If Your Birthday is September 9th...
Edwin Jackson somehow never picked up the nickname "Suitcase," which was first given to the well traveled 1950s 1st baseman Harry Simpson. But the former Negro League star only played for six clubs -- while Jackson went on to set the major league record by pitching for 14 different franchises, bookended by the 2003 Dodgers and 2019 Tigers. Aside from his record, his other highlights include a 2010 no hitter with the Diamondbacks and a 2011 World Series ring with the 2011 Cardinals.
A pair of 2000 Mets teammates share September 9th:
Mike Hampton won 22 for the '99 Astros, when then traded him to the Mets just before his walk year. A 15-game winner for Bobby Valentine's Subway Series club, he earned permanent "villain" status in Flushing by choosing to sign with the Rockies with a free agent, claiming he much preferred the school system in Denver to that of New York. Perhaps it was bad karma, or an aging left arm, but Hampton never won 15 games or posted an under 3.30 ERA for the rest of his career.
Todd Zeile was the Cardinals catcher for the first half of the '90s, and later reinvented himself as a corner infielder. The regular first baseman on the 2000 Mets is now the team's primary pre-and-post game studio analyst.
He also own a couple of historic notables: He's one of just over 40 players to hit a home run in their final big league time at bat. The blast -- with the Mets on October 3rd, 2004 -- also made him to last player ever to homer against a Montreal Expos pitcher.
We also remember a pair of Hall of Famers, both natives of New York, who later enjoyed success in the broadcast booth.
Waite Hoyt was the Yankees best pitcher of the 1920s, including 22 and 23 victory seasons on the back-to-back championship clubs of 1927 and '28. After his playing career ended, the glib Brooklyn native broke into radio, where he worked for the prominent New York stations WNEW and WMCA. Despite his ties to the Yankees, Wheaties, the club's lead sponsor, turned him down for a spot on their broadcast team. Red Barber, however, hired him to host the pre-and-post game shows for the Dodgers in 1940. Two years later, he moved to Cincinnati to begin a nearly quarter-century association with the Reds -- ironically Barber's original team.
Frankie Frisch, a/k/a the Fordham Flash, attended the high school of the same name before going onto its namesake University (30 years before Vin Scully). He spent eight seasons (1919-'26) with his hometown Giants, before being swapped to the Cardinals for fellow future Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby. He played on four World Series champions -- two with the Giants ('21-22) and two in St. Louis ('31, '34) ending his playing career as the Redbirds player-manager, and was later skipper for the Pirates and Cubs. Frisch first worked behind a mic in 1939, calling Red Sox and Braves games in Boston; he joined Russ Hodges with the 1947 and '48 Giants and worked on their post-game TV show during the '50s. Ironically, a heart attack during the summer of '56 helped another New York legend move into the broadcast booth -- Phil Rizzuto filled in for Frank after his release by the Yankees, paving the way for his joining Mel Allen and Red Barber beginning in 1957.
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