The Holiday Birthday Baseball Lineup
It’s holiday season, so whether you celebrate (celebrated) Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Festivus, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or nothing at all, we can still relate it to baseball somehow. In this case, the following is the Holiday Birthday Baseball Lineup. It’s loosely based on the best players by Baseball-Reference WAR born on a various holidays, but in order to create a lineup with players at every position I had to make some tough choices for some holidays.
Also, some holidays occur on specific dates each year, while others fall on days of the week, often Mondays, which means the dates shift around on us. This means no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day or Thanksgiving, unfortunately. I discarded those holidays and added in some with an international flavor, like Día de los Muertos and Boxing Day.
As luck would have it, our leadoff hitter is perfect for this season, so before we get going, let’s with a happy/merry birthday/Christmas to Rickey Henderson.
Batting 1st, LF Rickey Henderson (Christmas Day)—111.2 WAR
Rickey Henderson, the greatest leadoff hitter of all-time, was born on Christmas Day, 1958, in Chicago, Illinois. After his father left the family when he was two years old, his mother Bobbie moved the family to Arkansas, then to California a few years later. Rickey was a three-sports star at Oakland Technical High School, excelling at football, basketball, and baseball. When the time came to choose a path, Rickey let his mother choose for him and she encouraged him to play baseball.
He made his Major League debut in 1979, but really came into his own in his second season, when he led the league with 100 stolen bases. Then he did it again and again and again, ultimately leading the league in steals 12 times. This included a record 130 in 1982 during a stretch in which he won the AL stolen base title every year of the 1980s except for 1987, when he only played 95 games. Harold Reynolds led the league that year, which led to this terrific story about Rickey calling Reynolds at the end of the season.
Rickey was my favorite player when I was growing up in the 1980s. I used to mimic his crouched stance with the weight back and the bat wiggle and the leg kick. For all of his incredible accomplishments—all-time leader in runs scored and stolen bases, over 3000 hits, nearly 300 home runs, more than 1000 RBI, career .401 on-base percentage—the thing I love most about him is that he just kept on playing and playing, through the age of 44 in the major leagues, then two more years playing in Independent Leagues. He had 37 steals and a .462 OBP as a 45-year-old for the Newark Bears in the Atlantic League in 2004, then 16 steals and a .456 OBP for the San Diego Surf Dawgs in the Golden Baseball League in 2005. He just loved playing baseball.
Batting 2nd, RF King Kelly (New Year’s Eve), 46.0 WAR
King Kelly is a blast from the past. Given his Irish heritage, it would have been more fitting had he been a St. Patrick’s Day baby, but he was born on New Year’s Eve, 1857, not long before the American Civil War began. He played most of his career in the National League from 1878 to 1893, with his best seasons coming with the Chicago White Stockings in 1884 (.354/.414/.524), and 1886 (.388/.483/.534).
From his SABR bio: “Kelly was professional baseball’s first matinee idol: the first ballplayer to ‘author’ an autobiography, the first to have a hit song written about him, and the first to have a successful acting career outside the game.”
Other baseball players turned successful actors include Chuck Conners, who played in MLB and the NBA before becoming famous for his role as Lucas McCain in The Rifleman; Kurt Russell, who played for the legendary Portland Mavericks before his movie star career; and Scott Patterson, who pitched in the minor leagues for seven seasons many years before starring as Luke Danes on Gilmore Girls.
Batting 3rd,CF Pete Reiser (St. Patrick’s Day)—24.6 WAR
Pete Reiser is one of the all-time great “what might have been” players in baseball history. He was an incredible young player for the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1941, as a 22-year-old outfielder, he led the NL in runs, doubles, triples, batting average, and slugging percentage (.343/.406/.558 triple-slash). He was an all-star and finished second in MVP voting while leading the league in WAR (which no one knew about back in 1941). His 166 wRC+ that year is the 12th-best ever for a 22-year-old, right behind 2014 Mike Trout (167 wRC+) and ahead of 2021 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (166 wRC+). When you picture a young Pete Reiser, imagine a season as good as 22-year-old Mike Trout and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s just-completed, near-MVP season and that’s the kind of season he had in 1941.
