Greatest 21 Days Baseball Profiles

Rhett White served as a bat boy for the Birmingham Barons in 1989. Years later, he made a brief appearance as a pro player himself. In between, according to The Associated Press , he and teammates got into a horrible car wreck that he almost didn't survive. Three weeks after the crash, as White recovered, his Vestavia High School team went on to the state championship game - held on the same field on which he served as a bat boy, The AP wrote . "The chance to play on this field would have blown his mind," Vestavia coach Casey Dunn told The AP in May 1995. "We're sort of living his dream because he can't." Three years after the crash White took the mound at independent Tupelo in the Heartland League. He pitched in six games in relief and gave up one earned over 3.2 total innings. White was one of many Birmingham Barons bat boys to take the field for the club over the years. He was one of six for the team in 1989 alone. All six in 1989 go...

Dave Wallwork not only brought his training expertise to his work as Birmingham Barrons trainer, he also brought his dog . His dog Fletch earned a spot on the team, as the club's "unofficial mascot," according to his 1989 ProCards card . Wallwork's Fletch was not only mentioned on the card back, but included in the photo on the front. Wallwork has since gone on to bring his training expertise to other areas beyond baseball, in muscular therapy. Wallwork's training career began as a graduate of Concordia University and the University of Montana. He received his Masters in health and physical education from Montana. Wallwork is a native of Missoula. Wallwork started as a trainer in the White Sox organization in 1985. In 1986, he served as trainer at single-A Peninsula . He returned to Peninsula for 1987. In 1988, he arrived at AA Birmingham, where he would stay for at least three seasons before he eventually moved on. Walwork served as rehab coordina...

Pitching coach Rick Peterson heavily used numbers to improve his pitchers' success rate, The Baltimore Sun wrote in 2013. The Orioles' director of pitching development stressed outcomes, like how different pitching counts produce different outcomes, The Sun wrote . A 1-2 count produced a .220 on-base percentage, while a 2-1 count produced a .480 percentage. "So the most critical count of all is the 1-1 count," Peterson told The Sun . "That’s a 260-point swing. … So we're telling our catchers and our pitchers, we're not looking for backdoor knuckle sliders on the black on the 1-1 count. It's a low percentage strike. Let’s throw a high percentage strike." Peterson learned his craft to that point over a career that had spanned more than four decades. He played in eight professional seasons, never making the majors. He then went on to a long coaching career that saw him first make the majors as a bullpen coach and then spend a decade in...

Features on each member of the 1990 Birmingham Barons, AA affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. Players are as included in that year's team set. Click on the player's name to learn more. Interview (1) 1 - Matt Merullo, What Fun 1990 Birmingham Barons (30) 1  -  Tom Alfredson  tended to press over 8 pro seasons, made AA 2  -  Birmingham Barons Batboys  got their own group card, stories 3  -  Cesar Bernhardt  was early prospect, saw 9 minors seasons 4  -  Ken Berry  saw 14 majors seasons as player, hoped for more 5  -  Kurt Brown  kept working over seven pro seasons, made AAA 6  -  Edgar Caceres  bargained for first, only, ML home run ball 7 -  Carlos Delacruz  gave good pitching over 7 pro seasons 8 -  Brian Drahman, For Him 9 - Cornelio Garcia, Mexican Hall 10  -  Mike Gellinger  coached for White Sox, helped Buehrle 11 - Buddy Groom, Thankful For 12 -...

By July 1994, the Marlins had brought up seven other pitchers from AAA Edmonton. The eighth, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel wrote , was Rich Scheid . "I was kind of getting disappointed, since so many had been called up," Scheid told The Sun-Sentinel of the long wait. "I was getting down a little bit. But you keep your head up, keep a good frame of mind and good things can happen." For Scheid, good things happened in his first two starts. He got into the seventh inning in both, giving up one earned in his first and two earned in his second. Scheid kept the good things of the majors going for eight outings that year and six the next, rounding out his major league career . Scheid's professional career began in 1986, taken by the Yankees in the second round of the draft, out of Seton Hall. He played that first year at short-season Oneonta, going 9-3 in 15 starts. He then made single-A Fort Lauderdale and AA Albany-Colonie in 1987. He then moved to the ...

