Players Born on the Same Day

Eric Coons (left) and Matt Dahlin (right)

Over the years, we’ve had many players pick up a wiffleball. Some try to fire it past opposing batters, while others sometimes stand in the batter’s box with a bat on their shoulder, hoping for a walk. Today happens to be the day two of those key players were born. On December 29th, Matt Dahlin turns 25, and MLW’s original “Ironman” Eric Coons turns 31.

Although he’s probably best known for his high walk total, Eric Coons has done well in every position. He’s a three-tool-wiffleball-player. He’s proven himself at bat, on the mound, and in the field.

Not only does Eric hold the single season walk record (Season 1, 47) and is second all-time in walks (86), he is also the winningest pitcher in MLW history with 15 career wins! His 7 wins in Season 2 are the most in a single season. In Season 1, Eric’s outstanding fielding earned him the first ever Torii Hunter Best Fielder Award, setting the bar for all later recipients of this award.

Known as the league’s “Ironman”, Eric was the only player to play in every inning of MLW’s first 51 games. However, Eric suffered a major injury just before the start of Season 3. In a pre-season game, while trying to avoid a tag at second base, he jumped, landed wrong, and tore his ACL. Remarkably, he went on to play several games with the torn ACL. After knee surgery, he was given a comfortable seat at The Sac, and went on to occasionally sing along to our player music while also heckling players over our public address system.

Also born on this day is the youngest player to participate in an MLW game, Matt Dahlin. Dahlin might be the most skilled wiffleball player we’ve ever seen. In Season 2, he won the Rookie of the Year Award and the Johan Santana Best Pitcher Award.

Dahlin was always lights-out on the mound. He had a career 0.00 regular season ERA! That’s right, he never gave up a run in the regular season! Even MLW superstar Quentin Jensen, who finished Season 1 with a 0.00 ERA, eventually gave up a couple of runs later in his career.

In addition to his awards, Dahlin is the MLW career leader in Strikeouts/5 Innings Pitched (13.73) and WHIP (0.46). He also ranks third in career batting average (.421) and slugging percentage (.934). After wiffleball, Dahlin went on to play professional baseball in the Frontier League and the Golden Baseball League.

Today is the only day of the year when an MLW player shares a birthday with another wiffleball player.

Unfortunately, this trend of All-Stars doesn’t carry over to Major League Baseball. The best pitcher that I could find that was born on December 29th is Jaret Wright (1975).

Other baseball players born on December 29th: