Today In Brewer History: Happy Birthday, Lenny Harris

On this day in 1964, Lenny Harris was born in Miami, Florida. The Reds drafted him in the fifth round of the 1983 draft (the same round the Brewers would later select Joey Meyer), and he made his major league debut for Cincinnati as a 23 year old in 1988.

Harris spent most of his career as a journeyman utilityman, playing stints with the Reds, Dodgers, Reds again, Mets, Rockies, Diamondbacks and Mets again before coming to the Brewers in a three team, eleven player trade before the 2002 season. Harris was very good in a bench role on a pretty bad 2002 Brewer team, hitting .305/.355/.411 over 215 plate appearances in 122 games.

By the time Harris retired he was baseball's all time leader with 222 pinch hits. 22 of those came with the Brewers in 2002, the second most he ever collected in a single season. Following the year he became a free agent and moved on, signing with the Cubs. He spent the 2011 season as the hitting coach for the Great Lakes Loons (Dodger affiliate) of the Midwest League.

Harris turns 47 today. With help from Brewerfan.net and the B-Ref Play Index, we'd also like to wish a happy birthday to:

• Brevard County Manatee Roque Mercedes, who turns 25.
• 2009 Brewer Braden Looper, who turns 37.
• 1986-91 Brewer Mark Knudson, who turns 51.
• Columbus, Wisconsin native Frank Lange, who would have turned 128. Lange played four major league seasons between 1910-13 as a member of the White Sox.