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The best baseball players born on Aug. 1

August 1st, 2024

Who are the best players born on each day of the year? We have a list for every day on the calendar.

Here’s a subjective ranking of the top five for Aug. 1.

1) Madison Bumgarner (1989)
Bumgarner led the Giants to World Series championships in 2010, '12 and '14, but it was his performance in the third of those Fall Classics that made the left-hander an October legend. Bumgarner opened the 2014 Series vs. the Royals by tossing seven innings of one-run ball and earning the win. He also notched the victory in Game 5, tossing a four-hit shutout. Then, he returned three days later to close out Game 7 with five scoreless innings of relief. His 0.43 ERA over 21 innings earned him World Series MVP honors. Bumgarner was a four-time All-Star over 11 years with San Francisco, before he signed a five-year, $85 million deal with Arizona prior to the 2020 season.

2) Adam Jones (1985)
Jones joined the Orioles in 2008, arriving in a trade from the Mariners. It didn't take long for him to become the team's everyday center fielder and one of the faces of the franchise's turnaround. He was a five-time All-Star in 11 seasons in Baltimore, including in 2012, when he played all 162 games and helped the O's end a 15-year postseason drought. A four-time Gold Glover and one-time Silver Slugger, Jones is among the Orioles' all-time leaders in numerous categories. He ranks ninth in games played (1,613), fifth in hits (1,781), seventh in runs scored (875), fifth in home runs (263) and sixth in RBIs (866).

3) Gregg Jefferies (1967)
Jefferies was selected by the Mets with the No. 20 overall pick in the first round of the 1985 MLB Draft, and he became a highly touted prospect in their system. He went on to have a solid 14-year big league career, with his best stretch coming over his two seasons with the Cardinals in 1993 and '94. Jefferies was an All-Star each of those years (the lone two selections of his career) as he slashed .335/.401/.487 with 28 homers and 138 RBIs in 245 games over those two seasons. In addition to the Mets and Cards, Jefferies also had stints with the Royals, Phillies, Angels and Tigers. He is one of eight players in Philadelphia's franchise history to hit for the cycle, which he did on Aug. 25, 1995, vs. the Dodgers.

4) Greg Gross (1952)
Gross played for three teams (Phillies, Astros and Cubs) over a 17-year big league career, but he's most remembered for being a pinch-hit specialist during his 10 seasons in Philadelphia. He ranks fifth in AL/NL history with 143 career pinch-hits, 117 of which came for the Phillies. That's also the most pinch-hits of any player in Phils history. Gross also holds the MLB record for walks in pinch-hit appearances (117). He won the 1980 World Series with Philadelphia, and although he went 0-for-2 against Kansas City in the Fall Classic, he was 3-for-4 with an RBI in that year's NL Championship Series vs. Houston. Gross was the Phillies' bench coach in 2001, then had two stints as the club's hitting coach (2002-04, 2010-12).

5) Shigetoshi Hasegawa (1968)
After coming to the U.S. from Japan in 1997, Hasegawa was an effective right-handed reliever over nine seasons in MLB. He spent his first five years with the Angels, before signing with the Mariners in 2002. His best season came in '03, when he posted a 1.48 ERA in 63 games and earned his lone All-Star selection. He also converted 16 of his 17 save opportunities that year after closer Kazuhiro Sasaki got injured. Hasegawa had a 3.70 ERA in 720 1/3 innings over 517 career games.

Others of note:
Joe Shaute (1899)

Shaute's first MLB appearance came with Cleveland on July 6, 1922, and he struck out Babe Ruth to begin the relief outing. Shaute went on to have a 13-year big league career, going 99-109 with a 4.15 ERA in 360 games (208 starts). He won 20 games for Cleveland in 1924.

Milt May (1950)
At 21, May had a pinch-hit RBI single that gave the Pirates the lead in Game 4 of the 1971 World Series vs. the Orioles, a Fall Classic that Pittsburgh went on to win in seven games. May batted .263/.318/.371 in 1,192 games over his 15-year MLB career.

Aledmys Díaz (1990)
Díaz broke into the big leagues with an impressive rookie season in 2016, hitting .300/.369/.510 with 17 homers and 65 RBIs in 111 games for the Cardinals. He was named an All-Star and finished fifth in NL Rookie of the Year Award voting.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for Aug. 1? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.