The best baseball players born on May 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 May 21.

1) Earl Averill (1902)
The lone Hall of Famer born on this date, Averill, a native of Snohomish, Wash., was a line-drive machine who hit .318 with 238 homers, 2,019 hits and 1,224 runs scored in his 13-year career with Cleveland, Detroit (where he reached the World Series in 1940) and the Boston Braves. A compact center fielder known as “Rock,” Averill hit over .300 in eight seasons, and he led the Majors in hits (232) and triples (15) in 1936. He was a six-time All-Star. Averill was inducted into the Hall in 1975 and passed away in 1983.

2) Kent Hrbek (1960)
“Herbie” was a beloved member for his hometown Minnesota Twins for 14 seasons, including two World Series championship seasons in 1987 and 1991. A 1982 All-Star and Rookie of the Year runner-up, Hrbek was an outstanding defensive first baseman, and he slashed .282/.367/.481 with 293 homers, 312 doubles and 1,086 RBIs. He hit a game-winning homer at Yankee Stadium in his big league debut on Aug. 24, 1981, and he hit a career-best 34 homers in that ’87 title year.

3) Josh Hamilton (1981)
A blue-chip prospect whose career was derailed by drug addiction, Hamilton made a comeback for the ages just to merely debut for the Reds in 2007 after they plucked him in the Rule 5 Draft. Then he became a star, dealt to Texas before the 2008 season and lighting up that year’s Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium with 28 first-round blasts (only to finish second to Justin Morneau in the final round). Hamilton drove in an AL-best 130 runs in ’08 and was the AL MVP in 2010, when he slashed .359/.411/.633 with 32 homers and 100 RBIs. He was a five-time All-Star and signed a major free-agent deal with the Angels prior to 2013, but his career will forever go down as a “What if?” for the way drug and alcohol addictions hindered his superb talent.

4) Fred Dunlap (1859)
Nicknamed “Sure Shot” because of the strength and accuracy of his throws to first base, Dunlap is considered to have been one of the best second basemen of the 19th century. His career, which spanned from 1880 to 1891, began with the Cleveland Blues until Dunlap was lured to the Union Association’s St. Louis Maroons, for whom he became the highest-paid player in professional baseball in 1884. That year, he hit .412 -- the highest average recorded up to that point. Dunlap went on to help lead the Detroit Wolverines to the National League championship in 1887, but his career ended when he broke his leg sliding into a base in 1891. Dunlap passed away in 1902, at the age of 43.

5) Matt Wieters (1986)
Born in Goose Creek, S.C., and taken by the Orioles out of Georgia Tech with the fifth overall pick in the 2007 Draft, Wieters was considered one of the top prospects in the game in his time in the Minors. Though, upon his arrival to the big leagues in 2009, he did not become the second coming of Johnny Bench, as some hoped, he went on to an accomplished career in which he made four All-Star appearances and won two Gold Gloves for his work behind the plate. Wieters spent eight seasons in Baltimore, where he slashed .256/.318/.421 with 117 homers and a reputation for strong defense. He went on to play for the Nationals (2017-18) and Cardinals (2019-20).

Others of note:
Andrew Miller (1985): The 6-foot-7 left-hander was the sixth overall pick in the 2006 Draft, taken by the Tigers out of the University of North Carolina, debuting for Detroit after just three Minor League appearances. Miller was later dealt to the Marlins as part of the Miguel Cabrera trade. Though he did not live up to his promise as a starter, a move to relief unlocked his potential, and Miller went on to a long career that included stops with Boston, Baltimore, the Yankees, Cleveland and St. Louis. His best work was for Cleveland in 2016, after a midseason trade from New York, when his ability and willingness to pitch multiple innings at any point in a game changed the way a lot of teams approached relief management.

Monty Stratton (1912): A right-handed pitcher, Stratton was an All-Star for the White Sox in 1937. But he’s known more for how his Major League career ended the following year, when a hunting accident forced doctors to amputate his right leg. Stratton wore a prosthetic leg while playing in the Minors from 1946 to 1953, and his comeback was the subject of the 1949 Jimmy Stewart movie, “The Stratton Story.”

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