If Your Birthday is July 8th...

...you share it with Josh Harrison. A Pirates mainstay for most of the the 2010s, he's looking to rebound with the Phillies after a brief and unproductive stay last season in Detroit. Capable of playing any infield or outfield spot, he's battling another longtime veteran, and his onetime Pittsburgh teammate, Neil Walker for a spot on Joe Girardi's bench this summer.

Also on today's cake and candles list:
  • Jaime Garcia, who enjoyed three productive season with the Cardinals -- and came within two outs of a perfect game in 2011 against Milwaukee, but never became a
    consistent winner. After several years bouncing around several teams -- including an unproductive 2017 stop with the Yankees -- he was out of baseball last year.
  • Terry Puhl spent 14 of his 15 big league seasons with the Astros, where he reached his peak hitting over .500 in that classic 1980 NLCS battle with the eventual World Champion Phillies. He's remained in the game as a coach, working with Canada's national team and currently with the University of Texas - Victoria.
  • Alan Ashby was Puhl's Houston teammate for nine seasons, including their playoff years of 1980 and '86. He later went into broadcasting, working games for the Blue Jays and Astros.
  • Al Spangler also has Houston on his resume -- three Colt .45 seasons (leading the club in hitting in '62 and '63) and the initial one when the club became the Astros. As his bio on SABR notes, this Philadelphia native attended the same high school as Whiz Kid Del Ennis -- but played more like his city's favorite adopted son Richie Ashburn. Over
    his 14 year career, he had nearly double the total of stolen bases as home runs.
  • Hector Lopez was as good a fourth outfielder as anyone in baseball during the early '60s, when he backed up Yankee legends Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Yogi Berra. One of many Yankees who came to the Bronx via Kansas City -- in his case along with Ralph Terry -- in a mid-season 1959 steal, Lopez was one of the Yankees of my youth. Never a big star, but just the kind of player successful clubs always need. And as the Yankees first Panamanian player, Hector helped mint legions of Yankee fans in his native country. He's been a fixture at Old Timers Games since his retirement after the 1966 season.

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