A three-fer evening? Sweet!!!
First, #27 is for one of my all-time faves, northern Wisconsin native Bob Wickman. A big part of my fandom was, on top of being shaped like Barrel Man and being a great closer, he grew up about 20 minutes from where I lived.
For #26, as Bob Dylan once sang, "Here comes the story of the Hurricane!" Hernan Iribarren was once the darling of the Link Report around these parts. The sweet-swinging middle infielder just couldn't do enough at the MLB level to stick, though.
Finally, for #25, I have always been a sucker for athletes who overcome adversity to excel, so of course I was an enormous fan of Jim Abbott. When he signed with the Brewers in 1999 in an attempt to resurrect his flailing career, I was stoked. But unfortunately he struggled, and was released in July of that year, subsequently retiring. He did manage to collect two base hits in his short time as a National League pitcher, though.