If Your Birthday is July 14th...

...you share it with Robin Ventura.  The six-time Gold Glove winner is best known for his decade with the White Sox -- a club he later managed -- but is also part of that select circle who have played for both the Yankees and Mets.    
Same for Tim Loscastro.  Best known for his strong defense and base stealing skills, he's also spent time with the Dodgers and Diamondbacks.  I captured this last summer with the Yankees' Scranton farm club.  He played 11 games with the Mets earlier this season before a thumb injury wiped out the rest of his 2023.

Jack Leathersich -- Jack WHO?? -- a lefty reliever that appeared in 17 games for the 2015 Mets, before a mid-season injury led to Tommy John Surgery.  He pitched in seven games for the 2017 Cubs and Pirates, but never regained the form that brought him to Flushing.

This trio shares July 14th with a revered name in New York baseball history.  Born in 1908, Johnny Murphy was the Yankees "Fireman," the ace relief pitcher on their great teams of the 1930s and early '40s. Moving behind the scenes after World War II, he ran the Red Sox minor league system before George Weiss brought him back to New York as part of the Mets front office.  Murphy succeeded Bing Devine as the club's general manager in 1968. A year later, with their young players developing and boosted by a smart mid-season trade for Donn Clendennon, the Mets stunned the baseball world.  Sadly, Johnny died of a heart attack just three months after the World Series victory over the Orioles.

 

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