Apparently back in 1964 the Twins were tougher on the players that they felt were no longer of service. The clipping on the left appeared in the May 25, 1964 Star Tribune and stated that former Twins pitcher Bill Fischer, just 33 years old, will be “disposed of” and I found that interesting so I looked up Mr. Fischer and come to find out, he never pitched in the big leagues again. What did “disposed of” really mean back then? The guy did have a bad leg. First thought in my mind was what they do to horses with bad legs. It is a good thing that MLB teams don’t let pitchers with 7.31 ERA’s bother them any more.
Turns out being disposed of was not as bad as I thought, Fischer pitched in AAA for the White Sox for the next four years before hanging up his spikes for good. What about Garland Shifflett you ask? He appeared in 10 games for Minnesota in June of 1964 and he too never pitched in the big leagues again spending his next 8 season in the minors waiting for his call-up that never came. Baseball can be a wicked game!