Today's Birthday Team is sneaky-good. I confess I never really know what to do with Jim Creighton - there's no statistical record to work from and he died when he was 21 years old, but if he really was the best pitcher of his era, he's better than Aaron Laffey and worthy of a rotation spot. I always liked Laffey when he was in Cleveland, but he's a junkballer without great control or command.

C: Ed Bailey (27.2 WAR)
1B: Sy Sutcliffe (3.1 WAR)
2B: Hub Collins (15.0 WAR)
3B: Eddie Mayo (5.1 WAR)
SS: Ted Sizemore (16.1 WAR)
LF: Milton Bradley (16.9 WAR)
CF: Willie Davis (60.7 WAR)
RF: Jeromy Burnitz (19.9 WAR)

SP: Jim Creighton (pre-MLB player)
SP: John Danks (20.2 WAR)
SP: Chris Tillman (8.7 WAR)
SP: King Cole (5.6 WAR)
SP: Cinders O'Brien (4.1 WAR)
RP: Aaron Laffey (2.4 WAR)
RP: Billy Brewer (1.9 WAR)

Manager, mostly played shortstop but would maybe (probably?) be a better 3B option than Eddie Mayo if available: Katsumi Shiraishi
Baseball historian in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame: Kenzo Hirose
Fun names who aren't already in the starting lineup: Red Gunkel, Dutch Distel

Willie Davis may be the player most hurt by the redefinition of the strike zone between 1963 and 1968. Not just his raw statistics but his adjusted production really nose-dived during the new deadball era.

At the end of the 1962 season, Davis was just 22 and had posted a .278/.329/.455 for a 109 OPS+. From 1969 to 1973, he posted a .300/.331/.443 for a 119 OPS+. But from 1963 to 1968, in what should have been his prime, Davis hit just .262/.291/.375 for a 96 OPS+. Not just his batting average but his power was way down. Put a normal trajectory in there, and he's an easy Hall of Famer.

On this date in 1977, nine-year-old me visited the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown for the very first time. I bought a paperback copy of Jim Benagh's pathologically-dishonest Incredible Baseball Feats which I proceeded to read until the covers came off.