<— DEC 30     JAN 01 —>

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1842 Tom Berry

Civil War veteran who played professionally in Philadelphia after the war but gets in your encyclopedia for playing six innings of one game for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1871.

1852 Alfred Metcalfe

One of Brooklyn’s pioneer baseball players, Alfred Tristram Metcalfe is in your baseball encyclopedia because he played eight games with the New York Mutuals of the National Association in 1875, playing third, short, and right field.  He also played on a very good Chelsea Base Ball Club in Brooklyn that was a championship level amateur team in the 1870s.

1857 Michael Joseph “King” Kelly

Matinee idol ballplayer of the 1880s, a Hall of Famer, the subject of a book by Marty Appel called Slide, Kelly, Slide, and the subject of a biography on the SABR website, too.

1861 Jerry McCormick
1861 Walt Goldsby
1863 Pete Sweeney
1870 Tommy Connolly
1879 Fred Beebe
1884 Bobby Byrne
1891 Charlie Flanagan
1894 Elmer Wilson
1894 Jim Murray
1894 Joe Berry
1899 Willie Spearman
1900 Syl Johnson
1907 Bill Freeman
1911 Alfred Saylor
1918 John (Fats) Dantonio
1918 Al Lakeman
1919 Tommy Byrne
1919 Loyd Christopher
1924 Ted Gray
1933 Ken Rowe
1947 Manny Muniz
1951 Joe Simpson
1953 Jose Baez
1955 Jim Tracy
1961 Rick Aguilera
1961 Steve Engel
1961 Donell Nixon
1965 Sil Campusano
1971 Brian Moehler
1971 Esteban Loaiza
1975 Sam McConnell
1977 Chris Reitsma
1980 Jesse Carlson
1982 Julio DePaula
1982 Ronald Belisario
1985 Evan Reed
1986 Nate Freiman
1988 Alex Colome
1989 Kelvin Herrera
1991 Ryan Yarbrough
1991 Kevin Kaczmarski
1992 Adam McCreery
1993 Miguel Sanchez
1994 Dawel Lugo
1995 Yaramil Hiraldo
1996 Jorge Ona
1997 Jose Hernandez
2000 Liover Peguero

OBITUARIES:

1898 Martin Duke
1903 Joe McGuckin
1905 Frank Bonner
1907 Jocko Flynn
1911 Pete Gilbert
1912 Charlie Sprague
1914 John Farrow
1914 John O’Brien
1915 Tip O’Neill
1925 Denny Sullivan
1927 Jack Sharrott
1933 Jim Donnelly
1936 Doc Casey
1944 Bill Chappelle
1954 Tom Raftery
1955 Clint Brown
1958 Jack Doyle
1961 Dutch Lieber
1962 Del Mason
1962 Al Mamaux
1963 Bill Batsch
1963 Junie Barnes
1964 Doc Wallace
1964 Bobby Byrne
1964 Red Rollings
1967 Shovel Hodge
1968 Anastasio Santaella
1972 Roberto Clemente

One of the first sport deaths to really shock me – he perished in a plane crash helping to take supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

He nearly died in a car wreck on the same day in 1954 when his car was nailed by a drunk driver. He had back issues the rest of his career.

1978 Tod Davis
1980 Bob Shawkey
1986 Provine Bradley
1988 Wes Flowers
1994 Jack Shepard
1996 Sam Narron
1999 Harry Kimberlin
1999 Larry Bearnarth
2000 Fritz Dorish
2003 Max West
2004 Charlie Cozart
2006 Marv Breeding
2015 Vern Rapp

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!

There were no games or events (beyond births, deaths, or transactions) worthy of note.

TRANSACTION WIRE:

1916 The White Sox released the oft-injured Ed Walsh.

1966 The Braves send Eddie Mathews, Arnold Umbrach and (later) Sandy Alomar to the Astros for Dave Nicholson and Bob Bruce.

1974 The Yankees win the bidding war for Catfish Hunter.

1990 Oakland sells veteran Scott Sanderson to the Yankees.