August 17

Johnny Rawlings (1892)

Rudy York (1913)

Donald Honig (1931)

Jim Davenport (1933)

John Buzhardt (1936)

Diego Segui (1937)

Boog Powell (1941)

Ron Boyer (1944)

Skip Lockwood (1946)

Butch Hobson (1951)

Alex Cole (1965)

Jorge Posada (1971)

Mike Maroth (1977)

Chad Qualls (1978)

Brett Myers (1980)

Dustin Pedroia (1983)

Kyle Farmer (1990)

Author Donald Honig has written nearly forty books about baseball.

Ron Boyer is the brother of Clete Boyer and Ken Boyer. He played in the Yankees’ farm system for eight years, reaching AAA.

Outfielder Alexander Cole played for the Twins in 1994-1995.  He was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, attended Manatee Community College of Bradenton, Florida, and was taken by St. Louis in the second round of the 1985 January draft. A speedy singles hitter with no power at all, he didn’t hit enough singles to really establish himself after getting to AAA in 1986. Cole moved around a few times in AAA–he did not hit enough to make the team he was with want to keep him, but he was so fast that there was always someone who wanted him. Traded from St. Louis to San Diego to Cleveland, Cole made his debut with the Indians in July of 1990. He posted good batting averages as a part-time player in 1990 and 1991, but after a poor start in 1992 he was traded to Pittsburgh. After the 1992 season, the Colorado Rockies selected Cole in the expansion draft. He played for the Rockies in 1993, but hit only .256 as a semi-regular center fielder and became a free agent.  He was signed by the Twins at the start of spring training in 1994 and stayed in Minnesota for two years. Cole did well as a part-time player for the Twins in 1994, hitting .296 with an OBP of .375.  Unfortunately, he was injured much of 1995 and became a free agent after that season.  He hit , batting .304 with a .381 OBP in 424 at-bats. He again became a free agent after the 1995 season and signed with Boston for 1996, his last year in the big-leagues. Cole was in the Marlins organization for part of 1997 and then spent a few years playing independent ball before calling it a career after the 2001 season. Sadly, life after baseball does not seem to have gone well for him: in 2002, Cole was sentenced to 18 months in prison possession of heroin with the intent to distribute, and in 2006, a $30,000 judgment was entered against him for running up credit card bills under someone else’s name.  He does appear to have straightened out his life after that, and split his time between Florida and North Carolina.  Alex Cole passed away on August 19, 2023, at the young age of fifty-eight.

Left-hander Michael Warren Maroth did not play for the Twins, but was in their farm system in 2010.  Born and raised in Orlando, Florida, he attended the University of Central Florida and was drafted by Boston in the third round in 1998.  He showed some promise in the Red Sox’ system, but was traded to Detroit at the July, 1999 deadline for Bryce Florie.  He struggled in the Tigers’ system until 2002, when he went 8-1, 2.82 in eleven starts for AAA Toledo.  He made his big league debut that season, making 21 starts for the Tigers and not pitching too badly.  The next year, 2003, Detroit made a serious run at having the worst record in the history of baseball, and Maroth became a symbol of their futility, losing 21 games.  He was not that horrible, but he wasn’t all that good, either, posting an ERA of 5.73 and a WHIP of 1.45.  He was in the rotation for two more seasons and was fairly average.  He was off to a good start in 2006 but was injured, missing most of the year.  He was back in the rotation in 2007 but did not pitch well and was traded to St. Louis in June.  He did worse there and was allowed to become a free agent after the season.  He signed with Kansas City for 2008, but was released in late April and was out of baseball the rest of the year.  He signed with Toronto for 2009 but was released in late March and was out of baseball again.  The Twins signed him for 2010 and sent him to Rochester.  He got off to a decent start, but was injured after only three starts.  He made a rehab appearance in late July, but that was it for him as a Twin.  He became a free agent after the season and pitched in winter ball, but did not sign with anyone for 2011 and officially retired on January 25, 2011.  He has since spent some time as a minor league pitching coach, most recently as the pitching coach of Gwinnett in the Braves organization.  Mike Maroth was the pitching coach for the University of Central Florida in 2023, but was not retained for 2024.  At last report, he was offering private pitching instruction under the name of "Mike Maroth Baseball".

Infielder James Kyle Farmer has played for the Twins since 2023.  Born and raised in Atlanta, he attended the University of Georgia and was drafted by the Dodgers in the eighth round in 2013.  He was a steady batter throughout the minors, never producing eye-popping stats but always posting solid numbers.  He reached AA in 2015, AAA in 2017, and the majors in late 2017.  He started 2018 in the majors as a part-time third baseman, but did not hit much and was sent down in mid-May, coming back as a September call-up.  He was traded to Cincinnati after the 2018 season.  He was a utility player for them in 2019-2020, was their starting shortstop in 2021, and was their mostly regular shortstop in 2022, although he saw significant time at third base.  He had decent batting averages, but mediocre on-base percentages and little power.  After the 2022 season he was traded to Minnesota for Casey Legumina.  He went back to the utility role for the Twins, seeing substantial time at third, second, and short.  His offensive numbers were about at his career numbers in 2023, but were down in 2024.  He became a free agent and signed with Colorado for 2025, but his offensive numbers did not improve.  He turns thirty-five today.  He's had a decent career, but if you can't hit in Colorado, you probably can't hit.  We wish him well, but it appears that Kyle Farmer's playing career may be nearing an end.

August 16

Hick Carpenter (1855)

Baby Doll Jacobsen (1890)

Fats Fothergill (1897)

George Scales (1900)

Tiny Bonham (1913)

Gene Woodling (1922)

Puddin’ Head Jones (1925)

Buck Rodgers (1938)

Gene Brabender (1941)

Mike Jorgensen (1948)

Al Holland (1952)

Nick Leyva (1953)

Rick Reed (1964)

Xavier Hernandez (1965)

Terry Shumpert (1966)

Quinton McCracken (1970)

Damian Jackson (1973)

Roger Cedeno (1974)

Ryan Hanigan (1980)

Yu Darvish (1986)

Martin Maldonado (1986)

Akil Baddoo (1998)

Nick Leyva was a long-time minor league coach and manager and major league coach.  He managed the Philadelphia Phillies from 1989-1991.

