Birthdays Today

Today is the birthday of Stan Musial, the greatest Cardinal, who turns 90.   I wrote about Stan the Man last week here, so all I'll say now is Happy Birthday, Mr. Musial!   What a great person and what a great player.

It's also the 41st birthday of Ken Griffey, Jr., perhaps the greatest player of the past twenty years, who was on pace to be the greatest ever until injuries somewhat derailed his later years.   Still, Junior Griffey has eye-popping numbers, especially for a guy who, by all accounts, did not enhance his performance with steroids the way so many of his generation did.   630 home runs.  1836 RBIs.   And he lost at least three or four years in his prime to injury!   What would he have done if he'd been healthy?  Well, between ages 26 and 29, here were his season stats:

1996     49 HRs     140 RBIs
1997     56 HRs     147 RBIs
1998     56 HRs     146 RBIs
1999     48 HRs     134 RBIs

Amazing.  

Very weird that two of the greatest sluggers in the history of baseball were born on the same day.   But it gets weirder still.... Musial was born in 1920 in the small town of Donora, Pennsylvania.   Griffey was born in 1969 in the small town of... you guessed it.... Donora, Pennsylvania!   Must be something in the water.