The 1942 started out with more of the same from Reiser. Through July 18, he was hitting .356/.416/.531. Then tragedy struck. In the second game of a double-header against the Cardinals on July 19, Enos Slaughter launched a ball deep to center field. Reiser raced back, just missed running into a flag pole that was located on the field, but didn’t miss the concrete wall just beyond the flag pole. After crashing into the wall, he was somehow able to throw the ball in to Pee Wee Reese, then he collapsed. When his manager and teammates got to him, he was lying motionless with blood coming from his ears. The collision caused a separated shoulder, fractured skull, and brain injury.
Remarkably (and ridiculously), Reiser was back on the field a week later, but he wasn’t the same player. He hit just .244/.313/.367 over the rest of the season and would never again be the player he once was.
Batting 4th, 1B Lou Gehrig (Juneteenth), 113.7 WAR
Lou Gehrig was born on Juneteenth (June 19th) in 1903, which was 18 years before the horrendous Tulsa Race Massacre that eventually led to Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday in 2021. Gehrig is considered by many to be the greatest first baseman of all time and he’s right there with Rickey Henderson as the best player in this Holiday Birthday BaseballLineup. Gehrig has a lifetime .340/.447/.632 batting line, which seems like video game numbers. If fantasy baseball existed in 1931, imagine how valuable Gehrig’s season would have been: 163 R, 46 HR, 185 RBI, 17 SB, .341/.446/.662.
Batting 5th, DH Fred McGriff (Halloween), 52.6 WAR
“The Crime Dog,” Fred McGriff was born on Halloween in 1963 in Tampa, Florida. He was cut from his high school team as a sophomore, which his coach explained years later by saying, “The Fred McGriff that was here [as a sophomore] was about 5-foot-6, 5-foot-7 with glasses. I told him to hit the ball, I mean, he hit it, but it wouldn’t go very far.” McGriff blossomed as a junior and was drafted by the Yankees in 1981. After two minor league seasons, the Yankees traded him, along with outfielder Dave Collins and pitcher Mike Morgan, to the Blue Jays for reliever Dale Murray and infielder Todd Dodd, which was not a great trade for New York. Six weeks before this trade, the Yankees dealt outfielder Willie McGee to the Cardinals for Bob Sykes, which was also an unfortunate deal for the Bronx Bombers.
McGriff reached the big leagues in 1986 for a sip of coffee, then began a stretch of 16 years of above average hitting. His peak was from 1988 through 1994, when he hit .288/.390/.545, for a wRC+ of 153. During this seven-year stretch, only two hitters had a higher wRC+ than McGriff—Frank Thomas (in 1500 fewer plate appearances) and Barry Bonds.
One of the unfair aspects of McGriff’s career is that he was a power hitter in the years before the offensive explosion of the mid-1990s. He turned 31 in 1995, so his career had already peaked before offense went through the roof, which makes his numbers pale in comparison to hitters who arrived later. He “only” hit 493 homers in his career, but his 134 wRC+ was better than Ken Griffey Jr. (630 HR, 131 wRC+), Rafael Palmeiro (569 HR, 130 wRC+), and Sammy Sosa (609 HR, 124 wRC+). He topped out at 39.8 percent in Hall of Fame voting, but many fans hope he’ll get in someday through one of the Era Committee votes.
Batting 6th, SS Hanley Ramirez (Festivus), 38.0 WAR
Hanley Ramirez was born on December 23, 1983, which was fourteen years before Frank Costanza brought Festivus to the masses during an episode of Seinfeld.As he said on the show, “Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way.” The Festivus festivities include a bare aluminum pole (because tinsel is distracting), the feats of strength, and the airing of grievances.
During his 15-year career, Hanley Ramirez performed feats of strength, like his 33-homer season in 2008 and his 106-RBI season in 2009, and aired his share of grievances, like the time Yankees pitcher Adam Warren beaned him in the hip in 2015. Through it all, he was one of the best-hitting shortstops over the last 20 years, with a 125 wRC+ in 1668 career games (about as good offensively as Bo Bichette and Trea Turner have been in their careers). His defense, on the other hand, caused some of his managers to air some grievances.
Batting 7th, C Carlton Fisk (Boxing Day), 68.4 WAR
Boxing Day is celebrated in Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and, closer to home, Canada. It doesn’t have anything to do with the sport of boxing, but because of the name it’s fitting that Carlton Fisk was born on Boxing Day when you remember his fisticuffs with Lou Piniella after a collision at home plate in 1976.
