The best baseball players born on June 6

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 June 6:

1) Bill Dickey (1907)
The only Hall of Famer born on June 6, Dickey won seven World Series during his 17-year career as the standout catcher of the powerhouse Yankees in the 1930s and 1940s. Dickey was an 11-time All-Star and finished in the top 10 of AL MVP voting five times while slashing .313/.382/.486 during his career. From 1936-39, Dickey hit .326 with 102 homers, 460 RBIs and a .980 OPS while guiding the pitching staff as the Yanks won four consecutive World Series titles. Dickey played alongside Yankees legends and fellow Hall of Famers such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Gordon, Phil Rizzuto, Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez. After his playing days were over, Dickey returned to the Yanks as a coach and mentored the club’s next great catcher -- Yogi Berra. Both Hall of Fame backstops wore No. 8, which is retired by the Yankees in their honor.

2) Anthony Rendon (1990)
The No. 6 overall pick in the 2011 MLB Draft, Rendon slashed .287/.369/.484 while compiling a 32.2 WAR over the first nine years of his career through the 2021 season. The third baseman’s first seven seasons came with the Nationals, culminating in a World Series championship in 2019, when Rendon led the Majors with 126 RBIs, the NL with 44 doubles and finished third in NL MVP voting. He continued his strong performance during the Nats’ title run, hitting .328 with a 1.003 OPS in the ’19 postseason. Rendon won two Silver Sluggers and made one All-Star appearance with Washington before he signed a seven-year, $245 million contract with the Angels prior to the 2020 season. Injuries, however, have thus far limited his production with the Halos.

3) Mark Ellis (1977)
Ellis was the sure-handed second baseman of the solid 2000s A’s teams that couldn’t quite get over the hump in the postseason. His 33.5 WAR over a 12-year big league career is the most in history by a player born in South Dakota, and during Ellis’ nine seasons in Oakland, he hit .265 with 86 homers and a .729 OPS. Ellis finished eighth in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2002, but his most impressive statistic might be his .991 career fielding percentage.

4) Bud Harrelson (1944)
Derrel McKinley Harrelson got the nickname Bud from his older brother when he was a child, and it stuck with him all the way to the Major Leagues, where he enjoyed a 16-year career that featured two All-Star appearances. A strong defensive shortstop for the 1969 Amazin’ Mets World Series championship team, Harrelson set a then-MLB record with 54 consecutive errorless games at the position in 1970 and won a Gold Glove Award in 1971. Harrelson might be most famous for the fracas he got into with Pete Rose during Game 3 of the 1973 NLCS after Rose slid hard into second base trying to break up a double play. In his post-playing days, Harrelson served as the third-base coach on the Mets’ 1986 World Series title team and managed the club from 1990-91.

5) Jeremy Affeldt (1979)
Drafted in the third round by Kansas City in 1997, Affeldt had a successful 14-year MLB career as a lefty reliever for the Royals, Rockies, Reds and Giants, spending his last seven seasons in San Francisco. After posting a career-low 1.73 ERA in 74 games during his first year with the Giants in 2009, Affeldt went on to win three World Series titles in 2010, ’12 and ’14 as a mainstay in a strong San Francisco bullpen. Affeldt was at his best during the ’12 and ’14 postseasons, tossing a combined 22 scoreless innings.

Others of note:

Joey Lucchesi (1993)
A fourth-round Draft pick of the Padres in 2016, Lucchesi spent three seasons in San Diego before he was traded to the Mets before the 2021 season. The left-hander, who underwent Tommy John surgery in ’21, is known for his signature “churve” pitch.

Brooks Kieschnick (1972)
Before Shohei Ohtani, there was Kieschnick. Well, not really, but the 6-foot-4, 225-pound first-round Draft pick did turn heads as a two-way player with the Brewers in 2003-04. Kieschnick hit .286 with eight homers, 19 RBIs and an .837 OPS in 144 plate appearances over those two seasons, while going 2-2 with a 4.59 ERA in 74 games as a relief pitcher.

Want to see more baseball birthdays for June 6? Find the complete list on Baseball Reference.