Born on the Same Day - 7/3/1940

Last October I started a new series called "Born on the Same Day", featuring players who were born on the same day (!) and year. The scope of this exercise is those players (or managers) who have cards in the 1965-1970 sets (because that's what I dooze). Ideally, I should also have their cards. 

In researching this, I found 51 pairs and 2 trios. In a few pairs both are stars, some pairs have 1 star, and other pairs are just 2 guys named Joe. In a few cases, these players were also teammates. 

I am going to post these in chronological order, and distribute them across my 1966-1970 blogs depending on which cards I have for who. This is the 16th post in the series, but the first on the 1970 blog. 

This is post #16 in the series: Coco Laboy and Cesar Tovar - both born on 7/3/1940.

After 10 seasons in the Giants' and Cardinals' farm systems, Coco Laboy made his major-league debut at age 28 with the expansion Expos in 1969. He was tied for 2nd place in the NL Rookie of the Year voting, and was named to the Topps All-Rookie team. He played 2 full seasons and parts of 3 others with Montreal, and retired after the 1973 season.

Primarily a 2nd baseman and outfielder, Cesar Tovar has played every position, and played all 9 IN ONE GAME during the 1968 season. He played for 12 seasons, his first 8 with the Twins.

Coco Laboy (#238)

Jose "Coco" Laboy is our 3rd baseman on the “Hangin’ at the Bat Rack” team. (He's also the perfect transition to my next several posts on the Topps All-Rookie Team.)

Laboy was signed by the Giants in 1959, and played 4 seasons in their farm system, mostly as a shortstop. After the Giants released him prior to the 1963 season, he was signed by the Cardinals and played another 6 seasons in the minors at 3B/2B, including 1965-68 in triple-A.

Laboy was selected by the Expos in the expansion draft, and was the Expos’ starting 3rd baseman during his (and the Expos’) first 2 seasons. Coco hit 18 home runs as a 29-year-old rookie, and finished tied for 2nd in the NL Rookie of the Year award.

After 2 seasons as the starting 3rd baseman, Laboy injured his knee while playing winter ball, and for 1971 he switched places with Bob Bailey (his backup in 1970). That arrangement continued through the 1972 season.

After 9 starts at 3rd base in late-April 1973, Laboy was relegated to the bench, playing his last major-league game on May 16th. He spent the remainder of the 1973 season in the minors.

After his baseball career, Laboy returned to Puerto Rico and worked for the government for 27 years, eventually becoming the director of athletics for Puerto Rico.