The best baseball players born on Dec. 21

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 Dec. 21.

Josh Gibson (1911)
There are no official records to back this up, but those who saw Gibson play will attest to his homer-hitting prowess. The Negro Leagues great, known as the "Black Babe Ruth," amassed close to 800 homers -- as a catcher.

“Outstanding hitter. The best hitter that I’ve ever seen,” the late Hall of Famer Buck O’Neil told filmmaker Ken Burns. “He had the power of Ruth and the hitting ability of Ted Williams. That was Josh Gibson. Would have been outstanding [in the Majors]. Would have rewritten the book as far as the home runs are concerned.”

According to Baseball-Reference, Gibson hit .374/.458/.729 with 165 homers over 14 seasons for the Memphis Red Sox (1930), the Pittsburgh Crawfords (1933-36) and the Homestead Grays (1937-40, 1942-46). Inducted into the Hall of Fame via the Negro Leagues Committee in 1972, the right-handed slugger won two Negro World Series titles, three batting crowns and was a 12-time All-Star.

Dorothy Kamenshek (1925)
Affectionately known as Kammie or Dottie, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player was immortalized in the movie "A League of Their Own," starring Tom Hanks and Geena Davis, who played the character of Dottie Hinson, loosely based on Kamenshek's life. Kamenshek, who played first base over nine seasons for the Rockford Peaches from 1943-51 and '53, had a lifetime .292 batting average and was named an All-Star seven times. She also landed on Sports Illustrated's list of the top 100 female athletes of the 20th century.

Andy Van Slyke (1960)
From 1990-91, the Pirates had a formidable outfield, featuring Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla in left and right, and Van Slyke in center. As the man in the middle, Van Slyke earned a Gold Glove in both years while batting .274 with 34 homers and 160 RBIs. When Bobby Bo left for New York, the trio broke up, but Van Slyke continued his strong play, finishing fourth in the NL MVP race (which Bonds won), picking up his third career Gold Glove and leading the Bucs to the NLCS for the third straight season. Following the '93 season, Bonds left for San Francisco after winning his third career MVP Award, ending Pittsburgh's early '90s dominance in the NL East. Van Slyke played two more seasons with the Bucs, who switched over to the NL Central and endured a playoff drought of 21 years. Van Slyke ranks 21st all time among Pirates players with 31 WAR in eight seasons.

Dave Kingman (1948)
If social media had existed during Kingman's playing days, the press would have had a field day. It's no secret that Kingman and the media did not exactly get along. There was an incident when he sent a rat to a female reporter in the press box, and the time he dumped a bucket of water on a reporter's head. And as much as he's renowned for his skirmishes with the local media, the one thing he did well during his 16-year career was hit homers, 442 of them to be exact. One such moonshot happened on May 17, 1979, when he was with the Cubs.

There's debate on how far the ball actually went when it landed over Waveland Avenue. Did it really go 550 feet? Without Statcast to lean on, one can only watch the highlight and compare it to Glenallen Hill's blast that cleared Wrigley and onto a rooftop across the street. Kingman was a lightning rod with the press, but the three-time All-Star also had a lightning rod for a bat that netted him home run titles in 1979 (48) and '82 (37).

Philip Humber (1982)
There are two things about Humber you should know. For one, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2004 Draft was part of the Mets' deal for Johan Santana. The second, he authored an unlikely perfect game -- at the time, the 21st perfecto in MLB history and the first of three thrown during the 2012 season. After that start, which is the only complete-game shutout of his career, Humber went 4-13 with the White Sox and Astros in 2012-13 before he retired following the 2016 season.

Others of note:

Tom Henke: Recognizable for his glasses when he stepped on the mound, Henke ranks 26th on the all-time saves list with 311. Known as The Terminator, the right-handed closer pitched 14 seasons in the bigs, including with the Blue Jays for eight years.

LaTroy Hawkins: The right-handed reliever pitched for 11 teams in his 21-year career, which is three fewer than all-time leader Edwin Jackson.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Dec. 21? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.