October 8th baseball birthdays
Posted by Andy on October 8, 2011
Is it just me, or it the list of October 8th birthdays really fun?
A few things that caught my eye:
- Doc Crandall played more than 300 games as a pitcher and nearly 100 additional games as a position player.
- Best names: Johnny Lush and Charlie Manlove
- Other great names: Ping Bodie, Tom Colcolough, Bob Mabe, Bob Skube, Doug Neff, Don Pepper, Ed Wingo, Monte Pfeffer
- Two first names: Jerry Reed, Mike Chris, Rex Cecil, Keith Reed, and of course, Wally Moses
- #15 and #16: Little Peoples
October 8th, 2011 at 11:32 am
...except that there are only 2 All-Stars and 3 All-Star selections, lower than the average of 4.4 All-Stars and (by my estimate) 10.7 selections per birth date.
Okay... now my research is truly spiraling into triviality.
October 8th, 2011 at 12:30 pm
I noticed that Paul Schreiber was born on this day in 1902. He may have had the longest gap between ML appearances. He appeared on 9/2/23 and then not again until 9/4/45, a lapse of 22 years and 2 days.
October 8th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Oct 8 may have its share of 2 first namers, but it doesn't have any of the illusive 2 last namers, like Rogers Hornsby or Anderson Cooper.
October 8th, 2011 at 3:05 pm
Anyone know what birth date has the most Hall of Famers?
October 8th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
Bill James' favorite player...Enos Cabell!!! For those who don't know, James used to rag on Cabell in his Abstracts for being a horrible player.
October 8th, 2011 at 3:47 pm
Can't forget the best nickname, Olmedo Saenz aka Killer Tomato!
October 8th, 2011 at 4:59 pm
I think this has been asked before:
Any chance BB-Ref will put in a Phonetic pronunciation of players names.
Example, a couple of the Detroit Tigers players:
Joaquin Benoit has been playing long enough so I have his name down pat.
But Daniel Schlereth is a bit puzzling for me.
I tried to listen close when the TBS announcers pronounced his name but I never could catch it.
Then for the Cardinals there's:
Marc Rzepczynski who I see on his BB-Ref page he has the Nick Name of "Scrabble".
I'm trying to remember years ago there was a player who played for San Diego and they players and coaches gave him the nick name "Alphabet"
Forgot his name but the letters of his name on the back of his uniform seemed smaller so that it would fit.
At the bottom of every BB-Ref Players Page there is a:
Names and Misspellings Section: Perhaps that could be the place to have the Phonetic Spelling.
October 8th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
San Diego had Doug "Eyechart" Gwosdz, last name pronounced like "Goosh", in 1981-1984.
October 8th, 2011 at 5:12 pm
@7, its pronounced Dan-yull...
Schlereth is spelled pretty phonetically I think, although the name is easy for me because he is ESPN NFL analyst and former Redskin/Bronco guard Mark "Roc Hoover" Schlereth's son.
October 8th, 2011 at 7:34 pm
Don Pepper coffee-cupped with Detroit in 1966. According to The Sporting News, the P.A. announcer only had his last name, so he was introduced as "Salty Pepper".
October 8th, 2011 at 7:56 pm
George "Catfish" Metkovich: October 8, 1920.
October 8th, 2011 at 8:25 pm
And tomorrow, October 9, is the 71st birthday of one of the great pop culture legends of the 1960s: John Len...er, Joe Pepitone, who, according to "Seinfeld's" Kramer, discovered Central Park.
October 8th, 2011 at 9:12 pm
Jerry Reed and Wally Moses with the same birthday - Too bad Wally's name wasn't Amos, because there was a singer named Jerry Reed who had a hit song called "Amos Moses".
Danny Murtaugh is on this list. He is better remembered as a manager than as a player. He died in one of the saddest offseasons in baseball history, 1976-77. He had managed in 1976, and four players who had been active that year - Bob Moose, Dan Frisella, Mike Miley, and Danny Thompson (3 Dans or Dannys) - died in that offseason, too.
In the lesser-known-player-with-same-name-as-a-better-known-player department, one of the names in this list is a Bernie Williams, who debuted in 1970 and played his last major league game in 1974.
