Vocation : Sports : Baseball

Edward Terrance Kazak (July 18, 1920 – December 15, 1999) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a third baseman from 1948 to 1952, most prominently as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.
After suffering serious injuries during World War II, Kazak recovered to become a Major League Baseball player where, he played in the 1949 All-Star Game as a 28-year-old rookie. Injuries prematurely ended his playing career after just five seasons. He played his final season with the Cincinnati Reds.

William John Bonness (December 15, 1923 – December 3, 1977), nicknamed "Lefty", was a Major League Baseball pitcher who played for one season. He played for the Cleveland Indians from September 26, 1944, to September 29, 1944.

Dennis Herman Blair (born June 5, 1954) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher for the Montreal Expos during the 1974–1976 seasons and for the San Diego Padres in 1980. Blair grew up in Rialto, California, and attended Eisenhower High School in Rialto.
After his major league career ended in 1982, he worked and attended California State University San Bernardino. He graduated in 1993 with a Liberal Studies Bachelor of Arts degree and completed his master's degree at Lamar University.He moved to Texas and taught students with special needs in Garland and Mesquite Independent School Districts. He retired from teaching in 2016 and lives in the Phoenix area part of the year. He is married and has two sons, a step-son and three grandchildren.

Ralph William Beard (February 11, 1929 – February 10, 2003) was an American professional baseball player, a right-handed pitcher whose ten-season (1947–56) pro career included 13 games pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball. Beard, a native of Cincinnati, attended the University of Cincinnati. He stood 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) tall and weighed 200 pounds (91 kg).
Beard's 13 big-league appearances included ten starting pitcher assignments, as he took a regular turn in the Cardinals' rotation during late July and August of the 1954 season. Although he lost all four decisions, he made a memorable start on July 22, 1954, against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium. He went 12 innings and allowed only one earned run and eight hits (including a home run by Preston Ward for the Pirates' earned run), but left the game for a pinch hitter with the score tied 2–2. He was relieved by Gerry Staley, who hurled two perfect frames and St. Louis won, 3–2, in 14 innings.As a starter, Beard gave up 29 runs in ten efforts and 492⁄3 innings pitched, but only 21 were earned (for a 3.81 earned run average in starting assignments). All told as a Major Leaguer, he surrendered 62 hits and 28 bases on balls in 58 innings pitched, with 17 strikeouts.
Beard died in West Palm Beach, Florida, on the day before his 74th birthday.

Charles Richard Bates (born October 7, 1945) is an American former Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He graduated from McArthur (OH) High School now Vinton County High School and was signed by the Kansas City Athletics as an undrafted free agent before the 1964 season. After that, Bates also spent time in the Washington Senators organization, and was later drafted by the Seattle Pilots as the 30th pick in the 1968 expansion draft.Bates' major league tenure consisted of one relief appearance for the expansion Pilots, against the Oakland Athletics (April 27, 1969 at Sick's Stadium). Bates allowed six baserunners (three hits, three walks) and five earned runs along with three strikeouts in 1+2⁄3 innings, and ended up with a 27.00 ERA.As of 2006, Bates was living in Glendale, Arizona, and working as the general manager of the Arizona Biltmore Golf & Country Club in nearby Phoenix.

David Lee Bakenhaster (March 5, 1945 – July 30, 2014) was an American professional baseball pitcher who appeared in two games in Major League Baseball as a member of the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals. Born in Columbus, Ohio, and raised in nearby Dublin, he threw and batted right-handed and was listed as 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and 168 pounds (76 kg).
Bakenhaster signed with the Cardinals for a $40,000 bonus in 1963 after he graduated from Dublin Coffman High School. The Cardinals protected him from the first-year player draft by putting him on their 25-man MLB roster for 1964. But he would appear in only two games and hurl only three full innings as a Redbird.
He made his major-league debut at the age of 19 on June 20, 1964, at Busch Stadium. He entered a contest against the San Francisco Giants in a low-leverage situation, with St. Louis trailing 10–1 in the eighth inning. Bakenhaster allowed six hits and four unearned runs in two full innings as the Giants rolled, 14–3. One month and two days later, on July 22, he appeared in his second and last MLB game, another one-sided home game, this time against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bakenhaster again worked the ninth inning, allowing a two-run home run to Bill Mazeroski and surrendering the final two runs in an eventual 13–2 Pittsburgh romp.The Cardinals then sent Bakenhaster to the minor leagues for the remainder of 1964; he escaped the first-year player draft but never returned to the majors. He missed the 1968 season while serving in the military, and retired from the game after the 1970 season. In his brief MLB career, he posted a 0–0 won–lost record and a 6.00 earned run average, with nine hits and one base on balls in three full innings pitched. He did not record a strikeout.
After leaving baseball, Bakenhaster worked for 34 years in a warehouse operated by Exel Logistics, serving the Nabisco Brands Food Company in Columbus, Ohio. In 1975, he married the former Carolyn Harr. In 2002, he was elected to the inaugural class for the Dublin Coffman High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

Ronald Lawrence Woods (born February 1, 1943) is an American former professional baseball player who appeared in all or part of six seasons in Major League Baseball from 1969 to 1974, primarily as an outfielder, for the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees and Montreal Expos. He also played two seasons in Japan for the Chunichi Dragons in 1975–1976. Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Woods threw and batted right-handed, stood 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and weighed 168 pounds (76 kg).
Woods graduated from Compton High School in Southern California, and entered pro baseball in the Pittsburgh Pirates' organization in June 1961. However, after five years in the Pittsburgh farm system, he had risen only as high as the Double-A level. Early in 1966, the Detroit Tigers acquired his contract. After a strong 1968 season with the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens, Woods made the 1969 roster of the defending World Series champion Tigers out of spring training. He appeared in 17 early-season games for Detroit, largely as a pinch hitter, pinch runner and defensive replacement, before being traded June 14 to the New York Yankees for veteran outfielder Tom Tresh.
Although he struggled offensively, Woods was able to solidify his hold on a major league job with the Yankees, appearing in 192 games (starting 147) from June 1969 to June 1971. On June 25 of the latter year, the Yankees sent Woods to the Montreal Expos for former New York Mets outfielder Ron Swoboda. Despite a brief detour to Triple-A Winnipeg in 1971, Woods spent the next 31⁄2 years on the Expo roster, appearing in 373 games and batting a cumulative .245. In 1973, he was Montreal's most-used center fielder, starting 72 games and platooning with left-handed hitters Boots Day and Jim Lyttle, as the Expos, a fifth-year expansion team, battled for the National League East Division title before falling short by 31⁄2 games.
That off-season, however, the Expos traded for veteran center fielder Willie Davis of the Los Angeles Dodgers, relegating Woods to part-time status in 1974. He started 21 games all season, batted .205 in 127 at bats, and departed for the Chunichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball. He played the 1975 and 1976 seasons in Japan, appearing in 192 total games and hitting .263 with 160 hits and 19 home runs.
Doing Woods' six seasons in the major leagues, Woods batted .233. His 290 hits in 1,247 at bats included 34 doubles, 12 triples, and 26 career home runs. He compiled 130 RBIs, and 27 stolen bases.

John Edward Yuhas (August 5, 1924 – July 6, 1986) was a former professional baseball pitcher. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he appeared in two seasons in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1952–53. He batted and threw right-handed during his baseball career.