Happy Birthday To Me!

While the popular trivia question "what do MTD and Vince DiMaggio share?" is asked in bars across the country, the answer is not "we both hit .000 in 1946 for the Giants." Technically it is accurate but we share the same birthday, September 6th.

It's been a long standing tradition, say two-ish years, for me to announce my birthday in blog format so all of you can lavish attention on me. Why yes, I am an only child, why do you ask? But, I'm sure Mitch Moreland is doing the same thing today on some Rangers fan forum. Don't judge us.

But today isn't just about me and empty boxes of Carvel ice cream cake, it's about celebrating me and my baseball brethren. I hit .023 in my single season of little league before they asked me not to sign up for the following year. However, there are some real baseball players born on 9/6...

-Who can forget when Jumbo Latham hit 6 triples in 1877 for the Grays? Shoulda seen that fourth one. Ran like a gazelle.

-Oyster Burns hit .307/.388/.430 in his final season in 1895. He tragically died of oyster burns the following summer. Or in 1928 of a random ailment. I'm not a historian.

-The only Hall of Famer born on my birthday was spitballer Red Faber, inducted by the Veteran's Committee in 1964 after retiring in 1933.

-Bill Murray played one season in 1917.

-Bill Murray played one season in 1917.

-Delphia Louis Bissonette is a name.

Okay, fine, let's move to players born after TV was invented.

-Derrek Lee scored some black ink in 2005 leading the NL in hits, doubles, batting average, slugging, OPS, OPS+ and finished third in MVP voting. Who the hell is this Albert Pujols fellow?

-Mark Teahen collected four home runs playing for the White Sox and Blue Jays in 2011. If you listen closely, you can hear him sifting through your garbage can.

-Jerry Blevins. He's apparently been pitching for the A's for six years in the Angels division but I wouldn't know him if he hit me with an autographed wiffle ball.

-The aforementioned Mitch Moreland. Oh, to be 27 again and in the peak of, hmmm, I'm sure I was good at something back then.

So, if you haven't sent me cash or autographed Mike Trout goodies yet, I'd appreciate it if you "liked" Halo Hangout on Facebook. Fansided gives me three grapes every time we get a new liker.

Happy Birthday To Me!

I thought long and hard about skipping my birthday this year because I'm at that age now where teams would hesitate to give me a six year contract. Well, that and if I tried to hit an 83 MPH fastball my pants would fall off and the bat would end up in the stands. But in the end, I'm just too narcissistic to pass up the opportunity to celebrate me being born. And yes, of course you can send me cash through PayPal, thank you.

I ran some criteria through the Baseball-Reference Play Index to see if anything cool happened on my birthday. Turns out, not so much. But it would have taken something pretty impressive to top Cal Ripken Jr. breaking Lou Gehrig's 56-year-old record for consecutive games played. Ripken played his 2,131st straight game on September 6, 1995 against none other than my beloved Angels. Ripken homered off Shawn Boskie in the 4th inning but the memorable moment happened in the following frame. After the game became official half way through the 5th inning, Ripken took a lap around the park high-fiving fans during a 22-minute standing ovation. I plan on recreating the moment tonight in a bar Uptown. Come by and high-five me or, preferably, buy me a shot of Jameson.

Yeah, that's right. I'll be celebrating my birthday with copious amounts of booze and poor decisions. So, just like most Tuesday nights.