Happy Birthday To The 1,457 To Wear A Yankees Uniform
Posted by Steve Lombardi on February 9th, 2010 · Comments (11)
During the summer of 2006, Lee Sinins was very kind to supply me with the birth dates of everyone to play for the Yankees to date. And, putting it into a spreadsheet allowed for lots of sorting fun.
And, now, Lee has provided me with an updated file. Click here to access it. So, what Yankee do you share a birthday with?
And, by the way…Happy Birthday today to Julie Wera, Clete Boyer, Robert Eenhoorn and Dioner Navarro!
Yup, good ol’ Julian Valentine Wera…who, with some others, brought the Yankees “The Crow” Frankie Crosetti. How ’bout that?
I got Jose Cruz, Marlin Stuart, Ken Holloway, and Ray Fontenot. Lame.
Jay Buhner!
Mike Morgan, lame.
Don Larsen – I always knew I was perfect…
Without looking I can tell you I share a birthday with Tom Tresh—and Sophia Loren
Mine is 12/30. Nobody. Nada. What are the odds? Any other days without a Yankee birthday?
If I remember right, the greatest Yankee with the same birthday as me was Tony Lazzeri. Not too shabby.
Larry Sheets (ex-Oriole outfielder and DH) is the only major leaguer born on my birthdate. Either Lazzeri or Stan Hack is the greatest major leaguer born on my birthday. Greatest pitcher born on my birthday was Kevin Appier.
Greatest Yankee pitcher born on my birthday…there isn’t really one; Jose (ulp!) Contreras is the best of a rotten bunch.
@ milo:
A quick search of the listing after a sort informs me that there are 6 dates on the calendar on which no Yankee has been born:
1/14, 4/17, 5/15, 6/27, 7/12, and your own 12/30.
So the odds against there being no Yanks born on your birthday is 359 to 6, or really, 359.25 to 6, because Terrence Long was born on Leap Day, February 29, 1976. I mean, there are even Yankees born on imaginary days like December 0 (1881, Ed Quick; obviously, they could track down the month he was born, and not the date.)
So the odds are roughly 60-1 against no Yankees born on your birthday.
…and all of this birthday tomfoolery reminds me of one of my favorite math problems, which is usually given in a form something like this:
“How many people must there be in one room before the odds that at least two of them have the same birthday is better than even money?”
To those who don’t already know it, the answer is almost invariably surprising…
Mike McCormick, Shelley Duncan, Cy Pieh, Tony Rensa, Jake Westbrook, Dave Silvestri and Johnny Johnson
i got no one i know 8/30…. but i do know i share a birthday with ted williams