If Your Birthday is March 8th...


 ...you share it with Tommy Pham.  The well-traveled outfielder began 2023 with the Mets and ended it with the surprise-NL pennant winning Diamondbacks -- where he homered in the Division Series, Championship Series and World Series.

And we remember a pair of headline-making stars of the past:
  • Dick Allen: the 1964 NL Rookie of the Year and seven-time All Star as one of the game's most feared sluggers while starring for the Phillies and White Sox.
  • Jim Bouton: the New Jersey native who starred for the last two Yankee pennant winners of the '60s, but fell apart in 1965, the year the Mantle/Berra/Ford dynasty collapsed.  His Ball Four was the first of the great baseball "tell all" books -- although in retrospect, it's more genial and affectionate about the game Bouton clearly loved.  He later enjoyed a good run as a New York TV sportscaster.

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