The best baseball players born on July 15

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 July 15:

1) Donn Clendenon (1935)
He counted none other than Roberto Clemente and Martin Luther King Jr. as mentors. He was a staunch advocate for player and worker rights. He had offers from the Cleveland Browns, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Harlem Globetrotters all at the same time. He juggled playing for the Pirates and attending law school in season. Those accomplishments by Clendenon on and off the field were enough to fill two lifetimes, and yet we haven’t even mentioned the month that made him a Mets legend. There’s really no miracle for the 1969 Miracle Mets without Clendenon, who carried them to a World Series victory over the Frank Robinson-led Orioles, slugging three homers in the series and hitting .357 on the way to MVP honors. Though he spent only parts of three seasons in Queens, that one October in ‘69 was more than enough to forever endear himself to the franchise.

2) Bill Byrd (1907)

An ace for the Baltimore Elite Giants armed with a legal spitter, Byrd pitched 15 seasons in the Negro Leagues and was an eight-time All-Star. A veteran in the clubhouse, Byrd took many young players under his wing, including a catcher by the name of Roy Campanella, who referred to Byrd as “Daddy” and would go on to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1969. Though he won 101 games on the mound, Byrd was no slouch at the plate either, posting a batting average as high as .378 with three home runs in 1939.

3) Dan McGann (1871)

The feisty McGann was fittingly a member of John McGraw’s scrappy New York Giants teams at the turn of the century, and he won a World Series with them in 1905. A career .284 hitter who was a magnet for the baseball (seventh on the all-time list of HBPs with 230), McGann was speedy for a first baseman, becoming the first player to swipe five bases in a game. Ultimately McGann’s relationship with McGraw soured, and he was traded to Boston in 1908. After a game against the Giants that year, McGann threw a punch at his former manager and was soon released by Boston. He wouldn’t play another Major League game.

4) Bubbles Hargrave (1892)

A standout backstop for the Reds in the 1920s, the man they called Bubbles (origins of the nickname are disputed) hit .300 or better in six consecutive seasons and won a batting title in 1926 with a .353 average. It was an unconventional title considering Hargrave only played in 105 games that season, and one that wouldn’t be recognized today. But the standard to be considered for the batting title at that time was 100 games, so Hargrave just made the cut. He’s believed to be the first catcher to win one and was the first in a long line of great-hitting Reds backstops.

5) Ramón Laureano (1994)

With a cannon for an arm and a penchant for eye-popping plays in the outfield, Laureano became a mainstay in center for the A’s after debuting in 2018. Laureano hit a respectable .288 in 2019, his first full season in the Majors, but he made a name for himself more with his numerous home run-robbing grabs at the wall in the cavernous outfield of the Oakland Coliseum. Midway through the 2021 season, Laureano received an 80-game suspension for testing positive for Nandrolone, a performance-enhancing substance.

Others of note:

James Baldwin (1971)

Far from the most famous person with this name, the baseball Baldwin did author a strong rookie season in 1996, finishing second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting to Hall of Famer Derek Jeter. Baldwin finished his 11-year career with an underwhelming 5.01 ERA, but he was a one-time All-Star in 2000 with the White Sox.

Mike Shannon (1939)
A Cardinals lifer who was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2014, Shannon appeared in three World Series for St. Louis, the first two of which the club won in 1964 and ’67. He homered in each of those Fall Classics, the first of them a game-tying shot off Hall of Famer Whitey Ford in the sixth inning of Game 1 in 1964.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for July 15? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.