If Your Birthday is June 3rd...

...you share it with Harrison Bader. The Cardinals center fielder grew up in Bronxville, New York, a handful of miles (or a short train ride) from Yankee Stadium. But after starring at the U of Florida, he was drafted by St. Louis in 2015 and made his big league debut just two years later. I saw him in action against the Mets during the abbreviated spring training.

José Molina is the middle member of the majors most prolific catching siblings. The defensive specialist spent most of his 15 seasons as a backup  -- including the World Champion 2002 Angels and 2009 Yankees.

He's not the only Molina celebrating today -- the un-related Izzy Molina was also a catcher. A backup with for the late-'90s A's (who later made one appearance with the Orioles), the Miami product had one of his best minor league nights when I saw him play for Modesto in 1993, slamming a home run (maybe two, the memory fogs) while wearing Jose Canseco's old number, 33.

Luis Urias is one of the Padres core of young players. The Mexican-born infielder gave me one of my favorite "action" photos of 2019, with a quick jump to avoid this tight pitch from the Mets' Jason Vargas.

Carl Everett looked like he was destined for stardom, but except for 1999 (Astros) and 2000 (Red Sox) never put together consecutive strong seasons. He might be most famous for breaking up Mike Mussina's perfect game bid with two outs in the 9th inning at Fenway on September 2nd, 2001.

Travis Hafner spent a dozen years in the majors; 10 with the Indians, for whom he belted a nice, round 200 home runs -- with an on-base percentage more than 100 points higher than his batting average. This photo came from his final season, when he finished up with the 2013 Yankees.

Jim Gentile was part of the parade of 1st base prospects who came up through the Dodger organization, but were blocked by the great Gil Hodges. The San Francisco native made his mark in the American League during the early 1960s, crushing 152 homers for the Orioles and A's over a five-year span. His 1961 numbers got lost behind the heroics of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle -- but Gentile actually led the AL in RBIs that season with 141, while belting 46 home runs. One O's game in '61 really stands out -- on May 9th against the Twins, he blasted grand slams in consecutive innings!! He added a sacrifice fly a few innings later, for a nine-RBI day.
Circling back to Brooklyn, Gentile did figure in one chapter of Dodger history -- he started at 1st base in the final game ever played at Ebbets Field, on September 24th, 1957 (Gil played 3rd that night.)

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