Born on October 14, 1948 in Ciales, Puerto Rico, this guy never received the credit he deserved for helping the Yankees recapture their pennant-winning mo-jo during the mid seventies. In fact, the 1975 trade that brought Figueroa and the speedster center fielder Mickey Rivers from the Angels for Bobby Bonds has to be one of the best trades ever made by a Yankee front office.

In three seasons, from 1976 through 1978, this right-hander won 55 regular season games for New York, helping them get to three consecutive World Series. He threw eight shutouts during that span and in 1978, became the first big league pitcher of Puerto Rican descent to win 20 games in a season. Figueroa was so critical to New York’s success that his serious elbow injury in 1979 and the Yankees falling to fourth place in the AL East standings were anything but a coincidence. An operation to repair that elbow failed and Fiqueroa was sold to the Texas Rangers during the 1980 season.

About the only thing Ed Fiqueroa couldn’t do in a Yankee uniform was win in the postseason.  He started seven games in October and didn’t get the win in any of them. I’m hoping Fiqueroa’s postseason failures do not rub off on another Yankee who shares Ed’s October fourteenth birthday. That would be this current New York skipper. This former Yankee second baseman was also born on this same date.