The best baseball players born on Sept. 25

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 Sept. 25:

1) Phil Rizzuto (1917)
Rizzuto played his entire 13-year career with the Yankees, winning 10 American League pennants and seven World Series titles. “The Scooter” won the 1950 AL MVP Award and was a five-time All-Star, and he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1994. Rizzuto went on to a 40-year career in the Yanks’ broadcast booth, where his trademark expression of “Holy cow!” was a fan favorite. He finished his career with a .273/.351/.355 slash line in 1,661 regular-season games, as well as a .246/.355/.295 line in 52 postseason contests.

2) Johnny Sain (1917)
Sain went 139-116 with a 3.49 ERA over 11 seasons with the Boston Braves, New York Yankees and Kansas City Athletics. After missing three seasons due to military service, he returned to Boston in 1946 and teamed with Hall of Famer Warren Spahn to form one of the most feared pitching duos of the time. From '46-50, Sain went 95-71 with a 3.37 ERA, and he finished second in '48 for the National League MVP Award, in a season in which he led the Majors with 24 wins, 39 starts, 28 complete games and 314 2/3 innings. It was during that season when the saying "Spahn and Sain; then pray for rain” became popularized to sum up the Braves’ lack of pitching depth behind their two aces. He went on to a long career as a successful pitching coach for the A’s, Yankees, Twins, Tigers, White Sox and Braves, and nine hurlers won 20 games under his tutelage.

3) Glenn Hubbard (1957)
Hubbard enjoyed a workmanlike 12-year career with the Braves and A’s, serving as Atlanta’s starting second baseman for most of the 1980s. He made the National League All-Star team in 1983, which was among his best offensive seasons. But defense was Hubbard’s calling card, as he has the highest range factor per nine innings for a second baseman in Major League history. He also led the NL in double plays twice and finished in the top two in the NL in assists six consecutive seasons from '81-87. Hubbard served as Atlanta’s first-base coach from 1999-2010 under legendary manager Bobby Cox.

4) Pat Malone (1902)
Malone won 134 games over 10 seasons with the Cubs and Yankees, including leading the National League in wins twice (1929 and '30) with Chicago. Pitching in an era with relatively few strikeouts, the right-hander led the NL with 166 K’s in '29 and finished in the top seven in strikeouts per nine innings in the NL for seven consecutive seasons. He pitched in three World Series, winning the title in '36 with the Yanks after leading the American League in saves during the regular season.

5) Joel Pineiro (1978)
Pineiro burst onto the scene as a 21-year-old rookie for the Mariners in 2001, and after going 37-20 with a 3.38 ERA over his first three seasons, he had the look of a future ace. But he began experiencing right arm issues in '04, and he won just 67 more games over the next eight seasons, including stints with the Red Sox, Cardinals and Angels. Though Pineiro’s last Major League game came on Sept. 25, 2011, he spent six more seasons pitching in the Minors and Puerto Rico, retiring in '17 after playing for his native country in the World Baseball Classic.

Others of note:

David Weathers (1969)
Weathers enjoyed a 19-year career as a journeyman right-hander, playing for the Blue Jays, Marlins, Yankees, Indians, Reds, Brewers, Cubs, Mets and Astros, before making second stops with Florida, Cincinnati and Milwaukee. He won the World Series with the Yanks in 1996 after coming over from the Marlins in a Trade Deadline deal. Weathers’ son Ryan was a first-round pick by the Padres in 2018, and he made his debut for San Diego in the 2020 playoffs.

Rocco Baldelli (1981)
Big things were expected of Baldelli when the Rays made the Rhode Island native the sixth overall pick in the 2000 Draft. He finished third in American League Rookie of the Year Award voting in 2003 and had another solid season '04, but he played just 227 more games in the Majors after beginning to have health issues during the '05 season. Baldelli retired after the '10 season and worked in Tampa Bay’s front office for four seasons before becoming the Rays’ first-base coach in '15. He was hired as the Twins’ manager in October 2018, and he won the AL Manager of the Year Award in his first season with Minnesota and has led the club to a first-place finish in the AL Central in three of his six seasons in the Twin Cities. Days before the Twins captured the AL Central crown in 2023, the Twins’ manager and his wife welcomed a pair of fraternal twin boys to the world.

Tony Womack (1969)
Womack was a late bloomer on the Major League scene, earning his lone career All-Star spot and finishing ninth in National League Rookie of the Year Award voting in 1997 with the Pirates. He led the NL with 60 steals in '97 and 58 in '98, before topping the Majors with 72 in '99 after a trade to the D-backs. Womack led the NL with 14 triples in 2000 and was a key member of Arizona’s World Series championship club in '01. He bounced around to the Rockies, Cubs, Cardinals, Yankees and Reds over the final four seasons of his 13-year career, which he finished with 363 stolen bases, 190 doubles and 59 triples.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Sept. 25? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.