The best baseball players born on Dec. 22

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. 22.

1) Connie Mack (1862)
Cornelius McGillicuddy's claim to fame, and the Hall of Fame, is as the winningest manager ever, and it's not even close. Mack won 3,731 games across 53 years -- 50 of them with the Philadelphia A's beginning with their inception in 1901. Perhaps more incredibly, he lost more games than he won -- 3,948. Mack, who famously wore a suit and tie in the dugout, was a five-time World Series champion, first in 1910 and lastly in 1930. He also was an owner of the A's and beforehand spent 11 years in the National League in the late 1800s as a light-hitting catcher. Along the way, Mack appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1927. His legacy includes a grandson and great-grandson who were U.S. congressmembers representing Florida.

2) Steve Carlton (1944)
As someone who rarely spoke with reporters, the Hall of Famer let his pitching tell the story. His 327 wins and 4,136 strikeouts are both second all-time among left-handers. His best year arguably was 1972, when he went 27-10 to win almost half the games for a woeful Phillies team that went 59-97. Carlton won the first of his four Cy Youngs that season. He won the 1980 World Series with the Phillies, one of his eight MLB teams over a 24-year career. What else? He was a 10-time All-Star, he won a Gold Glove in 1981 and he hit 14 career homers, one of them in the postseason. Carlton was enshrined in Cooperstown in 1994, five years after the Phillies retired his No. 32.

3) Steve Garvey (1948)
The first baseman was part of the famed Dodgers starting infield, along with Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Rony Cey, that spent a record 8 1/2 years together. They won four pennants and the 1981 World Series against the Yankees. Garvey was a 10-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glover and 1974 NL MVP, and he holds the record for consecutive games played in the National League at 1,207. Although mostly associated with the Dodgers, who retired his No. 6, Garvey's most famous moment came with the Padres. He hit a walk-off home run off Lee Smith in Game 4 of the 1984 NLCS when a Cubs win would've landed them a World Series berth for the first time since 1945. The next day, San Diego won the deciding Game 5 but lost to the Tigers in the World Series.

4) Lonnie Smith (1955)
Smith stole 370 bases across a 17-year MLB career, including 68 for the Cardinals in 1982, when he was an All-Star and finished second in NL MVP voting behind Atlanta's Dale Murphy. The outfielder won the second of his three World Series titles that year -- also 1980 with the Philles and 1985 with the Royals over the Cardinals. In all, Smith played in five Fall Classics. His nickname was Skates and, while you might think it was because of his speed, it was because of his propensity to fall down. Smith's story would not be complete with mentioning his infamous baserunning blunder in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.

5) Matty Alou (1938)
The middle brother in the famed Alou family along with Felipe and Jesus, they made history by manning the same outfield in a September 1963 game with the Giants. Matty's greatest moments came later on. He won the 1966 NL batting title at .342 with the Pirates. The leadoff hitter played all 162 games for Pittsburgh in 1969, leading the league with a whopping 746 plate appearances, 231 hits and 41 doubles while making his second and final All-Star team, Alou won a World Series in 1972 with the A's after arriving in a Trade Deadline deal with the Cardinals.

Others of note:
Zack Britton (1987)
The left-handed reliever spent his decade-plus career with the Orioles and Yankees, amassing 154 saves. He led the AL with 47 for Baltimore in 2016, when he made his second All-Star team and finished fourth in Cy Young voting.

Ken Landreaux (1954)
The outfielder played 11 seasons, mostly with his hometown Dodgers in the 1980s, and was part of the 1981 World Series-winning team over the Yankees. He was a 1980 All-Star with the Twins. Landreaux played in the 1975 and '76 College World Series for a loaded Arizona State team that sent numerous players to the big leagues, including Floyd Bannister, Chris Bando, and Bob Horner. Landreaux didn't get his degree at the time but returned to ASU and graduated in 2014.

Hughie Miller (1886)
The first baseman has the lowest WAR of any player born on this date, -3.2, playing one year for the Phillies and two for the St. Louis Terriers of the old Federal League in the 2010s. But Miller's finest moments came far from baseball. He enlisted in the Marines in World War I and single-handedly captured two German soldiers during the Battle of Belleau Wood in France and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Dec. 22? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.