Baseball Birthdays This Weekend

There have been 63 major league players born on the 7th of March.  If you go by WAR, Jeff Kent was the most productive of them.  And the late J.R. Richard, the leading pitcher.  Unfortunately, I never snapped photos of them, or any of the 61 others with this birthday.

I was more successful regarding Saturday (and Sunday):

Jim Bouton had a unique baseball life: star pitcher on a trio of 1960s Yankee pennant winners; then, following an arm injury, a journeyman with the expansion 1969 Seattle Pilots -- whose humorous observations of that club, as well as his years in the Bronx, fueled the breakthrough tell-all book Ball Four.  A second career as a New York TV sportscaster,  then a third starring in a short-lived sitcom "inspired" by the book.  Witty and rebellious, Jim made the most of his New York baseball roots.  I met him at the 2013 BAT Dinner in New York; sadly, he passed six years later at age 80.

Also in the March 8th birthday circle:

• Hall of Famer Jim Rice, longtime outfielder Tommy Pham, the late Brooklyn Dodger star Carl Furillo and Dick Allen, finally being inducted to Cooperstown this summer.

Onto Sunday, the 9th, another familiar Yankee face: 

Aaron Boone earned his place in Yankee lore with that walk-off 2003 pennant winning homer against the Red Sox.  But a knee injury that winter playing basketball ended his first Yankee career.  His second began in 2018 when he replaced Joe Girardi as manager; last year's pennant winning club (featuring Aaron Judge and Juan Soto) snapped a 15 year post-season drought. 

Aaron is also part of a rare three-generation baseball family, as he followed his grandfather Ray, papa Bob (and brother Brett) into MLB.

Also celebrating on March 9th:

• Bert Campaneris, the versatile speedster on the great A's teams of the early 1970s; Terry Mulholland, who no-hit his first team (the Giants) while pitching for the Phillies in 1990; and Benito Santiago, who caught for 20 years in the majors and made five All Star teams.