If Your Birthday is March 27th...

...you share it with the manager of the Yankees championship teams of the 1920s, Miller Huggins. Along with star players Ruth, Gerhig, Lazzeri and Combs, he established the Yankee brand, the Yankee aura -- six pennants and three pennants in a decade will do that. And his leadership skills must have been extraordinary. Remember, this is the only manager Babe Ruth really respected. Keeping the Bambino in line (especially after the "bellyache" season of 1925) could not have been easy.

If you read up on Huggins, the usual take is that he was a "light-hitting" second baseman in the early 20th century with the Reds and Cardinals. In light of his extraordinary success as a manager, his playing days were always minimized. Yet if you look at the numbers, Huggins clearly had some skills -- one in particular.

Look at those walk totals and on-base percentage. It reveals a player who'd fit right in with today's moneyball philosophy -- he led the league in walks four times and had a career OBP more than 100 points higher than his batting average. That screams "keen eye" and "strong mental focus." Just the right preparation to become the skipper of baseball's first great dynasty.

Also on today's birthday list -- with thanks to baseball-reference.com -- two of today's brightest stars: Matt Harvey and Buster Posey.



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