Right-hander Richard Allen Reed pitched for the Twins from 2001-2003.  He was born in Huntington, West Virginia, attended Marshall University, and was drafted in the 26th round by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986. He made his major league debut with Pittsburgh in 1988.   He spent the next eight years bouncing back and forth between AAA and the majors, first with the Pirates, then with Kansas City, Texas, and Cincinnati.  He always pitched well in the minors, but never could stick in the majors.  His major league ERAs tell the reason why, but he never got much of a chance and his WHIPs were pretty decent many of those years, suggesting bad luck may also have been a factor.  He was a replacement player in 1995, knowing that he would pay a price for it but believing he had no choice due to the medical bills incurred by his ill mother. After playing at AAA for all of 1996 with the Mets, Reed finally made the big-leagues to stay in 1997 at the age of 32. He was a rotation starter for the Mets, and a good one, from 1997 through July of 2001, when he was traded at the deadline to Minnesota for Matt Lawton.  He was apparently unhappy about leaving New York, but did not complain publicly about it at the time. Reed did not pitch well for the Twins that year, but had a solid year in 2002, helping the team to the playoffs. After a poor 2003, when he was 38, the Twins released him. He signed with Pittsburgh that off-season, but did not make the team and called it a career.  As a Twin, he was 25-25, 4.47, 1.30 WHIP in 390.2 innings.  He appeared in 72 games, 65 of them starts.  He became the pitching coach at Marshall University in 2005 and stayed there several years, but then decided to step away from baseball for good.  At last report, Rick Reed was living in retirement in Huntington, West Virginia.

Outfielder Quinton Antoine McCracken played in 24 games for the Twins in 2001.  He was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, went to high school in South Brunswick, North Carolina (where he started on the football and basketball teams and ran track in addition to playing baseball), and attended Duke.  He was drafted by Colorado in the twenty-fifth round in 1992.  He was a high average hitter, hitting .359 in a 1995 season split between AA and AAA.  He was also fast, stealing 60 bases at Class A Central Valley in 1993.  He came up to the Rockies at the end of 1995 and stayed through 1997 as a part-time centerfielder.  He hit .291 over that time, but was left unprotected in the expansion draft and was chosen by Tampa Bay.  He hit .292 in 1998, but he got off to a bad start in 1999 and then was injured in late May, missing the rest of the season.  He split 2000 between AAA and the Devil Rays, then was released.  He signed with St. Louis for 2001, but failed to make the team.  The Twins signed McCracken on April 13 and sent him to AAA Edmonton, where he hit .338.  They brought him to the majors for about six weeks; he got 64 at-bats, making six starts in the outfield and eight at designated hitter (a foreshadowing of Jason Tyner’s use in that role).  His batting ability stayed in AAA, however; he hit .219/.275/.313.  He became a free agent after the season, signing with Arizona.  He made a surprising comeback there, hitting .309 as a half-time outfielder in 2002.  He went back down in 2003, however, and was traded to Seattle after the season for Greg Colbrunn and cash.  He played poorly with the Mariners, was released in June, and signed back with the Diamondbacks, where he again made a comeback, hitting .288 as a reserve the rest of the way.  He again could not sustain it the following year, and became a free agent after the 2005 season.  McCracken signed with Cincinnati for 2006, but played sparingly and was released in early July.  The Twins re-signed him a couple of weeks later and sent him to Rochester; he hit .284 there, but was not promoted and again became a free agent after the season.  He played for independent Bridgeport in 2007, then his playing career came to an end.  For a twenty-fifth round draft choice, though, he had a pretty good career.  Quinton McCracken was assistant director for player development for the Arizona Diamondbacks through 2012, and worked for the Houston Astros from 2013-2018, serving as their director of player personnel the last two seasons.  He was the third base coach for the Durham Bulls in the Tampa Bay organization in 2019.  There was no minor league season in 2020, and in 2021 he became a special assistant for baseball operations and player development for the Milwaukee Brewers.  In 2024 he became manager of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in the MLB Draft League.

Outfielder Akil Neomon Baddoo did not play for the Twins, but was in their minor league system from 2016-2020.  He was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, went to high school in Conyers, Georgia, and was drafted by Minnesota in the second round in 2016.  He struggled in the Gulf Coast League that season, but had an outstanding year with Elizabethton in 2017.  He was okay, but nothing special in Low-A in 2018 and struggled in High-A in 2019.  However, he was only twenty years old that season.  For his minor league Twins career, he batted .249/.357/.467 with 21 homers in 862 at-bats.  There was, of course, no minor league season in 2020, and the Twins left him unprotected after that year.  Detroit claimed him in the rule 5 draft and gave him a chance.  He got off to a hot start, leading people to think the Twins had given up on a star.  He cooled off, however, and had a poor 2022, going back to the minors for a while.  He was in the majors for most of 2023 and was the Tigers' semi-regular left-fielder, but did not hit.  He split 2024 between AAA and the majors but did not hit.  He has hit better in AAA in 2025, but did nothing in seventeen major league at-bats.  So far in his major league career he is batting .224/.305/.369 in 1016 at-bats.  He turns twenty-seven today.  It's possible that he'll improve, and we certainly wish him well, but it's looking less and less likely that he'll hit in the big leagues.

August 15

Charles Comiskey (1859)

Doggie Miller (1864)

Jack Warner (1872)

Bill Sherdel (1896)

Jim Snyder (1932)

Joey Jay (1935)

Jose Santiago (1940)

Cap Peterson (1942)

Duffy Dyer (1945)

Joe Lis (1946)

Billy Conigliaro (1947)

Tom Kelly (1950)

Joe Cowley (1958)

Randy Johnson (1958)

Jeff Huson (1964)

Scott Brosius (1966)

Chris Singleton (1972)

Oliver Perez (1981)

Jarrod Dyson (1984)

Luke Keaschall (2002)

Second baseman James Robert Snyder played briefly for the Twins in 1961-1962 and 1964.  He was born in Dearborn, Michigan, went to Eastern Michigan University, and was signed as an amateur free agent by the St. Louis Browns in 1952. He spent the next ten years in the minors, playing in the organizations of St. Louis/Baltimore (1952-56, 1957), the White Sox (1956, 1958-60), the Cubs (1957), Philadelphia (1958, 1960), and Cincinnati (1961). Snyder never hit much in the minors, leading one to suppose that he was a very good defensive player. It also leads one to believe that he was a good guy and that people liked him–if he was a jerk, they would have gotten rid of him.  His best minor league season was 1960, when he hit .287 with two AAA teams at age 27.  The Twins purchased Snyder from Indianapolis (AAA) in September of 1961, and he spent the rest of that season and portions of 1962 and 1964 with Minnesota.  He did not hit any better in the Twins’ organization:  in three seasons at AAA, he hit .261 with eight homers.  He began 1962 in Minnesota, but was sent out in early May after appearing in twelve games, six of them as a pinch-runner.  He did not come back until 1964, when he was with the Twins for about six weeks.  Apparently, he was a good bunter; in 1964, Snyder had only 88 plate appearances with the Twins, but was fifth in the league in sacrifice bunts, with 11.  As a Twin, Jim Snyder hit .140/.185/.198 in 86 at-bats. After playing in the Senators organization in 1965, Snyder retired as an active player and embarked on a fairly successful career as a minor-league manager, with a winning percentage of .514 in 16 seasons. He has also been a major league coach, and managed the Seattle Mariners for a portion of 1988, going 45-60.  His last job in baseball appears to have been as a director of instruction for the White Sox, serving in that role from 1994-2005.  Jim Snyder passed away on March 9, 2021 in Lutz, Florida at the age of eighty-eight.

