On this day in 1985 the Brewers were off, but still made big news off the field. They had the #1 pick in that year's Rule 4 draft and selected North Carolina catcher B.J. Surhoff.
After just a season and a half in the minors, Surhoff was a big leaguer for the first time in April of 1987. He played 115 games as a 22-year-old that season, hitting .299/.350/.423 while primarily playing catcher. It was the first of nine seasons as a Brewer for Surhoff, and over that time he became one of just eleven players in franchise history to collect 1000 hits.
Surhoff was primarily a catcher during his tenure in Milwaukee, which makes it all the more surprising that he's one of just five players in franchise history with 1000 hits and 100 stolen bases:
Player | Hits | SB |
Paul Molitor | 2281 | 412 |
Robin Yount | 3142 | 271 |
Jim Gantner | 1696 | 137 |
Ryan Braun | 1147 | 129 |
B.J. Surhoff | 1064 | 102 |
All told, Surhoff played 19 seasons in the majors as a member of three teams and was a career .282/.332/.413 hitter over 2313 games.
With help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to 2002 Brewer Robert Machado. He turns 40.
Today is also the tenth anniversary of the Brewers making Rickie Weeks the #2 overall pick in the 2003 draft, which we covered in this space last year, and the third anniversary of Chris Capuano's 2010 return to the Brewers after two seasons away, which we covered in this space two years ago.