Happy Birthday--March 11

Bobby Winkles (1930)
Dock Ellis (1945)
Cesar Geronimo (1948)
Phil Bradley (1959)
Bryan Oelkers (1961)
Steve Reed (1965)
Salomon Torres (1972)

Left-hander Bryan Oelkers made ten appearances for the Twins in 1983.  Born in Zaragoza, Spain, Oelkers was the first player born in Spain to reach the major leagues.  He attended high school in Maryland Heights, Missouri and then attended Wichita State.  After being named NCAA picher of the year in 1982, he was drafted by the Twins with the fourth pick of the 1982 draft, famously drafted ahead of Dwight Gooden.  He made eight starts in the minors in 1982 and started 1983 in the Twins' starting rotation.  He did well in two of his first three starts, but things went downhill after that.  After five poor starts and a couple of poor relief appearances, Oelkers was sent to AAA, where he continued to pitch poorly.  in 1984, he bounced back to go 16-11, 3.40 at AA Orlando, pitching a surprising 219.2 innings.  He could not repeat his success in 1985 and was traded to Cleveland after the season along with Ken Schrom for Ramon Romero and Roy Smith.  After nine successful starts in AAA Maine, Oelkers came up to the Indians in early June.  Working mostly out of the bullpen, he did a decent but unexceptional job for them.  It would be his last major league season.  After a bad year at AAA Buffalo in 1987, the Indians let Oelkers go.  He pitched at AAA for Montreal and the Cubs in 1988 and for St. Louis in 1989 before ending his playing career.  There is a Bryan Oelkers who is a vice president for MasterCard Worldwide and located in O'Fallon, Missouri; while it could not be confirmed, it seems reasonable to think that it might be the same one.

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