A Baseball First- Pitchers Birthday Duel
Today's Reds/Cubs match up featured Homer Bailey and Ryan Dempster; two players that share the same birthday... which just so happens to be today (May 3). Interesting, sure. But historic?
According to Chris St. John (author - Steal of Home Blog and Platoon Advantage), two starting pitchers sharing a birthday have never faced off on their birthday in baseball history (disseminated from data available since 1918).
Skeptical? You wouldn't be the only one. A few people called out Chris on Twitter but he backed up his claim by explaining how he came to that conclusion and as far as I can tell, he's right. Here's how he did it...
Using the Baseball-Reference Play Index, he was able to research starter birthday stats (852 occurrences where a starting pitcher has pitched on his birthday). From there, he was able to narrow it down to starting pitchers who pitched on their birthday on the same day; there were only 23 days where there was more than one starting pitcher with a birthday starting on the same day. Out of those 23 occurrences, none of those starting pitchers had faced each other.
So there you have it, Bailey and Dempster forever linked to baseball history - and thanks for your research, Chris.
Finishing touches... Dempster, in his first start off the DL, threw 8 innings of shutout ball today and left with a 3 run lead but Carlos Marmol came in and promptly ruined his birthday gem giving up three quick runs in the bottom of the ninth. That means, a sister-kissing no-decision for Dempster. Bailey went 6 innings and gave up 3 runs.
According to Chris St. John (author - Steal of Home Blog and Platoon Advantage), two starting pitchers sharing a birthday have never faced off on their birthday in baseball history (disseminated from data available since 1918).
Skeptical? You wouldn't be the only one. A few people called out Chris on Twitter but he backed up his claim by explaining how he came to that conclusion and as far as I can tell, he's right. Here's how he did it...
Using the Baseball-Reference Play Index, he was able to research starter birthday stats (852 occurrences where a starting pitcher has pitched on his birthday). From there, he was able to narrow it down to starting pitchers who pitched on their birthday on the same day; there were only 23 days where there was more than one starting pitcher with a birthday starting on the same day. Out of those 23 occurrences, none of those starting pitchers had faced each other.
So there you have it, Bailey and Dempster forever linked to baseball history - and thanks for your research, Chris.
Finishing touches... Dempster, in his first start off the DL, threw 8 innings of shutout ball today and left with a 3 run lead but Carlos Marmol came in and promptly ruined his birthday gem giving up three quick runs in the bottom of the ninth. That means, a sister-kissing no-decision for Dempster. Bailey went 6 innings and gave up 3 runs.
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