March 4 – Happy Birthday Lee Tinsley

The Red Sox picked up this Shelbyville, Kentucky-born outfielder in a late-exhibition-season trade with the Mariners, in March of 1994. During the next two seasons, he was Boston’s fourth outfielder. He got off to a slow start as a Red Sox when he hit just .222 in 1994 but he became a very important part of Boston’s 1995 AL East Championship club by hitting a career high .284 that year with 7 home runs and 41 RBIs for first-year Manager Kevin Kennedy. Boston then included Tinsley in a January 1996 six-player swap with the Phillies that brought reliever Heathcliff Slocumb to Beantown. The Red Sox got him back from Philadelphia six months later and he became Boston’s starting center fielder for the balance of the 1996 season. But in 92 games that year, he hit a very unproductive .245 and the following November, he found himself back in Seattle with the Mariners. 1997 would be Tinsley’s final big league season.