If Your Birthday is November 26th...

...you share it with Matt Carpenter. The versatile Cardinals infielder has become more of a power hitter in recent years. Last year, he belted a career-high 36 home runs. Getting on base has always been his specialty; he's walked 80 or times in five seasons -- and over 100 times the last two years. Pretty good productivity from a 13th round draft choice.

Also getting their cake and candles today, a pair of players-turned-broadcasters:

  • Harold Reynolds played a dozen seasons in the majors, but is more widely recognized for his work with ESPN, FOX and MLB Network, where he co-hosts the off-season morning show Hot Stove.
  • Bob Walk broke in with the 1980 Phillies -- where he started and won the opening game of that fall's World Series. He later pitched for the Braves and Pirates -- on whose TV-radio team he's worked since 1994.

Two Hall of Famers were born on this date:

  • Lefty Gomez, the legendary Yankee pitcher of the 1930s and early '40s. This four-time 20-game winner led the American League in strikeouts three times -- yet, as a measure of how different the game was in his time, he never whiffed 200 men in a season. Gomez was terrific in the World Series -- posting a perfect 6-0 record on baseball's biggest stage. He was voted into Cooperstown by the Veterans Committe in 1972 -- but maybe because he played before the days of TV, he was never promoted as one of the franchise's signature names. It took 15 years after his induction for the Yankees honored him with a plaque in Monument Park; and they never retired his number-11. By the way, his first name was Vernon.
  • Hugh Duffy, a great hitting outfielder who peak years came in the 1890s.

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