If Your Birthday is January 21st...

 ...you share it with Jake Cronenworth. The runner-up for 2020's National League Rookie of the Year, the Padres infielder hit .285 -- boosted by a scorching month of August, with a .356 average featuring 16 extra base hits, 17 RBIs and 20 runs over 31 games.

Chase d'Arnaud, the older brother of the Braves hard-hitting catcher, has played parts of seven seasons in the majors. A utilityman known mostly for his versatility, I caught him in action during 2016 when playing for Atlanta.


Jeff Samardzija has been a run-of-the-mill pitcher with the Cubs and Giants. What else would you call an 80 - 104 record over parts of 12 seasons? The Giants will be happy to shed his five-year $80 million dollar contract at the end of 2020. Maybe he should have followed his football dreams -- he was a star wide receiver for Notre Dame.


Wily Mo Pena has a catchy name, but never became the star some expected. The lefty power hitter was the big piece who went from the Yankees to the Reds for Drew Henson (yep, another player torn between football and baseball). But save for his age 22 season when he blasted 26 home runs for Cincinnati, his big league career was a disappointment.

No Hall of Famers were born on January 23rd. Looking back on the more than 50 major leaguers sharing this date, the best of the bunch was Chico Carrasquel. The first in the long line of standout shortstops from Venezuela, he spent all of the 1950s playing here in the States, mostly with the White Sox and Indians.

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