<— JUNE 19     JUNE 21 —>

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1845 Ned Cuthbert
1849 George Heubel
1874 Win Mercer
1879 Jim Delahanty
1885 Ed Hendricks
1886 Rip Hagerman
1889 Ed Warner
1890 Ed Wilkinson
1890 Cumberland Posey
1890 Charlie Grover
1894 Tom Fiall
1894 Namon Washington
1898 Duke Shirey
1901 Pryor McBee
1902 Wayland Dean
1905 Fred McBride
1908 Billy Werber
1919 Bill Clemensen
1920 Red Barbary
1925 Clem Koshorek
1928 Bob Mahoney
1928 Art Schult
1929 Wally Burnette
1930 Rod Graber
1932 Cuno Barragan
1941 Luis Alcaraz
1943 Andy Etchebarren
1944 Dave Nelson
1945 Ray Newman
1953 Tony Chevez
1956 Larry Monroe
1958 Dickie Thon
1958 Phil Huffman
1960 Larry See
1960 Doug Gwosdz (Nickname: Eyechart)
1961 Gary Varsho
1970 Mike Grace
1972 Juan Castro
1972 Paul Bako
1973 Rickey Cradle
1976 Carlos Lee
1976 Rob Mackowiak
1978 Kevin Gregg
1978 Bobby Seay
1979 Cory Vance
1979 Scott Patterson
1983 Kendrys Morales
1984 Cole Gillespie
1985 Brooks Brown
1991 Rymer Liriano
1991 Jaime Schultz
1993 Adalberto Mejia
1994 Thomas Eshelman
1995 Felix Bautista
1996 Touki Toussaint
2000 Abner Uribe
2000 Ronny Hernandez

OBITUARIES:

1889 Pat McGee

“Patrick McGee, a New York policeman, died Thursday from erysipelas caused by a spider’s bite. McGee was an athlete and in perfect health until he was bitten by a spider four days ago.”

“Telegrams in Brief,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, June 22, 1889: 1.

1890 John Weyhing

Consumption, one of the scourges of that period, took him.  His brother, Gus, won 264 games in his major league career, while John was just getting started when he got sick. John saw MLB for action in 1888 and 1889 for Cincinnati and then Columbus of the American Association – only making one MLB start for Columbus in 1889. His career was derailing at the time – he was suspended for drunkeness in May, then released.  He landed at Davenport, Iowa – then later in the year was struck by tuberculosis.  I saw an article where he was thought to have died in November, 1889.

John was four days shy of his 21st birthday when he passed to the next league.

1907 Ezra Sutton

His story is a sad one – business failures, the death of a child, locomotor ataxia turning him into an invalid, and watching his wife die in a fire when, confined to a chair, he couldn’t help her.  Eventually the locomotor ataxia killed him.

Every once in a while you see something that catches your eye when reading an old newspaper. This comes from the Boston Globe announcing the death of 1870s and 1880s third baseman Ezra Sutton, a fine player for a long period of time.

“Before coming to Boston Sutton always batted cross-handed, but when he came to the Hub, where the new style of pitching was introduced, his style of batting caused him to hit too many fly balls, so he changed it and became a very fair hitter.”

I remember that Henry Aaron was a cross-handed hitter for some time before switching to a conventional grip – that was before he was a major leaguer. Ezra Sutton made the switch mid-career.

“Ezra Sutton, Famous Old Player, Is Dead,” Boston Globe, June 20, 1907: 4.

1909 Rudy Kemmler
1926 Tuffy Stewart
1930 Harry Bauchman
1938 Pat Newnam
1947 Bob Ewing
1952 John Kalahan
1957 Cy Warmoth
1961 Al Bergman
1966 Denney Wilie
1974 Bob Way
1976 Blix Donnelly
1976 Lou Klein
1978 Bill Dietrich
1978 Stack Martin
1983 Gil Britton
1994 Norm Wallen
2001 Bob Keegan
2002 Cecil Cole
2006 Billy Johnson
2010 Felix Guilbe
2022 Hal Gilson
2022 Joe Staton

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!

1925 Max Carey’s four for six day includes completing the cycle.

1980 – A game my friend, Andy Finch, remembers well… Angels shortstop Fred Patek blasts three homers against the Red Sox as Los Angeles wins, 20 – 2.

2015 Max Scherzer tops the Pirates and throws a no-hitter. It was a perfect game into the ninth when, with two outs, Jose Tabata leans into a pitch (doesn’t move his body and ducks his elbow into the pitch) and gets plunked.

TRANSACTION WIRE:

1901 Philadelphia (NL) purchased an aging Hughie Jennings from Brooklyn for $3000.

1950 The New York Giants signed amateur free agent (Negro League player) Willie Mays.

1958 Los Angeles signed amateur outfielder Willie Davis.

1965 Pittsburgh signed amateur infielder Don Money.