April (14)
April 5th – Considered a top prospect coming out of Eastern Michigan as a pitcher, Roger Coryell hurt his shoulder and was never able to play professionally. He returned to his alma mater and spent 30 years as head coach after 15 years as assistant coach for the baseball team. He scouted for the Texas Rangers after leaving coaching.
April 10th – A man of many skills, Arnoldo Armenta has seen his talents on the world stage as a player for the Mexican National team. After he finished playing the game, he returned to baseball as a doctor, working with multiple teams in the Mexican League.
April 12th – Len Okrie has a strong family connection to baseball, with his father playing in MLB and his brother playing in the minors. After WWII service, Okrie worked his way up the minors for the Washington Senators, getting a few cups of coffee in the late 1940s and early 1950s, totaling 42 games.
April 16th – Drafted four times in two seasons by four teams, Ken Hottman finally signed after being selected in the second round of the 1968 June draft. He worked his way up the minor leagues quickly, hitting very well, especially in 1971, when he hit 37 home runs and slashed .302/.391/.621 for Asheville before getting 17 plate appearances with the White Sox. He would never appear in the majors again, leaving baseball after the 1974 season to play in Mexico.
April 18th – Coming up with the Pirates in the early 1990s, John Hope had an appropriate name, though, like the Pirates brief run at glory, Hope’s career didn’t live up to his name, as he finished with just 73 2/3 major league innings and a 5.99 ERA. Tragically, Hope passed away at just 47.
April 19th – Though he outpitched many future big leaguers who shared the same team with him, John Duffie had just one brief stint in the major leagues in 1967, getting two starts and acquitting himself well, with a 2.79 ERA. He would go on to pitch two more seasons in the minor leagues before leaving professional baseball.
April 20th – George Alusik, whose brother John passed away in January of 2018, joined his brother as a former ballplayer that passed on in 2018 on April 20th. Alusik played 5 seasons in the majors, never getting more than 252 plate appearances, but putting up 23 home runs in his limited major league experience.
April 21st – One of the key people in the promotion of the game of baseball in Canada, Ron Hayter helped to develop the official Canadian baseball rule book and was active in the sport for decades. He was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.
April 23rd – Before cancer took him at 73, Dave Nelson lived a very full life. He was one of the fastest players in the game in the mid-1970s, once stealing second, third, and home in the same inning. He then went on to coach for 25 years for various organizations around the game. He was very passionate about charities, including a boarding house for orphans in South Africa from the AIDS epidemic.
A player who was discriminated against by his own home fans due to his mixed heritage (his father was an African-American soldier), Sachio Kinugasa turned his focus into an incredible resilience to be on the field. He retired with 2,215 consecutive games played, the first to truly break Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak as a professional. Kinugasa was a 13-time All-Star in the NPB and was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. He remains in the top 10 in NPB history in home runs.
April 24th – Marv Rackley only played in 185 games as a major leaguer, but he succeeded when he did play, hitting .317 as a speedy center fielder. He passed away at 97, though remarkably, that made him only the 3rd-oldest former major leaguer to pass away in 2018.
April 28th – Tutoring hosts of future major league players, Amaury Ochart was a coach and manager in Puerto Rico for 15 years, including coaching the Puerto Rican team that took Bronze in the 1979 Pan American Games.
April 30th – Coming up late in the 1957 season, Frank Ernaga made a tremendous impact, hitting .314/.455/.686 over 20 games and 44 plate appearances. He would only get 8 plate appearances after that season in the major leagues, and he left pro baseball after the 1959 season.
One of the premier names in Australian baseball, John Ostermeyer served as the Secretary General of the International Baseball Association two different terms and is credited with strengthening the game strongly “down under’.