<— FEBRUARY 22     FEBRUARY 24 —>

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1865 Barney Dreyfuss

Took over the Louisville Colonels in the late 1890s, leveraged a purchase of the Pittsburgh Pirates and then merged the talent on both teams to create one of the great teams of the first two decades of the NL. Not every owner should be in the Hall of Fame, but until I see a reason why he shouldn’t be in there, I think he was one of the really good ones.

1865 Roscoe Coughlin
1868 Lew Camp

Born Robert Plantegenet Llewellan Camp…

1874 Billy Lauder
1877 Rudy Hulswitt
1877 Grant Thatcher
1887 Lou Lowdermilk
1890 John Black
1890 Lee Gooch
1893 Jim O’Neill
1894 Jose Rodriguez (El Hombre Goma)
1895 Gus Sandberg
1903 Roy Johnson
1905 Les Barnhart
1908 Bob Boken
1908 Ray Brown
1914 Pedro Pages
1914 Mike Tresh
1914 Lynn Myers
1916 Eddie “Truck” Kearse
1918 Jim Carlin
1918 Hillis Layne
1920 Roy Valdes
1924 Phil Haugstad
1929 Elston Howard

Hero of many Yankee teams, and then joined the 1967 Red Sox when they needed him. I wish I could have seen him play as I am certain I would have been a fan of his.

1932 Jim Bolger
1941 Gordy Lund
1941 Ron Hunt

How many of this group hit the guy with a pitch?

1944 Don Shaw
1946 Ken Boswell
1953 Fred Kuhaulua
1957 Jim Anderson
1958 John Shelby
1958 Juan Agosto
1959 Eddie Vargas
1961 John Morris
1961 Mike Smith
1963 Bobby Bonilla

Long since retired, but still (famously) collecting a check from the Mets (Bonilla deferred a bunch of salary and enjoys a comfortable retirement). A professional hitter everywhere and for twenty years.

1969 Frank Charles
1972 Rondell White

Came up with the Expos – I loved the Expo teams of that era, and White was one of my favorites.

1973 Jason Boyd
1975 Dave Maurer
1976 Scott Elarton
1978 Luke Prokopec
1979 Chris Aguila
1983 Edgar Gonzalez
1989 Wilin Rosario
1990 Jaff Decker
1994 Joe McCarthy
1998 Caleb Freeman
1999 Elvis Alvarado

OBITUARIES:

1898 Edward Cramer

Cramer played two games for the New York Giants in 1883, batting seven times. He walked once, failed to get a hit, and struck out five times.

Phthisis Pulmonalis took him to the next league, per his NY Death Certificate, and he was buried in Lutheran Cemetery (now All Faiths Cemetery) in Middle Villate, New York.

1900 Nate Berkenstock

Berkenstock played a single game with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1871, pulled out of the stands to play in his first game in, like four years, but he played in a lot of games as a near professional with other clubs (including the Athletics) prior to that… Like Cramer, above, he fanned in all but one of his four outs. However, he played a flawless right field with three putouts. Berkenstock appeared in an October 30, 1871 game as a 39-year-old (and some sources, including military files, suggest he was born in 1831, so he might have been 40). Either way, the earliest known birthdate of any major league baseball player belongs to Berkenstock, whether he was born in 1831 or on September 17, 1832.

By the way, Berkenstock’s running catch of a long fly to right for the final out with two runners on base that saved that 1871 game, earning Philadelphia the pennant over the White Stockings. (Some box scores noted that he played the game under the name of Pratt.)

Anyway – Berkenstock was a known quantity in a number of social circles, including musical associations, choirs, and the national guard. Before his baseball career, he served in Company F of the 7th Pennsylvania Infantry during the Great War for Slavery (but for a very short term).

The wholesale hat seller died after suffering from Bright’s Disease and is buried in Mount Peach Cemetery in Philadelphia.

“Base Ball,” Chicago Tribune, November 3, 1871: 1.
“Nathan Berkenstock Dead,” Philadelphia Times, February 25, 1900: 3
“Death of a Native Born of Lehigh County in Philadelphia,” Allentown Democrat, March 7, 1900: 2.
Berkenstock image clipped from here

1914 Nat Jewett

Working as a letter carrier, clerk or laborer for the remainder of his days, lobar pneumonia took Nathan Jewett to the next league.

1922 C. I. Taylor

In terms of managers, Charles Isham Taylor is in your inner circle – not just amongst the Negro Leagues, but all of baseball. And yet, for some reason, isn’t in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. We need to fix that. The Taylor family was a significant contributor to Negro League Baseball – they were the Delahantys of the Negro Leagues…

Taylor was ill for about three weeks and people didn’t think much of it, but then he passed.

“C. I. Taylor, Baseball Magnate and Business Man Passes Away,” St. Louis Argus, March 3, 1922: 7.

After his death, his wife ran the Indianapolis ABCs for three seasons.

“Fair, just, competent, he was not only a representative of integrity of strict impariality and inflexible judgment, but he succeeded by sheer force of character, in impressing his own personality upon it all with whom he came in contact, in a manner that but few men have been able to do.

Dave Wyatt, “Champion of Cleanness,” St. Louis Argus, March 3, 1922: 7.

1922 Pickles Dillhoefer
1926 Hi Church
1928 Jack Ridgway
1944 Al Bauer
1947 George Brickley
1955 Bill Tozer
1956 Pete Loos
1961 Davey Crockett
1967 Chaney White
1968 Hank Schreiber
1969 Bubbles Hargrave
1969 Bill Swift
1978 Vic Harris
1981 Myrl Brown
1988 Pete Donohue
1993 Joe Hutcheson
1996 Gordon Goldsberry
1998 Ray Stoviak
2009 Joe Tepsic
2015 Jim King
2020 Ramon Conde
2025 Bobby Malkmus

Malkmus died at 93 after a long career as player, minor league coach, and scout.

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!

1960 Using a wrecking ball painted to look like a baseball, the demolition of Ebbets Field begins.

TRANSACTION WIRE:

1939 The Reds, only recently having acquired him, returned Woody English to the Dodgers, who sold him to the Cubs. English was done, though, and out of the majors for good.

1942 Atlanta sold Willard Marshall to the New York Giants.

1954 Yankee sell three-time 20 game winner Vic Raschi to St. Louis for $85,000. Raschi, after six solid seasons in NYC, started to show wear and would be done three years later.

1967 Yankees sign non-drafted free agent, Cesar Geronimo. Geronimo would become more famous in Cincinnati…

1977 The Tigers made their first free agent signing – Tito Fuentes

1979 Cubs clean house – Manny Trillo, Dave Rader, and Greg Gross are traded to Philadelphia for Barry Foote, Ted Sizemore, Jerry Martin, Derek Bohelho, and minor leaguer Henry Mack.

Martin had killed the Cubs every time we saw him in the previous couple of seasons and was a fourth outfielder looking for regular play. Trillo was a pretty good second baseman, Gross could pinch hit and was fine as a fourth outfielder. The rest were just details.

1981 Pittsburgh signs the ancient Luis Tiant as a free agent. He mad nine starts, but went 2 – 5… It was his only season as an NL pitcher.

2007 Texas signs free agent Sammy Sosa, who would push his homer total over the 600 mark before calling it done.