5.82, 1.62 WHIP in 114 games, 51 of them starts.  He was traded to Boston in August of 1996 for Brian Looney.  He stayed with Boston through the end of the 1997 season, was out of baseball in 1998, and was with the Mets in 1999-2000.  He actually had a fine year in the Mets’ bullpen in 1999, coming up in mid-May and going 8-0, 3.68, 1.27 WHIP in 63.2 innings.  He could not sustain it, however, as his ERA was over five the next year.  He became a free agent after that season, went to Texas in 2001, the Cubs in 2002, and Pittsburgh in 2003.  He had a career ERA of 5.47, and only was under 5.00 three times, but managed to pitch in the big leagues in parts of 11 seasons.  After leaving the big leagues, he pitched for the Montreal, Florida, L. A. Dodgers, Kansas City, and Toronto organizations, He also appeared in independent ball, most recently pitching for the Sioux Falls Canaries in 2009.  At last report, he was a pitching instructor at the Thomas Hitting Academy, a youth baseball instructional school in Longview, Texas.  His son, also named Patrick Mahomes, did very well in high school baseball in Texas, but elected to play an easier sport and is currently a quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Outfielder Ryan Ashley Radmanovich did not play for the Twins, but was drafted by them.  Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he attended Pepperdine University and was a 14th-round draft choice of the Twins in 1993.  He spent five years in the Twins minor-league system, the first three in Class A (although he was apparently injured much of 1995).  He hit with power, hitting over 20 home runs three times in the Twins’ organization.  His OPS was over .800 in every minor league season with the Twins.  Still, the Twins apparently did not have any faith in him, and put him on waivers in late March of 1998.  Seattle selected him, and he saw his only major-league action that season, making the team out of spring training.  He went back to the minors in mid-May, but came back as a September call-up.  He hit .217/.260/.362 for Seattle with 2 homers and 10 RBIs in 69 at-bats.  Let go by the Mariners after 1999, he saw action in the San Diego organization from 2000-2001 and the Pittsburgh organization in 2001-2002.  He played in independent leagues from 2003-2009, spending most of that time with Somerset in the Atlantic League.  He also played for Canada in the Olympics in 2004 and 2008.  A power hitter, he had 269 minor league home runs.  His career line in AAA was .274/.360/.469.  He seems like he could have helped somebody if he’d been given a chance to play.  At last report, Ryan Radmanovich had become a U. S. citizen and was living in Hartford, Connecticut, coaching baseball for Kingswood Oxford preperatory school.

Third baseman Michael Robert Lamb played for the Twins in part of the 2008 season.  He was born in West Covina, California, went to high school in La Puente, California, attended Cal State–Fullerton, and was drafted by Texas in the seventh round in 1997.  He had some good years in the minors, most notably 1999, when he hit .324 with 21 home runs for AA Tulsa.  He came up to the Rangers in 2000 and was the regular third baseman that year, hitting .278 but with only six home runs.  He spent the next few years as a part-time player, spending substantial time in the minors in 2001 and 2003.  Just before spring training of 2004, he was traded to the Yankees for Jose Garcia, but he never played for the Yankees, getting traded just before the 2004 season to Houston for Juan DeLeon.  He was a semi-regular for the Astros for four years, generally getting 300-400 at-bats.  He did pretty well with the playing time he got, hitting over .280 with an OPS over .800 three times for Houston.  Lamb became a free agent after the 2007 season and signed with Minnesota.  He was with the Twins for most of 2008 before being released in early September.  He had 236 at-bats as a Twin, batting .233/.276/.322 with 1 homer and 32 RBIs.  He finished 2008 with Milwaukee, but was released by the Brewers just before the 2009 season.  He spent 2009 with Buffalo in the Mets organization, then became a free agent and signed with Florida for 2010.  He made the Marlins out of spring training and was with them through mid-July, used mostly as a pinch-hitter.  He hit only .184, however, and was sent to AAA New Orleans, where he hit very well.  He was a free agent again after the 2010 season and went unsigned.  It appeared his playing career was over, but in late June of 2011 he signed with the Yankees, who sent him to AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.  He did well there, but did not get called up and his playing career ended.  At last report, Mike Lamb was a fielding instructor for ProKids Academy of San Juan Capistrano, California.

