Baseball Birthdays October 23-29

October 23

2011 Greats of the Game Autographs

Bunning was a career 224-184 pitcher mainly with the Tigers and Phillies. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1996 by the Veteran's Committee. He chose to go into the hall as a Phillie.

October 24

2011 Topps Update #86 Rafael Furcal

I'm writing this on Friday afternoon still trying to get over Game 6 of the World Series. Furcal has played in 58 post season games. He came over to the Cardinals from the Dodgers in July.

October 25

2009 Sweet Spot #44 Pedro Martinez

Martinez ended his career going 5-1 for the 2009 Phillies. Unfortunately, he was 0-2 for the Phillies in the 2009 World Series against the Yankees. He is a future Hall of Famer for sure.

October 26

2003 Topps 205 #146 Richard 'Doc' Hoblitzell

Doc played from 1908 to 1918, for the Reds and then for the Red Sox. Not a particularly remarkable career but he does appear in two of my favorite baseball card sets of the 2000's, this set and the 2004 Topps Cracker Jack set.

October 27

2001 Bowman Heritage 1948 Reprints #3 Ralph Kiner

Not a lot of big talent born on my own birthday. But at least there is one Hall of Famer. Ralph led the NL in home runs from 1946 through 1952.

October 28

2000 Bowman Draft Picks #17 Chin-Feng Chen

Not a lot of talent on this date either. I decided to go with this guy mainly because of the card. Note the debut date of 00/00/00. Chen was a member of Taiwan's 1990 Little League World Series team but this didn't translate to success in the major leagues. He had all of 22 at bats in the majors, hitting .091.

October 29
1987 Fleer Baseball All Stars #2 Jesse Barfield

The late October talent drought continues. Certainly not a bad player, he did have a 12-year career and was an All-Star in 1986. He had a career .156 batting average but had some pop in his bat, hitting 241 home runs.