Earlier that year, Greg Roth represented Canada as a member of the country's Olympic team in Seoul, South Korea. He had also traveled elsewhere. The topper, he told his hometown Lethbridge Herald , was winning his second-straight Canadian baseball player of the year award. But there was another topper still hoped to reach, according to The Herald , one beyond his signing with the White Sox. "I think I have a good shot at the majors," Roth told The Herald . Roth ultimately played professionally for four seasons, making it as high as AAA . Roth, though, never got that other topper of making the majors. Roth's professional career began with his signing with the White Sox as a free agent in late-1988. He'd been drafted before, in 1986 as a 19-year-old out of Cochise College , by the Yankees, but he didn't sign. With the White Sox, Roth started in 1989 at single-A South Bend . In 117 games, he hit .274, with 10 home runs. He moved to single-A Sarasot...

Read the July 2013 Matt Merullo interview: Matt Merullo, What Fun   Looking to start 1993 with the big club in Chicago, Matt Merullo instead found himself starting the season at AAA Nashville, The Chicago Tribune wrote . Instead of getting down, Merullo saw the move as an opportunity to prove he was complete player, The Tribune wrote . "This gives me a chance to show I can catch or I can't," Merullo told The Tribune . "If I stayed in the big leagues, I would have been labeled a left-hander coming off the bench." Merullo ultimately did see time in his fourth major league season that year, though it was brief, and in two more seasons after that. By the time he was done, Merullo saw time in six different major league seasons , 233 big league games. His playing career over, Merullo has gone on to a post-playing career as a scout and minor league manager , managing for 2013 at short-season Aberdeen. Merullo's career began in 1986, taken by the W...

White Sox hurler Mark Buehrle had a rough stretch in 2010, giving up 18 runs in 22.1 innings of work, according to MLB.com . But was he tipping his pitches? Buehrle pointed to team video analyst and assistant hitting coach Mike Gellinger for that answer. "I'm not going to make excuses saying they're tipping pitches and that's why I've been getting hit around," Buehrle told MLB.com . "Mike Gellinger does a great job of watching us and watching hitters to see if we're doing something out of the ordinary." Whether Buehrle was tipping his pitches then or not, Gellinger was credited with spotting him doing just that four years earlier. Gellinger spotted him mid-game, according to MLB.com in 2006, allowing Buehrle to correct his motion and get the victory. Gellinger helped Buehrle as part of a baseball career that stretches back to 1986 , when he signed with the Tigers as a player. Gellinger's stay in the Detroit system lasted a...

Mid-way through the 1991 season, Dave Reynolds ' wife Marsha spoke with The Sarasota Herald-Tribune about life in minor league baseball, and the possibility of life without it. Her husband was in his seventh season as a pro, and he'd just come back from rotator cuff surgery . On the other end of things, he was also nearing a degree in education. "Next year will probably be the decisive year for us," Marsha Reynolds told The Herald-Tribune . Whether it was a voluntary decision, or involuntary, by the next year, Dave Reynolds' career was over. It was over with Reynolds never making it above AA . Reynolds' career began in 1985, taken by the White Sox in the 22nd round out of Northwestern State University of Louisiana. With the White Sox, Reynolds started in the rookie Gulf Coast League . The eventual pitcher also started as an infielder. In the GCL, Reynolds got into 35 games, hitting just .202. He played third, short, and got one outing on the moun...

In congratulating Cornelio Garcia on his achievement, his old team the Monterrey Sultanes noted his numbers, according to a Google translation . Garcia played 19 seasons in the Mexican League, that's in spite of five seasons spent entirely in the United States, playing in the White Sox organization. In those 19 seasons, Garcia scored more than 1,100 runs, picked up nearly 2,100 hits, stole 340 bases and hit .345 .  Garcia's achievement in May 2013, was his induction into the Mexican League Hall of Fame . Overall, Garcia's playing career is credited as spanning nearly a quarter century , from 1984 to 2007. But, while he had much success in his native Mexico, in the United States, he only had enough success to get him to AA. Garcia's professional career began in 1984, signed by the White Sox as an undrafted free agent out of his native Mexico. Garcia is credited that year with his first playing time in the Mexican League, with Yucatan. With the White Sox, he...

