Born on the Same Day - 5/17/1932

Yesterday I started a new series called "Born on the Same Day", featuring players who were born on the same day (!) and year. The scope of this exercise is those players (or managers) who have cards in the 1965-1970 sets (because that's what I dooze). Ideally, I should also have their cards. 

In researching this, I found 51 pairs and 2 trios. In a few pairs both are stars, some pairs have 1 star, and other pairs are just 2 guys named Joe. In a few cases, these players were also teammates. 

I am going to post these in chronological order, and distribute them across my 1966-1970 blogs depending on which cards I have for who. The series began on my 1968 blog. 


This is post #3 in the series, and the first on the 1966 blog:
Billy Hoeft and Ozzie Virgil - both born on 5/17/1932.

Billy Hoeft played from 1952-1966, mostly with the Tigers and Orioles. In his final season, he played for the Cubs until finishing up with the Giants in the season's final month.

The back of Virgil's card shows his birth year as 1933, but Baseball-Reference.com and Wikipedia both have 1932, so I'm going with that instead of Topps' old information. Ozzie didn't have a card in the 1966 set, but John from the Cards That Never Were blog has made a custom 1966 Virgil card.

Hoeft and Virgil were teammates with the Tigers in 1958, the Orioles (during Virgil's brief call-up in April 1962), and with the Giants in September 1966.

Jimmie Hall (#190)

This is Jimmie Hall’s last card as a Twin. Following the 1966 season, he was traded to the Angels with 1st baseman Don Mincher and pitcher Pete Cimino for pitcher Dean Chance.

Hall was signed by the Washington Senators way back in 1956, and played 7 seasons in the minors before finally making the majors in April 1963. Hall never showed a lot of power in the minors, but in his first big-league season, he crashed 33 homers and picked up 80 RBI. He finished 3rd in the AL Rookie of the Year voting, after White Sox’ teammates Gary Peters and Pete Ward.

Jimmie was the team’s #3 outfielder, behind sluggers Bob Allison and Harmon Killebrew, and started 125 games as a rookie, mostly in center field.

For the next 2 seasons, Hall was the Twins’ regular center fielder, hitting 25 and 20 homers, and batting over .280 each year. He also made the All-Star team in those seasons.

In 1966 he also hit 20 homers, but his RBI total was down to 47 and his batting average plummeted to .239. He was the team’s #3 outfielder, splitting his time between center and left fields.

A change of scenery occurred in 1967, as Hall joined the perennially-crowded Angels’ outfield. After a season platooning in right field with Bubba Morton, Jimmie moved on to the Indians in May 1968 for outfielder Vic Davalillo.

He was acquired by the Yankees in the 2nd week of the 1969 season, and spent the next 5 months as the Yankees’ 4th outfielder, mostly backing up Bobby Murcer in right field. Hall was traded to the Cubs in mid-September.

Hall’s final season was 1970, and he was used sparingly both by the Cubs and by the Braves, who acquired him in June.