July 28

Bullet Joe Rogan (1893)
Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons (1901)
Morrie Silver (1909)
Ted Lepcio (1929)
Masaaki Koyama (1934)
Marty Brennaman (1942)
Vida Blue (1949)
Wayne Krivsky (1954)
Carmelo Martinez (1960)
Bob Milacki (1964)
Derek Lee (1966)
Walker Buehler (1994)
Jorge Alcala (1995)

Bullet Joe Rogan, given name Charles Wilber Rogan, was a star in the Negro Leagues from 1920-1938.

Morrie Silver is credited with having saved baseball in Rochester when the St. Louis Cardinals threatened to drop their team there.  He is a member of the International League Hall of Fame.

Masaaki Koyama won 320 games in Japan, third on the all-time list.

Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman has been with the Cincinnati Reds since 1974.

Wayne Krivsky was an assistant general manager of the Twins until 2006, when he became the general manager of Cincinnati.  He returned to the Twins as an assistant to the general manager from 2011-2017.

We would also like to wish a happy birthday to MagUidhir’s brother.

Infielder Thaddeus Stanley “Ted” Lepcio played for the Twins in 1961.  He was born in Utica, New York, attended Seton Hall, and was signed as a free agent by Boston in 1951.  He was only in the minors one year and spent over half of that year in Class B.  Still, when 1952 started, Ted Lepcio was in Boston.  He was a reserve infielder, playing mostly at second but also some at third.  Actually, that statement would pretty much sum up his career in Boston, as he only got more than 300 at-bats in a season once.  The exception was 1954, when he made 78 starts at second base, 22 at third, and nine at short.  Most of the time, he would hit around .250 with moderate power and draw a decent number of walks:  not good enough to be a starter, but someone who’d help as an extra player.  He had a bad year in 1958, hitting only .199 in 136 at-bats, and was traded to Detroit just after the 1959 season started.  He bounced back there, hitting .280 as a reserve infielder, but it was his last good season.  Lepcio moved on to Philadelphia for 1960, was sold to the White Sox before the 1961 season, was released in late May, and signed with Minnesota in June.  He played third and second for the Twins, hitting .170/.230/.402 in 112 at-bats.  He signed with the Mets for 1962 but was released in April, and when you weren’t good enough to play for the 1962 Mets, it meant your career was over.  After leaving baseball, Ted Lepcio worked for Honeywell and then became the vice president of St. Johnsbury Trucking Company.  He often chaired Red Sox-related charity events.  He later worked part-time as a transportation consultant for Stonepath, a global logistics company.  Ted Lepcio passed away on December 11, 2019.

Outfielder Derek Gerald Lee had 33 at-bats for the Twins in 1993.  He was born in Chicago, attended the University of South Florida, and was drafted by the White Sox in the forty-second round in 1988.  He had some solid seasons in the minors, hitting .341 in Class A Utica in 1988 and .305 with 11 homers in a 1991 season split between AA and AAA.  Chicago waived him after the 1992 season, however, and Minnesota claimed him.  He had a solid season in Portland, hitting .315 with 10 homers.  He came up to the Twins for about a month beginning in late June and was used as a reserve outfielder, mostly in left.  He played in fifteen games and hit .152/.176/.182.  The Twins traded him to Montreal that off-season for Joe Norris.  He stayed in AAA for a long time but moved around a lot.  He was in the Expos’ organization in 1994, the Mets in 1995, Texas and Oakland in 1996, San Diego in 1997, and Baltimore in 1998.  He played in Mexico in 1999 and played in independent ball in 2000 before his playing career came to an end.  His career AAA line, in almost 3,000 at-bats, is .289/.377/.471.  Not that he’d have been a superstar, but it seems like he might have helped someone if he’d been given a chance.  He was a scout for the Texas Rangers for several years, but was let go in 2014.  No information about what Derek Lee has been doing since then was readily available.

Right-hander Jorge Luis Alcala appeared in two games for the Twins in 2019 and remains in the organization.  He was born in Bajos de Haina, Dominican Republic, and signed with Houston as a free agent in December of 2014.  He did well in the minors, for the most part, but did not advance particularly rapidly, reaching Class A in 2017 (except for three starts in 2016) and AA in 2018.  In July of 2018 he was traded to Minnesota along with Gilberto Celestino for Ryan Pressly.  He spent most of 2019 in AA Pensacola and did not do very well, going 5-7, 5.87, 1.47 WHIP in 102.2 innings.  Despite that, he was promoted to Rochester, did well in five appearances there, and was a September call-up for the Twins.  He appeared in two games, pitched 1.2 innings, giving up no runs, one hit, and one walk.  He is on the Twins' sixty-man roster for 2020, although he is not currently on the active roster.  He turns twenty-five today.  I have no real feel for how good he might be, but it would not be surprising to see him play for the Twins at some point this season.