Due to personal time constraints, this is a reprint from last year which has not been updated.
Lorenzo Ponza invented the modern pitching machine.
Larry Goetz was a National League umpire from 1936-1957.
Outfielder John Mark Davidson played for the Twins from 1986-1988. His father, Max Davidson, was a minor league outfielder from 1947-1954. Mark Davidson was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and attended both the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Clemson. He was drafted by Minnesota in the eleventh round in 1982. He was up and down in the minors, but got people's attention in 1985, when he hit .302 with 25 home runs for AA Orlando. He did not do as well in 1986, when he was promoted to AAA, but still was with Minnesota for about two months as a reserve outfielder. He did nothing that year, batting only .118 in 68 at-bats, but was with the Twins for all of 1987 and most of 1988. He was decent as a reserve in 1987, batting .267, but fell to .217 in 1988. Davidson started 1989 in the minors, then was traded to Houston in May for a player to be named later (Greg Johnson). Houston initially kept him in AAA, but brought him to the majors for the second half of the season. He split 1990 between AAA and the majors and was with Houston all of 1991 (always as a reserve). He became a free agent after the season and signed with the Cleveland organization, spending two years at AAA before ending his playing career. As a Twin, Mark Davidson hit .219/.283/.287 in 324 at-bats spread over three seasons. At last report, Mark Davidson was living in Statesville, North Carolina and was working in marketing for Wikoff Color Corporation, which makes packaging and containers.
Infielder Luis Enrique Ugueto did not play for the Twins, but was in their minor league system in 2007. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela, went to high school in Maracay, Venezuela, and signed with Florida as a free agent in 1996. He had no power, and while he had some decent minor league batting averages, he did not hit for a terribly high average. He stole some bases, but not a huge number, and did not draw a ton of walks, either. He was considered a tremendous defensive player, however, and because of that he played in the minors for quite a few years. He stayed in rookie and A ball through 2001, hitting a combined .243. His last year in Class A, he hit .263/.330/.342. After the 2001 season, he was selected by Pittsburgh in the Rule 5 draft and was sold to Seattle the same day. He spent the 2002 season in the majors but was used mostly as a pinch-runner and defensive replacement, appearing in 62 games but making only 25 plate appearances. He was in the majors for about a month in 2003 in a similar role, appearing in twelve games and getting six plate appearances. He was in AAA for the Mariners in 2004 and actually had the best year of his career, hitting .271/.341/.440 in Tacoma, but it was not good enough. He became a free agent after the season and was in AAA with Kansas City in 2005; however, he was suspended twice for using performance-enhancing drugs and was released in August. He played in Taiwan in 2006; then the Twins signed him in 2007. He was mostly in Ft. Myers, appearing in seven games for Rochester, and hit a combined .223/.288/.299. He played in Italy in 2008 and for Laredo in the independent United Baseball League in 2009. It is unclear what he was doing in 2010, but in 2011 he played briefly for Yuma of the North American League. He played for Anzoategui in the Venezuelan league that winter, but did not catch on with anyone for 2012. He continued to play winter ball for a couple more years, but then his playing career came to an end. His major league record is .214/.290/.321 in 74 games (28 at-bats). He was managing Aragua in the Venezuelan League, but was let go in November of 2021. At last report, Luis Ugueto was operating the Luis Ugueto Baseball Academy in San Cristobal, Venezuela.
Utility player Tzu-Wei Lin played three innings for the Twins in 2021. He was born in Kaohsiung County, Taiwan, and signed with Boston as a free agent in 2012. He started out as a shortstop, but started playing a variety of positions in 2016. He did not hit much, even in the low minors, never posting an OPS as high as .700 through 2016. He was however, still pretty young. He finally had a good offensive season in AA in 2017, although he did not hit when promoted to AAA that year. Still, he spent about a month and a half in the majors in 2017 and did fairly well. In 2018 it clicked for him at AAA, as he batted .307 with an OPS of .810 in 277 at-bats. He was in the majors the rest of the season as a reserve and again did okay, batting .246 with an OPS of .744. That's as good as it's been for him so far, though. He started 2019 in the majors, but played little and didn't do much when he did play. Sent back to AAA, he didn't hit there, either. He was in the majors in all of the shortened 2020 season, but batted just .154 in 52 at-bats. He became a free agent after the season and signed with the Twins. He played in seven games in AAA and in one game in the majors, going to left field in the eighth inning of a game in Cleveland on April 26, but not coming to bat. He missed the rest of the season due to injury and once again became a free agent after the season. He signed with the Mets for 2022, hit poorly in AAA, and was released in mid-August. He finished out the season playing for Long Island in the Atlantic League and had a strong year in Australia over the off-season. He turns twenty-nine today. His major league numbers are .223/.298/.316 in 193 at-bats. Given his major league experience at a variety of positions, one could see him signing a minor league contract with someone as insurance. It seems very unlikely that he'll ever be more than that, but if things break right for him he might be able to play for a few years in that role if he wants to.
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