IN: Patrick John Neshek (born September 4, 1980) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Minnesota Twins, San Diego Padres, Oakland Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros, and Colorado Rockies. The Twins selected him in the sixth round of the 2002 MLB draft from Butler University. Neshek made his MLB debut for the Twins on July 7, 2006, and played for them until 2010, except 2009, which he missed due to Tommy John surgery.

The Oakland Athletics traded for Neshek on August 3, 2012, for cash considerations, and immediately called him up from Triple-A Norfolk. To make room for Neshek on the roster along with same-day call-up right-handed pitcher Dan Straily, the A's optioned relievers Jim Miller and Evan Scribner to Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. On September 22, Neshek gave up the game-tying home run in the bottom of the 13th inning to New York Yankees slugger Raul Ibanez. The A's had scored four runs in the top of the inning, leading to a galling 10-9 loss the next inning. However, the A's defeated the Yankees the next day and went 9-2 to end the season, edging the Texas Rangers out of the American League West championship by one game, including sweeping the final three-game series in Oakland. In 24 games with the A's, Neshek tallied 19 2/3 IP, yielding 10 hits and six walks, with 16 SO and a 1.37 ERA. He relied heavily on the slider, throwing it 83.5 percent of all pitches. On November 30, 2012, Neshek avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year deal with the A's. He started the season well, posted a 2.34 ERA in his first 38 appearances into August, with 30 of them being scoreless. However, he gave up three runs apiece in two different appearances. Neshek attributed his early success to throwing almost exclusively sliders to right-handed hitters. Of all his pitches, he threw the slider 73 percent of the time in 2013. The A's designated Neshek for assignment on August 26. For the season, he finished with a 3.35 ERA in 40 1/3 IP. He elected free agency November 5. Through the end of 2013, Neshek had faced 555 right-handed batters in his MLB career, holding them to a .181 batting average, .257 OBP and .315 SLG. In 326 PA, opposite-handed hitters, had more success with a .237 AVG, .328 OBP and .432 SLG.

Did the Oakland Athletics win any championships while Pat was there?

OUT:

IN: Vaughan's father, Asbury "Jake" Vaughan, was a carpenter by trade and played guitar and piano. Her mother, Ada Vaughan, was a laundress and sang in the church choir. Jake and Ada Vaughan had migrated to Newark, New Jersey from Virginia during the First World War. Sarah was their only biological child, although in the 1960s they adopted Donna, the child of a woman who traveled on the road with Sarah Vaughan.

Vaughan spent the remainder of 1943 and part of 1944 touring the country with the Earl Hines big band, which featured baritone Billy Eckstine. Vaughan was hired as a pianist, reputedly so Hines could hire her under the jurisdiction of the musicians' union (American Federation of Musicians) rather than the singers union (American Guild of Variety Artists), but after Cliff Smalls joined the band as a trombonist and pianist, Sarah's duties were limited exclusively to singing. The Earl Hines band in this period is remembered as an incubator of bebop, as it included trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, saxophonist Charlie Parker (playing tenor rather than the alto, for which he is remembered), and trombonist Bennie Green. Gillespie arranged for the band, although the contemporary recording ban by the musicians' union meant that no commercial recordings exist. Eckstine quit the Hines band in late 1943 and formed his own big band with Gillespie, leaving Hines to become the new band's musical director. Parker joined Eckstine, and the band would, over the next few years, host a startling cast of jazz talent, including Miles Davis, Kenny Dorham, Art Blakey, Lucky Thompson, Gene Ammons, and Dexter Gordon, among others. Vaughan accepted Eckstine's invitation to join his new band in 1944, giving her an opportunity to develop her musicianship with the seminal figures in this era of jazz. Eckstine's band afforded her first recording opportunity, a December 5, 1944 date that yielded the song "I'll Wait and Pray" for the De Luxe label. That date led critic and producer Leonard Feather to ask her to cut four sides under her own name later that month for Continental, backed by a septet that included Dizzy Gillespie and Georgie Auld. Band pianist John Malachi is credited with giving Vaughan the moniker "Sassy", a nickname that matched her personality. Vaughan liked it, and the name (and its shortened variant "Sass") stuck with colleagues and, eventually, the press. In written communications, Vaughan often spelled it "Sassie". Vaughan officially left the Eckstine band in late 1944 to pursue a solo career, although she remained very close to Eckstine personally and recorded with him frequently throughout her life.

how did that turn out?

OUT:
Vaughan accepted Eckstine's invitation to join his new band in 1944, giving her an opportunity to develop her musicianship with the seminal figures in this era of jazz.