If Your Birthday is April 10th...

...you share it with Andrew Painter.  The Phillies top pitching prospect looked to be on the fast track to the majors before Tommy John surgery cost him the '23 and '24 seasons.  After rehabbing a year ago with Triple-A Lehigh Valley, he made his MLB debut on March 31st, winning his first start against the Nationals, but had a tougher time facing the Giants this past Monday.  Considered the best pitcher they've developed since Cole Hamels, the Phils expect big things from the South Florida native now  and into the next decade.

(These images are from a AAA game at Syracuse last July. Painter now wears 24 for the Phils.)

And we remember Chuck Connors.  Yes, the star of TV's classic western The Rifleman really did play major league ball.  The Brooklyn native was both a baseball and basketball standout at nearby Seton Hall U, before signing with the Dodgers but made just one appearance for the team he grew up rooting for -- grounding out into a double play to end a May 1st, 1949 loss to the Phillies.  After finishing that season with the Dodgers farm team in Montreal, he returned to the majors with the Cubs in '51, playing 66 games without much success.  While disappointed the Cubs also farmed him out, he took advantage of playing for their minor league affiliate in Los Angeles to launch an acting career -- which began with a small role in the Tracy/Hepburn movie Pat and Mike.  Other film highlights include The Big Country, Old Yeller, the Doris Day comedy Move Over Darling and the sci-fi thriller Soylent Green.



 

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