Birthdays: 12/11

[chicoruiz]

Reds:

Willie Canate (40) -Venezuelan OF the Reds claimed in the 1992 Rule 5 draft, then traded to Toronto a few weeks later. Appeared only briefly for Toronto.

Thomas Howard (47) -Here's a trivia quiz for those of you who are also Bengal fans: How many Reds and Bengals have shared the same name? Off the top of my head, the Thomas Howards are the only ones, but I bet there's more.

Fred Toney -Famous for his 1917 no-hit duel with Hippo Vaughn. 1918 wasn't so kind to him; he was arrested for draft evasion, and later for violation of the Mann Act.

Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn -Legendary ironman pitcher with somewhere between 58 and 60 wins in 1884, depending on what source you use. Bothered through his career by leg cramps; the term "charley horse" may have been created in reference to his problem. Finished his career with the 1891 Reds.

Others:

Derek Bell (43) -I don't know quite what to say about Derek; he was a good player, but everything I read about him seems to indicate that he was just not a very nice person.

Jay Bell (46) -Scored the winning run in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. Broke Ozzie Smith's 13-year run of Gold Glove victories. Also an excellent bunter.

[oneupper]

Jay Bell was one of several players who managed to get their money out of Allen Stanford's bank in Antigua before it collapsed.
Others included Greg Maddux (who withdrew $3 million three weeks before it went kaput), Bernie Williams, Andruw Jones, JD Drew and Carlos Peña.
All Scott Boras clients.

[cumberlandreds]

Next on my book reading list is 59 in 84. It's an accounting of Old Hoss Radbournes season in which he won 59 games. Even though I know baseball was totally different in those days that's still an amazing feat.

[Bob Borkowski]

Derek Bell (43) -I don't know quite what to say about Derek; he was a good player, but everything I read about him seems to indicate that he was just not a very nice person.

During the spring of 2002 the Pirates released Bell and therefore had to pay him $4.5 million not to play for them. Bell moved onto his yacht.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Mark Madden summarized the incident with "Derek Bell becomes the ultimate Pirate: Lives on a boat and steals money."