Today In Brewer History: Happy Anniversary, Jim Henderson

If Jim Henderson goes on to have a long major league career, he'll be a great unlikely story.

On this day two years ago Henderson was already 28 and a veteran of eight professional seasons, but had never pitched in the majors and appeared in just eleven AAA games. He had just finished his second season in the minors with the Brewers, his third organization, where he posted a 5.46 ERA over 45 appearances for AA Huntsville.

Henderson was a minor league free agent, and no one would have blamed him if he'd decided to hang it up. Instead, however, two years ago today Henderson re-signed with the Brewers. In 2011 he reached Nashville for the first time and in 2012, his tenth professional season, he finally made his major league debut.

Henderson appeared in 36 games for the Brewers in 2012 and posted a 3.52 ERA over 30.2 innings with 13.2 strikeouts per nine. He's a likely candidate to pitch late innings in the Brewer bullpen again in 2013, and has a chance to stick in the major leagues for a long time.

With help from Brewerfan.net and the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to:

• 2012 Helena Brewer Joel Pierce, who turns 20.
• 2012 Nashville Sound Khris Davis, who turns 25.
• 2010-11 Brewer LaTroy Hawkins, who turns 39. We covered his birthday in this space last year.
• 1958-60 Milwaukee Brave Bob Rush, who would have turned 87.