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We had two big birthday bashes over the weekend.
No, not parties. Home runs. One by a rising star, one by a superstar.
First, Pirates phenom Konnor Griffin slugged his first career home run on his 20th birthday on Friday. Then Aaron Judge crushed his 378th career home run on his 34th birthday on Sunday.
We've got some fun facts for you about the two birthday boys.
• Griffin (1st HR of MLB career)
The No. 1 prospect in baseball was already the rare player to debut as a teenager -- Griffin was the first teen hitter to make his MLB debut since Juan Soto in 2018. He might've taken until his 20th birthday to hit his first homer, but not a whole lot of players can say they've hit a home run at that age … and it makes for some fun bits of trivia.
Griffin is the youngest player to hit his first career home run on his birthday. He's the eighth player to do it in the Wild Card Era (since 1995), and the 25th player overall, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. (The most recent was Victor Mesa Jr. for the Marlins on his 24th birthday last Sept. 8.)
Griffin is also only the third player in the Modern Era (since 1900) to homer on his 20th birthday. (No player in the Modern Era has homered on a younger birthday than his 20th.) The last one was also a Pirate: Aramis Ramirez on June 25, 1998. The other was Buddy Lewis of the Washington Senators on Aug. 10, 1936.
• Judge (10th HR of season, 378th of career)
Judge joined Yordan Alvarez, Munetaka Murakami and James Wood as the only players with double-digit home runs this season thanks to his birthday bash.
It was his third career birthday home run -- Judge also homered on his 25th birthday as a rookie in 2017, and on his 30th birthday in 2022. Lou Gehrig is the only Yankee to hit more birthday home runs than Judge. He hit four. Judge is tied with Yogi Berra and Graig Nettles with three.
Judge, of course, is in line to chase down some significant home run milestones before his career is out. He needs 122 more to get to 500, and 222 more to get to 600.
But how many other players have hit that many homers after their 34th birthday?
The 500-homer club is the most attainable for Judge: 56 sluggers have hit at least 122 home runs after their 34th birthday, most recently Nelson Cruz (281), Albert Pujols (211), Adrian Beltré (130), Carlos Beltrán (152), David Ortiz (224) and Alex Rodriguez (124).
The 600 club would require Judge to do what only seven players have done at his age: Barry Bonds (368), Cruz, Hank Aaron (274), Rafael Palmeiro (255), Babe Ruth (244), Big Papi and Andres Galarraga (222) are the only players to hit at least 222 homers after their 34th birthday.
But we wouldn't put anything past Judge.
Want more birthday stats? Check out Baseball Savant's Birthday Index. And to see which baseball players were born on your birthday, we have a full calendar here.
