If Your Birthday is July 14th...

...you share it with Carson Kelly. Coming off a productive first full season as a major league regular, the Diamondbacks catcher banged 18 homers and threw out 32 percent of opposing baserunners trying to steal. His production helped make the winter 2019 package deal with the Cardinals for Paul Goldschmidt appear a bit less one-sided.

Also on our cake and candles list:


  • Lucas Giolito, who showed he'll be a mainstay of the White Sox pitching staff for years to come. He won 14 last season including a pair of complete game shutouts.
  • Rob Brantley, the light hitting backup catcher who appeared in one game for the 2019 Phillies after earlier stints with the Marlins and White Sox.
  • Tim Hudson, who won 222 games over 17 big league seasons, most notably with the A's and Braves. 2000 was his signature year, when he won 20 for Oakland and finished second for the AL Cy Young Award.
  • Robin Ventura, who played his entire big league career under the bright lights of big cities: a decade with the White Sox, three seasons with the Mets -- highlighted by his "grand slam single" in the 1999 playoffs, a year-and-a-half with the Yankees and finally a year-and-change coming off the Dodgers bench. Joke all you want about Robin being (a) Batman, he was an even better fielder, winning six gold gloves.

And we remember:

  • Earl Williams, the power hitting catcher who won the 1971 National League Rookie of the Year when he slugged 33 home runs playing alongside Hank Aaron and Orlando Cepeda in Atlanta.
  • Johnny Murphy was as Bronx as they came. Born in the borough, he attended Fordham Prep (high school) and starred at Fordham University before making his mark for a decade as the Yankee fireman. Before anyone ever usedthe term "closer" for relief pitchers, Murphy's right arm was Joe McCarthy's late game insurance policy  between 1934 and '43. His post-season career ran through the Yankees' rivals, first as a scout and then farm director for the Red Sox. He joined the expansion Mets in 1962 and rose to become their general manager in 1968, as he and Gil Hodges molded a pitching rich club into surprise champs a year later. Sadly, Murphy passed away just three months after they stunned the Orioles in the 1969 World Series. But it's fair to say he ranks in the upper ranks of New York natives who impacted New York baseball.

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