If Your Birthday is August 22nd...

...you share it with Ray Burris. He pitched for eight major league teams over his 15 year career, but is best remembered for his time with the Cubs, where he won 15, 15 and 14 games from 1975-'77. These days, he's the pitching coach for the Phillies' top farm club in Lehigh Valley.

Ray shares his birthday with another well-traveled pitcher, Randy Wolf. A product of the Phillies farm system, he reached his peak in 2003 when he went 16-10, but never put together a season as effective again.

And we've got a couple of Hall of Famers (and 3000 hit club members) to round out our birthday parade:

  • Carl Yastrzemski, the Red Sox beloved "Yaz." The greatest of his 23 seasons was 1967, when he won the Triple Crown for the "Impossible Dream" Red Sox team that won Boston's first pennant since the 1940s. Ironically, this Boston legend grew on Long Island. Just imagine if instead of succeeding Ted Williams, he'd have joined Mantle and Maris for the final leg of that Yankee dynasty!
  • Paul Molitor, whose 12 Brewers seasons were highlighted by the 1982 American League pennant winners. Moving to the Blue Jays in 1993, he led the league in hits and finished second in the MVP race. And he saved his best for October, where he batted .500 against the Phillies, as the Blue Jays won their second straight title and he was named World Series MVP. These days, he's the manager of the Minnesota Twins, a team very much in the AL wild card battle.


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