He divided the 2008 season between Florida and Albuquerque of the Pacific Coast League. He suffered through spring training for awhile in 2009 until it was decided he needed surgery to deal with a stress fracture on his left elbow. As far as I know he was sidelined for the entire 2009 season.

His name reminded me of a character you might find in a Zorro film. His claim to fame, however, is his part in an interesting experiment conducted by the Cubs in the 1961 season when the team had revolving managers. The media jokingly referred to this experiment as the Cubs' College of Coaches.

Tappe, Vedie Himsl*, Harry Craft and Lou Klein rotated during the season, Tappe taking over during three different periods and managing more games than the others combined. The Cubs finished seventh in an eight-team league.

In 1962 Tappe began the season as the only Cubs manager, but was removed after the team lost 16 of their first 20 games. They would have finished in last place, but that was the season the New York Mets were born. So the Cubs, with a final record of 59-103, still were 18 games better than the Mets (40-120).

Tappe continued on as a Cub coach, then in 1964 became a scout. He also ran a sporting goods store with his twin brother, Melvin, and the two of them did play-by-play baseball broadcasts on a Quincy, Illinois, radio station.

* Vedie Himsl. Now that's a name that would have made my list, too, except Avitus Berbard Himsl never played in the majors (though, yes, I did make an exception for Cool Papa Bell). Himsl was a pitcher whose promising minor league career was interrupted by World War II.

George Roberts Tebbetts received his nickname as a youngster when one of his aunts commented, "He chirps like a bird."

No doubt Tebbetts knew baseball, but as a manager he had more bad seasons than good. In 1956, his third as leader of the Cincinnati Redlegs, he was the Associated Press choice as National League Manager of the Year when his team finished third. It was all downhill after that, though his lifetime record was 748-705, for a winning percentage of .515.

Likewise, his best seasons as a player were relatively early in his career. In 1940 he batted .296 for the Detroit Tigers, who won the American League pennant. In the World Series against Cincinnati, Tebbetts went hitless in 11 at bats as he split catching duties with Billy Sullivan.

Tebbetts' lifetime batting average was .270. He had just 38 home runs, 19 of them coming during his four seasons with the Red Sox in cozy Fenway Park. He was on the American League All-Star team four times. His final hit, with Cleveland in 1952, was number 1,000.

As for White Wings Tebeau, I'm still looking for the source of that unusual nickname. Upon retirement as a player, he bought a minor league team in Kansas City.

He spent 14 seasons in the major leagues (1884-97), the first six with Brooklyn of the American Association. (The team was known as the Trolley-Dodgers, then the Bridegrooms.) He went with the Bridegrooms to the National League in 1890. Later he played for Pittsburgh and Chicago after one game with Baltimore in 1892.

Terry was primarily a pitcher with a lifetime record of 197-195. Those were different times, obviously, but it's interesting to note Terry pitched 485 innings in 1884, winning 20 games and losing 35.

Like many pitchers of the time, Terry played other positions as well. He logged 216 games in the outfield, plus another 32 at infield positioins. Which is why another Terry statistic jumps off the page – in 1890 he won 26 games and stole 32 bases.

Like many young men, Willard Wayne "Twig" Terwilliger's baseball career was interrupted by World War II, but in his case he entered the service before he turned professional. One result: he was not yet regarded as a baseball player, so he was treated pretty much like a reguar serviceman. No assignment to a Marine baseball team awaited him. Instead he served as a radioman on a tank in the Pacific, participating in the invasions of Tinian and Iwo Jima.

He was discharged in 1945 and entered Western Michigan University where he played shortstop. The Cubs signed him in 1948 and moved him to second base. He went through the minor leagues quickly, joining the Cubs late in 1949. The next year he was the Cubs regular second baseman, hit .242 with 10 home runs. In 1950 the Cubs traded him to Brooklyn. After that he spent two years with the Washington Senators, two with the New York Giants before ending his playing career with the Kansas City Athletics in 1960. Then he became a coach, working for the Senators, Texas Rangers and Minnesota Twins.

In 2005, at the age of 80, Terwilliger was named manager of the year in the Central Baseball League for the job he did with the Fort Worth Cats. At 85 he is still active with the team, but as the first base coach. The Cats now are members of the American Association.

The photo (below) is typical of 1950s press photos of athletes. This one was taken while Terwilliger played for Washington (1953-54).

Well, actually Frank Edward Thrasher was an outfielder who played 30 games and batted .235 for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1916-17, an infamous period for manager-owner Connie Mack who sold off many of the players who had helped his team win four American League pennants and three World Series during a five-year stretch (1910-14). The A's finished in eighth place during both of Thrasher's seasons.

His nickname had nothing to do with habits or appearance. Thurston's father owned a restaurant and operated a soup kitchen for the poor. In this case, "Slop" referred to the food or the manner in which it was served. As for Thurston himself, he was almost excessively neat, which added a new wrinkle to his nickname. One website described him as "a meticulous and dandy Jazz Age dresser."