First baseman Joseph Anthony Lis played for the Twins in 1973-1974.  Born and raised in Somerville, New Jersey, he was signed by Philadelphia as a free agent in 1964. After a slow start in the minors, he began to develop some power, hitting over 30 homers in class A in 1967 and 1968 and again in AAA in 1970. Lis was with the Phillies in 1971 and part of 1972, also spending part of 1972 in AAA. After that season, he was traded with Ken Reynolds and Ken Sanders to the Twins for Cesar Tovar. Lis played for the Twins for the next year and a half before being sold to Cleveland in June of 1974.  He was a semi-regular in 1973, sharing first base with Harmon Killebrew, but got very little playing time in 1974 before he left the Twins. He got back on the treadmill between AAA and the majors through 1976, winning the International League MVP award in 1976, and then was chosen by Seattle in the expansion draft prior to the 1977 season. He played a handful of games for the Mariners in 1977, but then went back to AAA, playing in the Indians, White Sox, and Tigers organizations, as well as a year with the Kintetsu Buffaloes, through 1979, when he retired. As a Twin, Lis played in 127 games, batting 294 times and hitting .238/.321/.374 with 9 homers and 28 RBIs.  After leaving baseball, he moved to Evansville, Indiana.  After trying several occupations, he started the Joe Lis Hitting School in Evansville, which he operated until his death. Joe Lis passed away from prostate cancer on October 17, 2010 in Evansville, Indiana.

First baseman Jay Thomas Kelly played for the Twins in 1975 and then managed them from 1986-2001.  He was born in Graceville, Minnesota, went to high school in South Amboy, New Jersey, and was drafted by the Seattle Pilots in the 8th round of the 1968 amateur draft.  He was in the Seattle/Milwaukee organization for three years, but averaged averaged .232 over the last two of them and was released at the end of spring training in 1971.  The Twins signed him and sent him to AA Charlotte.  He hit .294 there, and the next year he was promoted to AAA Tacoma, where he spent most of the next four seasons. Kelly put up solid but unspectacular numbers there, with his best year coming in 1974 when he hit .308 with 18 homers, numbers which sound better than they are in the context of the Pacific Coast League. Kelly came to the Twins in 1975, spending exactly two months with the big club. He played in 49 games during that time, batting .181/.262./.244 in 127 at-bats with 1 homer and 11 runs batted in. Kelly was sold to Baltimore at the start of the 1976 season and spent a year in AAA with them before returning to the Minnesota organization in 1977. He was a player-manager in the minors that year before turning to managing full-time in 1979. Kelly pitched in four minor-league games while he was a manager, starting two of them, and actually pitched pretty well, going 1-0 with a 1.88 ERA in 24 innings. As I assume everyone here knows, he became a coach with the Twins and then took over managing in the fall of 1986, winning two world championships before retiring after the 2001 season.  He was named American League Manager of the Year in 1991.  He had chances to manage other teams, but apparently was not interested.  Tom Kelly is currently a special assistant to the general manager for the Twins.

“Not the” Randy Johnson, outfielder/first baseman Randall Stuart Johnson played for the Twins in 1982.  Born in Miami, he was chosen by the White Sox in the third round of the 1979 January draft. He had some strong years in the minors, hitting .282 with 25 homers at AA Glens Falls in 1980 at age 21.  He got about five weeks in the majors that year, used mostly as a pinch-hitter by the White Sox. Back in Glens Falls in 1981, he hit only .255 but belted 32 home runs.  After the season, he was the player named later in a trade which also sent Ivan Mesa and Ronnie Perry to the Twins for Jerry Koosman. He spent all of 1982 with the Twins, batting .248/.325/.419 as a part-time DH. It was not good enough, however, and he spent the next two years at AAA for the Twins. Johnson was traded back to the White Sox at the start of 1985 spring training along with Ron Scheer for Roy Smalley. He rounded out his career with the White Sox AAA Buffalo affiliate in 1985 as a part-time outfielder, hitting just .224, and then his playing career came to an end.  ”Randy Johnson” is, or course, a rather common name, and when you search for a Randy Johnson connected with baseball you tend to get the other guy.  No information about what our Randy Johnson is doing these days was readily available.

Second baseman Luke T. Keaschall came up to the Twins in 2025.  He was born in Watsonville, California, attended the University of San Francisco and Arizona State, and was drafted by Minnesota in the second round in 2023.  He hit for high averages in college and drew quite a few walks, but did not hit for much power until his final year at Arizona State.  He quickly proved too good for high A in 2024 and did well when promoted to AA.  He was decent, but nothing special, in a handful of games of AAA, but was promoted to the Twins in mid-April anyway and hit very well for a week, after which he was injured.  He came back in early August and has hit very well so far.  He turns twenty-three today.  Many Twins fans have high hopes for him, and we're certainly not down on him, but time will tell whether the high hopes will come to fruition.

August 14

Paul Dean (1912)
Earl Weaver (1930)
Joel Horlen (1937)
Bert Cueto (1937)
Mark Fidrych (1954)
Don Carman (1959)
Mark Gubicza (1962)
Mike Cook (1963)
Mark Loretta (1971)
Juan Pierre (1977)
Clay Buchholz (1984)
Jeremy Hazelbaker (1987)
David Peralta (1987)
Tim Tebow (1987)
Josh Bell (1992)

Earl Weaver was the long-time manager of the Baltimore Orioles.

Mark Gubicza was an analyst on for FSN on Twins pre-game and post-game shows in 2004.

Quarterback Tim Tebow played minor league baseball in the Mets organization from 2016-2019.

