Love this feature....how else to learn that Ken Oberkfell is the greatest May 4th-born player? Also: he was signed to the Cardinals on his 19th birthday.
The KO shout-out reminded me of the one-time fact that Jamie Quirk had the most career homers among the Qs in MLB annals (43). Carlos Quentin blew that out of the water, which makes me wonder when you will write a piece on Dumbest Injuries in MLB History That Cost a Guy Being Tops in a Key Statistical Category.
In 2008, Quentin had the AL home run title all but sewn up. He hit his 36th on Aug. 24, five ahead of teammate Jermaine Dye. A week later, on Sept. 1st, Quentin broke his wrist by pounding his bat in frustration after fouling off a ball against Cliff Lee of the Indians.
In his first year as an American Leaguer, Miguel Cabrera slowly, but surely, catches up to, then passes, Quentin for the home run title by swatting eight in September and finishing with 37. Quentin was also a top MVP candidate, still finishing fifth despite missing that final month (when Ken Griffey Jr. got the at bats Quentin would have had).
OMG. I did this same exact exercise last year. I've got a spreadsheet with 8 or so of the greatest sports figures for each birthday. My favorites from those end-of-April days who didn't quite warrant mention in the article:
Fun coincidence: yesterday this post spurred me look up the best player born on my birthday (Pretzels Getzien, Feb 14) and then unbelievably he comes up on the Poscast today.
Off topic: has anyone else had technical issues with the most recent Poscast? It started out playing at what seemed like a 1.5x speed before moderating, then abruptly cut off during one last meaningless thing. It was jarring to see an episode come in at under an hour, so that could partly explain it.
I don't remember hearing much about Jeter's durability when he was playing. Could have done with more of that instead of made up stuff. Compare to Bernie Williams who had 2 seasons over 150.
I’m already having an argument with myself over who would be the choice on my birthday ... there at least three very strong contenders. So, yeah, I think I’m already sold on the idea.
I'm 74, and in my (admittedly possibly fogged) memory, Sugar Ray was pretty much done when I might have seen him. Don't actually remember if I ever did. But as to the golfers and career Slams - where's the love for Sam Snead? To this day, the best golf swing I have ever seen - won everything there was to win (and many of them multiple times), but could not win the US Open.
It would be nice to see a list and ranking of the 10 (or 100!) best birthday dates in baseball history.
Having Ken Oberkfell as the best for a particular day makes me wonder. If he is the best guy for his date, that simply means there are other dates that must be pretty stacked.
I understand that the first 3/5 of Collins' career came in the so-called Dead Ball era and sacrifice bunts was an accepted strategy but he holds the lifetime record with 512. Second is Jake Daubert with 392, a considerable gap. A lot of those bunts were wasted outs. Today almost all sac bunts are wasted outs.
When I read your description of what a percentage player is, I immediately thought of Tony Phillips.
Love this feature....how else to learn that Ken Oberkfell is the greatest May 4th-born player? Also: he was signed to the Cardinals on his 19th birthday.
The KO shout-out reminded me of the one-time fact that Jamie Quirk had the most career homers among the Qs in MLB annals (43). Carlos Quentin blew that out of the water, which makes me wonder when you will write a piece on Dumbest Injuries in MLB History That Cost a Guy Being Tops in a Key Statistical Category.
In 2008, Quentin had the AL home run title all but sewn up. He hit his 36th on Aug. 24, five ahead of teammate Jermaine Dye. A week later, on Sept. 1st, Quentin broke his wrist by pounding his bat in frustration after fouling off a ball against Cliff Lee of the Indians.
In his first year as an American Leaguer, Miguel Cabrera slowly, but surely, catches up to, then passes, Quentin for the home run title by swatting eight in September and finishing with 37. Quentin was also a top MVP candidate, still finishing fifth despite missing that final month (when Ken Griffey Jr. got the at bats Quentin would have had).
OMG. I did this same exact exercise last year. I've got a spreadsheet with 8 or so of the greatest sports figures for each birthday. My favorites from those end-of-April days who didn't quite warrant mention in the article:
4/28: Nicklas Lidstrom
4/29: Bob and Mike Bryan
4/30: Al Toon
Fun coincidence: yesterday this post spurred me look up the best player born on my birthday (Pretzels Getzien, Feb 14) and then unbelievably he comes up on the Poscast today.
Joe, reading your substack is the best 6 to 14 minutes of my day. Thank you.
I like it. Sneaky way to reminisce about athletes from other sports while still including a baseball fix :)
Off topic: has anyone else had technical issues with the most recent Poscast? It started out playing at what seemed like a 1.5x speed before moderating, then abruptly cut off during one last meaningless thing. It was jarring to see an episode come in at under an hour, so that could partly explain it.
Joe,
You want to write it, I'll read it. Heck, you could probably write a cookbook, and I'd buy it and read it, and I don't even cook!
I agree that this is a good idea…
I don't remember hearing much about Jeter's durability when he was playing. Could have done with more of that instead of made up stuff. Compare to Bernie Williams who had 2 seasons over 150.
I’m already having an argument with myself over who would be the choice on my birthday ... there at least three very strong contenders. So, yeah, I think I’m already sold on the idea.
Larkin over Jeter any day and all day!
I'm 74, and in my (admittedly possibly fogged) memory, Sugar Ray was pretty much done when I might have seen him. Don't actually remember if I ever did. But as to the golfers and career Slams - where's the love for Sam Snead? To this day, the best golf swing I have ever seen - won everything there was to win (and many of them multiple times), but could not win the US Open.
It would be nice to see a list and ranking of the 10 (or 100!) best birthday dates in baseball history.
Having Ken Oberkfell as the best for a particular day makes me wonder. If he is the best guy for his date, that simply means there are other dates that must be pretty stacked.
Well Nov 21 had both Stan Musial and Ken Griffey Jr. Who both also happened to be born in the same town.
Hard to beat that.
September 10 has Randy Johnson, Joey Votto, Paul Goldschmidt, Roger Maris and George Kelly. I wonder what the "best" birthday would be.
I understand that the first 3/5 of Collins' career came in the so-called Dead Ball era and sacrifice bunts was an accepted strategy but he holds the lifetime record with 512. Second is Jake Daubert with 392, a considerable gap. A lot of those bunts were wasted outs. Today almost all sac bunts are wasted outs.
this was a fun idea, am sure there's lots of folks to choose from and etc.... (no parties planned, but fun to know anyway :) )