The big news today is, of course, the start of the 2009 World Series. It's the Yankees and Phillies in the I-95 series - Cliff Lee vs. CC Sabathia; forty pennants vs. seven; 10,000 losses vs. 9,500 wins. It's going to be a fun Series, especially for those living in the greater New Jersey area.

The other big news of the day is that it's my birthday - as if you had to ask. It's kind of weird: for most of my life, the World Series has been done and over with for a week or more by the time my birthday rolled around, but, here we are, still waiting to celebrate the start of Game 1 tonight. Is that progress?

Anyhow, I figured that since there was already tons being written about the Series tonight - It's About the Money comes immediately to mind - I'd focus on today's other momentous occasion. Who is the best player ever born on October 28? For that matter, who is the best player ever born on any given day? Can we come up with a calendar of Greatest Ever Birthdays?

(Click "Read More to continue reading.)

Using the Rally WAR database (which, again, still only goes through 2008), I found the players born on each day of the year with the most career WAR. For example, February 5th has a couple of memorable players born on that day - 1925 MVP shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh (40.4 career WAR) and the great Roberto Alomar (63.5). But neither of them are the greatest player ever born on that day because they happen to share their birthday with one Henry Aaron (141.6 career WAR). Hank obviously shoots to the top of that list. Not all birthdays have such a clear leader, though.

For my birthday, we find two-time All-Star pitcher Bob Veale (27.6 WAR) as the best ever player born on October 28. It's not exactly the heady company I would've hoped for, but it could certainly be worse. November 15, for example, has 1950s All-Star outfielder Gus Bell and his 14.3 career WAR as its best ever birthday star. That's the worst "greatest birthday star" on the calendar (though the next three are at 15.5 or below and were all born in February).

The single best birthdate, though, has to belong to November 21 (funnily enough, less than a week after the worst). That's the day that both "The Man" (Musial) and "The Kid" (Griffey Jr.) were born. Not a bad day for Hall of Famers. (No post like this would be complete without pointing out that Frank Thomas and Jeff Bagwell were born on the exact same day - May 27, 1968 - and have ended their careers with near identical WAR totals - 75.9 for Frank and 79.9 for Bagwell. That's freaky.)

I'll leave things there for now. Feel free to take a look at the calendar of Top Birthday WAR. Who's the greatest player ever born on your birthday? Can you top my Bob Veale (or even Juan Guzman? Nate McLouth? Jeremy Bonderman?)? I'd love to hear it.

Comments (9)

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written by Jason@IIATMS, October 28, 2009

Pete Alexander 1887 104.9

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written by Bill@TDS, October 28, 2009

Without looking: Dale Murphy, probably. Darryl Strawberry second.
With looking: Jimmy Wynn. I always forget how good that guy was (and Cesar Cedeno, and most good players who ever played in the Astrodome). Also, WAR apparently hates Dale Murphy.

Somehow I never knew or forgot that Griffey and Musial were born on the same day...especially interesting since they were born in the same smallish town in Pennsylvania.

Happy birthday, lar!

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written by Ian W., October 28, 2009

I got Paul Hines and his 41.8 WAR. The info on him in the B-R bullpen is interesting. Apparently he won the first Triple Crown and was credited with the first unassisted triple play. That's pretty cool.

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I'm jealous
written by lar @ wezen-ball, October 28, 2009

You guys all got much better player than me. Pete Alexander, Dale Murhpy, Darryl Strawberry, Jimmy Wynn... even Hines has some pretty cool stuff going for him. They're all just a tad better than mine...

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Birthdays
written by heyblue, October 28, 2009

I wish I could remember who wrote the article or where I read it, but there was an interesting article a couple years back where the author theorized that in the 2nd half of the 20th century many more Major Leaguers were born in June and July than any other months. The reason being that because of Little League age cutoff dates, players born in these months were the oldest in their Little League each year, and were therefore the biggest and best players in the league and therefore got the most attention and help from coaches. Conversely, there are far fewer players born in August & September, because they were the youngest and got the least attention.

Somebody out there in blogger-land remembers that article, I'm sure.

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written by heyblue, October 28, 2009

Also, Happy Birthday!

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written by Ron R, October 28, 2009

Gene Woodling. A damn Yankee.

If we go by the day players died, then I get Babe Ruth. Another damn Yankee.

There's a conspiracy here.

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written by gumbercules, October 29, 2009

Hey, it was my birthday too! As a Tigers fan, it's a date I share with Jeremy Bonderman.

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written by lar @ wezen-ball, October 29, 2009

heyblue: I don't remember where that finding first was published, but I know exactly what you're talking about. I do know that Malcolm Gladwell led off his most recent book - "Outliers" - with a similar finding, but using the cut-off date for pee-wee hockey in Canada.

Ron: The world is littered in Yankees. It's some kind of curse... what did we do to deserve it?

gumbercules: At least you have some sort of connection to Bonderman... that's something, right?

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