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 July 19:

1) Phil Cavarretta (1916)
Signed by the Cubs for $125 a month in the midst of the Great Depression, Cavarretta played all 22 seasons of his career in his home city, spending 20 of those years with the Cubs. The first baseman lacked game-changing power, but he made up for it with a remarkable ability to make contact and reach base. Those skills were never more evident than in his MVP season of 1945, when he led the NL in both batting (.355) and OBP (.449). Cavarretta spent his final three Cubs years as a player-manager, becoming the first Italian-American to manage a big league club for a full season in '52.

2) Rick Ankiel (1979)
Stats don’t begin to tell the story of Ankiel, a pitching prodigy who debuted in the Majors with the Cardinals a month after his 20th birthday but was blindsided by a case of the yips, then reinvented himself to become a feared hitter. The fireballing lefty placed second in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2000, but his career was indelibly derailed by a single inning that postseason. Ankiel's five wild pitches in the third inning of NLDS Game 1 against Atlanta shattered the previous Major League record, and although he would continue pitching until 2004, he was never the same after Oct. 3, 2000.

In 2005, Ankiel announced he would be focusing exclusively on hitting -- and it paid off. Ankiel returned to the Majors as an outfielder in 2007; in '08, he hit 25 homers and finished with a .506 slugging percentage, third best on the Cards. His career was uneven after that peak and included five other teams over three seasons, but he did make the right kind of history before retiring. Ankiel became the fourth player in AL/NL history with at least 40 starts as a pitcher and at least 40 home runs, joining Babe Ruth, among others.

3) Bob Meusel (1896)
Meusel, who wore No. 5 in Yankees pinstripes a decade before Joe DiMaggio ran away with the number, won three World Series in his 11-year career. Besides hitting for the cycle three times, he’s best remembered for stealing home in the World Series twice. Great contact skills set the table for his good fortune on the bases -- he finished with a .309 career average -- but he also had some pop; Meusel led the AL in homers (33) and RBIs (134) in 1925.

4) Earl Hamilton (1891)
The first pitcher in AL/NL history to throw a no-hitter without striking out a batter, Hamilton pulled off the feat against the 1912 Tigers -- a club led by Ty Cobb at the height of his dominance. Two years after his no-no, the St. Louis Browns lefty was involved in an offseason car accident that sent him to the hospital and left him with multiple fractures. He recovered, however, and would go on to pitch for 10 more seasons, retiring with a 3.16 ERA.

5) Preston Wilson (1974)
The stepson and nephew of Mets icon Mookie Wilson, Preston Wilson was a first-round pick of the Mets in the 1992 Draft. He may have had some swing and miss in his game, but when he connected, Wilson could do serious damage. He played just eight games with the Mets before being dealt to Miami as part of the Mike Piazza trade, and he made an impact right away, reaching double digits in homers in each of his first four full seasons with the Marlins. His best season in Miami was 2000, when he tallied 31 homers and 36 steals as a 25-year-old. Three seasons later, he earned his only All-Star nod as a Rockie, leading the NL in RBIs with 141.

Others of note:
Patrick Corbin (1989)
Corbin, a starter, achieved peak baseball glory in the first season of his six-year deal with the Nationals when he appeared in relief of Max Scherzer to earn the win in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series against the Astros.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for July 19? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.