<— NOV 19 NOV 21 —>

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1854 George Mundinger

George Mundinger was a New Orleans born catcher whose “Dey gets nuddings!” cheer from behind the plate made him a local legend in the Crescent City.

1858 Laurie Reis
1858 Joe Sommer
1862 Dan Casey
1866 Kenesaw Landis
1869 Clark Griffith
1873 Tom Fleming
1878 Martin Glendon
1880 George McBride
1881 James Arthur (Swat) McCabe
1882 Andy Coakley

Coakley is the guy who wrestled with Rube Waddell on a train, throwing the Rube such that he injured his throwing shoulder – all because Waddell removed a straw hat from Coakley’s head (it being the end of summer and all). It cost Waddell a chance to pitch against the Giants in the 1905 World Series. Had he been healthy, my guess is that he would have lost one start pretty badly, but if given a second start, he would have been virtually unhittable. However, the Giants probably still win the World Series.

Coakley was another college guy that Connie Mack tried to get to play for him before he graduated college… When it was all over, Coakley returned to the college ranks, spending some 37 years at Columbia where he coached (among so many others) one Lou Gehrig.

1883 Arthur Augustus (Ben) Egan
1883 Harry Welchonce
1887 John Scheneberg
1888 Ray Powell
1889 Eddie Edmonson
1891 Leon Cadore
1893 Abe Atkins
1894 Welton Claude (Rube) Ehrhardt
1896 Cecil Duff
1897 Larry Benton
1898 Tim McNamara
1902 John Olgus (Augie) Prudhomme
1906 Joe Ogrodowski
1908 Bricktop Wright
1912 Emory Long
1915 Angel Valdes (Jack) Aragon
1916 Joe Brown
1917 Andrew Joseph (Jess) Dobernic
1917 Felix Mackiewicz
1917 Mike Schemer
1919 Rinaldo Joseph (Rugger) Ardizoia
1921 Neill Sheridan
1929 Lou Berberet
1930 Don Leppert
1936 Herm Starrette
1936 Jay Ritchie
1945 Jay Johnstone
1945 John Sanders
1945 Rick Monday

My brother Mike’s first favorite baseball player. My aunt Lois used to ask me about Rick Tuesday when I answered the phone as a kid…

My personal recollections of Monday include important things – saving the US flag from two Puerto Rican men who were setting it on fire in the outfield – and less important things. He was a power hitting leadoff hitter, which was a change from having Don Kessinger batting first. And he made a number of amazing running catches of Rusty Staub blasts. He made a lot of nice catches for the Cubs, but for some reason he just robbed Staub whenever he came to town.

1949 Ron Cash
1951 Jackson Todd
1953 Duane Theiss
1967 Alex Arias
1968 Steve Schrenk
1968 Chuck Ricci
1971 Kevin Lomon
1971 Gabe White
1973 Brandon Kolb
1975 (David Jonathan) J. D. Drew
1978 Bill White
1979 Lino Urdaneta
1981 Sam Fuld
1983 Brock Peterson
1984 Jo-Jo Reyes
1985 C. J. Fick
1985 Greg Holland
1986 Alex Guerrero
1987 Jeff Locke
1988 Cody Allen
1990 David Washington
1992 Shawn Morimando
1994 Jake Newberry
1994 Jacob Robson
1995 Amed Rosario
1995 Jeremy Beasley
1995 David Fry
1995 Forrest Wall
1996 Tarik Skubal
1996 Nick Neidert
1996 Connor Kaiser
1998 Mario Feliciano

Catcher in the Milwaukee chain who got a cup of coffee in both 2021 and 2022. After a year in the Tigers chain where he didn’t hit as well has he had, Feliciano has been playing independent ball. He’s got some skills behind the plate, but at 26 (as of this writing – November, 2024) his days as a prospect are looking less and less likely.

2002 AJ Smith-Shawver

OBITUARIES:

1895 Dick Hunt
1904 Dell Darling

Conrad Darling was a catcher of some skill; he had a six-season career in the major leagues – playing for four teams in three different leagues. (He started with Buffalo in 1883, got a second run with Cap Anson’s Chicago Colts from 1887 to 1889 before jumping to the Players League Chicago franchise for 1890. In 1891, he signed with St. Louis in the American Association, which means he played for the two early legends of Chicago baseball; Anson and Charles Comiskey (though not when Comiskey owned the White Sox, obviously).

Like many catchers, he had up and down batting seasons, which meant he was usually the backup catcher. When his career ended, he opened a restaurant, but he kept playing into his 40s in local Erie, Pennsylvania amateur games (by then as a first baseman). He also got involved in a rather large railroad-based crime spree based out of Erie, though it’s unclear whether Dell was part of the train robberies or someone who fenced or bought stolen goods.

Dell came down with an illness in the summer of 1904 and passed to the next league a month shy of his 43rd birthday.

My friend Brian McKenna wrote Darling’s bio for SABR. The baseball card image is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s baseball card and digital collection.

(Also, “Dell Darling Dead,” Buffalo Courier Express, November 22, 1904: 10.)

1910 Jack O’Brien
1925 Walter Coleman
1928 Pete Lohman
1929 Babe Doty
1929 Jim Powell
1935 Hooty Phillips
1938 Alex Crumbley
1951 Fred Burchell
1951 Joe Rogalski
1952 Fred McMullin
1953 Billy Maharg
1954 Hod Fenner
1956 Bub Kuhn
1958 Bill Lathrop
1959 Roy Thomas
1960 Frank Brower
1963 Marty Hopkins
1968 George Maisel
1968 Fresco Thompson
1969 Paddy Baumann
1969 Elmer Wilson
1976 Les Hennessy
1984 Leon Williams
1989 Dolan Nichols
1990 Sonny Harris
1996 Bill Sayles
1997 Zack Clayton
1997 Dick Littlefield
1998 Dick Sisler
2003 Cowen Hyde
2010 Danny McDevitt
2022 Dave Hillman
2023 Preston Hanna
2023 Willie Hernandez

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!

2008 George Steinbrenner, his health beginning to fail him, hands over the reins of the Yankees to his sons, Hal and Hank.

TRANSACTION WIRE:

1947 The Giants take Hoyt Wilhelm from the Braves in the Rule 5 Draft.

1962 Boston sends Jim Pagliaroni and Don Schwall to the Indians for Dick Stuart and Jack Lamabe.

1981 Three team swap! Cleveland sends Bo Diaz to the Phillies, getting (later) Scott Munninghoff in return. The Phillies sent Lonnie Smith to the Cardinals, and the Cardinals sent Silvio Martinez and Lary Sorensen to the Indians.