The best baseball players born on Nov. 21

November 21st, 2024

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. 21:

1) Stan Musial (1920)
Stan the Man played all 22 years of his career in St. Louis and is considered the man who laid the framework for the entire franchise. He won three MVPs and three World Series with the Cardinals, and he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011, two years before he died at age 92. He also won a World Series as the Cardinals’ general manager in 1967. Musial is fourth all-time in hits with exactly as many hits on the road as at home. He also played a mean harmonica.

2) Ken Griffey Jr. (1969)
The Kid, famously born on the same day in the same hometown (Donora, Pa.) as Musial, was the lightning bolt of energy baseball needed in the ‘90s, with a smiling face, a backwards hat and the most gorgeous swing anybody had ever seen. Griffey never did make a World Series, but he ended up with 630 homers and is one of the most popular baseball players of the last 50 years.

3) Freddie Lindstrom (1905)
The third Hall of Famer with this birthday, Lindstrom was chosen by Babe Ruth as the NL’s All-Star third baseman for the first All-Star Game in 1933. Many contemporaries considered him a better fielder than fellow Hall of Fame third baseman Pie Traynor, including Ruth.

4) Dick Schofield (1962)
Best known for playing shortstop for the Angels for nearly a decade, he won his only World Series with the Blue Jays in 1993 (though he was injured and didn't play in the postseason). Schofield holds a goofy record for having the most seasons with 400 at-bats or more but fewer than 100 hits. (He did this four times.)

5) Bobby Mathews (1851)
The man who invented the spitball -- though it wasn’t popularized until after his death -- Mathews was a pitcher who was 5-foot-5 and 140 pounds, which is probably why he had to throw a spitball.

Others of note:

Mark Eichhorn (1960)
The big right-hander was a reliever for both of the Blue Jays’ World Series winning teams in 1992 and ‘93.

Charlie Bennett (1854)
One of the top defensive catchers of his era, Bennett is credited with inventing the chest protector in the 1880s.

Hank Blalock (1980)
The left-handed hitter had 153 homers in his nine-year career and made two All-Star teams in 2003 and ‘04.

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