The best baseball players born on June 7

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 June 7.

1) Thurman Munson (1947)
This Yankees legend, who led the Bronx Bombers to the 1977 and '78 World Series titles, wore many hats in his 11-year career. Munson made an impact right away, winning the AL Rookie of the Year Award in 1970. He was a standout defensive catcher who won three straight Gold Gloves from 1973-75 and twice led the AL in caught-stealing percentage (1971, '75). He was consistently excellent with the bat -- Munson won the 1976 AL MVP, received MVP votes six other times, hit over .300 five times and was voted to seven All-Star Games. To cap all of those accomplishments, he served as the sixth captain in Yankees history. Munson’s career was tragically cut short when he died in a plane crash on Aug. 2, 1979, and the Yanks retired his number 15 immediately after his death.

2) Don Money (1947)
Born on the exact same day as Munson, Money enjoyed a 16-year MLB career. While still in the Minors with the Pirates, he was traded to the Phillies for future Hall of Famer Jim Bunning in 1967, and he made his Major League debut the following year with Philadelphia. Money later spent 11 years with the Brewers, sharing his tenure with franchise icon and future Hall of Famer Robin Yount. Still, even in Yount’s shadow, Money put up an impressive career in Milwaukee, highlighted by two top-30 MVP finishes, four All-Star selections and a trip to the World Series in 1982.

3) Herb Score (1933)
Though Score’s career was cut short by injuries, his first two years in the bigs made a statement. Score debuted in 1955 on the same staff as future Hall of Famer Bob Feller. In his fourth start, Score struck out 16 in the second game of a doubleheader after Feller had twirled a one-hitter in Game 1. Score led the Majors in strikeouts as a rookie with 245, which stood as MLB’s rookie record for nearly 30 years, and won the 1955 AL Rookie of the Year in a landslide. His sophomore season was even better -- Score won 20 games, pitched to a 2.53 ERA, led the league with 263 punchouts and finished 19th in AL MVP voting. After he was struck by a line drive to the face in 1957, Score’s playing career never again reached that pinnacle, but he enjoyed a lengthy broadcasting career in Cleveland from 1964-97.

4) Roger Nelson (1944)
The California native was a part of the Royals from the very beginning -- they selected Nelson from the Orioles with the first pick of the 1968 AL Expansion Draft prior to their inaugural 1969 season. Nelson spent five of his nine MLB seasons in Kansas City. His career-best year came in 1972, when he pitched to a 2.08 ERA and a league-leading 0.871 WHIP over 34 outings. Those two figures are both Royals single-season records, along with Nelson’s six shutouts and 6.231 hits per nine innings in '72.

5) Bones Ely (1863)
Ely is perhaps best known as the Pirates shortstop who immediately preceded Honus Wagner. The Pennsylvania native spent his first few seasons in the American Association and the National League, but when the American League was founded in 1901, Ely was tapped to recruit players to move to the new league. Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss caught wind of the scheme and released Ely on July 25, 1901, prompting then-outfielder Wagner to switch to shortstop. The rest, as they say, is history -- Wagner became a Hall of Fame shortstop and one of the best to ever play the position, while Ely’s playing career ended with the Senators in 1902.

Others of note:

Vince Velasquez (1992)
On April 14, 2016, Velasquez tossed a three-hit shutout against the Padres and struck out 16 batters. His masterful 16-K day tied Steve Carlton for the second-most strikeouts in a game by a Phillies pitcher -- the Hall of Fame southpaw reached that mark on June 2, 1982. Velasquez’s gem was also just the seventh time in MLB history that a pitcher went nine innings and struck out at least 16, allowing no runs or walks.

Heathcliff Slocumb (1966)
With a name as memorable as “Heathcliff,” it’s not surprising that this pitcher was involved in a notable baseball event. On July 31, 1997, the Red Sox traded Slocumb to the Mariners in exchange for Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe. Both Varitek and Lowe were integral to Boston’s curse-breaking World Series run in 2004, and Varitek became the Red Sox captain in '05. Meanwhile, Slocumb spent two years in Seattle, pitching to a 4.97 ERA, and retired after the '00 season.

Luke Farrell (1991)
Farrell is the son of former manager John Farrell, who won the World Series in Boston in 2013. His grandfather Tom and brother Jeremy both played in the Minors, and his other brother Shane is a baseball scout. On Sept. 23, 2017, Luke Farrell became the first MLB player to pitch in a game against a team managed by his father when he tossed an inning for the Reds against the Red Sox.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for June 7? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.