Left-hander Brian Christopher Fuentes appeared in nine games for the Twins in 2010.  Born and raised in Merced, California, he was drafted by Seattle in the twenty-fifth round in 1995.  He was a starting pitcher for most of his time in the minors and did not have much success above low Class A.  He was moved to the bullpen when he was promoted to AAA in 2001 and the move paid off.  He did very well there and was promoted to the big leagues for about six weeks.  After the 2001 season, Seattle sent him to Colorado as part of a deal for Jeff Cirillo.  He began 2002 back in AAA, but was with the Rockies by late May and never went back to the minors again, other than a few rehab assignments.  He was with the Rockies through 2008 and always did well for them with the exception of 2004, when he was battling injuries.  He generally appeared in 60-80 games and pitched 60-80 innings.  He became the Rockies’ closer in 2005 and saved around 30 games a season.  A free agent after the 2008 season, he signed with the Angels for 2009.  He actually had a down year in many statistical categories, but led the league in saves for the only time of his career with 48.  He was doing better in 2010 when he was traded to Minnesota in late August for a player to be named later (Loek Van Mil).  In his nine games for the Twins, he worked 9.2 innings, gave up three hits and two walks, and struck out eight.  He was 0-0, 0.00 with 1 save and a WHIP of 0.52.  He again became a free agent after the season and signed with Oakland.  He had a decent season with the Athletics and returned there for 2012, but pitched poorly and was released July 11.  He signed with St. Louis July 14 but made only six appearances before asking to be placed on the restricted list for personal reasons.  There was never an official announcement, but one gathers that he simply had gotten tired of being away from his family.  He retired after the season.  At last report Brian Fuentes was living in his home town of Merced, California, and was the owner of an almond farm.

Catcher Andrew Edward Butera played for the Twins from 2010-2013.  The son of ex-Twin Sal Butera, he was born in Evansville, Illinois and drafted by the Mets in the fifth round in 2005.  He has never hit–his career minor league line is .216/.293/.319–but he is known as an outstanding defensive player.  He seems to have been a part-time or semi-regular catcher even in the minors, topping 300 at-bats only twice in seven minor league seasons.  He was traded by the Mets to Minnesota on July 30, 2007 with Dustin Martin for Luis Castillo.  He finished 2007 with New Britain, then played for Rochester from 2008-2009.  He was expected to be in Rochester again in 2010, but got his chance in the majors when Jose Morales was hurt during spring training.  It’s hard to say that he made the most of it, as he batted only .197, but he stayed with the team all season.  He was with the Twins most of 2011 and hit even worse, batting .167.  He had his best offensive season to that point in 2012, hitting .198/.270/.279.  He spent most of 2013 in Rochester, appearing in two games for the Twins when Joe Mauer was on paternity leave.  On July 31, 2013 he was traded to the Dodgers for a player to be named later and was sent to AAA Albuquerque, coming up to the Dodgers in September.  He was with the Dodgers all of 2014 as their reserve catcher, and continued to be who he has always been.  A free agent after the season, he signed with the Angels for 2015 but was traded to Kansas City in early May.  He remained with the Royals in 2016 and had a career year, batting .285/.328/.480 (in 123 at-bats).  At the time, we said, "Either Ned Yost is really good at spotting him against pitchers he can hit or it's simply the vagaries of small sample size."  It turned out to be the latter, as he batted .227/.284/.319 in 2017, which was still his second-best season.  At this writing, he is back to batting .184 in 2018.  His career major league line at this writing is .201/.259/.297 in 1185 at-bats.  He turns 35 today.  The best you can say about him is that he's not really any worse than he's always been, 2016 excepted.  So you have to say it’s entirely possible that Drew Butera will be around for quite some time yet.