BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1847 George Wright
1854 Dick Lowe
1866 Charlie Petty
1868 Dan Sweeney
“Little Sweeney, who is a Louisville boy, attracted a great deal of attention. His head reaches up to the waist of a man of average height, but what he lacks in height he makes up tenfold in ability.”
“Are Winners,” Louisville Courier-Journal, April 15, 1895: 2.
Daniel Joseph Sweeney was the fifth of five children born in Philadelphia to Patrick and Mary (Larkins) Sweeney on January 28, 1868. (Census records suggest he was born in Kentucky, and when he registered to vote in California whilst a minor leaguer there, he said he was born in Kentucky.) Patrick and Mary were grocers – Mary taking over after Patrick died and, before that, when she wasn’t also being a parent. As you can tell, they were both Irish – though Mary was born on the Emerald Isle and Patrick’s parents were the immigrants in the family…
As a baseball player, Sweeney was known for his lack of height. He’s listed at 5′-5″, but a thick 160 pounds. He used that height (or lack of it) to his advantage. In his lone season with Louisville, he had 17 walks to just 2 strikeouts, batting .267 in his 90 at bats. However, his OBP was excellent (.389) and he scored 18 runs in his 22 games. He slumped as Louisville fell apart; the team lost 31 of their first 37 games. When their manager was fired, Sweeney was released – but the writing was already on the wall. The Louisville papers called him “Midget,” and in his six weeks as a Colonel he began as a leadoff hitter and the moved toward the bottom of the lineup before he was released in early June.
Sweeney was a minor league nomad, playing ball on both coasts – he spent four seasons in the California League, played in low level leagues in Pennsylvania, and, after he was released by Louisville, spent time with Syracuse. He also played on amateur teams throughout Kentucky.
Sweeney died in his home on July 13, 1913 – he was 45. According to his death certificate, the cause was gastritis – so he had ulcers or some other problem that inflamed his stomach. Anyway… At the time Sweeney was the groundskeeper for the baseball stadium in Louisville, a job he got through a long relationship with Joe Cantillon.
1880, 1900 US Census
KY Death Certificates
California Voting Records
“Old Paducah Player Dies in Louisville,” Paducah News-Democrat, July 25, 1913: 6.
1869 James William (Ducky) Holmes
1874 Al Burris
1882 Frank Arellanes
1884 Tom Hughes
1887 Jack Coffey
1891 Bill Doak
1893 Guy Cooper
1896 Mitchell Murray
1897 Percy Miller
1898 Bill Snyder
1898 Jim Bishop
1900 Ernest Duff
1900 Emil Yde
1901 Ray Knode
1901 Chancellor Edwards
1902 Clifford Rankin (Pat) Crawford
1902 Jackie Gallagher
1904 Clarence Casper (Dutch) Hoffman
1905 Art Hancock
1906 Lyn Lary
1913 Joe Kohlman
1914 Alf Anderson
1916 Marion Brooks (Pat) Tobin
1916 Bob Muncrief
1919 Jeff Sheldon
1920 Jimmy Wilson
1921 Julio Moreno
1922 Hank Arft
1927 Carlos Bernier
1928 Pete Runnels
1934 Bill White
1950 Larvell Blanks
1955 Joe Beckwith
1960 Stu Pederson
1963 Gary Mielke
1964 Fredi Gonzalez
1971 Kevin Tolar
1972 Tsuyoshi Shinjo
1972 Bryan Ward
1972 Steve Falteisek
1972 Chris Peters
1973 Jacob Cruz
1974 Magglio Ordonez
1974 Jermaine Dye
1974 Oscar Henriquez
1975 Junior Spivey
1976 Rod Lindsey
1977 Lyle Overbay
1977 Bob File
1978 Tomas de la Rosa
1979 Phil Seibel
1981 Doug Waechter
1983 Elizardo Ramirez
1985 Wesley Wright
1986 Brandon Guyer
1986 Nate Jones
1987 Jose Ceda
1988 A. J. Griffin
1992 Hunter Renfroe
1993 Zac Reininger
1996 Jorge Guzman
1997 Ke’Bryan Hayes
1998 Matt Manning
2002 Luis Matos
OBITUARIES:
1898 Ned Connor
1905 Len Stockwell
1928 Jake Thielman
1929 Al Strueve
1934 John Kane
1938 Bill Hill
1938 Pop Rising
1939 Bill Cristall
1941 Lou Johnson
1946 Pat Flaherty
1949 Frank Naleway
1953 Howie Haworth
1955 Bill Calhoun
1956 Barry McCormick
1959 Walter Beall
1960 Bill Warren
1961 Red Kelly
1961 Red Oldham
1962 Steve Melter
1965 Billy Sullivan
1970 Orie Arntzen
1973 Thad Christoper
1974 Paul Fittery
1978 Larry Raines
1982 Henry Peploski
1982 Marion Cunningham
1982 Hub Pruett
1982 Paul Schreiber
1983 Joe Chamberlain
1984 Ray Harrell
1985 Bobby Young
1986 Tom Grubbs
1988 Al Rubeling
1989 Stan Partenheimer
1993 Vern Kennedy
1996 Pedro Miro
2000 Ted Gullic
2001 Curt Blefary
2006 Stan Galle
2006 Frank Campos
2009 Gene Corbett
2010 Frank Baker
2013 Lon Goldstein
2013 Earl Williams
2015 Rocky Bridges
2020 Don Hasenmeyer
2020 Narciso Elvira
Elvira was a lefty starter from Mexico who was signed after the Brewers had success with fellow Mexican lefty, Ted Higuera. Elvira appreciated having Higuera on the staff, especially in spring training. Anyway… Elvira was plucked out of the Mexican League as a teen and worked his way through the Milwaukee farm system, including a season in A ball where he allowed only 87 hits in 135.1 innings. He made it to the bigs briefly in 1990, getting four relief appearances. He went back the minors, eventually pitched in Japanese, Korean, and Mexican Leagues before finally calling it a career in the late 1990s. When he retired, he owned a farm in Veracruz that employed a number of people – but his local wealth made him a target for drug cartels. He spent 23 days in the captivity of Mexican gangs in 2015, until he was found chained to a tree. In 2020, gangs shot Narciso and his son, Gustavo, in Medellin de Bravo.
YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!
1958 Roy Campanella was heading home from his liquor store when he hit a telephone pole. The injuries sustained leave Campanella paralyzed for the rest of his life.
TRANSACTION WIRE:
1967 January Draft Day!!! First rounders included Ken Singleton (Mets), Carlton Fisk (Boston), and Johnny Oates (Baltimore).
1982 Baltimore sends Doug DeCinces and Jeff Schneider to the Angles for Dan Ford.
1987 Milwaukee signs Aussie amateur free agent Dave Nilsson.
Mighty Casey Baseball 
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