The best baseball players born on Aug. 24

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 Aug. 24:

1) Cal Ripken Jr. (1960)
Few players in baseball history have had a more legendary career than Ripken, a man who earned nearly every accolade the game had to offer in his 21-year Hall of Fame journey with the Orioles. A 19-time All Star -- the fourth most of all time, behind only Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Stan Musial -- Ripken won the 1982 American League Rookie of the Year, then claimed the MVP Award the next season while guiding the O’s to their 1983 World Series title. He won the MVP again in 1991, along with one of his two Gold Gloves at shortstop and one of his eight Silver Sluggers. And, of course, the “Iron Man” holds a seemingly unbreakable record for the most consecutive games played in Major League history with 2,632 from 1982-97, having passed Lou Gehrig’s mark of 2,130 that had stood for more than half a century.

2) Harry Hooper (1887)
Part of the Red Sox’s “Million-Dollar Outfield” that won World Series titles in 1912 and ’15 -- along with Tris Speaker and Duffy Lewis -- Hooper put together a Hall of Fame career of his own over 17 MLB seasons. He won another two Fall Classics the next year and in ’18, becoming the only Boston player to be a part of four Red Sox championship teams. A defensive whiz in right field and a prolific leadoff hitter, Hooper holds Boston’s franchise records for most triples (130) and stolen bases (300).

3) Tim Salmon (1968)
One of the game’s best outfielders in the 1990s, Salmon surprisingly never received an All-Star selection, but he did win the 1993 AL Rookie of the Year. Salmon spent his entire 14-year career with the Angels -- the California, then the Anaheim, then the Los Angeles Angels. And when he reached the postseason with them for the first time in 2002, he carried the franchise all the way to its first World Series title, hitting .346 (9-for-26) with five RBIs and a 1.067 OPS.

4) Brett Gardner (1983)
A 14-year big leaguer, Gardner was a fixture in the Yankees’ outfield beginning with his first full season in ‘09, when New York won its 27th and most recent World Series championship. In 2014, Gardner hit the 15,000th home run in Yankees history (dating back to 1903), as they became the first AL/NL franchise to reach that mammoth total.

5) Hank Gowdy (1889)
Primarily a backup during his 17 years in the Majors, Gowdy made his opportunity to start count, manning the dish for the “Miracle Braves” team that won the 1914 World Series. He hit .545 (6-for-11) with a ridiculous 1.960 OPS in that four-game sweep, the first in Fall Classic history. If only the Series MVP Award had existed then.

Others of note:
Kiké Hernández (1991)
Hernández smashed a pinch-hit, game-tying home run in Game 7 of the 2020 NLCS -- the first player to do so in a winner-take-all postseason game -- as the Dodgers marched to a World Series title. Then he slashed .408/.423/.837 with a 1.260 OPS in an electric 2021 postseason for the Red Sox. After spending parts of three seasons with Boston, Hernández returned to the Dodgers when he was acquired in a trade prior to the 2023 Trade Deadline.

Mason Miller (1998)
The right-hander made his Major League debut in 2023, and was selected as an All-Star in '24 while racking up saves as the A's closer.

Hal Woodeshick (1932)
A journeyman reliever during his 11-year career, Woodeshick put together a National League All-Star season in 1963 and a league-leading 23-save campaign in ’64; he also won a World Series with the Cardinals before he retired in ’67.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Aug. 24? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.