The best baseball players born on Dec. 9
Here’s a subjective rating of the highest 5 for Dec. 9.
1) Joe Kelley (1871)
Kelley is the lone Hall of Famer born on Dec. 9, competing over 17 seasons with a 50.4 WAR. He additionally served as player-manager for the Reds from 1902-05 and once more for Boston in 1908.
2) Cy Seymour (1872)
Seymour was each a middle fielder and pitcher throughout his 16 years large league profession. He is certainly one of simply two gamers (Babe Ruth) to retire with 50-plus residence runs and 50-plus wins on the mound.
3) Juan Samuel (1960)
Samuel was an undrafted free agent turned 16-year MLB veteran who grew to become a three-time National League All-Star and gained one Silver Slugger Award in 1987. He was named the NL Rookie of the Year by Sporting News in 1984, when he tied for the league lead with 19 triples and set a Modern Era AL/NL rookie document with 72 stolen bases, which was damaged the following season by Vince Coleman’s 110.
4) Doc Medich (1948)
George “Doc” Medich acquired his nickname after attending medical college on the University of Pittsburgh earlier than he was drafted by the Yankees in 1970. Over 11 years, Medich pitched slightly below 2,000 innings, posting a 3.78 ERA.
5) Jim Merritt (1943)
While Merritt typically struggled with run help early in his profession, leading to a 12-18 document over his first two seasons with the Reds, he would go on to have a decent 11-year large league profession. His finest season got here in 1970, when he was named a National League All-Star and gained 20 video games with a 4.08 ERA over 234 innings.
Del Unser (1944)
Unser was a 15-year large leaguer, however he’s finest recognized for his function in serving to the Phillies to their 1980 World Series title. He had very important pinch hit doubles in each Games 2 and 5 to chop into the Royals’ lead in every. He scored the go-ahead run in Game 5 to place the Phillies up 3-2 earlier than the membership clinched the sequence at residence in six video games.
Tony Batista (1973)
Batista had two separate stints in MLB, separated by a season within the Japanese Pacific League in 2005. The hard-hitting infielder launched 221 residence runs throughout 11 whole large league seasons with a profession slash line of .251/.299/.453. And he did all of it with certainly one of baseball’s strangest batting stances.
