February 2

Orval Overall (1881)

George Halas (1895)

Willie Kamm (1900)

Wes Ferrell (1908)

Red Schoendienst (1923)

George Toma (1929)

Don Buford (1937)

Max Alvis (1938)

Dale Murray (1950)

John Tudor (1954)

Pat Tabler (1958)

Buddy Biancalana (1960)

Scott Erickson (1968)

Melvin Mora (1972)

Ronny Cedeno (1983)

Jason Vargas (1983)

Brad Peacock (1988)

Logan Darnell (1989)
Matthew Boyd (1991)

Better known as a football coach, George Halas was an outfielder and played in 12 games for the Yankees in 1919.

Groundskeeper George Toma is a charter member of the Groundskeepers' Hall of Fame.  It is hoped that he will eventually be a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame as well.

Right-hander Scott Gavin Erickson pitched for the Twins from 1990-1995.  Born in Long Beach, California, he attended high school in Cupertino, California and then went to the University of Arizona.  He was drafted by the Twins in the fourth round in 1989.  Erickson pitched very well in the minors, but did not stay there long, making his major league debut in June of 1990.  He was apparently ready, as he went 8-4, 2.87 in seventeen starts at age 22.  The next year was the best of his career:  he was 20-7, 3.18, made the all-star team, finished second in Cy Young voting, and was seventeenth in MVP balloting.  He also began to experience some arm trouble, a problem that would plague him the rest of his career.  He had another solid year in 1992, but then his effectiveness as a Twin was pretty much over.  Erickson had back-to-back seasons with an ERA over five, leading the league in losses in 1993.  His ERA was again over five in July of 1995 when he was traded to Baltimore for Scott Klingenbeck and a player to be named later (Kimera Bartee).  He struggled at first as an Oriole but then got things back together, going 16-7, 3.69 in 1997.  In 1998, Erickson led the league in starts, complete games, and innings pitched.  He was still decent in 1999, but after that seven years of pitching over 200 innings (plus another when he pitched 196) finally took their toll.  He struggled through an injury-plagued 2000 campaign, going 5-8 in the three months that he was healthy enough to pitch.  Erickson missed all of 2001 due to injury, tried to comeback in 2002 and didn't pitch well, and missed all of 2003 due to injury.  He then struggled through three more years, pitching for the Mets and Rangers in 2004, the Dodgers in 2005, and the Yankees in 2006.  He also was in the minors for part of each of those seasons before finally calling it a career.  He attempted a comeback in 2008, but after pitching in Mexico decided he could not pitch well enough to continue.  As a Twin, Scott Erickson was 61-60, 4.22 in 153 starts and nearly a thousand innings.  He had his ups and downs, but at his best he was a very good pitcher.  He is a member of the University of Arizona Sports Hall of Fame.  He was the owner of a movie production company called HomeTeam Productions.  He was the pitching coach of the Carolina Mudcats (Cleveland, A) in 2012 and was the pitching coach of the AZL Indians in 2013.  Scott Erickson was a baseball broadcaster for the Pac-12 Network from 2015-2024.  In 2020, he was charged with reckless driving, allegedly as a result of a street race in which two children were killed by the other driver.  He denied any wrongdoing, and the case was resolved with Erickson making a public service announcement about the importance of safe driving.  He has, however, been named as a defendant in a civil suit which has not been resolved at last report.  Other than that, no information about what Scott Erickson is currently doing is readily available.

Left-hander Logan Reece Darnell appeared in seven games for the Twins in 2014.  He was born in Nashville, went to high school in Madison, Tennessee, attended the University of Kentucky, and was drafted by Minnesota in the sixth round in 2010.  He was promoted to AA in 2011 despite not having been all that impressive at lower levels.  Not surprisingly, it took him a while to have success there.  He did well there in 2013, though, and was promoted to Rochester by mid-season.  He had a solid 2014 in Rochester and made seven appearances in the big leagues, getting a couple of brief callups during the season and another in September.  He pitched well in three relief appearances but not well at all in four starts.  Perhaps coincidentally, he moved to the bullpen in Rochester in 2015 and had another solid season, but was not called up to the Twins.  Returned to a starting role, he again pitched pretty well in Rochester in 2016, but was not called up and was sidelined in late July with a sore shoulder.  He became a free agent after the season.  He pitched in the Atlantic League until July, then finished the year in AA with Tampa Bay, not doing all that well.  He signed with Washington for 2018 but had an undistinguished year in AA.  In 2019 he pitched in the Mexican League and in the Atlantic League, not doing very well in either place.  He had a poor year in Tawian in 2020, although he did decently in Venezuelan Winter League this off-season. That, however, was the end of his playing career.  At last report, Logan Darnell was an assistant baseball coach for Davidson Academy in Nashville.

February 1

Billy Sullivan (1875)

Rosey Rowswell (1884)

Candy Jim Taylor (1884)

Frank Lane (1896)

Carl Reynolds (1903)

Paul Blair (1944)

Danny Thompson (1947)

Mark Souza (1954)

Ernie Camacho (1955)

Cecilio Guante (1960)

Tim Naehring (1967)

Kent Mercker (1968)

Rich Becker (1972)

Brett Anderson (1988)

Sean Manaea (1992)

Rosey Rowswell was a broadcaster for Pittsburgh from 1936-1954.  Bob Prince considered Rowswell his mentor.

