Feb 29th Leap Day Birthday Ballplayers
 

There are a handful of ballplayers who appeared in the major leagues and who have a February 29th birthday...

I'll post a card and autograph of one of them in a few minutes.


Let's post various cards of these guys!!!!

There are only a few:

Name (Year of Birth)
Terrence Long 1976
Bill Long 1960
Jerry Fry 1956
Al Autry 1952
Steve Mingori 1944
Al Rosen 1924
Pepper Martin 1904
Ralph Miller 1896
Roy Parker 1896
Ed Appleton 1892
Dickey Pearce 1836

Some other players born on February 29th...


Ed Appleton, played 1915 and 1916

Ralph Miller, played 1920-1924

Al Rosen, played 1947-1956

Bill Long, played 1985-1991

Terrence Long, played 1999-2006

There are a few others...

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...erMartinds.jpg

Leap Day Research
 

There are 17,534 major leaguers currently listed in the Baseball Almanac. Leap Day occurs every 1461 days. This data suggests that there should be 12.00137 players with Leap Day Birthdays. 11 have been cited. Are we missing one (or 1.00137)?

Probably not, from a statistical point of view with this sample size, one would expect the result to be in the 10-14 range. Any number higher or lower would be very unlikely.

That logic assumes that any given day is as likely to be a birthday as any other day... and that isn't true. Oddly enough, there's a slight increase in births about 9 months after the cold months.

Hmmm
 

Here in Houston, there's a slight increase in births about 9 months after summer.

My range of 10 to 14 should correct for local weather. For Feb 29, 10 in Wisconsin, 14 in Houston, not sure about Kentucky.

.

The Wild Horse of the Osage
 

......pardon Sunny..........

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/gashouse.jpghttp://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s.../DeLPepper.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...36W3Martin.jpg

Ralph Joseph Miller was acquired by the Wash. Senators from the minors in the summer of 1924. He appeared in only 9 regular season games. However, he played in 4 of the 7 World Series games that year, getting 2 hits and 2 RBIs! I think this is Miller's only bb card, even though he played in a total of 154 games with the Phillies during 1921 and 1922 - if anyone knows of another Miller bb card, kindly let me know. I would have posted this sooner, but I have been out of town for several weeks.
Val

Great looking cards, Val. It was worth the wait to see those cards. I too think that is Ralph Miller's only card.