Birthdays: 12/25

Reds:

Willy Taveras (30) -The man RedsZoners love to hate hits 30. Willy has played in two World Series. Ernie Banks played in none. Yeah, life's fair...

Manny Trillo (61) -I had forgotten he finished his career with the Reds.

Others:

Ricky Henderson (53) -Ricky was born on Christmas Day in the back seat of an Oldsmobile on the way to the hospital. In a hurry even then... There's just too much about Ricky to fit in here. An amazing player; one of the top 100 home run hitters of all time in addition to everything else.

Charlie Lea -The Expo righthander passed away last month.

Nellie Fox -The first White Sox player to win an MVP. A mentor to Joe Morgan when they were both in Houston, for which all Reds fans thank him.

Ned Garver -The only AL pitcher to win 20 with a team that lost at least 100; he did it with the 1951 Browns.

Greek George -Had a short big league career, but I put him in here because I believe he's the guy who, after his arm went dead, attempted a comeback in the minors by attaching an elastic band to his wrist and shoulder, hoping it would help his throws.

Pud Galvin -19th-century star, who was supposedly given the nickname "Pud" because he "made the opposition batters look like puddings". Geez, if you're going to give a guy a nickname for being good, couldn't it be something besides "Pud"? Other fun facts:
-He's the only pitcher in history to win 20+ games ten times without ever appearing in a postseason game.
-He was involved in maybe baseball's first steroid controversy when it was revealed that he was ingesting an elixir that contained monkey testosterone. You absolutely cannot make this stuff up....

Merry Christmas to all....