All-October 20
As regular readers of this feature on Batter's Box will no doubt already know, I make no qualms about the fact that I stole -- er, borrowed -- the whole concept of "Baseball's Hall of Names" from that "other" Mick Doherty, he would no doubt claim "the original" Mick Doherty, dad.In lieu of spending actual cash on a birthday gift (no, seriously, dad, it's on the way), I'm here to spend some cache instead ... in the form of an All-Birthday Hall of Names team. Some may recall that we've encroached on this territory before, with an All-July 20 team that celebrated (ahem) my own date of birth.
So now, exactly three months later, we revisit the concept and put together a team that, frankly -- no, wait, there are no Franks on the team, so instead, we'll put together a team that [affect Cary Grant voice here] Judy, Judy, Judy (Johnson), would just beat the living hell out of my own all-birthday lineup.
For starters -- literally, in one case, the starting pitcher Juan Marichal -- this lineup has three Hall of Famers to anchor its Hall of Names foundation (I had just one, Heinie Manush); it also has two "Mickeys," and in one case, the same player belongs to both categories.
And despite what you might conclude, my New York City-born father, Yankee fan that he has been, was not named for his birthday-mate Mickey Mantle, as The Mick (the one in pinstripes, that is) was just five years old and not quite yet proficient in the art of switch-hitting, when dad came along.
As was the case with my own (July 20, 1966) birthday, no single player in MLB history shares an exact date of birth (October 20, 1935) with dad -- proving once again that we both should have worked harder on the knuckleball.
Incidentally, just two October 20 arrivals made the October Misters all-birth-month team a while back, but the ommission of Johnson, at least from the bench, was merely an oversight.
So here's the birthday boys' batting order; the first number in the parenthetical following each name is the year of birth ...
- DH Dave Collins (1952; .272, 395 SB)
- 1B Keith Hernandez* (1953; .296, 11 straight Gold Gloves)
- CF Mickey Mantle** (1930; .298, 536 homers)
- RF Juan Gonzalez* (1969; .295, 434 homers through 2005)
- 3B Judy Johnson** (1900; Negro League legend)
- LF Bruce Campbell (1909; .290, 106 homers)
- C Jocko Fields (1864; .271, mostly an OF, caught 97 games)
- 2B Bobby Floyd (1943; .219 seven seasons; 56 games at 2B)
- SS Rafael Robles (1947, .188 with 1969-70, '72 SDP)
And the pitchers -- plural, just in case Juan can't go nine ...
- SP Juan Marichal** (1937; righty was 243-142)
- RP Rudy Seanez (1968; 27-20, 11 saves)
Although Robles is the starting shortstop, another Rafael -- Batista -- doesn't make the team ... Say, doesn't "Rafael Batista" sound like the name of a shortstop? It's not -- he was a .280-hitting (7-for-25 career) 1B with the 1973 and 1975 Astros; he wasn't about to beat out Lee May or Bob Watson in those days ... We've only got the one Judy on the team, but if we want to go back to the Cary Grant impressions, we do have "Judy, Rudy, Bobby" ...
Asadoor is one of those guys who retired with an eye-popping Cobb-like career batting average of .364, finishing 20-for-55 with the 1986 SDP; just five of his 20 hits were for extra bases, all doubles, and he wasn't up to beating out Steve Garvey and John Kruk, then the Pads picked up Jack Clark from the Yankees to play 1B a couple of years later ... Of the six major leaguers who had the nickname "Dad," three were born in August, two in March and one in January, so without any fear of confusion, I can safely say ... Happy birthday, dad.
