If Your Birthday is May 7th...


...you share it with Keon Broxton. His combination of speed, power and defensive skills were expected to make him a star. Instead, plagued by high strikeout totals, a low batting average and inconsistent play, he's bounced through several organizations. He's struggled so far in 2019 as a Met.

James Loney (right) spent 11 seasons in the majors, the last of them with the 2016 Mets. The rare 1st baseman without typical home run power, he had his career season in 2007, when he batted .331 with 15 homers. But he never again reached .300 or topped a baker's dozen in home runs.

Some other notable names on today's birthday list:
  • Steve Whittaker, a lefty hitting outfielder for the Yankees of the mid- and late 1960s. Let's just say he didn't have the career fellow farm system products Roy White or Bobby Murcer had.
  • Claude Raymond, the French-Canadian reliever who spent a dozen seasons in the majors, the last three with the Expos in his native Quebec province. He went to broadcast their games for 30 years -- 29 in French and after working as a minor league coach, worked their English language booth in 2004, the team's final Montreal season.
Only one Hall of Famer was born on the 7th of May, Dick Williams. A Brooklyn Dodgers backup outfielder for parts of six seasons , he finally became a regular with the Orioles and A's as the '50s rolled into the '60s. But he made his mark as the manager of the Impossible Dream 1967 Red Sox and the World Champion A's of 1971 and '72. Tension with owner Charles O. Finley led to his departure. After being blocked from taking over the Yankees while still under contract to Oakland, he sat out a year and later managed the Angels, Expos, Padres (where he won the '84 pennant) and Mariners. Cooperstown welcomed him in 2008, three years before Williams' death.

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