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.

Final Card: Billy Hoeft

Billy Hoeft (#409) began his minor league career in 1950 with the Richmond (Indiana) Tigers.

His major-league debut came in 1952 with the Tigers. After his first season, Hoeft was primarily a starting pitcher for the Tigers, with his best seasons coming in 1955 and 1956. (He led the league with 7 shutouts in 1955.)



Early in the 1959 season, Hoeft was traded to the Red Sox. Only a few weeks later, he moved on to the Orioles. After 3 more seasons in Baltimore (mostly as a reliever), he was constantly on the move. Three succesive off-seasons brought trades to the Giants and Braves, and a release from the Braves following the 1964 season.

The Tigers re-signed him in November 1964, but but he was cut prior to opening day. The Cubs signed him in early 1965, and used him in relief for 2 seasons, before releasing him in late 1966. He pitched for the Giants during September 1966, and was released after the season.

Hoeft is one of only 40 pitchers to strike out the side on 9 pitches.