Birthdays: 3/21

[chicoruiz]

Reds:

Bill Plummer (65) -Had a ten-year career as a backup catcher despite only hitting above .200 twice. Managed the Mariners in 1992. Once turned in a lineup card that listed two 1b and no DH; as a result the M's were forced to let their pitchers hit. They lost, 5-4. Oopsie...

Others:

Shawon Dunston (49) -First pick in the 1982 draft. Known for his rocket arm and his disdain for fundamentals. Howie Haak, the great Pirate scout, said the only perfect 80 ratings for throwing arms he ever gave out were Clemente and Dunston.

Manny Sanguillen (68) -Not a great player, but extremely fun to watch. Because he would swing at anything, despite being a career .298 hitter his OBP was below league average. I believe he once swung at a pitch that hit him. The Pirates eventually traded him for a manager (Chuck Tanner). Currently runs a food joint at PNC Park.

Tommy Davis (73) -A high-school basketball teammate of Lenny Wilkins. His back-to-back batting titles in 62-63 are the only batting titles ever won by a Los Angeles Dodger.

Shanty Hogan -The Smoky Burgess of this day; a good-hitting but overweight catcher. John McGraw tried to control his eating by reading his restaurant receipts, but Shanty had an agreement with the waitresses; they'd write down "cauliflower" and bring him ice cream and so forth.

Oscar Bielaski- The first Polish-American to play major league baseball. His father was killed in the Civil War and Oscar himself served briefly toward the end of the war. His nephew became director of the FBI.

[cumberlandreds]

Lots of good old names on the birthday list today.

Plummer made a good living being Bench's caddy. Good solid defensive catcher. Seems like he was a pretty good hitter in the clutch when he got the oppotunity to play. Plummer was Randy Hundley's backup in Chicago in 1968. IIRC, Plummer was on the team all season but only appeared in two games and had two AB's.

Dunston had one of the strongest arms I still have ever seen in MLB. Not very accurate all the time but a cannon for an arm.

Sanguillen was fun to watch. You never knew what he would do at the plate and he would swing at anything. The Reds ran wild on him in the 1975 playoffs. I know the Pirate pitchers had something to do with not stopping the Reds running game but Sanguillen's throws were usually way off target and into CF most of the time.

[Bob Borkowski]

Tommy Davis (73) - His back-to-back batting titles in 62-63 are the only batting titles ever won by a Los Angeles Dodger.

Surprising. The LA version of the Dodgers showed up in 1958 and you would have thought that somebody in addition to T. Davis would have won a batting title in that length of time.