Birthday team has a distinct Cleveland feel to it. DeBerry, Sexson, Knickerbocker, Wright, Nichols, and Brower made their MLB debuts as Indians. Dave Ford was born and raised in Cleveland.

C: Hank DeBerry
1B: Richie Sexson
2B: Bill Knickerbocker
3B: Craig Grebeck
SS: Jack Wilson
LF: Clyde Barnhart
CF: Devon White
RF: Emil Brown

SP: Jaret Wright
SP: Rod Nichols
SP: Jim Brower
SP: Kevin Hart
SP: Lou Fiene
RP: Dave Ford

Additional Clevelander: Frank Delahanty

edit to add: Former Indians minor leaguer Dave Bresnahan turns 50 today. I don't normally mention birthdays of guys who were career .210 hitters in the minors and never got above AA ball, but then again most catchers don't throw potatoes into left field.

As noted at THT, today is 10,000 days since baseball's nastiest beanball war.

It's also the birthdays for Theo Epstein, Wayne Huzienga, and the anniversary of the day a female SI reporter sued to be allowed into the locker room.

As noted at THT, today is 10,000 days since baseball's nastiest beanball war.

That's a great summary of that day. I remember seeing the highlights when I was a kid (probably on TWiB) and a big deal being made out of it. I seem to recall SI doing a substantial piece on it though that may be wrong. I really didn't know the whole story and it is interesting.

It's also the birthdays for Theo Epstein, Wayne Huzienga, and the anniversary of the day a female SI reporter sued to be allowed into the locker room.

In 1979, the most popular basketball player in the world (Julius Erving) had an adulterous affair with a female sportswriter, who then gave birth to a child out of wedlock. Erving and the reporter kept this out of the public eye, although Erving supported her financially.

This illegitimate child would become a professional tennis star, reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals in 1999.

...Is it just me, or shouldn't this be one of the biggest sports stories of the past 40 years?

D'Backs sign Cuban LHP Alexander Carreras

Minor league deals:
RHP Boof Bonser to the Giants
LHP Mike Ballard to the Nats

1B Eli Whitesell to Chiba Lotte
OF Lastings Milledge to Yakult

1916 Ed Doheny, a turn-of-the-century pitcher, dies at age 43.

Really one of the saddest stories in baseball history. A key member of the 1903 Pirates pitching staff, he missed the first World Series because of mental problems, and was so distraught over the Pittsburgh loss that he exploded and was committed to a mental asylum, where he spent the rest of his life. From Wiki:

In lieu of his customary jovial approach to life, he turned caustic and bitter against his teammates and himself. He eventually went AWOL from the team after exhibiting some strange behavior and arguing with his teammates, especially after he drank. As it turned out, Doheny had been convinced he was being followed by detectives and went home to Andover, Massachusetts.

In the dressing room prior to the last game of the season, when he was told he would not pitch in the first championship series, he clenched his fists and started to swing wildly at anyone within reach. His teammates quickly subdued him; one of them summoned the police. Within minutes, Doheny was escorted in handcuffs from the locker room and driven to Danvers Asylum for the Criminally Insane in Danvers, Massachusetts.

Doheny returned to the team on August 15 and even though he was pitching fine, he really wasn’t the same man that he had been in the past. Things became worse as the month went on; he became more paranoid and irrational. On September 21, Doheny left Pittsburgh in the company of his clergyman brother, who escorted him home again to get some treatment.[3]

The team felt bad for their teammate and sent his uniform back to Massachusetts to try to cheer him up. Apparently, it had the wrong effect, as Doheny thought it was a sign that he was going to make a comeback and pitch again. On the evening of October 10, after being informed that the Pirates had just lost Game 7 of the 1903 World Series, Doheny forcibly ejected his physician from his house, saying that "he did not need his attentions any longer." Early the next morning, Doheny attacked Oblerin Howard, his "faith cure doctor and nurse," with an iron stove poker,[4] rendering him bloodied and unconscious. Doheny's wife rushed to the neighbors for assistance. Dressed in his nightclothes at the doorway to his house and armed with the iron poker, Doheny held off the police for an hour with threats to kill the first man who approached him. Finally overpowered by the police, Doheny was taken to the police station where, under the direction of Judge Andrew C. Stone, two doctors pronounced him insane.[5] Doheny was committed on October 14 to the Danvers Asylum for the Criminally Insane, but did not respond to treatment. He remained a patient at the hospital until his death thirteen years later at the age of 43. His cause of death was listed as pulmonary tuberculosis.

OF Lastings Milledge to Yakult

He's still only 26. There's plenty of time for him to pull a Cecil Fielder and come back to be a star in the U.S.

I asked this yesterday, but why did Hideki Okajima get only a minor league deal? He was very good until 2010, when he was below average, but not \"#### the bed" terrible, and he was still decent against lefties. Why was he in the minors most of last year? Has he just lost it?

That list of the 20 greatest hits in baseball history in today's link is pretty underwhelming.

Also, from "Betty Vincent's Advice to Lovers":

"A young man who called on me the other evening kissed me before he went home. We are not engaged. Is this proper?"

A: It is not supposed to be done in good society.

NOW they tell me.

Melvin Mora retired.