It is Danny Cox 50th birthday today. Danny came into the majors with the St. Louis Cardinals, playing for them for the first 6 years of his career. He had a couple of terrific seasons as a starting pitcher for them, going 18-9 with a 2.88 ERA in 1985 and then 12-13 with a 2.90 ERA in 1986, but he threw 461 innings between the two seasons. Unsurprisingly, that number of innings led to elbow troubles later. He ended up missing the entire 1989 and 1990 seasons. He made it back the to majors in 1991 with the Phillies but wasn't the same pitcher he had been before the arm troubles.
The Jays signed him as a free agent and made him a reliever in 1993. Danny was an important part of our bullpen in our second World Series season, going 7-6 with a 3.12 ERA in 44 games. He pitched 5 shutout innings in our ALCS win over the White Sox. He did have a rough outing in game 6 of the World Series against the Phillies, being part of a 5 run Phillies 7th innings that put the Phillies up 6-5. But that just set things up for Joe Carter to hit the biggest home run in Jays history, so he can be forgiven.
Danny's arm troubles reappeared the next two seasons and he wasn't as good. 1995 was his last season in the majors. He has worked as a minor league manager and pitching coach since then.
So Happy Birthday Danny. Hope it is a good one.
Also Happy Birthday to Cecil Fielder, who is 46 today, we talked about him last year on his birthday. And Happy Birthday to Brian Tallet who turns 32 today, hope your foot is feeling better.