Hitting A Post-Season HR On Your Birthday
Posted by Steve Lombardi on December 15, 2010
How many players have hit a post-season homerun on their birthday?
| Rk | Player | Date | Series | Gm# | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | IBB | SO | HBP | SH | SF | ROE | GDP | SB | CS | WPA | RE24 | BOP | Pos. Summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Willie Aikens | 1980-10-14 | WS | 1 | KCR | PHI | L 6-7 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.232 | 2.648 | .852 | 4 | 1B |
.
Now, there's a trivia answer for ya! And, big Wilie had two big flies to blow out that day!
December 15th, 2010 at 11:18 am
Well, there's one thing the Yankees have NEVER done: They've never won on my birthday. And they never will. I have seen, live, both the New Jersey Devils and my old high school's basketball team win on my birthday, though.
December 15th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Too bad KC lost that game, and the Series. Aikens was a one-man wrecking crew, with 4 HRs, 8 RBI and a then-WS-record 1.638 OPS in the 6-game set. In game 3, Aikens had the GW extra-inning hit off lefty Tug McGraw (he hit .198 vs. LHP that year and .219 career), and another pair of HRs in game 4 as KC evened the Series.
December 15th, 2010 at 11:43 am
We're still waiting for an All-Star Game birthday HR.
However, the 5 players who have batted in an ASG on their birthday are a collective 8 for 14, including a combined 4 for 8 by Billy Herman in 1936-37.
(Oddity: Billy Herman was 13 for 30 in his All-Star career, yet never drove in a run.)
December 15th, 2010 at 11:53 am
Luis Gonzalez hit that bloop single off Mariano Rivera on my 24th birthday.
Rivera lost his game, and I lost a bet to my friend.
Ouch..
December 15th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
John Autin - Didn't Whitey blame the '80 WS loss on some of his players being coked out?
December 15th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
The Phillies clinched the first Philadelphia sports championship of my lifetime on my 17th birthday. That of course was the two-part, rain-delayed game.
December 15th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Some might say it's happened twice.
December 15th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Johnny Podres rather famously pitched a complete game victory for the Dodgers over the Yankees on his birthday during the 1955 World Series. That was Game 3 of the only World Series the Dodgers would ever win in their Brooklyn incarnation (they lost 8 World Series during their time in Brooklyn). Podres pitched even better in his non-birthday Game 7, shutting out the Yankees and finally making the Boys of Summer into the Boys of Autumn.
The other two starters to get post-season wins on their birthdays are El Duque, Orlando Hernandez, in the 2000 ALCs vs. the Mariners, and Tim Belcher for the Dodgers in Game 4 of the 1988 World Series vs. Oakland (the Series most famous for Kirk Gibson's Game 1 pinch-hit, limp-off homer off of Dennis Eckersley).
December 15th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Kinda hard to get PS wins on your birthday when you were born in February...
December 15th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
@ #5 - Where did you hear that? Also, Whitey wasn't with the organization any longer by 1980. Jim Frey was the rookie manager.
December 15th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
@5 (Steve) & 10 (Rob) --
Rob's right about Whitey being gone from the Royals after '79; he took over the Cards in mid-season 1980.
However, Steve's larger point may be true. Darrell Porter, who had an awful World Series -- 2 for 14, no RBI, and I think some baserunning and/or defensive plays that led Bill James to lay most of the blame for the Series loss at Porter's feet -- was confronted by management about his cocaine addiction soon after the Series, and went into rehab in November.
The other Royals hitters who struggled the most in the '80 WS were Willie Wilson and Frank White. I have no idea if either was using coke in 1980. I'm pretty sure that Wilson was caught up in the 1983 dragnet that snared several Royals (and other MLB players).
Ironically, another player caught in that '83 scandal was Willie Aikens, who would have been the hero of the 1980 WS if the Royals had won.
So, it's perhaps not completely fair to blame coke-using players for the Royals' downfall in 1980.
December 15th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Wow. I totally messed up on the Herzog thing. Maybe it was a different year? Maybe I was thinking of him lamenting about John Mayberry partying too much one post-season?
December 15th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Mark Reynolds homered (in the regular season) on his birthday each of the last 2 years? (Including twice in 2009)
December 15th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Just finished Whitey Herzog's You're Missing a Great Game a few weeks ago. Mayberry's fiasco was in the 77 playoffs vs the Yankees. His last big year was 75. By 77 drugs and/or alcohol had already pretty much derailed his career. KC really got hit hard by the drug epidemic in the late 70's/early 80's: Aikens, Mayberry, Porter, Wilson & Martin that we know of. Kind of tough to compete when half of your lineup is in the process of self-destructing.
December 15th, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Phil @ 19 I'll bet he struck out every year on his birthday- at least if there was a game that day
December 15th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Ball went thru Buckner's legs on my birthday 1986
Tough turn, my bday present from the gods was gonna be a championship..
Eighteen years later watched Schilling beat Colorado at Fenway on same day.
10/25
December 15th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
@Steve Lombardi: How do you run that search on the play index? I could not figure it out.
December 15th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
@Rico Petrocelli: The real Rico Petrocelli's birthday is in June.
How many players with at least 10 letters in their last name have hit over 40 home runs in a season with less than 100 RBI? Just one. And his name isn't Kluszewski.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
@18 I was going to post that about Petrocelli, too. Once I know about players having the same birthday as I, I usually remember this fact.
If we had had multiple playoff rounds way back when, Mickey Mantle would have no doubt had some homering opportunities on October 20, and Whitey Ford could then have gone out and won the next day.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Reggie Jackson had a pretty good game on my 20th birthday, October 18, 1977.
December 15th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Carlton Fisk's iconic foul-pole HR in 1975 Game 6 came on my 12th birthday, 10-21-75. I was a Tigers fan, but it was still pretty cool.
Last 2 games involving my teams on my birthday went badly: Tigers dropped the 2006 WS opener to St. Louis, and the Mets blew a 9th-inning lead in the 2000 WS opener to the Yankees and lost in extras. (I'm not naming any names....)
Reggie's light-tower blast in the '71 All-Star game came on my brother's 10th birthday, and Mickey Lolich got the save in our home park. First AL win in my lifetime; by the time they won again, I was old enough to vote....
December 16th, 2010 at 12:43 am
RIP to Bob Feller.