If Your Birthday is October 20th...

...you share it with Juan Marichal.  The greatest pitcher in San Francisco Giants punched his ticket to Cooperstown with 243 career victories -- including four consecutive 20-victory seasons (1963-'66).   The year before, he won 18 as the Giants grabbed their first pennant on the West Coast, outlasting the Dodgers in a three-game playoff and starting game four of the Fall Classic, where he twice struck out Mickey Mantle -- with whom he shares October 20th.  It was the only time those two legends faced each other!

Unfortunately for Marichal, his game -- as it turned out, the only World Series appearance of his career -- was cut short in the top of the 5th inning, when he smashed his thumb on a bunt attempt.  That, after tossing four shutout innings and holding the eventual champs to just two hits and two walks.  The Giants never made it back to the World Series during Juan's time in San Francisco.

Mantle never had that problem.  As familiar an October presence as a Halloween pumpkin and the Columbus Day parade, his Yankees won pennants 12 times in the first 14 years of his prolific career.  After succeeding Joe DiMaggio in center field, the Mick wrote his own remarkable story with 536 home runs, leading the league four times -- highlighted by 1956 when he won the Triple Crown as well as the first of his three MVP awards.

His combination of power, speed, defensive prowess and sheer likeability elevated the kid from Commerce, Oklahoma to iconic status in the Bronx.  And even after injuries sapped his power and dropped his productivity in his final seasons, he stands as the greatest switch hitter in baseball history.

Mantle and Marichal -- a different M&M pair -- linked by shared birthdays and remarkably, despite largely overlapping careers, just one professional encounter!