The best baseball players born on November 9

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 Nov. 9.

1) Bob Gibson (1935)
A Hall of Famer, National League MVP Award winner, two-time NL Cy Young Award winner, two-time World Series MVP and nine-time All-Star, Gibson was one of the best and most feared pitchers of his generation during a 17-year career with the Cardinals. He put together one of the most legendary pitching seasons ever in 1968, when Gibson went 22-9 with a 1.12 ERA and 28 complete games, including 13 shutouts, then delivered two more shutouts in the World Series against the Tigers, including a 17-strikeout performance in Game 1. The next year, MLB lowered the mound and shrunk the strike zone. Gibson kept delivering for the Cardinals, and in 1974, he became the first NL pitcher to reach 3,000 career strikeouts.

2) Teddy Higuera (1957)
At his height, before back and arm injuries derailed Higuera’s career, Higuera -- all 5-foot-10 of him -- was among baseball’s most dominant left-handers of the 1980s. Signed out of the Mexican League by the Brewers, he burst onto the MLB scene as a 27-year-old rookie in 1985, going 15-8 with a 3.90 ERA and running second to the White Sox’s Ozzie Guillen in American League Rookie of the Year balloting. The next year, Higuera became only the third 20-game winner in Brewers history, going 20-11 with a 2.79 ERA and 207 strikeouts for a second-place finish in AL Cy Young Award balloting to Roger Clemens (who was also the league’s MVP). In 1987, Higuera won 18 more games and struck out 240, a Brewers record that stood until Ben Sheets broke it in 2004. In 1988, Higuera’s 0.999 WHIP led the AL.

“Higuera was dominant,” said former Brewers closer Dan Plesac, a fellow lefty. “Teddy Higuera was one of the hardest-working pitchers I ever worked with. There’s no rhyme or reason why guys get hurt. Teddy Higuera had phenomenal mechanics, and shoulder issues ended up derailing his career. … He did everything you were supposed to do.”

3) Adam Dunn (1979)
Dunn hit 19 home runs as a Reds rookie in 2001 and never stopped, belting 462 homers over 14 seasons for the Reds, D-backs, Nationals, White Sox and A’s. He topped 40 home runs in six seasons, hit at least 38 home runs in eight seasons and made a pair of All-Star teams. He also walked at least 100 times in eight seasons, leading the Majors in walks in 2008 and ’12. With that power came plenty of strikeouts; Dunn led the Majors in whiffs in four seasons, including 222 strikeouts in 2012 for a dubious American League record. But Dunn also hit 41 home runs for the White Sox that season and became the 50th big leaguer to reach the 400-homer plateau. Dunn and Jose Canseco are tied for 38th on the all-time home run leaderboard.

4) Bill Bruton (1925)
Bruton was one of the fastest players in the Majors during the mid-1950s after breaking into the big leagues with the Braves in 1953, the year the franchise moved to Milwaukee. He led MLB in stolen bases in each of his first three seasons, and led MLB in triples in 1956 and ’60. Bruton suffered a serious knee injury in ’57 and was sidelined as the Braves beat the Yankees in the World Series, but was healthy for a rematch in ’58 and batted .412 (7-for-17) in the Series as the Braves fell in seven games. He is enshrined in the Milwaukee Braves Wall of Honor outside American Family Field.

5) Whitey Herzog (1931)
Herzog played parts of eight seasons in the Majors, mostly as a reserve, before a Hall of Fame career as a manager, general manager, farm director, coach and scout. He managed the Rangers, Angels, Royals and Cardinals but is best known as the architect of the speedy St. Louis teams of the early 1980s, for whom Herzog served as both manager and GM. His club won the World Series in 1982.

Others of note:

Jerry Priddy (1919)
Priddy ran afoul of the law in retirement but had a solid playing career, garnering MVP votes four times during a Major League career that spanned 11 seasons as an infielder for the Yankees, Senators, Browns and Tigers. He worked television and film after baseball, and spent 4 1/2 months in jail after being convicted of extortion for a phony bomb plot.

Jack Crooks (1865)
Crooks’ claim to fame is that he’s considered the first ballplayer to hit four home runs in a game in organized baseball. He did it for St. Paul of the Western Association in 1889 and earned a trip to the Majors.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Nov. 9? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.