Reds:
Dennis Ribant (70) Kind of an interesting guy. Born in Detroit. Played minor league hockey and minor league baseball at the same time. The first full-time Mets starting pitcher ever to post a winning record (11-9, 1966). Finally got his chance to play for his hometown Tigers in ’68, but was traded to the White Sox before the Tigers clinched the pennant. Ended up with the Reds briefly in ’69; was traded for the immortal Bo Belinsky and never made it back to the majors despite some nice AAA seasons. Later won a national family tennis tournament with his daughter.
One other interesting Ribant story: when he was in high school, another team from Detroit won the city tournament and the right to go to the national 19-and-under championship. By the rules, they were allowed to add three players from other Detroit teams to their roster for the tournament. They picked Ribant, Willie Horton and Alex Johnson- three future big leaguers. Pretty good scouting…
Charlie Dressen –Reds 3b of the 1920, later a very successful manager.
Others:
Jason Bay (33) Signed for three more years at 16 million per, a deal that’s starting to look Soriano-ish.
Tom Tresh- Came up as a shortstop, but was soon moved to the outfield. He really didn’t have enough stick to be an outfielder, but the Yankees were so successful that he was never really perceived as a liability.
