If Your Birthday is July 30th...

...you share it with Clint Hurdle. Once a can't miss prospect with the Royals, he saved his best for Kansas City's first pennant winning season, 1980. He turned to managing in the late '80s, with jobs in the Mets system, then joined the Rockies as a hitting coach and, from 2002, manager. He led Colorado to the 2007 NL pennant, but was fired less than two years later. Next stop was Pittsburgh, where he led the Pirates to three straight wild card appearances during the 2010s.

Joining him in today's cake and candles parade:

• Scott Diamond, whose last name should have assured him of a better baseball career. He compiled a 19-27 record as a starting pitcher for the Twins from 2011-'13.

• Calvin Murray, a failed 1st round draft pick by the Giants in 1993. While not related to Hall of Famer Eddie, his nephew is making a name for himself in football: Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray.

• Tom Pagnozzi succeeded Tony Pena as the Cardinals everyday catcher in 1990 and went on to win three Gold Gloves. He spent all 12 of his big league seasons with St. Louis.

• Ellis Valentine came up through the Expos system alongside Andre Dawson and Warren Cromartie. And he owns a singular piece of history -- hitting the first home run in Olympic Stadium on April 15th, 1977. But a series of injurues, beginning with a broken cheekbone when he was hit in the face by a Roy Thomas pitch, sent his  career downward. Things got worse when he was traded to the Mets just before the 1981 strike. He finished his career with the Angels and Rangers.

• Vic Davalillo, the speedy outfielder whose career highlight was a drag bunt that ignited the Dodgers winning rally in game 3 of the 1977 NL Championship Series against the Phillies.

And we remember:

• Pat Kelly, an outfielder who played for the early expansion Royals and spent most of the '70s with the White Sox and Orioles.

• Joe Nuxhall, the youngest major leaguer ever, was 50 days shy of his 16th birthday when he debuted for the wartime 1944 Reds. After World War II ended, he went back to high school, before working his way up the minor league ladder and returned to the Reds in 1952, winning 135 games over the next 15 seasons. The Ohio native stayed in the game another 40 years, calling Reds games on radio. He became such a Cincinnati fixture, that a statue of his now stands outside Great American Ballpark.

• Casey Stengel, who played or managed all four of New York's major league teams. Mixing glib comments with the somewhat upside-down logic sportswriters dubbed Stengelese, he was a good player for the Dodgers and Giants -- with whom, in 1923, hit the first ever World Series homer at Yankee Stadium. 26 years later, he moved there as Yankees manager and enjoyed the greatest run of success in baseball history -- 10 pennants (and seven World Series titles) in 12 years. Then, after being retired -- and promising the media he'd never make the mistake of being 70 again -- he took over the expansion Mets where his larger-than-life personality helped a poorly stocked expansion team become a box office success.