The best baseball players born on Oct. 14

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 Oct. 14:

1. Oscar Charleston (1896)
The only Hall of Famer born on this day, Charleston spent his entire 18-year career in the Negro Leagues, winning three Triple Crowns and establishing a reputation as one of the greatest players on the circuit. He batted over .400 with an OPS north of 1.200 in each of those Triple Crown seasons -- one for the St. Louis Giants and two for the Harrisburg Giants. Charleston retired with a .364 career average, just two one-hundredths of a point behind Ty Cobb’s Major League record. He also managed in the Negro Leagues, served in the US military and, 22 years after his death, earned a long overdue induction into Cooperstown.

2. Al Oliver (1946)
The all-time home run leader among players born on Oct. 14, Oliver bashed 219 of them over 18 seasons for the Pirates, Rangers, Expos, Dodgers, Giants, Phillies and Blue Jays. He won a World Series ring in Pittsburgh and a batting title in Montreal, spending much of his career as a prominent member of the “Pittsburgh Lumber Company” offense that also included Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell. Oliver also had a distinctly baseball nickname: “Scoop.”

3. Harry Brecheen (1914)
In 1946, Brecheen became the ninth pitcher and the first left-hander to win three World Series games, doing so for the Cardinals in Games 2, 6 and 7 against the Red Sox. It’s elite company; the full list includes Hall of Famers Christy Mathewson and Bob Gibson. More than 20 years would pass before another lefty -- Mickey Lolich -- won three World Series games in a single autumn, then 30-plus more years before Randy Johnson turned the trick for the D-backs in 2001.

4. Tommy Harper (1940)
Question: Who is the first person to appear in a game for the Seattle Pilots? Answer: Harper led off the first inning with a double on April 8, 1969, kicking off their inaugural season while sparking a personal campaign that saw him lead the Majors in stolen bases. When Harper hit 31 homers and swiped 38 bags for the Brewers the following year, he became only the fifth player in Major League Baseball’s 30-30 club, joining Ken Williams, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Bobby Bonds.

5. Joe Girardi (1964)
Girardi may not have been the best player born on this day (even though he and another Oct. 14 baby, Pat Kelly, won a title together for the Yankees in 1996). But he distinguished himself plenty as a manager, winning another World Series in the Bronx in 2009 and earning Manager of the Year honors with the Marlins in 2006. It took Girardi a little more than 11 seasons to win his first 1,000 games as a big-league skipper.

Others of note:

Joe Start (1842)
Playing his entire career in the 19th century, Start would have finished with a .300 lifetime batting average if not for an unproductive age-43 season for the Washington Nationals -- yes, those Nationals, the first group of Washington players to appear in the National League.

Kole Calhoun (1987)
About a century and a half after Start made his, erm, start, Calhoun delivered his own excellent rookie season for the Angels. He won a Gold Glove in 2015 and remained a steady contributor for most of that decade, into the next.

Art Shamsky (1941)
A key part of manager Gil Hodges’ platoon strategy on the 1969 World Series champion Mets, Shamsky hit .538 in the NL Championship Series. Three years earlier, Shamsky had made history as the only player in Major League history to hit three home runs in a game he didn’t start. He went on to become a member of the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and a manager in the Israel Baseball League.

Carlos Marmol (1982)
From 2009-12, Marmol was one of the better closers in baseball, saving 107 games with a 3.33 ERA. Alas, his best years came mostly for losing teams.

Duaner Sánchez (1979)
Mets fans of a certain age will always wonder what might have happened had Sánchez not separated his shoulder in a season-ending taxicab accident midway through the 2006 season. The right-hander is one of several Mets cult legends to be born on Oct. 14, along with Ryan Church (remembered in large part for his 2009 concussion) and Patrick Mazeika (who delivered multiple walk-off RBIs in 2021).

Brent Strom (1948)
Although Strom won just 22 games during his playing career, he went on to a fruitful career as a pitching coach, winning a World Series with the Astros in 2017.

Willians Astudillo (1991)
Known as “La Tortuga,” the free-swinging Astudillo drew fewer walks (seven) than he played defensive positions (eight) over his first two Major League seasons.

Boof Bonser (1981)
If Astudillo has the best nickname of any Oct. 14 big leaguer, Bonser has the best name. Born John Paul Bonser, he legally changed his name to Boof -- his childhood nickname, bestowed upon him by his mother -- in 2001. In a New York Times profile five years later, Bonser said he was unaware of the name’s origins. “I don’t really want to know why, to be honest with you,” he added. “I guess I had no reason to go up and ask her. I just left it at that.”

Merrill Kelly (1988)
The right-hander played collegiately at Arizona State before making his Major League debut for the D-backs in 2019, winning 13 games that season. Kelly won 13 games again in 2022, then followed up with a 12-win season in '23 while helping the D-backs to the World Series.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Oct. 14? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.