Happy Birthday Joe Carter

© Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images

Joe Carter turns 61 today.

We are going to talk about Carter in-depth later this week. So let’s just say Happy Birthday to Joe here and share a couple of videos:

It is pretty amazing that Joe was the last to touch the ball in the World Series two years in a row:

This has most of Joe’s at-bat in game 6:

I remember being calm for the 1993 one, thinking that Pat Hentgen was going to start game 7 and all would be good.

The 1992 game I had to tape because I was working that night.

Happy Birthday, Joe. I’m glad you touched them all.

Jeff Kent turns 53 today.

Kent was a 20th round pick for the Jays in the 1889 draft. He did pretty well for a 20th round pick. He came up to the Jays in 1992, played 65 games, hit .240/.324/.443 with 8 home runs. Then, on August 27th, we traded him to the Mets (along with Ryan Thompson) for David Cone.

Cone would pitch in 8 games, starting 7, and had a 2.55 ERA and a 4-3 record. And he made four starts in the playoffs.

Kent would play five seasons for the Mets, hit .279/.327/.453 with 110 home runs. Mid-season, he was traded to Cleveland. He finished the season there, then signed as a free agent with the Giants.

That’s where he became a star. He played there for six seasons, hitting .297/.368/.535 with 175 home runs. He teamed with Barry Bonds (not that they were friends) to be an excellent middle of the batting order.

From there, he went to the Astros (for two seasons) and Dodgers (four seasons).

Kent had a 17-year career, hitting .290/.356/.500 with 377 home runs. He’s been on the Hall of Fame ballot for the last 8 years. This past year, he was on 32.4% of the ballots, so I don’t think he’ll make it unless there is a concerted effort.

After the trade, Kent went on to have a great career, but then we won the World Series, so it is hard to complain about it.

Happy Birthday, Jeff.

Jeff Burroughs turns 70 today.

Jeff played the last season of his very good 16-year career with the Blue Jays, hitting.257/.366/.429 with 6 home runs in 86 games, platooning in the DH role with Al Oliver. We made it to the ALCS that year, losing out to the Royals in 7 games. Jeff only had one at-bat in the series.

In 16 seasons, Burroughs hit .261/.355/.439 with 240 home runs.

Happy Birthday, Jeff.

Also having birthday are pitchers:

Happy Birthday to Mauro, Denis and Joel.