Birthdays- 8/30

[chicoruiz]

Reds:

Scott Brown (54) Hard-throwing country boy for the '81 Reds; later traded for Clint Hurdle by baseball genius Dick Wagner.

Cal McVey- 1B of the 1869 Red Stockings; returned as a player/manager in '78.

Others:

Adam Wainwright (30) -Gosh, is he 30 already? I still think of him as a young pitcher.

Cliff Lee (33)

Marlon Byrd (34) -Ballplayers are supposed to peak at age 27 or 28; Marlon did the exact opposite. Freely available five years ago; a lot of teams are kicking themselves now.

Rennie Martin (56) -I remember Dan Quisenberry joking about how wild Rennie was so I looked it up. Dan Quisenberry was right...

Tommy Dean (66) -The first shortstop in San Diego Padre history; he hit .176 that year, and unbelievably, he was their best offensive shortstop that year. Look it up if you don't believe me.

Ted Williams -No "head" jokes here; Teddy Ballgame deserves better.

Kiki Cuyler -His real name was "Hazen", so a nickname would seem to be in order, but "Kiki" seems a bit cruel- it comes from him stuttering when trying to say his last name. Nowadays you'd have a lawsuit over that.

[George Anderson]

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Ted Williams -No "head" jokes here; Teddy Ballgame deserves better.

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I didn't realize Ted's son John Henry died a few years back.

He seemed like a flake.

[Bob Borkowski]

I like the often told Ted Williams story that Hillerich & Bradsby presented him with 4 bats weighing 34 ounces and 1 weighing 33-1/2 ounces, and challenged him to identify the lighter bat, which he was consistently able to do.