Right-hander Dagoberto (Concepcion) Cueto pitched for the Twins in their inaugural season of 1961.  He was born in San Luis Pinar, Cuba, and was signed by Washington as an amateur free agent in 1956. He worked his way up from Class D, pitching well at nearly every stop. There apparently was some indecision about whether Cueto should be a starter or a reliever, as he did some of both every year except 1959, when he was used exclusively in relief at Class A Charlotte. Cueto was called up to the Twins in June of 1961 and spent about six weeks with the club. He appeared in seven games, five of them starts, compiling a 1-3 record with a 7.17 ERA in 21.1 innings. Returned to the minors in late July, he was traded to the Dodgers in July of 1962 for Jay Ward.  He pitched well for them the rest of the season, but did not get back to the major leagues.  Cueto pitched briefly in the Angels organization in 1963 and the Pittsburgh organization in 1964, but spent most of those years in the Mexican League.  He apparently then played for amateur teams in the Charlotte, North Carolina area.  He also worked for a furniture store and for Embree-Reed, Inc. Bert Cueto passed away on October 25, 2011 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Right-hander Michael Horace Cook pitched for the Twins in 1989.  Born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, he attended the University of South Carolina and was drafted by the California Angels in the first round of the 1985 amateur draft. He was rushed to the majors, making his big-league debut for the Angels in a two-week stint in 1986.  He bounced between California and AAA Edmonton in 1987-88, never pitching all that well for either team. After the 1988 season, Cook was traded to the Twins with Rob Wassenaar and Paul Sorrento for Kevin Trudeau and Bert Blyleven. He started 1989 with the Twins, went down after a month, and came back as a September call-up.  He pitched in fifteen games for the Twins in 1989, all in relief, going 0-1 with a 5.06 ERA and a 1.83 WHIP in 21.1 innings. He spent the rest of that year and all of 1990 with AAA Portland as a starter, and was released at the end of spring training in 1991. After that he was in the Seattle (1991), St. Louis (1992), Baltimore (1993-1994) and New York Mets (1994) organizations, making it back to the big leagues for two appearances with Baltimore in 1993.  Cook was used exclusively in relief in his last three minor league seasons and posted good ERAs in the last two.  It did him no good, however, as his playing career ended after the 1994 season.  Mike Cook is a member of the Charleston Baseball Hall of Fame.  At last report, it appeared that Mike Cook was living in Brockport, New York.

Outfielder Jeremy Philip Hazelbaker did not play for the Twins, but was in AAA for them for about a month and a half in 2018.  He was born in Muncie, Indiana, went to high school in Selma, Indiana, attended Ball State University, and was drafted by Boston in the fourth round in 2009.  He did well in the lower minors but stalled out when he reached AAA in 2012.  He didn't have a good season in AAA until 2015, but when he did he hit .333 with an OPS of .998.  He was twenty-seven by then, but after a strong winter league season he started 2016 as a reserve outfielder for the Cardinals, with whom he had signed as a free agent in May of 2015.  He was there for all but a month of the season and had a slugging average of .480, but a batting average of just .235.  The Cardinals waived him after the season and he was claimed by Arizona.  He was a reserve outfielder for the Diamondbacks for about half of 2017 and batted .346 with an OPS of 1.020, but while he played in forty-one games he had just fifty-two at-bats.  He was sold to Tampa Bay in April of 2018, played in AAA for them, and then was sold again, this time to Minnesota, in mid-July of the same year.  They also sent him to AAA, where he batted .198/.311/.385 in 106 plate appearances.  He went to Korea for the start of 2019, but came back at mid-season and signed with Sioux City of the independent American Association, where he finished the season.  That brought his playing career to an end.  His major league numbers are .258/.327/.500 in 285 plate appearances.  At last report, Jeremy Hazelbaker was living in Castalian Springs, Tennessee.  He was a developmental specialist for Hitting Hub, which provides personalized baseball training.

August 13

Fielder Jones (1871)
George Susce (1907)
Lou Finney (1910)
Sid Gordon (1917)
Jerry Neudecker (1930)
Vinegar Bend Mizell (1930)
Mudcat Grant (1935)
Tony Cloninger (1940)
Fred Stanley (1947)
Jerry Crawford (1947)
Andre Thornton (1949)
Tom Niedenfuer (1959)
Jim Reboulet (1961)
Jay Buhner (1964)
Tom Prince (1964)
Mark Lemke (1965)
Alex Fernandez (1969)
Jarrod Washburn (1974)
Will Ohman (1977)
Corey Patterson (1979)
Dallas Braden (1983)
Boone Logan (1984)
Hansel Robles (1990)
Randal Grichuk (1991)
Taijuan Walker (1992)

Jerry Neudecker was an American League umpire from 1966-1985.  He was the last major league umpire to use an outside chest protector.

Jerry Crawford was a major league umpire from 1976-2010.  He is tied with Bruce Froemming for the most postseason games umpired, 111.

Jim Reboulet is the brother of ex-Twin Jeff Reboulet. He was in the minors for six years, reaching AAA. He had three seasons with sixty or more stolen bases.

