February 15, 2009 – Former Minnesota Twins outfielder Ted Uhlaender passed away from a heart attack on Thursday at the age of 68. Ted Uhlaender was born in Chicago Heights, Illinois on October 21, 1940. Ted signed as a free agent with Minnesota in 1961 and was a September 1965 call-up and appeared in 13 games but was not eligible for the World Series against the Dodgers. Uhlaender became a starter the following season and was a regular through 1969 when he was traded to the Cleveland Indians after the season ended. Uhlaender played for the Indians for two seasons before he was once again traded, this time to the Cincinnati Redlegs where he finished his career when the 1972 season ended. Uhlaender was a very good defensive outfielder and had a career batting average of .263 with 36 home runs in 898 major league games.
In later years, he worked for the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees. He spent two years with the Giants, became Cleveland’s first base coach in 2000-01 and then returned to San Francisco as a scout and has worked for them in that capacity since 2002.
Ted had a daughter (Katie), who races for the U.S. Olympic skeleton team and is eyeing her second Olympic berth in Vancouver next year. Uhlaender was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer last year. I would like to pass on my condolences and best wishes to the Uhlaender family.