January 31st is a pretty good day for baseball. Why?

It’s the depth of winter, fans begin counting down the days to spring training, and to see what moves your team may make to improve their teams. This is also the day that three of the greatest and most impactful players in the history of the game all share a birthday. Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks, and Nolan Ryan were all born on January 31st in 1919, 1931, and 1947. All were elected to the Hall of Fame in the first round, a distinction that only sixty of the two hundred and seventy-three ballplayers enshrined in Cooperstown.

Jackie Robinson is best known as the first black major leaguer (in the 20th century). Movies, documentaries, and books have chronicled his struggles and career. When Robinson first stepped across the white lines in 1947, he was already twenty-eight, a bit old for a rookie. World War II and Branch Rickey’s courage in selecting and developing #42 may have prolonged that debut.

Mr. Robinson was a FOUR sport athlete in football, basketball, baseball, and track at Pasadena Junior College then UCLA, the first athlete to earn four letters there, setting a record for years per carry in football and winning the national championship in the long jump. Ironically, baseball was his worst sport.

He only played ten years in MLB, winning honors as Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, and six All-Star selections. His life after baseball was sadly rather brief. He worked in business and was a social activist. He was a Republican, and I mention that ONLY because since 1960, black Americans have voted in great majorities for Democrats. Jackie Robinson was only fifty-three years old after years of diabetes and heart disease.

I will confess I cannot give an unbiased opinion about Ernie Banks as a lifelong and usually long-suffering Cub fan. He was my favorite player in my youth, and “Mr. Cub” was always cheerful and enthusiastic with the famous line “Let’s Play Two!” For most of his career, that meant they probably lost two as well.

Ernie Banks played under new (finally) Buck O’Neil on the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues. In 1950, we barnstormed (a popular way for players to earn money before salaries escalated) with the “Jackie Robinson All-Stars.” In September 1952, he became the first African American member of the Chicago Cubs. He put on the blue pinstripes #14, and no one has or will ever wear it again.

Shortstop was his first position. He won a Golden Glove in 1960, only the fourth year they were awarded- so he may have won more. Bad knees moved him to first base, and he played over 1100 games at each position. People remember his bat.

In one of the golden ages of baseball, Ernie Banks hit forty or more home runs in five of six seasons from 1955-1960, more than any other player in that stretch. There were some pretty good ballplayers in that era. On May 12, 1970, he hit his 500th homerun in an epic call by the legendary Jack Brickhouse. I just freakin’ missed it.

Two days earlier, my mom, dad, Uncle Dale, and Aunt Dee Dee (she made me a Cubs fan), attended the Cubs game against the Cincinnati Reds. We were sitting down the third baseline. At some point in the game, Ernie hit one deep to left that just missed the basket. It caromed off the wall, and a thirty-nine-year-old settled for a triple, not easy for him at that point. I also remember Pete Rose hit an opposite-field home run to left that game. I’ll bet you didn’t know that, pun intended. He had thousands of hits, but few home runs. When Ernie passed, just twenty-one months before finally winning the World Series, I cried.

The third birthday boy on the last day of January is Nolan Ryan. “The Ryan Express” is beyond adjectives, especially today. Ryan began his career with the New York Mets. In 1969, the first year I followed baseball, the Cubs famously collapsed and the Mets, who were never even close to having a winning season, won their division and the World Series. Since Ryan wasn’t the pitcher he would become, there is a good chance I stuck his baseball card in my bicycle spokes with a clothespin. You don’t even want to know what those are worth now. My parents never told me that they dropped me on my head.

After the 1971 season, Ryan was traded to the California Angels where his dominance began. When young Cary wasn’t ruining someday valuable cards, he would read Smith and Streets baseball guides and memorize career stats. I still have Walter Johnson’s career strikeout record of 3,509 etched in my brain. Ryan finished his career with 5,714. Normally a record is barely beaten, this was shattered. He also holds the career record for walks. Oh yes, he also pitched seven no-hitters, twelve one-hitters, and eighteen two-hitters.

The game has changed since his time. Back then, there was four man starting rotations, and pitchers often completed the nine-inning game. Ryan completed 29% of his starts and pitched 5,386 innings in his career. Pitch counts, Laughing my ARM off. On June 14, 1974, Ryan probably threw 235 pitches in one game. Oh yeah, he pitched 27 seasons, and that is NOT a typo.

Pitchers don’t complete games or go beyond 100 pitches often because they throw so much harder today. There may be players today who throw as hard as Ryan, but none harder. He may have thrown a baseball (unofficially) 108.1 MPH. You wouldn’t see it. He never had Tommy John surgery. Additionally, Robin Ventura will advise against charging the mound and you should look that up on YouTube.

Hey kids, love baseball? That is your birthday too? Lucky you. Moms and Dads, that is your son’s birthday? Well timed. Play ball.