Birthdays: 1/4

[chicoruiz]

Reds:

Chris Michalak (41) -Scruffed around the fringes of the bigs for a decade in a number of organizations, although when you look at his numbers, well, they're not good but they're not horrible. He lacked the big fastball that would have made clubs take him seriously.

Jay Tibbs (50) -Traded three times before he was 22, he came over from the Mets in a deal for Bruce Berenyi and had a couple of decent years before being shipped off to Montreal as part payment for Bill Gullickson.

Others:

Ted Lilly (36) -The Dodgers still owe him two more years at 11 million per, which I'm not so sure is a great investment.

Tito Fuentes (68) -Flashy-fielding second baseman, mostly for the Giants. Held the record for season fielding percentage for a second baseman for thirteen years, until Sandberg broke it. Currently does color on the Spanish-language broadcasts of Giants games.

Don McMahon -Didn't pitch in the majors till he was 27, but still got 18 seasons in, most of them as one of baseball's best relievers. Career ERA: 2.96. Seemed to be at his best against the best hitters; the combined batting average against him by Aaron, Banks, Bench, Killebrew, Mazeroski, Morgan, Musial, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, and Stragell was .149. Suffered a fatal heart attack on the mound in 1987 while pitching batting practice.

George Selkirk -Had the unenviable task of replacing Babe Ruth in right field for the Yankees. Nicknamed "Twinkletoes" because of the unusual way he ran.

[sonny]

Thanks for these. These are really entertaining.

[UKFlounder]

Jay Tibbs - wow- there's a name I had not thought of in years. That's one of the cool things about these threads.

Thanks again for keeping them going

[Bob Borkowski]

Originally Posted by chicoruiz

Reds:

Chris Michalak (41) -Scruffed around the fringes of the bigs for a decade in a number of organizations, although when you look at his numbers, well, they're not good but they're not horrible. He lacked the big fastball that would have made clubs take him seriously.

Jay Tibbs (50) -Traded three times before he was 22, he came over from the Mets in a deal for Bruce Berenyi and had a couple of decent years before being shipped off to Montreal as part payment for Bill Gullickson.

Adding Corky Valentine - Pitched for the Reds in '54 and '55. he always said that his claim to fame was that he gave up home run #10 to Hank Aaron. Also, Corky figured that the Russians weren't the first in space; his gopher balls were. "They say their Sputnik was the first thing put in orbit, but that's not true. I had balls flying around up there long before they ever even thought about outer space. Heck, they used to say that my best pitch was the rattle pitch. Every time I'd throw it, they'd rattle the boards with it."