October 8th, 2011 at 10:37 pm
@7 Scrabble is pronounced "zep-CHIN-ski", just like it looks.
Also, Andy, the names Hal Toenes and Paul Splittorff are pretty darn good too
October 8th, 2011 at 10:40 pm
What amazes me is Mike Morgan's 22 seasons of major league service. Was he that good?
October 8th, 2011 at 11:06 pm
@4
January 31st or October 20th?
October 8th, 2011 at 11:17 pm
Hey Andy, did you get that the Phillies are done? Who's making that post this year?
October 9th, 2011 at 12:07 am
@4
I hope I did this right but I found 6 dates on which 3 HOFers were born:
January 31
April 2
April 6
May 14
September 9
October 3
October 9th, 2011 at 12:32 am
And March 19
May 8
July 1
July 27
Aug 31
Oct 12
Oct 30
Dec 26
October 9th, 2011 at 12:41 am
@15: Mike Morgan was just good enough not to get cut. Best 5th starter in the history of the game, perhaps? lol
October 9th, 2011 at 2:30 am
Andy, it is now past midnight and when I click on the link to "the list of October 8 birthdays," it takes me to October 9. I guess the way it is set up it will take you to the current day's list, not always to October 8.
October 9th, 2011 at 3:36 am
@2, Richard Chester.
Hard to imagine a longer gap between appearances than Paul Schrieber's 22 years. Heck, very few careers of any description span that long a period.
Two other really long gaps are these guys:
- Clay Touchstone, 15 years, 221 days - Sep 20, 1929 to Apr 29, 1945
- Lou Polli, - 11 years, 314 days - Jun 11, 1932 to Apr 20, 1944
October 9th, 2011 at 3:55 am
May 26th is my birthday. Best guy born on that date is Darrell Evans. He was drafted a total of SIX times between 1965 and 1968. The first 4 times he refused to sign (Once by my Phillies). The fifth time he signed with the KC A's. The sixth time he was a Rule 5 selection by the Braves.
My mind is blown.
October 9th, 2011 at 7:43 am
@22
Fred Johnson did halfway decent
October 9th, 2011 at 8:40 am
#21 thanks, fixed.
October 9th, 2011 at 10:15 am
@22
The return to the ML by the three guys we mentioned was caused by the need for competent players during WWII. There were others who left the game and returned during the war, including Red Ruffing.
October 9th, 2011 at 11:17 am
A lot of talent born on June 15.....Boggs, Billy Williams, Parrish, Brett Butler,....
October 9th, 2011 at 2:28 pm
Not only were Griffey and Musial both born in Donora, PA, but on the same day too, though 49 years apart...
October 9th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
@18
May 14
Will Roy Halladay eventually make it 3?
@19
July 27
Will A-Rod eventually make it 3?
October 9th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
@29
There are already 3 for May 14: Earle Combs, Tony Perez and Ed Walsh.
October 10th, 2011 at 5:11 am
@22.
Re: War-time replacement pitchers
Cincinnati in 1945 was really scraping the bottom of the barrell. On their roster that year were:
- Hod Lisenbee, 46 years old, last played in 1936, last played in consecutive seasons in 1931-32
- Guy Bush, 43 years old, last played in 1938
- 5 other pitchers aged 35 to 40
October 10th, 2011 at 10:01 am
@ 31 Doug:
And how about 15 year old Joe Nuxhall "hurling" for Cincinnati in 1944 ?!!!?
October 10th, 2011 at 10:19 am
@32
Tommy Brown, Cass Michaels, Carl Scheib, Putsy Caballero and Granny Hamner all were 17 years old or less and played during WWII.
October 10th, 2011 at 10:36 am
@33
Almost like OLDER brothers of MLer Fred Chapman
October 10th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
I researched the issue of average # of HOFers and All-Star appearances for a given birthday.
The post is here:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/9954
And the major conclusion was:
"What does this mean? A typical average birthday would have 0 or 1 Hall of Famers and 3 or 4 players with a total of about 10 All-Star appearances.
October 10th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
Wah-keen Ben-wah (french...just like Detroit, which should be Day-twah)