Some thing never change with the Minnesota Twins. Even back in 1966 the Twins were scouting all over the world and looking for baseball players and in this case they thought they had found a real diamond in the rough in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The 23 year-old David Lowery was 6’5″ and tipped the scales about 208 and signed a minor league deal with the Orlando Twins for a $1,000 bonus and round trip transportation for him and his family to give baseball in the United States a try as a right-handed pitcher.
Lowery started 31 games for the 1966 Orlando Twins (Class A) and was second on the team with 12 wins. Lowery only gave up 154 hits in 181 innings while striking out 88 and had a nice 1.20 WHIP with a very good 2.64 ERA. Those kind of numbers would have made Lowery a hot prospect now days but for reasons I have not been able to determine, Dave Lowery returned to South Africa after his one season in pro ball. The PDF below is an interesting read as he talks about how it was in South Africa in 1966.