Today In Brewer History: Trying Again With Greg Vaughn

Most Wisconsin sports fans probably remember Greg Vaughn for his eight seasons in Milwaukee and pair of All Star appearances as a Brewer. You may not have known, though, that Vaughn was almost a Pirate (and a Cardinal and an Angel).

On this day in 1985 the Pirates selected Vaughn with the 19th overall pick in baseball's January secondary draft. It was the third time Vaughn had been drafted, and it would take two more tries before a team finally got him to sign a professional deal:

• The Cardinals drafted Vaughn in 1984.
• The Brewers drafted him for the first time in the 1984 draft's secondary phase.
• The Pirates selected him in January of 1985, as noted here.
• The Angels tried to get him in the third round of the 1985 June draft.
• Finally, the Brewers took him fourth overall in the secondary phase of the 1986 draft and were able to sign him.

Vaughn, of course, could have helped all of those teams. Baseball America rated him as the game's #9 overall prospect in 1990, he was a four-time All Star and hit 355 career home runs.

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

• 2012 Wisconsin Timber Rattler Adrian Williams, who turns 22.
• 2003 Brewer Mike Crudale, who turns 36.
• Bart Johnson, 1999 inductee into the Appleton Baseball Hall of Fame. He turns 63.
• 1972 Brewer Archie Reynolds, who turns 67.
• Adrian Garrett, 2008 inductee into the Appleton Baseball Hall of Fame. He turns 70.

Today is also the second anniversary of Chris Capuano signing with the Mets in 2011, putting a punctuation mark on his Brewer career. We covered that event in this space last year.