Right-hander James Timothy “Mudcat” Grant pitched for the Twins from 1964-1967.  He was born in Lacoochee, Florida, went to high school in Dade City, Florida, and was signed as a free agent by Cleveland in 1954. He pitched quite well in the minors, going 70-28 with an ERA under 3.20 and averaging over 200 innings per season.   He made the Indians out of spring training in 1958. Grant was a solid member of the Cleveland rotation for six years, making the all-star team in 1963.  He also did some singing as part of a nightclub act.  When he got off to a poor start in 1964, he was traded to Minnesota for George Banks and Lee Stange. Something clicked for him when he came to the Twins, as he had his best years in Minnesota: for the rest of 1964, he was 11-9 with a 2.82 ERA, in 1965 he went 21-7 with a 3.30 ERA and finished sixth in the MVP voting, and he went 13-13 in 1966 with a 3.25 ERA. Four consecutive years of pitching between 228 and 270 innings appeared to take its toll, however; 1966 was Grant’s last good year as a starter, and after the 1967 season, he was traded to the Dodgers with Zoilo Versalles for Bob Miller, Ron Perranoski, and Johnny Roseboro. He then had a relatively successful career as a relief pitcher, saving 24 games for Oakland in 1970 and leading major league baseball in appearances with 80. The last year of his 14-year major league career was split between Oakland and Pittsburgh; he also pitched for Iowa in the Oakland organization in 1972. Grant pitched in 129 games as a Twin, 111 of them starts, and went 50-35 with a 3.35 ERA. There are various stories about who gave him the nickname “Mudcat”, with the most popular being that he was given it by Cleveland teammate Larry Doby or a minor-league teammate named LeRoy Irby.  He has served on the board of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the Baseball Assistance Team, and the Major League Baseball Alumni Association. In recent years, Grant has been promoting education about the history of blacks in baseball. His book, “The Black Aces”, profiles African-American pitchers who have won twenty games in the majors, along with Negro League pitchers who might have done so had they had they opportunity.   He is the uncle of Domonic Brown, an outfielder for Philadalphia from 2010-15.  Mudcat Grant passed away on June 11, 2021 in Los Angeles at the age of eighty-five.
Catcher Thomas Albert Prince played for the Twins from 2001-2003. He was born in Kankakee, Illinois, and was drafted by Pittsburgh in 1984 in the 4th round of the secondary phase of the January draft. Prince did not hit particularly well in the low minors, but showed moderate power and got a reputation as a good defensive player.  He surprisingly hit .307 at AA Harrisburg in 1987, nearly fifty points higher than he had ever hit in the minors.  That was good enough for him to make his debut in Pittsburgh as a September call-up that season. He spent parts of the next seven seasons with the Pirates, sticking for the whole year only in 1993, which was the only year he got more than 100 at-bats for Pittsburgh.  He never hit for them, posting batting averages of over .200 only twice in those seven years.  Let go by the Pirates after that season, Prince spent parts of the next four years with the Dodgers, again only getting 100 at-bats once, in 1997, although he did hit .200 or above every year.  He spent 1999-2000 with the Phillies, and was signed as a free agent by the Twins after the 2000 campaign. With the Twins, Prince was who they thought he was: a reserve catcher who was good defensively and couldn’t hit. In 2 1/2 years in Minnesota, he got 361 at-bats and hit .219/.300/.374 with 13 homers and 44 RBIs. Released by the Twins in July of 2003, he signed with the Royals, spending most of the rest of the year in Omaha. He retired after that year at the age of 38.  Tom Prince managed to play in parts of seventeen major league seasons and get 1,190 major league at-bats with a lifetime batting average of .208.  He was affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates for several years, mostly as a minor league manager.  From 2017-2019 he was the bench coach for Pittsburgh.  He left the Pirates organization after 2019, however, and managed the Toledo Mud Hens in the Detroit organization in 2021.  He was let go after the season and does not seem to have gotten another baseball job.  Thus, no information about what Tom Prince is doing now was readily available.

Right-hander Hansel Manuel Robles was with the Twins for four months in 2021.  Born and raised in Bonao in the Dominican Republic, he signed with the Mets as a free agent in 2008.  He pitched very well in the low minors but was brought along very slowly.  He was mostly a starter at that point, but began a conversion to relief in AA in 2014.  He made five AAA appearances in 2015 and then reached the majors, having a fine season out of the bullpen for the Mets.  He did well again in 2016 but struggled some in 2017, resulting in a two-month stint in AAA.  He got off to a poor start in 2018 and was waived by the Mets in late June.  He was claimed by the Angels and turned his season around, pitching very well for them for the last three months of the season.  He had another fine season in 2019 but 2020 was a different story.  When he was on he was really on, but when he was off he was awful, so his numbers do not look good at all.  The Twins signed him as a free agent for 2021.  He pitched well for them at times, but was not consistent enough for the Twins to rely on him.  In forty-five games (forty-four innings), he went 3-4, 4.91, 1.39 WHIP with ten saves.  The Twins traded him to Boston at the July deadline for Alex Scherff.  He did fairly well for them in 2021, but pitched poorly in 2022 and was released in early July.  He signed with the Dodgers a couple of weeks later and pitched poorly the rest of the season in AAA.  He turns thirty-three today and hasn't had a good year since 2019.  He pitched well in winter ball, though, and had an excellent season in the Mexican League in 2023.  He did not pitch as well in winter ball last season.  He signed a minor league contract with Seattle for 2024.  He does not appear to have pitched for them, but he does not appear to have been released, either, so perhaps there's an injury.  He turns thirty-four today.  It seems very unlikely that we'll ever see him in the majors again, but you never know.  As we've said before, as long as you're still playing somewhere, you still have a chance.

August 12

This is a reprint from last year.

Christy Mathewson (1880)
Ray Schalk (1892)
Harlond Clift (1912)
Fred Hutchinson (1919)
Bob Buhl (1928)
Kevin Cooney (1950)
Matt Clement (1974)
Lew Ford (1976)
Zach Cosart (1985)
Chris Owings (1991)

A notoriously bad hitter, even for a pitcher, Bob Buhl had a lifetime average of .089 and went the entire 1962 season without getting a hit (0-for-70).  Oddly, he equaled his career high in walks that year with six, which goes to show something or other.

Kevin Cooney was an eleventh round draft choice of the Twins in 1972.  He pitched in the Twins’ organization for two seasons, then a shoulder injury ended his playing career.  He then became a college baseball coach.  He was the head coach at Montclair State from 1984-1987 and at Florida Atlantic from 1988-2008.

