Birthdays: 12/21

[chicoruiz]

Reds:

D'Angelo Jimenez (34) -Had a nice year in 2004 for the Reds. I always felt that he should have gone to winter ball or something to learn shortstop... he would have been a much more valuable player. Maybe he didn't have the arm for it..

Joaquin Andujar (59) -A fun pitcher to watch in the sense that playing Russian roulette is fun. Whitey Herzog seemed to have the knack for dealing with him.

Others:

Buddy Carlisle (34) Originally Reds property before being traded to San Diego for the immortal Marc Kroon. A pretty good pitcher in 2008; pretty heinous otherwise.

Andy Van Slyke (51) -An interesting guy. During the gulf war, he scratched the Canadian flag off of his batting helmet because, he said, Canada was a pinko socialist country.

Dave Kingman (63) -First player to hit 400 career homers and not make the HOF. Once mailed a live rat to a female sportswrite. I was always thankful he wasn't a Red so I wouldn't have to root for his sorry a**.

Elliott Maddox (64) -Three fun facts: 1) He was part of the famous Denny McLain trade 2) After he slipped on the outfield grass in 1973 he sued the team and the city of New York for negligence. he lost. 3) He converted to Judaism in 1975.

[Bob Borkowski]

Adding Tom Henke (55) - Coming from a small town with a population of under 900, he admitted that he had to overcome a fear of big cities. "I hated going to New York", he said. "I felt like a fish out of water there. I'd go from the hotel to Yankee Stadium and that's it. It took me 2 or 3 years before I went out to visit the Statue of Liberty and I never did take the subway."