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Looking for Baseball on my Birthday
When your birthday is during the offseason, the cold wintry baseball-less month of January seems like a somewhat depressing time. It’s the in between time after the holidays have been wrapped up and before pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in February. I enjoy watching the Winter X-Games during my birthday weekend every year, but as I am not a big football fan, I continue to long for my Dodgers while others are busy preparing their Super Bowl parties and the plethora of food spreads. Although I do like a good buffalo wing every once in a while.
But I digress, and I’m still in the midst of the cold throngs of winter when the grass at Dodger Stadium is dry and my soul is yearning for some baseball. January 26th, my birthday, has no scheduled Dodger games. Ever. Yet I can take a look at some of the baseball related associations with my birthday instead.
There are 45 MLB players who share my birthday. Bob Uecker is on the list along with Tom Pratt, Billy Barnie, Bob Casey, Scott Hardesty, Kaiser Wilhelm, Dave Wills, Ben Koehler, Eli Cates, Tubby Spencer, Art LaVigne, Hick Cady, Lefty Jamerson, Johnny Frederick, George Blaeholder, Charlie Gelbert, Rip Russell, Dick Mauney, Bob Nieman, Cesar Gutierrez, Mike Pazik, Morris Nettles, Tom Bruno, Joe Pettini, Brian Doyle, Mike Patterson, Rick Schu, Jose Segura, Kevin Blankenship, Lou Frazier, Jeff Branson, Tim Pugh, Dan Carlson, Steve Green, Andres Torres, Esteban German, Kenny Kelly, Antonio Perez, Brandon Medders, Josh Sharpless, Juan Lara, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Hector Noesi, Jemile Weeks and Josh Prince.
Former Dodgers out of that bunch of Aquarius signs are Antonio Perez, Jeff Branson, Johnny Frederick and Kaiser Wilhelm.
Oh, and although not a baseball player, I also share my birthday with Wayne Gretzky, Paul Newman, Eddie Van Halen and the Sulemon octuplets.
According to nationalpastime.com, there has been actual historical happenings in Major League Baseball on January 26th throughout the years. Here are a couple of the interesting facts and happenings to fall on my birthday.
| January 26, 1989 | The rules initiated last season to make balk calls more uniform throughout baseball are rescinded and are replaced by the pre-1988 rules. The wording change from ‘a complete stop’ to ‘a single complete and discernible stop, with both feet on the ground’ had caused umpires to call an unprecedented amount of balks in both the American and National League. |
| January 26, 2009 | Avoiding salary arbitration, the Royals and Zack Greinke agree to a $38 million, four-year contract. The 25-year old right-hander, grateful to the club for their understanding of his social disorder which caused him to bolt from spring training two years ago, posted a 13-10 record last season with the best ERA (3.47) by a Kansas City starter in 11 years. |
On my actual birthday, the Dodgers did in fact make a move!
January 26, 1979: The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Alan Wiggins as a free agent.
Wiggins never actually played for the Dodgers. He was selected in the Rule 5 Draft by the Padres in December of 1980 after stealing 120 bases with the Lodi Dodgers in 1980. Wiggins was the first MLB player known to have died from AIDS and passed away in 1991.
Also… 1932 – William K. Wrigley, owner of the Cubs since 1919, dies and is buried on Catalina Island. His only son,
Stacie’s new glove by
Photo: Stacie Wheeler
Philip K. Wrigley, inherits the Cubs and the minor league Los Angeles Angels.
As far as Dodger transactions on January 26th, the Dodgers haven’t made a transaction on this day in awhile. Back in 2011, they invited a bunch of non-roster players to Spring Training including then shortstop Dee Gordon. They also signed free agent Gabe Kapler (now the director of player development) to a minor league contract with an invite to Spring Training.
Back on January 26, 2010, the Dodgers signed free agent Ronnie Belliard.
Baseball related birthday presents help cheer me up as well. Check out my new glove my husband bought for me! She’s a beauty, and I’m looking forward to playing softball with my daughter (#42) this season.
So I was reaching a little bit to find something to do with baseball and my birthday. I guess I’ll have to settle for snowballs instead of baseballs for awhile longer.