Happy Birthday--March 5

Sam Thompson (1860)
Jeff Tesreau (1888)
Lu Blue (1897)
Elmer Valo (1921)
Del Crandall (1930)
Phil Roof (1941)
Kent Tekulve (1947)
Doug Bird (1950)
Mike Squires (1952)
Steve Ontiveros (1960)
Brian Hunter (1971)
Ryan Franklin (1973)
Paul Konerko (1976)
Mike MacDougal (1977)
Erik Bedard (1979)

Outfielder Elmer Valo was one of the original Minnesota Twins, and may have the earliest birthdate of anyone to play for the team.  He was born in Rybnik, Czechoslovakia, and went to high school in Palmerton, Pennsylvania.  He was signed by the Philadelphia Athletics in 1938.  He started his minor league career in 1939 and hit well over .300 each of the next three years in the low minors; his lifetime minor league batting average is .344 and his minor league slugging percentage is .500.  He got brief trials in the majors in 1940 and 1941, and in 1942 was jumped from Class B to the big leagues.  Valo was a starting outfielder for the Athletics in 1942, at age 21, and hit .251.  He was again starting for the Athletics in 1943 when he joined the Army.  He returned to baseball in 1946 and became a star, hitting over .300 each of the next three years and over .280 with an OPS over .800 each of the next seven years.  After the 1952 season, Valo dropped to part-time status for reasons that are not particularly clear.  He moved to Kansas City with the Athletics in 1955, hitting .364 in 283 at-bats.  Surprisingly, he was released in May of 1956 and signed with the Philadelphia Phillies.  He continued to hit well as a part-time player, but was traded to Brooklyn in April of 1957.  He moved to Los Angeles with the team in 1958, and was used primarily as a pinch-hitter.  He was fairly good at it, but was released before the 1959 season.  Valo went back to the minors, sigining with independent Seattle in the Pacific Coast League, and was sold to Cleveland in June.  He pinch-hit for the Indians for the remainder of the season, was released, and signed with the Yankees for 1960.  The Yankees released him in May, and he signed with Washington the next day.  Still used mainly as a pinch-hitter, Valo hit .281 for Washington in 1960 and came to Minnesota with the team, the third franchise shift he had experienced.  He went 5-for-32 with two doubles as a Twin, was released in June, and finished the season and his career back in Philadelphia.  In his career, Valo held a number of odd records:  he was the first player to hit two bases-loaded triples in a game, and tied a record with three in a season in 1949.  In 1960, he set major-league records for most games, most times on base, and most walks as a pinch-hitter.  He also set a major league record with 91 career walks as a pinch-hitter.  He remained in baseball after his playing career ended, first as a coach and minor league manager for Cleveland and then as a long-time scout for Philadelphia.  Elmer Valo passed away on July 19, 1998 at Palmerton, Pennsylvania.  He was inducted into the Phillies Wall of Fame in 1990.

Catcher Phil Roof played for the Twins for parts of six seasons.  Roof was born in and attended high school in Paducah, Kentucky.  He was signed by the Milwaukee Braves as a free agent in 1959.  Roof never hit much in the minors:  his best offensive year was 1961, when he hit .261 for Class B Yakima.  He made his big league debut in 1961 as well, appearing behind the plate for one inning in a 7-3 loss to San Francisco.  He appeared in one more game in 1964, going 0-for-2.  After the season, Roof was traded to California.  1965 was his first full year in the big leagues, but he spent it with two teams, as he was traded to Cleveland in June.  After the season he was on the move again, traded to Kansas City in a deal that also included Joe Rudi.  He got the most playing time of his career in 1966, batting 369 times in 127 games, but hit only .209 with an OPS of .604.  Even in the poor offensive context of the time, that was not good.  Still, he remained a semi-regular catcher for the Athletics through 1969, moving with the team to Oakland, with the exception of 1968, when he was injured much of the year.  Roof was traded to Milwaukee in December of 1969.  He was a Brewer for about a year and a half, then was traded to Minnesota for Paul Ratliff in July of 1971.  He remained a Twin through August of 1976.  His averages with the Twins show the vagaries of small sample size:  after hitting .205, .197, and .196 in three consecutive years, Roof hit .302 in 1975, then fell back to .200 in 1976.  In none of those seasons did he get as many as 150 at-bats.  He was placed on waivers in August and claimed by the White Sox.  After the season he was traded to Toronto.  He went 0-for-5 in 1977 and then his career was over.  As a Twin, he hit .228/.282/.338 in 619 at-bats.  After he finished playing, Roof embarked on a long career as a manager in the Twins' organization, managing at Visalia (1982), Orlando (1983, 1992), Portland (1989-1990), Nashville (1993-1994), Salt Lake (1995-2000), and Rochester (2003-2005).  He was also a bullpen coach for San Diego (1978), Seattle (1984-1988), and the Chicago Cubs (1990-1991).