Due to popular demand (well, okay, two or three people), I am putting this feature on the front page. SBG, if you don't want it there, just let me know.
Bill Pleis (1937)
Dwight Siebler (1937)
Nelson Briles (1943)
Bernie Carbo (1947)
Dave Rozema (1956)
John Olerud (1968)
Carlos Pulido (1971)
John Wasdin (1972)
Bobby Kielty (1976)
Eric Hinske (1977)
Bill Pleis spent five years in the minors, pitching in the then Washington Senators organization as well as that of the Cubs and Red Sox and for two independent teams before making the Twins in their first year of existence, 1961, at the age of 23. He spent part of 1961 and 1962, all of 1963-1965, and part of 1966 with them, mostly in relief. His ERA got lower in each of his six seasons with the Twins, going from a high of 4.95 to a low of 1.93. He never pitched more than 68 innings in a season. For his career, he was 21-16 with 13 saves and a 4.07 ERA. The Twins let him go after the 1966 season. He spent two more years at AAA, one for Washington and one for Boston, but never made it back to the big leagues. His nickname was "Shorty", despite the fact that at 5'10" he was not particularly short for his era.
Dwight Siebler was signed by Philadelphia as a free agent in 1958. He never made the Phillies, and in August of 1963 he was purchased by Minnesota, where he pitched for at least part of the next five seasons (the only full year he spent with the Twins was 1966). He was used primarily as a starter in AAA, but pitched mostly in relief for the Twins, never working more than 49.2 innings for them in a season. His record for the Twins was 4-3 with 1 save and a 3.45 ERA in 117.1 innings. His last year with the Twins was 1967; he did not pitch in organized baseball after that.
Carlos Pulido was signed by the Twins as a free agent from Venezuela in 1989 at the age of 17. He spent 1994 with the Twins, going 3-7 with a 5.98 ERA in 19 games, 14 of them starts. He was back in the minors in 1995, and then was released. He bounced around to the Cubs, Expos, and Mets organizations, and also played for an independent team in the Atlantic League. He was out of organized baseball from 2000-2002, but was signed by the Twins again after the 2002 season, and made brief appearances with them in 2003 and 2004. For his career, he appeared in 32 games with the Twins, 15 of them starts. He was 3-8 with a 5.98 ERA in 111.1 innings. The Twins released him again after the 2004 season, and he spent two more years in the Mexican League.
Bobby Kielty was signed by the Twins as an amateur free agent in 1999. He was with Minnesota from 2001 until the middle of 2003, when he was traded to Toronto for Shannon Stewart and Dave Gassner. He had 631 at-bats for the Twins, batting .269 with 23 homers and 92 RBIs. He spent the rest of 2003 with Toronto, and then was traded to Oakland for Ted Lilly. Released by Oakland in 2007, he played briefly for Boston that year. He was back in the Twins organization briefly in 2008, and was last seen playing for Buffalo in the Mets' organization.
Awesome! I love the new and improved feature, now with brief player bios!
I love it!
I did not remember Kielty being back with the Twins last year.
I remember him going to Rochester, but immediately forgot since he wasn't called back up. Maybe he asked for his release after the rosters expanded? As for his prospects for continued employment, it looks like he was released by the Mets in late June.
Wondering what Pulido did from 2000-2000, I did some checking around. Looks like he pitched for the Orix BlueWave of the NPB in 2000 and 2001 with pretty limited success. He spent 2002 in the Mexican League, and has pitched in Venezuela extensively (68-51 record, with a 3.08 ERA, in 234 appearances according to the Repository).
Good work!
Now, does anyone have any information on Dwight Siebler? It seems odd that he just dropped out of baseball completely after 1967. He was only 30. Did he get hurt? Or did he just decide to give it up and find something else to do?
I can't answer the "What happened?" question, but I can add two other things:
- Siebler was the second Twin to wear #34, twenty years before Kirby.
- He threw a 3-hitter at D.C. Stadium in front of 2,161 fans in his first start in 1963, defeating the Senators 10-1. He gave up his first hit in the bottom of the 5th. Hall, Versalles, and Allen all hit solo shots, and Killer hit a two-run homer. Siebler helped himself out with an RBI single in the third, and scored on an RBI single by Allen in the next at-bat. Allen knocked in nearly 7% of his RBI for 1963 in this game.
My uniformed guess is sore arm.
Another guess is that he wasn't that good and neither was the money.
Those were my guesses, too. It seems like he was good enough that he could have gotten another chance, but there were only 20 teams then, and the salaries weren't that good, so it could be that either that no one wanted him or that he simply decided it was time to get on with his life. He pitched in 22 games in Denver in 1967, 32 of them starts, after spending April with the Twins, so if he hurt his arm, either it was at the end of the season or he was trying to pitch through it and finally decided it wasn't worth it. Still, it would be interesting to know.
Dwight, are you out there?
Make that 32 games in Denver, 22 of them starts. The other way would be a neat trick, though.
There's a Dwight Siebler living in Gretna, NE. The Dwight Siebler who played for the Twins was born in Columbus, NE, about 80 miles west-northwest of Gretna. I'll bet that's him.
I'm almost tempted to call and wish him a happy birthday.
I bet it is, too. I'd say, go for it.
I called and got the answering machine. I left a message; we'll see if he calls back.
that is awesome. If he is The Siebler, I wonder if he could be persuaded to do a Q&A here -- a Better Know an Ex-Twin???
behind every "two or three people" are a score of silent people as well!
How about putting the names with Twins connections in bold, as a suggestion?
Good idea. And I love the baseball cards.
oh, yea.
A mash-up between you and Rhu_Ru's awesome card collection on these birfday lists would be doubly cool.
To be fair (yeah, me neither), even though I have those cards, the images were from the great TwinsCards website. I'd be happy to throw the appropriate card images in these posts, though.
Beat me to the punch, Rhu-Ru.
It's too bad Pulido didn't stick around, because "Pucker Up" would have been an awesome nickname for him.
Someone needs to tell Dwight that he doesn't have a ball in his hand, too.