Outfielder Jon Lewis “Lew” Ford played for the Twins from 2003-2007.  He was born in Beaumont, Texas, went to high school in Port Neches, Texas, attended Dallas Baptist University, and was drafted by the Red Sox in the twelfth round in 1999. He hit well in their minor league system (although as a 22-year-old in the NY-P league and a 23-year-old in the Sally League). The Twins acquired him in September of 2000 for Hector Carrasco. Ford got to AA in 2001 and AAA in 2002.  The latter was his best minor league season, as he hit .318 with 20 homers in a year split between New Britain and Rochester.  Ford came up to the Twins in May of 2003, did well in limited playing time that year and became a regular the following season. 2004 was by far his best year: he hit .299 with 15 homers and 72 RBIs, and actually received a ninth-place vote for MVP that year. Ford declined after that, losing his starting spot in 2006 when he hit only .226. He split time in 2007 between AAA and Minnesota and was released after the season. As a Twin, he batted .272/.349/.402 with 32 homers and 172 RBIs. After leaving the Twins, Ford went to Japan to play for the Hanshin Tigers. He signed a minor-league contract with Colorado in March of 2009, but failed to make the Rockies. He spent most of 2009 playing for the Long Island Ducks, although he did play briefly for AAA Louisville in the Cincinnati organization.  Ford began 2010 playing in Mexico, but was released in mid-May despite the fact that he was hitting .314 with 13 doubles and 5 homers in 140 at-bats.  He went back to the Ducks for 2011 and played very well.  He was doing even better for them in 2012 when he signed with the Baltimore organization in mid-May.  He was sent to AAA Norfolk, continued to hit well, and in late July, after an absence of about four and a half years, Lew Ford was back in the big leagues.  He was a free agent after the season, re-signed with Baltimore, missed much of the season with injury, and ended 2013 back with the Long Island Ducks.  He was with them again in 2014.  In 2015 he played both with the Ducks and with Tijuana in the Mexican League, hitting well in both places.  He was back with Long Island for 2016-19 and continued to hit well there, batting .303 in 2019.  He turns forty-seven today.  Two years ago, we said, "It appears that the Atlantic League has not played in 2020, so Lew Ford's playing career may be over.  But given his history, I wouldn't bet too heavily on it."  I hope you didn't, because he batted .311 for Long Island in 2021, batted .270 for them in 2022, and batted .340 for them in 2023.  He became the manager of the Ducks in 2024, and has so far not played, although it wouldn't be shocking if he got into a game or two before the season ended.  At any rate, the cry of "LEEEEWWWWWWWWW" can still be heard in a baseball park, which makes me rather happy.

August 11

Danny Murphy (1876)
Bobo Newsom (1907)
Bob Scheffing (1913)
Walter McNeil (1934)
Bill Monboquette (1936)
Vada Pinson (1938)
Sal Campisi (1942)
Jim Hughes (1951)
Dennis Lewallyn (1953)
Bryn Smith (1955)
Melky Cabrera (1984)
Colby Rasmus (1986)
Pablo Sandoval (1986)

Walter McNeil is better known as Wally the Beer Man, long-time vendor at Minnesota Twins games.

Right-handed reliever Salvatore John Campisi appeared in six games for the Twins in 1971.  Born and raised in Brooklyn, he attended Long Island University, where he had led the nation in ERA at 0.27, and was signed as a free agent by the St. Louis in 1964. He pitched well in the minors, regularly posting ERAs under three, but made a rather slow rise.  He spent a year in rookie ball and two years in A ball before finally getting to AA in 1967 and AAA in 1968.  Campisi was a starter in rookie ball but was primarily a reliever after that.  He made his major-league debut with the Cardinals in 1969 and spent almost all of 1970 with them. Control trouble, which was never a problem in the minors, plagued him in the majors, as he walked over six per nine innings with St. Louis. In the off-season, the Cardinals traded Campisi to the Twins with Jim Kennedy for Charlie Wissler and Herman Hill. He made the team out of spring training, but he pitched only 4.1 innings in six games with Minnesota, with no win-loss record and a 4.15 ERA, before being sent down to AAA. He was let go after that season, and his playing career came to an end.  He walked only 2.5 batters per nine innings in 718 minor league innings, but averaged 6.7 in 63.1 major league innings. Sal Campisi was inducted into the Long Island University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.  At last report, it appeared that Sal Campisi was living in Lakeland, Florida, where he owned a car dealership, Regal Automotive.

Right-handed palm ball specialist James Michael Hughes pitched for the Twins from 1974-1977.  He was born in Los Angeles, went to high school in Playa del Rey, California, and was drafted by Minnesota in the thirty-third round in 1969.  He had poor control early in his minor league career, a problem which got better as he went up the minor league ladder.  Unfortunately, he became easier to hit at higher levels as well, so that he regularly posted WHIPs around 1.5 with the exception of 1972, when he had his best year as a minor leaguer, going 13-9, 2.58, 1.17 WHIP for Class A Lynchburg.  In 1974, he went 10-12, 4.83, 1.43 WHIP, which was deemed good enough for a September call-up.  He spent the next two years in the Twins’ rotation.  By far the better year was 1975, when he went 16-14, 3.82 in 249.1 innings with 12 complete games, although also with a WHIP of 1.47.  His WHIP was about the same in 1976, but he went 9-14, 4.98.  He began 1977 in the Twins’ bullpen, but was sent to AAA after only two appearances, never to return.  He had a poor year in Tacoma and was released after the season.  Hughes signed with the White Sox for 1978 but was released in late March.  He signed with Texas a few days later, but made only eight AAA appearances with them.  He was in AAA for the Dodgers in 1979, posting an ERA of 3.00 but a WHIP of 1.61 in 36 innings.  His playing career came to an end after that.  There are lots and lots of people named “Jim Hughes”; many of them are even involved in baseball in one way or another.  At last report, it appeared that "our" Jim Hughes was living in Orange, California.

August 10

This is a reprint from last year.

Jim Clinton (1850)
Willie Wells (1904)
Odell Hale (1908)
Taffy Wright (1911)
Buddy Lewis (1916)
Bob Porterfield (1923)
Rocky Colavito (1933)
Tom Brookens (1953)
Tim Brookens (1953)
Jerald Clark (1963)
Andy Stankiewicz (1964)
Gerald Williams (1966)
Sal Fasano (1971)
Brandon Lyon (1979)
Dan Johnson (1979)
Wilson Ramos (1987)

Willie Wells is considered, along with Pop Lloyd, one of the two greatest shortstops in the history of the Negro Leagues.

Tim Brookens is the twin brother of Tom Brookens and played four years in the minors, reaching AA.

Outfielder Jerald Dwayne Clark played for the Twins in 1995.  He was born in Crockett, Texas, attended Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, and was drafted by San Diego in the 12th round in 1985.  He hit over .300 every season in the minors, the last three of them in AAA.  His best season was 1989, when he hit .313 with 22 homers and an OPS of .926 for AAA Las Vegas. Clark made brief appearances with the Padres in 1988-90 before sticking with the club in 1991. He spent two full years in San Diego, playing fairly regularly in left field, but did not hit very well.  He was left unprotected and was taken by Colorado in the expansion draft. He was a mostly-regular for the Rockies in 1993 and had his best major league season, batting .283 with 13 homers.  It was not enough for the Rockies, however, and Clark opted to go to Japan in 1994.  The Twins signed him as a free agent, and he spent 1995 with Minnesota, appearing in 36 games. He had a good year as a reserve outfielder, batting .339/.354/.550 in 109 at-bats. The Twins apparently attributed it to small sample size, however, as he was let go after the season. He played for Calgary in the Pittsburgh organization in 1996, but did not make it back to the big leagues, and called it a career after playing nine games for Duluth-Superior in the Northern League in 1997. After his baseball career ended, Jerald Clark got a bachelor’s degree in computer science and is now selling real estate in San Diego. His brother, Phil Clark, played in the majors from 1992-96.

