The best baseball players born on Sept. 4
Gregg Klayman
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Here's the official, absolute, definitive, but mostly subjective ranking of the five greatest ballplayers to enter the world on Sept. 4, the same day I made my debut on Earth.
1. Mike Piazza (1968)
Growing up, all I wanted was one Hall of Fame-caliber player born on Sept. 4, and as I trudged my way through my freshman year of college, one finally arrived. Piazza's rookie season coincided with the first year I seriously played fantasy baseball. No one drafted Piazza since he had 74 plate appearances in 1992 and had been a 62nd-round Draft pick four years before that. But by May 12 of that year, while I was platooning Mike MacFarlane and Eddie Taubensee behind the plate, Piazza was batting over .300 (a mark he'd stay above from that point on through the end of his career) and was starting to display the power that would see him smash 427 homers and knock in 1,335 RBIs in his illustrious career. Add on 12 All-Star nods, 10 straight Silver Slugger Awards, the 1993 NL Rookie of the Year (the same year Henry Rowengartner dazzled on the mound in the movie "Rookie of the Year") and a .922 OPS (the best for a catcher in history), and the legendary Dodgers and Mets star is an easy choice for the top slot.
2. Frank White (1950)
The second spot was a pretty close race, but I'm giving bonus points to any player who spent 18 years with one team and also took home a World Series ring. White played 2,324 games at second base for the Royals between 1973-90, collected 2,006 hits, won eight Gold Glove Awards and was named to five AL All-Star teams. He had a little pop, topping 20 HRs twice in his mid-30s, and also swiped 178 bags. And while he never hit .300, rarely walked (he averaged about a walk per week) and didn't put up the power numbers expected by middle infielders a decade later, he was a top-notch fielder and put the ball in play in an era where those skills were valued as much as on-base percentage and power. Plus I'll never forget the first time I opened up the original 1981 Topps sticker album and saw that White and I shared a birthday.
3. Doyle Alexander (1950)
Probably most famous for being traded from the Braves to the Tigers for future Hall of Famer John Smoltz on Aug. 12, 1987, Alexander amazingly went 9-0 with a 1.53 ERA after the trade to help lead Detroit to the American League East crown. Ask any baseball connoisseur and they'll know most of the facts from the previous sentence. What they may not be able to recite is Alexander's career stats line, which included 194 wins, a 3.76 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP, or the fact he was traded seven times in a 19-year career that saw him take the hill for eight teams -- Dodgers, Orioles, Yankees (twice), Rangers, Braves (twice), Giants, Blue Jays and Tigers. The 6-foot-3 righty appeared in the postseason with four clubs (although he struggled in those appearances) and was also part of the biggest Strat-O-Matic baseball argument I ever had on whether it was fair to use only his 1987 Tigers card and not also have to use his card from the Braves that season, when he went 5-10 with a 4.13 ERA.
4. Andrelton Simmons (1989)
If Simmons had played in the 1970s and '80s, we'd be talking about him today like he's Ozzie Smith. Born in Curaçao and drafted by the Braves in the second round of the 2010 MLB Draft, Simmons was one of baseball's best fielding shortstops for a decade. He took home four Gold Glove Awards after debuting in 2012, but he never put up the offensive power numbers expected of most players in the 21st century. His slick glove did not go unnoticed: He finished in the top 15 in MVP voting three times in the span of six seasons despite never clubbing more than 17 homers or putting up an OPS of more than .754. Amazingly, Simmons had zero All-Star selections, despite ranking 11th all time in defensive WAR.
5. Pat Neshek (1980)
While a couple of ballplayers from the early half of the 20th century could rank higher than Neshek, I'm going with the two-time All-Star here. Neshek and I have two things in common -- the same birthday and a crazy, righty sidearm delivery. That's where our commonalities end, as Neshek pitched in 13 big league seasons and I couldn't even make my high school baseball team. The 6-foot-3 setup man wrapped up his career in 2019 with a 2.82 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP while pitching for seven clubs, five of which he appeared with in the postseason.
Others of note:
Tilly Walker (1887)
Walker put up deadball numbers during the 1910s, then took advantage of the offensive '20s, blasting 37 homers in his final full big league season (more than his first eight seasons combined). The outfielder played for four teams in a 13-year career, and remarkably finished in a tie with Babe Ruth for the AL lead in homers with a mere 11 in 1918.
Eddie Waitkus (1919)
Known for his ties to Roy Hobbs of "The Natural" and being included in the lyrics of the semi-famous baseball tune "Van Lingle Mungo," Waitkus earned two All-Star nods and was also part of the legendary "Whiz Kids" Phillies pennant winners in 1950, a year after returning from a near-fatal gunshot wound. The first baseman played 11 seasons in the bigs and amazingly struck out only 204 times in 4,681 plate appearances, leading the NL twice in that category.
Adam Duvall (1988)
Duvall hit 30-plus homers three times and in 2021, he led the NL in RBIs, won a Gold Glove Award and also won a World Series ring with the Braves that season.
Want to see more baseball birthdays for Sept. 4? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.