<— NOV 29 DEC 01 —>

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1845 Mordecai Davidson

Not a player – but he is listed as the manager of the Louisville Colonels in 1888 (Mordecai Hamilton Davidson was actually the president of the club). Technically he was manager twice; briefly as an interim, then after manager #3 was gone, he ran the team the rest of the way to seventh place…

1850 Alfred Gorden (Alamazoo) Jennings

O.P. Caylor, the baseball writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer, penned a witty article that made the morning paper calling Jennings “Allamazoo” (as in, the ball was pitched, and, “Allamazoo!” it got by him). Jennings said that initially he was mad when reading the article, but a few lines later he started laughing at it, too.

1851 Patrick Gillespie
1870 Frank Killen
1875 Myron Frederick (Moose) Grimshaw
1877 Clifford Wesley (Tacks) Latimer
1880 Warren Shanabrook
1883 Ben Houser
1884 Andy Nelson
1885 Elmer Koestner
1891 Joe Giebel
1891 Josh Billings
1893 Edward Adolph (Tex) Hoffman
1897 Dud Branom
1897 Win Ballou
1898 Frederick (Firpo) Marberry
1898 Lou Bauer
1899 Reuben Ewing
1901 Clyde Sukeforth
1901 Sid Graves
1904 Dick Seay
1909 Jimmie DeShong
1913 Wally Holborow
1918 Julio Baez
1929 Leo Kiely
1931 Ed Mayer
1934 Steve Hamilton
1950 Craig Swan
1954 Juan Berenguer
1955 Barry Evans
1956 Dave Engle
1958 Steve Shields
1958 Toby Hernandez
1960 Bob Tewksbury
1962 Gary Wayne
1962 Bo Jackson
1968 Heath Haynes
1969 Mark Lewis
1971 Ray Durham
1971 Matt Lawton
1976 Craig Wilson
1977 Carlos Valderrama
1980 Shane Victorino
1981 Rich Harden
1985 Luis Valbuena
1987 Chase Anderson
1989 Mikie Mahtook
1991 Alec Mills
1992 Kyle Crick
1993 DJ Stewart
1993 Harold Castro
1994 Tanner Tully
2002 Daylen Lile

OBITUARIES:

1885 Dan Cronin

According to his SABR bio, written by Charlie Bevis, Cronin died of that scourge of the era, tuberculosis.

1920 Lou Meyers
1927 Jimmy Wood
1941 Steel Arm Davis
1942 Slim Love
1946 Pete McShannic
1948 Frank Bowerman
1955 John Stone
1956 John Shea
1959 Jack Scott
1969 Eddie Eayrs
1969 Connie Creeden
1973 Alex Metzler
1973 Red Wright
1976 Gifford McDonald
1979 Scottie Slayback
1983 Bill Evans
1985 Jim Grant
1986 Roy Bruner
1988 Wally Berger
1995 Jim Davis
1995 William Suero
1996 Ted Petoskey
1997 Bernie Creger
1998 Jesse Levan
1998 Ad Liska
1999 Al Schroll
2003 Jack Brewer
2010 R C Stevens
2012 Rogelio Alvarez
2015 Bob Dustal
2017 Dick Gernert
2018 Fred Caligiuri
2020 Lorencito Fernandez
2021 Chuck Dobson
2024 John Felske

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!

1885 Providence released eleven players previously reserved by them to league control – and exited the National League.

1952 Jackie Robinson, being interviewed on “Youth Wants to Know”, a local NBC show in NYC, calls out the Yankees as being racist for still not having a black player on the team. Elston Howard didn’t join the roster of the Yankees until 1955.

TRANSACTION WIRE:

1885 Boston acquires Old Hoss Radbourn and Con Daily.

1932 Cincinnati sends Babe Herman to the Cubs for Rollie Hemsley, Johnny Moore, Lance Richbourg, and Bob Smith.

1959 The Giants send Jackie Brandt, Gordon Jones and Roger McCardell to the Orioles for Billy Loes and Billy O’Dell.

1964 Boston drafts Sparky Lyle from the Orioles in the First Year Draft.

1970 Calfornia sends Jay Johnstone, Tom Egan, and Tom Bradley to the White Sox for Ken Berry, Billy Wynne, and Syd O’Brien.

1971 The White Sox purchased Jorge Orta from Mexicali of the Mexican Northern League.

1972 Atlanta sends Earl Williams and Taylor Duncan to the Orioles for Davey Johnson, Pat Dobson, Roric Harrison, and Johnny Oates.

Also, Cincinnati sends Hal McRae and Wayne Simpson to the Royals for Roger Nelson and Richie Scheinblum.

And, the Cubs sent Bill Hands, Joe Decker and Bob Maneely to the Twins for Dave LaRoche. If you get a look at the 1973 Topps card for Bill Hands, it’s one of the worst examples of airbrushing of a game photograph you can imagine. It’s a picture of Hands pitching in Wrigley, but wearing a Rangers uniform. Ugh.

1977 The Cubs sign free agent outfielder Dave Kingman, who would give the Cubs his three best seasons. He loved hitting in Wrigley – and someone convinced him that once in a while he should take the curveball to right field. He still struck out a lot, but his batting average improved a lot (between his love of Wrigley and the occasional opposite field hits) – making him a deadly hitter for a few years.

2000 Seattle purchased outfielder Ichiro Suzuki from Orix in Japan.