The best baseball players born on April 17

Who are the best players born on each day of the year? We have a list for every day on the calendar.

Here’s a subjective ranking of the top five for April 17:

1) Cap Anson (1852)
In the late 19th century, Anson became baseball’s first superstar as player/manager of the Chicago White Stockings, the franchise that later became the Cubs. The native of Marshalltown, Iowa, led the league in RBIs eight times in his 27-year career and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1939. Anson set the batting records that were later broken by legends such as Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth. He was the second manager to record 1,000 wins and the first player to reach 3,000 hits, and Anson is still the North Siders’ all-time leader in runs (1,719), hits (3,011), doubles (528) and RBIs (1,879). He struck out 294 times in 27 seasons.

2) Marquis Grissom (1967)
Grissom had 2,251 hits and 429 stolen bases during a 17-year career that took him through Montreal, Atlanta, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The center fielder won four Gold Gloves, made two All-Star teams and caught the final out of the Braves’ 1995 World Series championship. He and David Justice were traded to Cleveland for Kenny Lofton in ‘97.

3) Jake Daubert (1884)
Daubert was arguably the National League’s premier first baseman of the Dead Ball Era, winning two batting titles and setting the NL’s career record for sacrifices (392). He was the NL MVP in 1913, hitting .350 for Brooklyn. Daubert was traded to Cincinnati in 1919 after suing Brooklyn owner Charles Ebbets over a contract dispute.

4) Jed Lowrie (1984)
Lowrie, a first-round Draft pick by the Red Sox in 2005, was a first-time All-Star with the A’s in his 11th big league season in 2018, setting career highs with 23 home runs and 99 RBIs. The infielder parlayed that performance into a two-year, $20 million deal with the Mets before returning to Oakland for his final two seasons.

5) Charlie Ferguson (1863)
Ferguson’s big league career consisted of four seasons with the Philadelphia Quakers in the late 19th century, but the pitcher/outfielder/first baseman has the third-highest bWAR total of any player born on April 17 -- a whopping 31.7. That figure is inflated due to the sheer volume of work that was required of pitchers during that era, as the right-hander had 99 wins in 170 starts while recording 165 complete games from 1884-87.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for April 17? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.