Duane Charles Theiss (born November 20, 1953) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He played two seasons with the Atlanta Braves from 1977 to 1978.Theiss attended Sheridan High School (Thornville, Ohio) then Marietta College, and in 1974 he played collegiate summer baseball with the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod Baseball League. He was drafted in the 12th round of the 1975 MLB Draft by the Braves.
Lawrence Rayford Howard (June 6, 1945 – May 11, 2019) was a Major League Baseball catcher. He played four seasons with the Houston Astros (1970–1973) and Atlanta Braves (1973). He died on May 11, 2019.
Richard James French (born August 13, 1941) is an American former catcher in Major League Baseball who played between 1965 and 1971 for the Washington Senators. Listed at 5' 7", 182 lb., French batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He was born in Warren, Ohio, and was signed by Washington in 1963 out of Ohio University.
The Washington pitchers liked French behind the plate for the way he called games and by his strong arm and defensive skills. The Senators hoped he would be an eventual successor for Mike Brumley, but French never came within 86 points of his .297 rookie average. His most productive season came in 1970, when he appeared in a career-high 69 games while hitting .211 with 29 runs and 13 RBI.
In a seven-season career, French was a .196 hitter (119-for-607) with five home runs and 51 RBI in 234 games, including 53 runs, 17 doubles, four triples, three stolen bases, and a .328 on-base percentage. In 220 catching appearances he posted a .982 fielding percentage (22 errors in 1203 chances).
French also played in the Washington, Detroit and Atlanta Minor league systems. French received his Juris Doctor at The John Marshall Law School, and is still a practicing attorney to this day.
Robert Barry Bonnell (born October 27, 1953) is an American former outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). After playing basketball and baseball for the Ohio State University (OSU), he played baseball for the Atlanta Braves, Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners between 1977 and 1986.
Ethan Allen Blackaby (July 24, 1940 – January 16, 2022) was an American professional baseball player who was an outfielder in Major League Baseball, appearing in 15 games for the Milwaukee Braves during the 1962 and 1964 seasons. He threw and batted left-handed, stood 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and weighed 190 pounds (86 kg).
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Blackaby attended Canton, Illinois, High School, where he was a multi-sport standout athlete. He played baseball and football at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign before signing with the Braves in 1961. His nine-year professional career included 1,073 games in minor league baseball, punctuated by his two trials with the Braves in the closing weeks of the 1962 and 1964 campaigns, when MLB rosters expanded to 40 players. In his debut on September 6, 1962, he doubled in his first MLB at bat against Ernie Broglio of the St. Louis Cardinals. He had entered the game as a pinch hitter for Braves' catcher Bob Uecker, who later became both a film and television actor and Baseball Hall of Fame play-by-play broadcaster. Blackaby collected only two other hits in the majors, both singles, in 25 at bats over his two brief trials.
After his playing days were over, Blackaby was part-owner and general manager of the Phoenix Giants of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Blackaby died on January 16, 2022, at the age of 81.
Lawrence Thomas Owen (May 31, 1955 – June 6, 2018) was a Major League Baseball catcher. He played all or parts of six seasons in the major leagues, between 1981 and 1988, for the Atlanta Braves and Kansas City Royals.