If Your Birthday is September 15th...

...you share it with the late Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry.   Seen here at the 2012 BAT Dinner, alongside fellow inductees Sandy Koufax, Mike Schmidt and Tony Perez, the North Carolina native won 314 and struck out 3534, admittedly with the help of the spitball and similar "doctoring tricks"; amazingly, he wasn't caught using one on the mound and ejected from a game until his 21st season in the majors!!
While he enjoyed a long and productive career, Perry only saw post-season action once -- in the 1971 NLCS where he went 1-1 for the Giants, who lost to the eventual World Series champion Pirates.
The Giants retired his number 36 in 2005; 11 years later the club erected a statue of him outside what is now Oracle Park in San Francisco.

Also worth remembering:  Charley Smith.  The 3rd baseman -- originally signed by the Dodgers -- is the only player ever to have played for both Chicago's Cubs and White Sox and New York's Mets and Yankees.


 

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