The best baseball players born on Oct. 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 Oct. 21:

1) Whitey Ford (1928)
Known as the “Chairman of the Board,” the lefty played his entire 16-year career with the Yankees and was a 10-time All-Star and six-time World Series champion. In 1961, he won the Cy Young (25-4, 3.21 ERA) and World Series MVP and led the AL in wins three times and ERA twice. He’s the Yankees’ all-time leader in wins (236), shutouts (45) and innings pitched (3,170 1/3). In the postseason, Ford was 10-8 with a 2.71 ERA. He set a record with a stretch of 33 1/3 shutout innings in a World Series. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974.

2) Zack Greinke (1983)
One of the best pitchers of his generation, Greinke won 225 games from 2004-23. He broke into the Majors with the Royals and in 2009 won the AL Cy Young and made the All-Star team, going 16-8 with a league-leading 2.16 ERA. He reached double-digit wins 13 times from 2008-21, finishing second in the NL Cy Young in ’15 with the Dodgers (19-3, 1.66 ERA) and fourth in ’17 with the D-backs. Greinke made six All-Star teams and won two Silver Sluggers, hitting nine home runs in his career (through 2023) while playing for six teams.

3) George Bell (1959)
Bell won the 1987 AL MVP with the Blue Jays by hitting .308 with a .957 OPS and 47 homers and led the AL in RBIs (134) and total bases (369). He played nine of his 12 big league seasons with the Blue Jays and was named a Silver Slugger winner in the outfield from 1984-86 and was an All-Star in ’87 and ’90 with the Blue Jays and ’91 for the Cubs. He hit three homers on Opening Day in 1988 for Toronto. He bashed 265 homers and drove in 1,002 runs in his career.

4) Bill Lee (1909)
Lee played 11 of his 14-year big league seasons with the Cubs, with whom he won 106 games in his first six seasons (1934-39). Lee went 20-6 with a 2.96 ERA in ’35 and led the National League in wins (22) and ERA (2.66) in ’38 – the first of his two consecutive All-Star seasons. He finished second to Ernie Lombardi in AL MVP voting in ’38. Lee finished his career with a 169-157 record.

5) Bill Russell (1948)
Russell, a shortstop, spent his entire 18-year career with the Dodgers and joined with first baseman Steve Garvey, second baseman Davey Lopes and third baseman Ron Cey to start 833 games together over 8 ½ seasons for the Dodgers. That’s the longest any infield has played together in baseball history. A three-time All-Star, Russell finished his career with 1,926 hits and later won 173 games as Dodgers manager, succeeding Tommy Lasorda from 1996-98.

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