If Your Birthday is December 18th...

...you share it with the reigning National League Rookie of the Year. Ronald Acuna Junior got off to a fast start with the Braves -- with four multi-hit games out of six once the Braves recalled him in late April. He and Ozzie Albies look to be the top of the lineup cornerstones for Atlanta for years to come. As an aside, is he already baseball's best Junior since Ken Griffey??

He shares December 18th with:

Chris Carter, who did one thing well: hit home runs. But he struck out every third at-bat (check the stats. 951 times in 2853 times up) while clearing the fences 158 times for the A's, Astros, Brewers and Yankees.

Moose Skowron was born on this date in 1930. A steady Yankees contributor between 1954 and '62, he hit .294 and smacked 165 homers playing half his games in the Bronx with its then humongous "Death Valley" left- and center-field. I captured this image of Moose with Joe Pepitone, who took his place as the Yankee 1st baseman in 1963, at the 2011 Old Timers Day celebration.

And we also remember Ty Cobb, baseball's greatest player before the ascendancy of Babe Ruth. When did his .367 lifetime batting average (which I remember in reference books when I grew up) drop a point? Regardless, he played a speed and contact game to the max, hitting more than twice as many triples as home runs (his 294 all time are second only to his longtime rival Sam Crawford). He held the single-season stolen base record for 47 years, until eclipsed by Maury Wills. And his career mark stood for 49 until passed by Lou Brock. Cobb's remarkable batting eye stayed true even when he aged past Jack Benny. In his final season at age 41, he hit .323 for Connie Mack's Philadelphia A's and reached base 39% of the time.

(My image of Acuna is from the Braves/Phillies game on September 29th.)