Brewers A-Z: Don August

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.

Right-handed pitcher Don August was a member of the 1984 US Olympic team and the Astros' first round pick (17th overall) in the 1984 draft, but before he could make his major league debut he was traded to the Brewers in a 1986 three-player deal that sent Danny Darwin to the Astros. August, who is one of just four major leaguers from Chapman University in California, made his major league debut with Milwaukee on June 2, 1988.

August was pretty good in his debut season with the Brewers, posting a 3.09 ERA over 148.1 innings and finishing fourth in the voting for AL Rookie of the Year. Unfortunately, it turned out to be his best season: August dragged a 5.43 ERA through the next three years as a Brewer and was done as a major leaguer at age 28.

August's last major league game may have come in 1991, but he pitched in the minors, Taiwan and Italy and was able to extend his professional career all the way into 2000. August is also an interesting historical footnote: As noted on his B-Ref Page, he was the winning pitcher in the first game ever played at the SkyDome in Toronto.

I have four August cards in my collection. We'll start with this one, from his time with Team USA:

The back of that card noted that August pitched in three games for Team USA and worked 6.1 innings without allowing a run.

Here's August on Donruss #602 from 1988:

And here he is again two years later, as card #617 in Donruss' 1990 set:

Here's August's 1992 Score card, #533:

The back of that card notes that August won five straight games at one point in 1991.