Brewers A-Z: George Canale

With the 139th overall pick in the 1986 draft the Brewers selected first baseman George Canale, an All-American first baseman from Virginia Tech, and his early professional career showed some promise. He posted double-digit home run totals in each of his first three full professional seasons, and earned a callup to the Brewers for the first time after hitting .278/.366/.487 for AAA Denver in 1989.

Unfortunately, Canale's bat didn't translate well to the big leagues in his limited opportunities. He hit just .192/.250/.346 in 13 September games for the Brewers in 1989, but that was enough to get him a 1990 Donruss card. Here he is on #699:

Canale was sent back to AAA to open the 1990 season, and played most of the year there again in 1991. All told he appeared in 44 games as a Brewer and hit .164/.276/.384 over 88 plate appearances.

Since making his last major league appearance in 1991 Canale has played in the minors and in Italy (where he won a home run title in 1996), Taiwan and Korea.

With help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to:

• 2007-10 Brewer Jeff Suppan, who turns 38.
• 2003 Brewer Royce Clayton, who turns 43. 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.