Catcher Wilson Abraham (Campos) Ramos played in seven games for the Twins in 2010.  He was born in Valencia, Venezuela, and signed with Minnesota as a free agent in 2004.  He hit well every year in the minors other than 2010, hitting .317 at AA New Britain in 2009.  After a good year of winter ball, he got off to a horrible start at AAA Rochester.  Still, due to an injury to Joe Mauer, he was brought up to the Twins for a little over a week in May of 2010.  He came in with a bang, getting seven hits in his first nine at-bats before going 1-for-18 in his other five games.  As a Twin, Wilson Ramos hit .296/.321/.407 in 27 at-bats.  Sent back to Rochester, he struggled for a while, but got things going in July, raising his average to .241.  On July 29, 2010, he was traded to Washington with Joe Testa for Matt Capps.  He was sent to AAA Syracuse, hit well, and got a September call-up.  He was the mostly-regular catcher for the Nationals in 2011 and had a fine year, finishing fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting.  Things then have not always gone well for him, although it really hasn’t been his fault.  He was kidnapped in Venezuela after the 2011 season, and fortunately he was released unharmed.  He played in only 25 games in 2012 before tearing his ACL, an injury which ended his season.  He missed a couple more months in 2013 and has missed about that same amount of time in 2014.  He played a full season in 2015, but had by far the worst season of his career.  At that time, we wrote "all the injuries of the past may be taking their toll...It's hard to know where his career is going at this point."  Where his career was going was to the all-star game, as in 2016 he is had by far the best season of his career.  He batted .307 with an OPS of .850.  A free agent after the season, he signed with Tampa Bay for 2017.  Unfortunately he was injured again and missed the first half of the season with, again, a torn ACL.  He came back in late June, but was hit in the head by a broken bat in late July and needed six stitches.  He was decent, but no more, the rest of the season.  He came back in 2018 and had an excellent first half, getting named to the all-star team again, but then injured his hamstring.  He came back from that and was traded to Philadelphia at the July deadline, for whom he played quite well.  A free agent after the season, he signed with the Mets and stayed healthy all of 2019.  He wasn't an all-star, but he still had a fine season.  He had a down year in 2020, however, and became a free agent.  He signed with Detroit for 2021, did not hit, was injured again, and was released in late June.  He signed with Cleveland a couple of weeks later and got nine major league games with them before tearing his ACL.  He became a free agent after the season and did not sign until August of 2022, playing in three games of AAA with the Texas Rangers before being released three weeks later.  In 2023 he played in the Atlantic League and the Mexican League.  He played winter ball last season and did well, but does not appear to be playing in 2024.  He was generally a fine player when healthy, but unfortunately he was never able to stay healthy.  We wish Wilson Ramos well in whatever his future may hold.

August 9

This is a reprint from last year, which was a reprint from the year before.

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)
Steve Lomasney (1977)
Drew Butera (1983)
Jason Heyward (1989)
Kyle Cody (1994).

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.

Kyle Cody was drafted by the Twins in the second round in 2015 but did not sign.

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, he worked for the Fox Valley Sports Academy of Elgin, Illinois.  Bill Campbell passed away from cancer in Palatine, Illinois on January 6, 2023.

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 beginning in 2013 he was in the Atlanta Braves organization, last serving as the batting coach of AAA Gwinnett before his retirement in 2018.  At last report, John Moses was living in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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 and hockey for Kingswood Oxford preparatory 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 Steven James Lomasney did not play for the Twins, but was in their farm system for about four months in 2006.  He was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, went to high school in Peabody, Massachusetts, and was drafted by Boston in the fifth round in 1995.  He was not too bad in the low minors, hitting 20 homers or more in consecutive seasons in 1998-1999.  In 1999, after hitting .259 with twenty home runs in a season split between Class A and AA, Lomasney got a September call-up.  He made his major league debut in the last game of the season, replacing Jason Varitek in the fifth inning.  He went 0-for-2, striking out against B. J. Ryan and Brian Falkenborg.  Unfortunately, that was Lomasney’s major league swan song as well, as he never got back to the major leagues.  He struggled when he got to AAA, posting a batting average of .220 and an OPS of .590 with seven home runs in 631 career AAA at-bats.  He suffered a serious eye injury near the end of 2001 when he was struck by a batted ball and his eyesight never fully recovered, which partly explains his struggles in the high minors. He became a free agent after the 2002 season and signed with Baltimore for 2003.  After one year in their farm system, he moved on to the Cincinnati chain for 2004-2005.  He signed with Minnesota for 2006, spending most of the season at New Britain with ten at-bats in Rochester.  The Twins released him in August 3, bringing his playing career to an end.  At last report, Steve Lomasney owned The Show, a baseball and softball academy in Lawrence, Massachusetts.  He is also the coach of an under-fifteen baseball team which won the New England championship in 2010 and finished second in the national AAU championship for under-sixteen (there was no under-fifteen division).

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 .224/.303/.340–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 eight 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 had 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.  He went back to batting below .200 in 2018 and was traded to Colorado at the end of August.  He started 2019 with the Rockies but was sent back to AAA on May 1, coming back as a September call-up.  He was again with the Rockies in 2020, then became a free agent.  He signed with Texas for 2021, was released in late March, and signed with the Angels in early May.  He was in the majors for about three weeks, then went to AAA, where he remained.  His career major league line is .196/.252/.290 in 1337 at-bats.  He became a free agent after the 2021 season, went unsigned, and is catching coach for the Los Angeles Angels.

August 8

This is a reprint from last year.

