If Your Birthday is October 14th...

...you share it with Joe Girardi. The 17th former Yankee to manage the team succeeded Joe Torre and spent a decade on the job -- highlighted by winning the 2009 World Series. Over a 10 season tenure, his Yankees compiled a 910 - 710 record, the sixth most wins in franchise history. He left after his youthful 2017 club lost the ALCS to the Astros. Following two years with MLB Network, he took over the Phillies in 2010, but bullpen issues kept them out of the playoffs.

Merrill Kelly won 13 as a 30-year old rookie pitcher on the 2019 Diamondbacks. He was off to a 3 - 2 star this summer when a shoulder injury ended his season.

Kole Calhoun is representative of a lot of modern day players. He hits a lot of home runs -- 33 with the 2019 Angels -- but strikes out in one out of every four at bats, and hasn't hit above .250 since 2016.

Pat Kelly appeared to be a longterm answer at 2nd base for the Yankees up until the 1994 player strike. Once the action resumed the following season, he fell victim to injuries, though he did enjoy one big moment in 1995 -- a 9th inning homer that helped beat Toronto in the next-to-last game of the season as the Yanks claimed the first American League Wild Card. Married to an Australian, Kelly moved "down under" after his playing career ended. He's helped coach their national team and grow baseball in a country better known for  Australian Rules Football.

Ed Figueroa, who came to the Yankees along with Mickey Rivers in a trade for Bobby Bonds, had three very productive seasons alongside Ron Guidry in the Yankee rotation (1976-'78), but was the never the same after a 1979 elbow injury.

Art Shamsky, who shared right field with Ron Swoboda on the 1969 Champion Mets, is also in the record books as one of a handful of players to belt four consecutive home runs (that happened in 1966 when he played for the Reds).  

Tommy Harper, a speedy outfielder during the '60 and '70s, who twice stole over 50 bases in a season.  

And we remember:

Tom Cheney,  the Washington Senators pitcher who struck out 21 Baltimore batters in a 16-inning game in 1962 -- a record still unmatched. He seemed to be on the verge of stardom when his career was ruined by an elbow injury a year later. He died from Alzheimers in 2001.


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