Birthdays: 12/22

[chicoruiz]

Reds:

Sheldon Burnside (57) -Acquired from the Tigers as the PTBNL in the Champ Summers trade. Never panned out.

Al Ferrara (72) -Played for the Reds in the lost season of 1971. Probably the only Reds player to play piano at Carnegie Hall. Once appeared as a contestant on the game show "Match Game 74". In 1970, when Tom Seaver struck out 10 Padres in a row, Ferrara was the first and last strikeout in the string.

Others:

Steve Garvey (63) -Still has a junior high school in California named for him, despite his somewhat adventurous personal life. Currently does some motivational speaking and owns a company that produces infomercials.

Steve Carlton (67) -I try to avoid stuff that most of you already know, but with Lefty I just can't get past the fact that in 1972 he won 27 for a team that only won 59 total games.

Elrod Hendricks -Catcher from the Virgin Islands, remembered by Reds fans as part of the tangled mess at home plate in the 1970 World Series with Bernie Carbo and umpire Ken Burkhart.

Matty Alou -The 1966 NL batting champ; just passed away last month.

Connie Mack -Great but underfinanced manager; the last one to wear civvies to manage in. Both his grandson and great-grandson served in the the U.S. Congress.

[chicoruiz]

If you have a few minutes to kill, here's a nice interview with Al Ferrara:

http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?...=3384&pid=4355

[Bob Borkowski]

Originally Posted by chicoruiz

Connie Mack -Great but underfinanced manager; the last one to wear civvies to manage in.

Oh, wow, now you've done it, chico! You've really opened a can of worms on this one. I'm sure you know there is a raging debate on this topic in the baseball world.

Here is a quote from wikipedia at the Burt Shotton page:

"According to an informal study by researchers at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the last manager to wear street clothes is believed to be Burt Shotton of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who last managed a game on October 1, 1950. (Yet Connie Mack, who famously wore a full suit during his 50 years as manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, also retired on October 1, 1950)."

[gilpdawg]

I know I'm late here, but Lefty had an 11.9 WAR that year. That has to be the highest percentage of a team's wins ever. It's insane.