Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Help Needed to Fill Holes in Bill Pleis Career Transactions!

Bill Pleis was a pretty fair pitcher that spent his entire major league career with the Minnesota Twins, and even got into a game in the 1965 World Series with the Dodgers.

After a 1966 season which saw him in only 8 appearances for the Twins (and some ineffective work in AAA), Pleis was off to Hawaii in the (then) Senators organization for 1967.  There is no transaction listed for this move, but I did find this note in the Eau Claire Leader of Oct. 18, 1967...

"The Minnesota Twins set their winter roster at 40 Monday by putting two players on the National Defense service list, buying eight players from minor league affiliates, and gelling six others to the minors. Catcher John Sevcik and pitcher Tom Hall, who was purchased from Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., were placed on the military list. Those bought by the Twins were: Catcher Franklin Sands, from Denver; outfielder Herman Hill and pitcher Charlie Murray, from Orlando, Fla; first baseman .Phil Hahn, from Auburn, N.Y.; pitcher Buzz Stephen, from Santa Barbara, Calif.; shortstop Rick Renick, from Eilson, N.C.; and pitcher Bob Weisenberg from St. Cloud, Minn. The Twins sold pitcher Bill Pleis to Hawaii."

Which would be a nice tie-up to the transaction mystery except Pleis spent the 1967 season in Hawaii, and the next in Louisville for Boston.

 BTW, that transaction above would have taken place on Oct. 16, 1967.

An article in the Buffalo Courier-Express from Feb. 25, 1968 has Pleis signing a contract with the Buffalo AAA club for 1968. That is all well and good, except we don't find out what happened with him and Hawaii, AND Pleis never played for Buffalo that year, he went to Louisville.

Can anyone out there help fill in the gaps on these deals?

Pleis pic from Trading Card Database.


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