Hal Janvrin (1892)
Peanuts Lowrey (1917)
Joe Cunningham (1931)
Jim King (1932)
Ernie Broglio (1935)
Joe McCabe (1938)
Ed Herrmann (1946)
Buddy Bell (1951)
Mike Maddux (1961)
Brian McRae (1967)
Jim Thome (1970)
Jose Vidro (1974)
A native of Indianapolis, catcher Joe McCabe was signed out of Purdue as a free agent by the then Washington Senators in 1960. He had mixed results in his minor league career; for example, he hit .309 in 1962 for AAA Vancouver, but only .216 in 1963 for AAA Dallas-Ft. Worth. McCabe was promoted to the Twins early in 1964 and appeared in 14 games, mostly as a late-inning replacement. He went 3-for-19 (.158) with two RBIs. Sent to Charlotte (AA) for the remainder of the season, McCabe was traded in the offseason to the new Washington Senators for Ken Retzer. He appeared in 14 more games for the Senators in 1965, but with not much better results, although he did hit a home run. He finished the year with Hawaii (AAA), and then was finished as an active player. It turns out there are a lot more people named "Joe McCabe" in this world than one might think, including writers, business executives, students, bureaucrats, etc. If anyone knows what happened to this Joe McCabe, please let us know.
Word Up.
obviously, Joe McCabe wasn't going to make anyone Earl Battey Earl Battey.
He couldn't even beat out Jerry Zimmerman. The Twins backup catchers were awful at the plate that year. In 180 at-bats, Zimmerman, McCabe, and Ron Henry combined to hit .178 with 2 home runs (both by Henry) and 19 RBIs, a .233 OBP and .245 SLG.
I can't think of many better QOL jobs than getting paid to play baseball in Hawaii.