On this day in 1894 Chuck Dressen was born in Decatur, Illinois. He was 29 years old and had already played parts of three seasons in the NFL when he made his MLB debut with the 1925 Reds, appearing in 76 games. Despite not getting started in the majors until his age 30 season Dressen played eight seasons in the big leagues and hit .272/.343/.369 while playing primarily third base.
Nearly immediately after the end of his playing days Dressen became the manager of the Reds, and had managed in Cincinnati, Brooklyn and Washington when the Milwaukee Braves hired him to replace Fred Haney as their skipper in 1960. The Braves had won pennants in two of Haney's three seasons at the helm but finished second with 88 wins under Dressen in 1960 and fourth in 1961, when he was fired after 130 games.
Dressen later resurfaced in the majors as manager of the 1963 Tigers, and was still with the team when he passed away in 1966. He finished his career with 1008 wins in 1990 managerial games.
Dressen would have turned 116 today. With help from Brewerfan.net, we'd also like to wish a happy birthday to Brevard County Manatee Joey Paciorek. He turns 24.
Today is the second anniversary of Rickie Weeks' 100th run in 2010, making him just the second Brewer second baseman ever to reach that mark. We covered that event in this space last year.