Candy Jim Taylor was a star player and manager in the Negro Leagues for many years.

Frank Lane was the general manager of the White Sox (1948-55), St. Louis (1956-57), Cleveland (1958-60), Kansas City (1961), and Milwaukee (1971-72).

Infielder Danny Leon Thompson played for Minnesota from 1970-1976.  He was born in Wichita, attended high school in Capron, Oklahoma, and went to college at Oklahoma State.  Thompson was drafted by the Twins in the first round in 1968.  He had a couple of good years in the lower minors, hitting .302 at AA Charlotte in 1969.  He was hitting only .247 in 1970 at AAA Evansville when he was called up to the Twins, putting the minors behind him for good.  He became the Twins' regular second baseman, replacing an injured Rod Carew, but unfortunately he couldn't hit like Carew, batting only .219 that year.  Thompson became a reserve in 1971, but got another crack at starting in 1972.  He had his best year as a big leaguer, batting .276.  He even got minor consideration for the MVP award that year, finishing 23rd in the voting.  It would turn out to be the only year he got even 400 at-bats in the majors.  He was still the mostly-regular shortstop in 1973, but missed significant time to injuries and hit only .225.  Before the 1974 season, Thompson was diagnosed with leukemia.  He continued to play baseball, however, and remained the Twins' primary shortstop through 1975, although he lost significant time to players like Jerry Terrell, Luis Gomez, and Sergio Ferrer.  His batting gradually came back in those years, and after hitting .270 in 1975 Thompson regained the everyday shortstop job.  He was the still the regular in 1976 when he was traded on the first of June to Texas along with Bert Blyleven for Mike Cubbage, Jim Gideon, Bill Singer, Roy Smalley, and $250,000.  As a Twin, Danny Thompson hit .251/.289/.316 in just over two thousand at-bats.  Thompson was used as a utility player in Texas for the remainder of the year, and then his playing career was over.  Sadly, Danny Thompson passed away from leukemia on December 10, 1976.  The following year, Harmon Killebrew helped found the Danny Thompson Memorial Golf Tournament, which is held in late August each year in Sun Valley, Idaho.  Since it's founding, the tournament has raised over ten million dollars for leukemia and cancer research.

Left-hander Kenneth Mark Souza did not play for the Twins, but was in their minor league system for two seasons.  He was born in Redwood City, California, and was drafted by Kansas City in the first round of the January draft in 1974.  He both started and relieved in his first pro season, but was primarily a relief pitcher after that.  He struggled in his first couple of pro seasons, but turned in a fine year in 1976 at Class A Waterloo when he was still only twenty-two.  The Twins chose him in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft and sent him to AA Orlando for 1977, where he went 5-4, 4.67, 1.41 WHIP in 28 appearances (81 innings).  He was apparently injured after that, because he missed all of the 1978 season, and after that season the Twins released him.  He signed with Oakland and was in their minor league system from 1979-1981, not pitching particularly well.  His best year with the Athletics was 1980, when he went 7-5, 3.35 in 41 appearances (86 innings) for AAA Ogden, but with a WHIP of 1.52.  He spent about a month in the majors that year, going 0-0, 7.71 in five appearances (seven innings) for Oakland.  At last report, Mark Souza was a district sales manager for Hyundai Motors America in Roseville, California.

Outfielder Richard Godhard Becker played for Minnesota in the mid-1990s.  He was born in Aurora, Illinois, and went to high school there.  He was drafted by the Twins in the third round in 1990.  He hit pretty well in the low minors, batting .316 with Class A Visalia in 1992, but also showed a propensity for striking out, doing so approximately 120 times each year in 1992 and 1993.  Despite that, he made his major league debut in September of 1993.  Becker started the 1994 season as the Twins' regular center fielder, but the Twins also had a guy named Puckett who could play center, so Becker was sent back to AAA at the end of April despite the fact that he was hitting .303.  He hit .316 at Salt Lake the rest of the season, and came back to the big leagues in September.  He started 1995 in Salt Lake, but was promoted to Minnesota in June and was once again the starting center fielder.  He didn't do much that year, but in 1996, Becker had his first full year in the majors and made the most of it, hitting .291 with 12 homers and 31 doubles.  It would be his best season:  in 1997, he dropped to .264 with 10 homers and 130 strikeouts, and that off-season he was traded to the Mets for Alex Ochoa.  The change did not do him good; placed in a reserve role, he batted only .190 and was placed on waivers in mid-June.  He was chosen by Baltimore and finished the season there, but did not do much better and was released.  He came back some after that, not doing too badly as a reserve outfielder for Milwaukee, Oakland, and Detroit during the 1999 and 2000 seasons.  Becker went back to the minors in 2001, playing AAA for Detroit and Florida, and played in the Northern League in 2002 before ending his career.  As a Twin, Rich Becker hit .267/.349/.379 in nearly fifteen hundred at-bats.  At last report, he was living in Cape Coral, Florida.