Fisk was a tough as nails catcher who retired with the record for games caught, since surpassed by Ivan Rodriguez. After his Boxing Day birth (December 26, 1947), he grew up in New Hampshire and played high school sports at Charlestown High. Joe Posnanski wrote about Fisk playing basketball as a 6-foot-2 senior against the defending state champions from Hickory High. In Fisk’s final high school game, he battled with everything he had before fouling out of the game with 40 points and 36 rebounds. His team lost by two. After the game, Fisk’s father said, “How could you miss four free throws?”
The Red Sox drafted Fisk in the first round of the 1967 MLB January Draft and he was their regular behind the dish by 1972, winning the AL Rookie of the Year Award. That was also the first of his 11 all-star seasons. He played 11 seasons in Boston before switching his sox from Red to White and playing 13 more seasons in Chicago, finally hanging them up at the age of 45, tough as nails to the very end.
Batting 8th, 2B Red Schoendienst (Groundhog Day), 44.5 WAR
On February 2, 1887, Groundhog Day was celebrated for the first time at famous Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Thirty-six years later, Red Schoendienst was born in Germantown, Illinois. The movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray, came out in 1993 and the phrase “groundhog day” came to mean something that is repeated over and over, kind of like Red Schoendienst making the NL All-Star team eight years in a row from 1948 to 1955.
Schoendienst spent 15 of his 19 major league seasons as a player with the Cardinals, managed the team for 14 years, and spent another 40 years with the franchise in assorted roles from coach to special assistant to the general manager to Special Assistant Coach. At the time of his death in June of 2018, at the age of 95, he had been a Major League player, coach, or manager for 72 consecutive seasons. That’s 72 Groundhog day-like baseball seasons putting on the old uniform again and again and again.
Batting 9th, 3B Pie Traynor (Veterans Day), 38.5 WAR
Pie Traynor was born on November 11, 1898, which was 20 years before the end of World War I, which became known as “Armistice Day.” In 1938, November 11 became a legal holiday dedicated to honoring World War I veterans. It was renamed Veterans Day in 1954 as a salute to all veterans. That was six years after Pie Traynor was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
His real name was Harold Joseph Traynor, but he supposedly received the nickname “Pie” when he was a kid and was asked by a local corner store owner what he wanted and always requested a slice of pie. At 17, when the U.S. entered World War I, he tried to enlist but was turned down. In the meantime, he played baseball in the Cape League and the Virginia League. In 1920, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed him. He would go on to play 17 years for the Pirates, hitting .320/.362/.435. He later managed the Pirates for six years in the 1930s. In 1942, when the U.S. entered World War II, Traynor once again tried to enlist, but was turned down because of his age. First he was too young, then he was too old, so the man born on Veterans Day was never given a chance to be an actual veteran.
Left-handed Starting pitcher, Fernando Valenzuela (Día de los Muertos), 41.4 WAR
The most exciting MLB player to ever hail from Mexico is the great Fernando Venezuela, who was born on November 1, 1960. November 1st is celebrated in Mexico as Día de los Muertos, which translates to “Day of the Dead.” Despite its name, the day is more of a joyful celebration and remembrance of the dead than a mourning.
Fernandomania was something else. You really had to be there to believe it. In the late 1970s, Valenzuela was a teenager pitching in the Mexican League. Los Angeles Dodgers scout Mike Brito spotted him and the Dodgers signed him in July of 1979. He made his major league debut as a 19-year-old in September of 1980 with 17.7 innings in relief, allowing just eight hits, no earned runs, and striking out 16.
On April 9, 1981, Fernando pitched on Opening Day because of an injury to Jerry Reuss. He shut out the Houston Astros. His next time out, he pitched a complete game while allowing one run. Then came three more shutouts, followed by another 9 IP/1 ER outing, and another shutout. Through the first 80.7 innings of his major league career, he was 9-0, with a 0.22 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, and 77 strikeouts. He had struck out 25 percent of the batters he faced, which may not seem extraordinary by today’s standards, but back in 1980 the league average strikeout rate was 12.5 percent. Think about that. Fernando struck out batters at twice the rate of the average pitcher in the first 80.7 innings of his career, when he was 19 and 20 years old.
