Happy Birthday - 11/7

Only former Astros with birthdays today

RHP Joe Niekro (died October 27, 2006 at 61)
Joe Niekro played in 22 seasons, from 1967 to 1988, for a total of seven different teams.  For his career, Niekro was 221-204 with a 3.59 ERA and a 1.319 WHIP over 702 games and 3584.1 innings pitched.  In 11 seasons for Houston, he was 144-116 with a 3.22 ERA and a 1.264 WHIP over 397 games and 2270 innings pitched.  His most successful season was in 1979 when he was 21-11 and led the National League in wins.  1979 was an All-Star year for Niekro and he also placed second in NL Cy Young voting that year, behind Bruce Sutter and in front of 3rd place finisher J.R. Richard and his brother Phil in 6th place.

Niekro simply dominated in post-season pitching.  In the 1980 NLCS, he pitched 10 innings of shut-out ball in a game against Philadelphia which the Astros ultimately won 1-0 in 11 innings.  In the 1981 NLDS, he pitched eight innings of shut-out ball against the Dodgers in another 11-inning 1-0 win for the Astros.  In 1987, Niekro finally got his shot at a ring and pitched two innings for Minnesota in the World Series.  The Twins won the series and Joe got his ring.  For the post-season, Niekro had an ERA of 0.00 and a WHIP of 0.950.

Neikro was purchased by the Astros from Atlanta for $35,000 in 1975 where he had played with his brother Phil.  Joe and Phil both largely owed the longevity of their careers to their mastery of the knuckleball, a pitch that their father first taught them.  Joe left the Astros via trade to the Yankees for Jim Deshaies in 1985.

Joe is probably as well-known for the emory board incident as anything else in his career.  For more on Joe, here is his Wikipedia page.  He died in 2006 of a brain aneurysm, and his daughter has established a foundation in his name to raise money for aneurysm treatment and research.

RHP Russ Springer (43)
Springer pitched in a total of 18 seasons for 10 different teams, four with Houston.  In 204 games with Houston, he had a 4.03 ERA and a 1.215 WHIP.