Birthday bantering

As you read this, its midnight here in New Zealand. That’s right, due to the time space continuum, Im 16 hours ahead and in my June 1st, I’ve just had my birthday.

I had a nice family dinner out at great Mexican restaurant here in Wellington and tomorrow Im off to have dinner at one of the 4! award winning craft breweries 10 mins from my house. I am hoping to squeeze some sports watching into all of this.

Using the power of the Google, i thought i would find out what illustrious baseball players i shared my birthday with. The list was a little underwhelming:

Randy Hundley: Only had a career average of .236 but one of the most beloved Chicago Cubs of all time.

The Virginia native played 10 seasons with the Cubs in the 1960s and 1970s and was considered a leader on the field for the team that endured a historic collapse in 1969.

Hundley also introduced the one-handed catching style, a technique that Hall of Famer Johnny Bench and other catchers soon copied.

Carlos Zambrano: In his 12 years in the Majors, Carlos compiled a 132-91 record with a 3.66 career ERA. He was the only National League pitcher to win at least 13 games in each year from 2003 to 2008.

He was useful with the bat: he was a switch-hitter with a career .238 batting average with 24 home runs, 71 RBIs and a slugging percentage of .396. The 24 home runs are the most ever by a Cubs pitcher. He was also prone to mound meltdowns, often antagonizing opponents and teammates alike. And he did things like this:

Derek Lowe: had a 17 year career with 7 different teams compiling a 4.03 ERA and a record of 176-157.

His most notable tenure was with Boston, where he also threw a no-hitter in 2002, was a two-time All-Star, and was 70-55 with a 3.72 earned-run average.

In 1997 the Mariners, desperate for immediate bullpen help, packaged Lowe and catcher Jason Varitek into a deal with the Boston Red Sox for Heathcliff Slocumb. The trade is considered one of the worst in MLB history.

Brad Wilkerson: Ah a link to the Expos and the Jays!

Brad spent 8 years in the Majors. He had a batting average of .247, and he hit 122 homers and had 399 RBIs.

In 2004, he hit the last home run in Expos history. He appeared once more in a Montreal Expos uniform during the Major League Baseball Japan All-Star Series shortly after the 2004 regular season.

The Expos were to become the Washington Nationals for the 2005 season, prompting some to refer to Wilkerson as “The Last Expo.”

So that’s my birthday baseball players list. Which players do you share yours with?

In other news, the Blue Jays are the worst sort of bad – mediocre, according to Cathal Kelly.

Randal Grichuck is hoping his second impression with the Jays is better than his first (as do we all).

And following on from the sobering stats i shared yesterday, here is a day by day examination of our very ugly May (warning- its grim reading).