#481 Ryan Luzinski

About the Front: Nothing says "newbie" like a baseball player wearing a jersey number in the eighties. I like it, though; he's wearing my year of birth.

About the Back: Ryan's dad, Greg "the Bull" Luzinski, is something of a cult hero in Chicago and especially in Philadelphia, where he was a four-time All-Star and now owns "Bull's Barbecue", a food stand in Citizens Bank Park.

Triple Play:

1. Luzinski signed with the Dodgers for a $500,000 bonus after being drafted with the 32nd overall pick, which L.A. received as compensation for losing Eddie Murray as a free agent.

2. His best overall season in the minors was 1996, when he batted .311/.371/.443 in 71 total games at three different levels.

3. Ryan never made it to the major leagues, and only totaled 55 games at AAA in parts of three seasons.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I must not have paid close attention to the Orioles' minor league affiliates; I never knew that Luzinski spent the 1997 and 1998 seasons in the Baltimore organization. He spent most of that time at AA Bowie, with 46 games at AAA Rochester tossed in for good measure.

Bill James Said: Nothing. There weren't many teenage catchers on Bill's radar.

On This Date in 1993: September 13. The Rockies and Astros are snowed out in Denver, thanks to a late summer storm that drops over five inches of the white stuff; the previous day's high temperature had been 92 degrees.