Day, who began his professional career in the Western Carolina League with Round Rock in 1966, spent six years in the Major Leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals, the Chicago Cubs and the Montreal Expos from 1969-1974. He spent 1975-1978 playing for the Evansville Triplets in the American Association for the Detroit Tigers’ Triple-A club. He would take the 1979 season off, and would return for 31 games in the Tigers’ minor league system with the Lakeland Tigers (Single A) and Evansville (Triple A). Day began his coaching career in 1982 in the Detroit Tigers organization and later scouted for the Tigers, New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals. He has coached in the Royals, Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks and Washington Nationals farm systems. An interesting factoid on Day was that he and Rusty Staub were the leading hitters on the 1971 Montreal Expos and on April 10, 1971 he was the very first hitter in Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium.
The featured speaker of the event will be former Major League star pitcher and current DiamondDawgs Chairman Tommy John. John, who pitched for six Major League teams over an astounding 26-year career, most notably with the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, won 288 big league games, was a four-time All Star and finished second in the 1977 and 1979 Cy Young races. Noted for the famous ligament surgery named after him, John had a career 3.34 ERA and fanned over 2,200 hitters. He had an astounding nine seasons with an ERA under 3.00 and was a three-time 20-Game winner, topping out with 22 Wins in 1980. Twice John led the National League in Winning Percentage (1973: .696; and 1974: .813), three times the American League in Shutouts (1966: 5; 1967: 6; 1980: 6), and had a spectacular six-year run from 1976 to 1981 when he went 99-53 with a 3.06 ERA, 14 shutouts, and 64 complete games.
The dinner will be held on Saturday, February 11, 2012 at the Knights Inn in Little Falls. Tickets for the dinner are $35 for adults, $20 for children under 12 and Tables of 8 can be purchased for $250. To purchase tickets, sponsor the dinner or to find out more information, contact DiamondDawgs President Travis Heiser at Travis@MyDiamondDawgs.com or at 315-985-0692.
THIS SPECIAL EVENING WILL BE PACKED WITH HUNDREDS OF BASEBALL FANS FROM ALL OVER THE MOHAWK VALLEY, SO RESERVE YOUR TICKETS NOW!!!
