Wednesday, May 11, 2016: Minnesota Twins outfielder Miguel Sano rounds the bases on his 23rd birthday after hitting a home run in the second inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Target Field.
Back on May 11, Miguel Sano hit a home run. That also happened to be his birthday.
As it turns out, this marked just the 23rd time a Minnesota Twins player homered on his birthday, and Sano was the 19th player to do it.
Of course, some players are unable to accomplish this feat, owing to the fact they were born outside the baseball season. So sorry, Byron Buxton (Dec. 18), Juan Centeno (Nov. 16), Eduardo Escobar (Jan. 5) and Max Kepler (Feb. 10).
We mention this now because two Twins players were born on June 15 -- Eduardo Nunez and Trevor Plouffe.
The Twins have never had two different players hit birthday homers on the same day, although two players have homered twice on their birthday -- Plouffe and Justin Morneau, the latter of which did it twice, making him clearly the king of the birthday home runs, at least in Twins history.
Plouffe and Morneau are also two of five Twins to have hit birthday home runs on two separate occasions (Buddy Lewis of the Washington Senators, the forerunners to the Twins, also did it).
There has never been the ultimate birthday home run -- a walk-off -- but Jason Kubel did hit a grand slam on the day he turned 26 years old (it also broke a 1-all tie in the eighth inning).
No Twins player have ever had a birthday home run in an All-Star Game or in the postseason. Of course, that's also some very specific date ranges one would have to be born.
Here is a listing of every Minnesota Twins player to hit a home run on his birthday:
| Player | Date | Opponent | Result | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI |
| Bill Tuttle | 7/4/1961 | White Sox | W, 6-4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Harmon Killebrew | 6/29/1962 | Senators | L, 6-3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Harmon Killebrew | 6/29/1964 | Orioles | L, 6-3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Eric Soderholm | 9/24/1972 | Angels | L, 2-1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Larry Hisle | 5/5/1974 | Tigers | W, 8-3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Rob Wilfong | 9/1/1980 | Indians | L, 5-2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Gary Gaetti | 8/19/1982 | Orioles | W, 9-3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Gary Gaetti | 8/19/1986 | Red Sox | W, 5-1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Steve Lombardozzi | 4/26/1987 | Angels | W, 10-5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Tim Laudner | 6/7/1988 | White Sox | L, 10-8 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Kent Hrbek | 5/21/1990 | Orioles | W, 7-3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Torii Hunter | 7/18/2001 | Indians | W, 8-6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Jacque Jones | 4/25/2002 | Devil Rays | W, 6-2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Corey Koskie | 6/28/2003 | Brewers | W, 5-2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Justin Morneau | 5/15/2007 | Indians | L, 15-7 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Jason Kubel | 5/25/2008 | Tigers | W, 6-1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Justin Morneau | 5/15/2009 | Yankees | L, 5-4 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Delmon Young | 9/14/2010 | White Sox | W, 9-3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Trevor Plouffe | 6/15/2012 | Brewers | L, 5-3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Oswaldo Arcia | 5/9/2013 | Red Sox | W, 5-3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Trevor Plouffe | 6/15/2013 | Tigers | W, 6-3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Brian Dozier | 5/15/2015 | Rays | W, 3-2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Miguel Sano | 5/11/2016 | Orioles | L, 9-2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Dave Heller is the author of the upcoming book Ken Williams: A Slugger in Ruth's Shadow as well as Facing Ted Williams Players From the Golden Age of Baseball Recall the Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived and As Good As It Got: The 1944 St. Louis Browns
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