Happy birthday to organizational soldier and cup of coffee drinker Danny Ardoin, who turns 34 today.
Ardoin is a catcher who spent much of 2002, and all of 2003 and 2004, in the Rangers' system, mostly with the Redhawks. He was called up briefly in 2004, when the Rangers were casting about to try to find a non-embarrassing backup catcher after Gerald Laird was sidelined with a sprained thumb, but played in only 6 games, getting 8 at bats.
Ardoin's, and Ken Huckaby's, struggles resulted in Gerald Laird coming back and playing hurt (and not very well) in the second half of the season, which led to the whole winterball dispute between him and the organization...
Ardoin went on to spend some time up with the Rockies and Orioles afterwards, and is currently on the Dodgers' active roster.