BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1860 Abner Powell
1863 Bill Van Dyke
1868 George Hemming
1878 Walt Slagle
1882 Nig Clarke
1884 Joe Nealon
1888 Mike Prendergast
1902 Frank Watt
1906 Tom Kane
1910 George Stumpf
1919 Ken Trinkle
Ken Trinkle survived the Battle of the Bulge to lead the NL in appearances in 1946 and 1947 for the Giants. He wasn’t a strikeout guy – he threw a sinker changing the arm angle depending on the hitter (overhand to lefties, sidearmed to righties) that got him groundball outs. For a while, it worked. When it didn’t he returned to his farm in Paoli, IN.
1920 Eddie Robinson
1923 Bill Bonness
1929 Ray Herbert
1930 Haywood Sullivan
1931 Sammy Esposito
1944 Jim Leyland
1944 Stan Bahnsen
1945 Gil Blanco
1946 Art Howe
1947 Ken Crosby
1948 Doug Rau
1950 Chuck Hockenbery
1950 Mike Proly
1951 Jimmy Sexton
1952 Bud Bulling
1967 Mo Vaughn
1970 Robert Ellis
1970 Rick Helling
1971 Hector Ramirez
1975 Edgard Clemente
1976 Aaron Miles
1978 Michael Wuertz
1979 Kevin Cameron
1981 Andy Gonzalez
1981 Luis Montanez
1984 Cole Garner
1984 James Houser
1986 Nick Buss
1987 Scott Copeland
1988 Ryan Pressly
1990 Trevor Hildenberger
1991 Kyle Crockett
1991 Ryan Eades
1996 Joey Bart
OBITUARIES:
1892 John Shetzline
I can’t totally make out what it says on the American Mechanics Cemetery burial record, but the first word is heart… He was just 42 years old.
1914 Thomas Long
1915 Tony Murphy
1921 Joe Weber
1932 Bill Bishop
1940 Billy Hamilton
1944 Jim Chatterton
1945 Tom Hess
1949 Frank Hershey
1953 Ed Barrow
1958 Harry Heitmann
1961 William (Dummy) Hoy
1964 Paul Wachtel
1965 Dick Newsome
1968 Jim McLaughlin
1975 Buster Chatham
1979 Stan Hack
1981 Tom Glass
1981 Jack Wisner
1984 George Tomer
1990 Bill Otis
1992 Dick Mulligan
1998 Johnny Riddle
1999 Eddie Kazak
2000 Bubba Floyd
2002 Dick Stuart
2003 Garvin Hamner
2010 Bob Feller
2011 Andy Carey
2019 Rex Johnston
Looking at the list, that’s a lot of historically significant players dying on 12/15…
YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THAT!!!
1896 Charles Hinton demonstrates the first pitching machine. The Princeton Professor’s contraption looks like a rifle of sorts…
TRANSACTION WIRE:
1900 New York sends washed up Amos Rusie, who didn’t want to play for New York anyway, to Cincinnati for Christy Mathewson.
1905 Chicago sends four players and cash to Brooklyn for Jimmy Sheckard.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh sends three players to Boston for Vic Willis.
1912 Joe Tinker and two others are sent to Cincinnati for Red Corriden and four others…
1920 New York sends Del Pratt, Muddy Ruhl, Hank Thormahlen, and Sammy Vick to Boston for Waite Hoyt, Wally Schang, Harry Harper, and Mike McNally.
1948 Brooklyn sends Pistol Pete Reiser to Boston for Mike McCormick and Nanny Fernandez.
1964 Los Angeles sends Frank Howard, Ken McMullen, Pete Richart, and Phil Ortega (and later Dick Nen) to the Senators for Claude Osteen, John Kennedy, and $100,000.
1967 Pittsburgh sends Woodie Fryman, Don Money, Bill Laxton and Harold Clem to Philadelphia for Jim Bunning.
Meanwhile, the White Sox send Tommy Agee and Al Weis to the Mets for Tommy Davis, Billy Wynne, Jack Fisher, and Buddy Booker.
1997 Florida sends Kevin Brown to the Padres for Derrek Lee, Rafael Medina, and Steve Hoff.
2003 Baltimore took Jose Bautista from the Pirates in the Rule 5 Draft.
Free Agent Signings!
1980 Dave Winfield (Yankees)
1990 Jack Clark (Boston), Bob Welch (Oakland)
1992 Wade Boggs (Yankees)
2012 Josh Hamilton (Angels)
2015 Jason Heyward (Cubs)
Mighty Casey Baseball 