Birthdays: 5/25

[chicoruiz]

Posting early- Busy day tomorrow
Reds:

Todd Walker (39) -Nice year for the 2002 Reds: .299, 42 doubles.

Joey Eischen (42) -The first pitcher to get a win as a Washington National. Had to wear a mouth guard while pitching to avoid grinding his teeth.

Lip Pike -The first man to openly play baseball as a professional (in 1866), and the first great Jewish player. Played for the Reds in 1878. Supposedly beat a horse in a 100-yard race. While with the Reds he hit a famous homer that struck an iron bar 360 feet away and 40 feet high with enough force to bend it.

Others:

Dave Hollins (46) -In 2002 he missed significant time after being bitten by a spider. It was, apparently, not radioactive, and he did not receive superhuman strength and go on to fight crime...

Bob Knepper (58) -Lefty for the Giants and Astros. I don't recall the details, but as I recall he got in some hot water at some point for his somewhat, ahh, reactionary views on women's equality.

Joe Judge -A really good unknown player. Part of it was playing first base in the American league at the same time as Gehrig, Foxx and Sisler; part of it was that he wasn't a big home run hitter. Played 18 years for the Senators, and after 18 years he STILL wasn't the senior player on the team; outfielder Sam Rice had been there longer. Oddly, out of all the players in baseball history, the most similar to him is Joe Kuhel, the man who replaced him as Senators 1B... The character of "Joe Hardy" in the musical Damn Yankees may have been based on Judge; Douglas Wallop, who wrote the story, dated Judge's daughter for a long time.

[sonny]

Posting early- Busy day tomorrow
Reds:

Todd Walker (39) -Nice year for the 2002 Reds: .299, 42 doubles.

Joey Eischen (42) -The first pitcher to get a win as a Washington National. Had to wear a mouth guard while pitching to avoid grinding his teeth.

Lip Pike -The first man to openly play baseball as a professional (in 1866), and the first great Jewish player. Played for the Reds in 1878. Supposedly beat a horse in a 100-yard race. While with the Reds he hit a famous homer that struck an iron bar 360 feet away and 40 feet high with enough force to bend it.

Others:

Dave Hollins (46) -In 2002 he missed significant time after being bitten by a spider. It was, apparently, not radioactive, and he did not receive superhuman strength and go on to fight crime...

Bob Knepper (58) -Lefty for the Giants and Astros. I don't recall the details, but as I recall he got in some hot water at some point for his somewhat, ahh, reactionary views on women's equality.

Joe Judge -A really good unknown player. Part of it was playing first base in the American league at the same time as Gehrig, Foxx and Sisler; part of it was that he wasn't a big home run hitter. Played 18 years for the Senators, and after 18 years he STILL wasn't the senior player on the team; outfielder Sam Rice had been there longer. Oddly, out of all the players in baseball history, the most similar to him is Joe Kuhel, the man who replaced him as Senators 1B... The character of "Joe Hardy" in the musical Damn Yankees may have been based on Judge; Douglas Wallop, who wrote the story, dated Judge's daughter for a long time.

When I was a batboy for the Columbus Clippers, all the players said I looked just like Joey Eischen. Figuring it was me having just one of those faces, I didn't really pay it any mind. He played with the Ottawa Lynx and when he came into town he sought mr out and said "where's the batboy who looks like me?" standing face to face with him it was like looking into my own face years down the road. He, like me, was also left handed and a huge Reds fan to boot. We actually stayed in sporadic contact but lost touch when he went to the bigs.

Good guy.

[Bob Borkowski]

Joey Eischen (42) -The first pitcher to get a win as a Washington National. Had to wear a mouth guard while pitching to avoid grinding his teeth.

With Washington in one-not-so-enviable instance he went 5 consecutive outings without recording an out. That was in 2005, I believe.