If you can wear a catcher's mitt and use it reasonably well, you can play in the majors for quite some time. Just ask Rick Cerone.
Cerone played 1329 games as a member of eight teams over 18 major league seasons from 1975-92 despite hitting more than seven home runs just one time and posting a .301 career on base percentage. His best year was 1980, when he batted .277/.321/.432 with 14 home runs for the Yankees and finished seventh in the AL MVP voting.
That year was far behind Cerone, though, when he came to Milwaukee in the March, 1986 deal that sent veteran backstop Ted Simmons to the Braves. Cerone caught 68 games for the Crew that year, posting a .259/.304/.380 batting line. That was enough to get him a 1987 Fleer card, #340:
By the time that card had been printed, though, Cerone had moved on: He signed as a free agent with the Yankees in February of 1987.
After his career was over, Cerone was the founder of the independent league Newark Bears in 1998. He sold the team in 2003.
With help from Brewerfan.net and the B-Ref Play Index, we'd like to wish a happy birthday today to:
- 2012 Wisconsin Timber Rattler Chad Thompson, who turns 22.
- 2012 Wisconsin Timber Rattler Carlos George, who turns 24.
- 2003 Brewer Peter Zoccolillo, who turns 36.
- Green Bay native, UW-Whitewater alum and 1996-2000 Brewer Bob Wickman, who turns 44. We covered his birthday in Today In Brewer History last year.
After over 500 installments spanning two seasons and a full offseason, there are some days where I've exhausted all of the available content for Today In Brewer History. Brewers A-Z is a supplemental feature to help fill in the gaps in my historical calendar. You can see past installments in the series in its special section.