Speaking of his father, the late- Sam Hairston , Jerry Hairston Sr. told of his father's dream . That dream, the son told the Chicago Baseball Museum in January 2013, was not only to play and make it to the major leagues, but to continue into coaching, "to do something he dearly loved." "No one can even explain or make it real as to how much my dad really loved this game," Jerry Hairston Sr. told the museum , "how much he treasured it. To provide for his family, but also to enjoy his life." Sam Hairston's life ended up consisting of more than five decades in the game, starting in 1945 in the Negro Leagues with the Cincinnati/Indianapolis Clowns . He went on to make the majors, becoming the first African-American member of the Chicago White Sox. His stay in the majors was brief, just four games. But, as Hairston moved into coaching, his family later returned to the majors. His son Jerry Hairston Sr. ultimately playing 14 years in the maj...

Toledo Mud Hen starter Buddy Groom only went five innings in this April 1992 contest, but they were shutout innings. They were also enough for the win, The Toledo Blade wrote . Groom didn't go long, Groom told The Blade , because of concerns over his use that spring, and a change in pitching roles. "My longest outing in spring training was four innings," Groom explained to The Blade . "I was in the big league camp and I was only pitching one-inning stints. But then (Tigers manager) Sparky (Anderson) tells me I'm a better starter. So I didn't want to go too long tonight." As it turned out, Groom wasn't a better starter. He was a far better reliever. And, while he didn't rack up big save totals - he picked up just 27 over his 14 big league seasons - he did rack up big appearance totals. From 1996 through 2002, Groom was trusted with the ball in 70 or more games each year, a span of seven seasons. In 2003 and 2004, he continued wi...

Going into spring training with the White Sox in 1991, Brian Drahman knew he had some work to do if he was going to make his goal of making the majors. He just needed to get hitters out, he told The South Florida Sun-Sentinel . "They obviously think something of me or they wouldn't have protected me on the 40-man roster," Drahman told The Sun-Sentinel that February. "The opportunity is there and I'm ready to go. I also know my dad will be watching and that's important to me. This is really for him." It was for his father because his father passed away seven years earlier from a heart attack. It was then that Drahman promised he'd make it to the majors. In April 1991, at the age of 24, Drahman made it, called up to the White Sox in Chicago. "You wonder, if he'd been here, what it would've been like," Drahman told The Chicago Tribune after he got called up. "He might still be watching anyway, but you'd like ...

The Gulf Coast League White Sox needed a good pitching performance to keep their 1987 division hopes alive, according to The Sarasota Herald-Tribune , and Carlos Delacruz delivered it. In his second season as a pro that August, Delacruz pitched a complete game, six-hitter, giving up just a single run, The Herald-Tribune wrote . Delacruz also got time that year at single-A Daytona. He went on to play in four more seasons, getting to AA Birmingham. Delacruz, though, would never make the majors . Delacruz' career began in 1986, signed by the White Sox as an undrafted free agent out of the Dominican Republic . With the White Sox, Delacruz started in the rookie Gulf Coast League , getting 14 outings, six starts. He went 2-4, with a 3.26 ERA. He returned to the GCL for 1987, and hit single-A Daytona . Overall, he went 5-3, with a 2.44 ERA. Delacruz moved to short-season Utica and single-A South Bend for 1988, then South Bend and single-A Sarasota for 1989. As a full-ti...

Nearly a decade into his new career as a minor league coach and manager, Ken Berry spoke to The Chicago Tribune in 1987 about his new aspirations. Berry spoke to The Tribune then in his new job as manager for the single-A Appleton Foxes, in the Midwest League. "I have an eventual goal to get to the big leagues for somebody, doing something," Berry told The Tribune . "Coach first base, third base, baserunning coach, hitting coach, and now I think, yes, I could be a big-league manager." Berry never did make it to the majors as a coach, or a manager. But he did put together a career in the minors that spanned three decades . That minor league coaching and managerial career also came after a playing career where Berry did make the majors. He made the majors for 14 total seasons . Berry's long career in baseball began back in 1961, signed by the White Sox as a free agent out of Wichita State University . Berry started at Class D Clinton, moving to...