Jocko Milligan (1861)
Cupid Childs (1867)
Cecil Travis (1913)
Ken Raffensberger (1917)
Johnny Temple (1927)
Frank Howard (1936)
Jose Cruz (1947)
Mike Ivie (1947)
Al Woods (1953)
Ray Fontenot (1957)
Dave Meier (1959)
Ron Karkovice (1963)
Matt Whiteside (1967)
Craig Breslow (1980)
Anthony Rizzo (1989)

Outfielder Alvis Woods appeared in twenty-three games for the Twins in 1986.  Born and raised in Oakland, he attended Laney College in Oakland, went to the University of San Francisco, and was drafted by the Twins in the June Secondary Draft of 1972.  He was in the Twins' minor league system for four seasons, going up a level a year and reaching AAA in 1976.  He posted good batting averages and good OBPs in the minors, but showed little power with the exception of 1973, when he improbably hit eighteen home runs for Class A Wisconsin Rapids.  He was taken by Toronto in the expansion draft and was their regular left fielder in their inaugural season of 1977.  He did about as much as you could reasonably expect him to do, batting .284 with an OBP of .336 but a slugging average of just .382.  He batted just .241 in 1978 and spent some time back in AAA, but came back in 1979 to reclaim the starting left field job with an average of .278.  He had his best season in 1980, batting .300 with fifteen home runs and an OPS of .844.  He apparently was dealing with some sort of injury the last month of the season, though, because despite his fine season he was mostly used as a pinch-hitter or DH throughout September.  He was only twenty-six at that point, and probably people thought he had taken a big step forward.  Unfortunately, he went backward after that.  He batted just .241 in 1981, and by 1982 the Blue Jays started using people like Jesse Barfield and Lloyd Moseby, leaving Woods behind.  He was traded to Oakland after the 1982 season, but was released late in spring training and signed back with Toronto.  He spent 1983 and 1984 in AAA, where he was okay but not really anything special.  He was a free agent after the 1984 season, and somebody in the Twins organization apparently still liked him, because the Twins signed him for 1985.  He had a good year in AAA Toledo for them that year, and in 1986 got about a month and a half with the big club, playing for them for two weeks in May and then getting a September call-up.  He was used almost exclusively as a pinch-hitter and did quite well in that role, batting .321/.375/.571 with two home runs in just twenty-eight at-bats.  He was thirty-two by then, though, and the Twins were ready to get serious about trying to win, so Woods became a free agent again.  He spent 1987 in the Mexican League, then retired.  It was not a bad career:  618 major league games, nearly 2000 at-bats, batted .271/.326/.387.  He became a deputy sheriff in San Francisco after leaving baseball, a position he held until his retirement at the end of 2020.

Left-hander Silton Ray Fontenot appeared in 15 games for the Twins in 1986.  He was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, went to high school in LaGrange, Louisiana, and was drafted by Texas in the 34th round in 1979.  He was traded to the Yankees in October of that year in a multi-player deal that included, among others Mickey Rivers, Oscar Gamble, and Gene Nelson.  He pitched quite well in the minors, especially when he was moved to the bullpen in 1983.  He made it to the majors that year and spent two years with the Yankees, pitching pretty well in relief, before being traded to the Cubs in the 1984-85 off-season in another multi-player deal which included, among others, Ron Hassey and Henry Cotto.  After a year and a half in Chicago, he was traded to Minnesota along with Julius McDougal and George Frazier for Dewayne Coleman and Ron Davis.  He appeared in fifteen games for the Twins that year, getting no wins, losses, or saves in 16.1 innings with a 9.92 ERA.  The Twins released him after the season.  He signed with the Giants before the 1987 season, but did not make it out of spring training.  Houston picked him up, but released him after he pitched poorly in AAA, and he did not appear in organized baseball again.  Ray Fontenot moved back to Lake Charles, Louisiana and was a business development manager for Polaris Engineering and Construction until his retirement in January of 2023.

Outfielder David Keith Meier played for the Twins in 1984-1985.  He was born in Helena, Montana, went to high school in Fresno, California, attended Stanford, and was drafted by Minnesota in the fifth round in 1981.  He hit well at all of his minor league stops, posting an average of well over .300 every year but one.  He hit .336 in AAA Toledo in 1983 and made the Twins out of spring training in 1984.  He was with the Twins for two full seasons, but struggled to get playing time in an outfield that featured Kirby Puckett, Tom Brunansky, and Mickey Hatcher.  He batted .247/.317/.323 with the Twins in 251 at-bats.  Meier was released by the Twins after the 1985 season, and was out of baseball in 1986 before attempting a comeback with the Rangers in 1987.  He hit .320 with 18 homers at AAA Oklahoma City, but got only a September call-up and was allowed to become a free agent after the season.  He was traded to the Cubs for the 1988 season and again had a tremendous year in AAA, hitting .305 with 20 homers in AAA Iowa, but again got only a September call-up.  After that he apparently decided to call it quits, as his playing career came to an end.  At last report, Dave Meier was the chief baseball consultant for Equity Sports and was living in Fresno.

Left-hander Craig Andrew Breslow was with the Twins for part of the 2008-2009 seasons and again for part of the 2017 season.  He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, went to high school in Trumbull, Connecticut, and was drafted by Milwaukee in the twenty-sixth round in 2002.  A reliever throughout his career, he did very well in rookie ball in 2002 but struggled when promoted to Class A in 2003.  The Brewers released him in July of 2004 and he finished the year playing for independent New Jersey.  San Diego signed him in March of 2005, and after pitching very well in AA and decently in a brief stint at AAA, he reached the majors in July 0f 2005.  Breslow became a free agent after that season and signed with Boston.  He spent most of his two years with the Red Sox in AAA, although he got into thirteen games with the big club in 2006.  He was waived in March of 2008 and selected by Cleveland.  He appeared in only seven games for the Indians before being waived again, and was chosen by Minnesota.  He pitched very well for the Twins in 2008 and not so well in early 2009.  The Twins put him on waivers in May of 2009 and he was chosen by Oakland, where he pitched quite well.  He stayed there through the end of 2011, then was traded to Arizona.  He did a good job for the Diamondbacks, but was again traded at the end of July, this time to Boston, where he stayed through the 2015 season.  He pitched extremely well through 2013, but not so well after that.  He signed with Miami for 2016, was released in July, and signed with Texas, for whom he made three appearances in AAA and was released again.  At that time, we wrote, "He has not had a good year since 2013, and he turns 36 today...one suspects that the playing career of Craig Breslow is nearly at its end".  The Twins thought they knew better and signed him for 2017.  It turned out we were right:  he went 1-1, 5.23, 1.61 WHIP and was released in late July.  He signed with Cleveland in August of 2017 and appeared in seven games (4.1 innings).  He signed with Toronto for 2018, was released at the end of March, but was signed again in early April.  He did not pitch well in the minors for them, either at AA or AAA, and his playing career came to an end after that season.  As a Twin, he was 2-5, 3.75, 1.31 WHIP with 1 save in 84 innings (89 games).  He joined the Chicago Cubs front office after retiring and was an assistant general manager until October of 2023, when he became the Chief Baseball Officer for the Boston Red Sox.