The Dodgers were already a good draw, but Fernando brought even more fans out to Dodger Stadium. Eleven of his 12 home starts in the strike-shortened 1981 season were sellouts. When the Dodgers went on the road, they saw an increase in attendance of over 14,000 fans in the games Fernando started compared to their non-Fernando starts, from around 19,000 fans without Fernando on the bump to over 33,000 with him.
It’s easy to forget now that the Dodgers and the city of Los Angeles had an ugly history with the Mexican American community that dated back to the early 1950s when the homes of a vibrant community of people were condemned, originally for a public housing project. When that fell through, the city sold the land to Walter O’Malley, owner of the Dodgers, and he used it to build Dodger Stadium despite the protests of the Mexican American families that had lived there previously. That story is told eloquently by Eric Nusbaum in the book Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between.
Fernando won the hearts of Mexican fans with his eyes-to-the-skies windup and devastating screwball. Jaime Jarrin, the Dodgers Hall of Fame Spanish-language broadcaster, said of Fernando, “I truly believe that there is no other player in major league history who created more new fans than Fernando Valenzuela. Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Joe DiMaggio, even Babe Ruth did not. Fernando turned so many people from Mexico, Central America, South America into fans. He created interest in baseball among people who did not care about baseball.”
Right-handed Starting Pitcher, Sidd Finch (April Fools’ Day), ??? WAR
The right-handed starting pitcher for this Holiday Birthday Baseball Lineup is hard-throwing Sidd Finch of the New York Mets, brought into this world on April Fools’ Day in 1985 as reported in a Sports Illustrated article by George Plimpton. According to the legend, Finch could throw 168 mph, which required pinpoint accuracy because catcher Ronn Reynolds wouldn’t be able to move his glove if Finch didn’t hit it precisely. On the 2 to 8 scouting scale (equivalent to the 20 to 80 scale), Finch was given a 9 for fastball velocity and control.
John Christensen, a 24-year-old outfielder with the Mets at the time, was the first batter to face Finch, with the confrontation taking placed inside a canvas enclosure to shield the scene from snooping reporters. When asked what it was like to face Finch, Christensen replied, “I’m standing in there to give this guy a target, just waving the bat once or twice out over the plate. He starts his windup. He sways way back, like Juan Marichal, this hiking boot comes clomping over—I thought maybe he was wearing it for balance or something—and he suddenly rears upright like a catapult. The ball is launched from an arm completely straight up and stiff. Before you can blink, the ball is in the catcher’s mitt. You hear it crack, and then there’s this little bleat from Reynolds.”
Mets manager Davey Johnson was impressed by Finch while also pointing out the dangers of a pitcher who could throw 168 mph, “If he didn’t have this great control, he’d be like the Terminator out there. Hell, that fastball, if off-target on the inside, would carry a batter’s kneecap back into the catcher’s mitt.”
The source of Finch’s pitching ability was learning “yogic mastery of mind-body” (a process known as siddhi) as a young man in Tibet, where he was an aspirant monk and disciple of Tibet’s poet-saint Lama Milaraspa, who was born in the 11th century. Finch reportedly spent many hours meditating in the mountains of Tibet and spent hours firing rocks at far-off targets until ultimately, in his words, he “learned the art of the pitch.”
Despite “learning the art of the pitch,” Finch wrestled with the decision to become a Major League player. As a Buddhist, he strived to reach nirvana, which meant purifying oneself of greed, hatred, and delusion, three things that are part of MLB (rich owners using taxpayer dollars to build stadiums, heated team rivalries, and sign-stealing fit those labels). He initially left the Mets during spring training, but returned in June to make his only two big league starts.
His first start went almost as you’d expect from a pitcher with pinpoint accuracy and a 168-mph fastball—a 27-strikeout, 82-pitch perfect game. Amazingly, Willie McGee foul tipped one of Finch’s pitches, which was shocking to everyone. In the second, and last, start of his career, Finch was one out away from tying Johnny Vander Meer’s record of back-to-back no-hitters, when he suddenly placed the ball on the mound and walked off the field, never to return.
The Holiday Birthday Baseball Lineup, in batting order, with the stats from their best seasons:
