Orioles: I’m a sucker for Ripken’s years of consistency and excellence. I’ll call number two a tie…Frank Robinson was fourth all time on the home run list until this steroid era, and has served the game what, into his seventies? Murray’s 500HR/3000 Hit career puts him in an elite class as well. Neither played their entire career in Baltimore. At four is Brooks, whose great Series against the Reds, his competitive fire, his sawed-off batting helmet bill, and his huge smile as a retired ambassador of the sport rank him high in my book. My son plays Little League with a boy named Brooks. Palmer may still look great in Jockeys (or so my wife tells me), but his was an injury plagued career.
Bosox: Some may argue for some present day stars, but these five are all time greats. Arguably one of the greatest pitchers ever, and one of the greatest hitters. (1) Cy Young’s 511 wins is an unbreakable record. (2) Teddy Ballgame’s .400 batting average and 521 home runs in a career cut short by military service. (3) Yaz had a long career, putting up numbers ranking him high on many all-time lists...including 3514 hits. (4) The Rocket’s late career sustained excellence has overshadowed his powerful early years in Boston. (5) Rice was overshadowed by other stars, but had many monster years.
ChiSox: Last years world champions and this year’s addition of Thome do not a career make, so I’m ok with the exclusions. (1) Thomas had a few season’s for the books back in the early nineties, enough to vault to the top of this unheralded list. (2) Baines’ long career is revered on the south side and could win him this vote. (3) Appling is a HOF SS with a career BA of .310, and (4) 2B Fox is another Hall Of Famer. (5) Beloved Minnie’s claim to fame is just his long career.
Indians: Bob Feller was amazing, but Speaker’s 3514 hits and .345 average are hard to top. Doby places third, if only for becoming the first black in the AL. Nap was no slouch with 3242 hits / .338 BA, placing Averilli fifth. Hard to replace these five Hall of Famers with anyone more recent.
Tigers: (1) The Georgia Peach was one of the greatest ever. (2) Greenberg fought prejudice during his shorter, more productive career, though (3) Kaline put up more homers in his longer career. (4) Second-baseman Gehringer made the Hall with a .320 average, and perhaps (5) Trammell’s managerial stint helped earn him a spot on the list over his running mate Lou Whitaker.
Royals: (1) Hall of Famer Brett stands head and shoulders over these other favored sons. Long time Royals (2) Otis, (3) Sweeney, and (4) White were loved in KC, as was my write in for (5): Bo Jackson, the All-Star game MVP who made quite a splash for several years in left field.
Angels: Here’s a team many may cry for more current choices, but I’m writing in more from the past. (1) Carew’s high average challenged the all-time greats, collecting 3000 hits. (2) Nolan Ryan still hold most of the Halos pitching records, and had four of his no-hitters there. (3) The heroic Baylor spent many years on the other coast. (4) Third-baseman Jim Fregosi was a 6-time all-star and had his number retired…he even managed the Angles. (5) Salmon helped lead them to their only title, placing him ahead of popular pitcher Finely and Olympic hero Abbott.
Twins: The old-school Killebrew was also quite popular back in the day, and he retired at 5th on the HR list…putting him first in my book. The late Puckett wins many popularity contests in the twin cities despite his post career troubles. Had his career not been cut short due to eye trouble, he could’ve piled up several more MVP caliber seasons. Carew’s years with the Twins outshone Oliva. Hrbek doesn’t belong on this list…give me Joe Mauer, Paul Molitor, or centerfielder Tori Hunter.
Yankees: Don’t give me Mattingly or even Mariano, perhaps the greatest closer ever. I love Jeter, Arod, and Posada. Munson and Gossage were mean. Even Whitey Ford was great. But all are overshadowed by the five Hall of Famers listed. (1) The Babe changed baseball as a hitter, and also set records pitching. (2) Gehrig was not only the Iron Man, but his stats rival Ruth’s in many categories; .340 average and behind only Aaron and Ruth in RBI. (3) The popular DiMaggio tops (4) the injury-riddled Mantle, who finished with 536 HRs (was he second on the list at the time?). (5) Loveable Yogi stirred the drink in his day, thought he could be replaced by Whitey or Mariano.
Athletics: Tough call, since these guys all played elsewhere. (1) Reggie gets the nod, since he led the A’s championship teams in the 70’s and was 6th all-time in homers. (2) Eckersley was also an important puzzle piece in the 90’s as the closer. (3) Lefty Grove played in Philadelphia, so ‘hometown hero’ doesn’t fit…though his 300 wins and .680 winning percentage do. (4) The volatile Henderson, the base-stealing king and one of the greatest leadoff hitters. (5) Catfish was popular and a Series hero who took the big bucks from the Yankees.
Mariners: (1) Junior’s years in Seattle were compared to the greats, solidifying a HOF career even with the recent injuries. (2) Ichiro has burst upon the scene compiling all-time numbers himself, a singles hitter in the steroids era. (3) DH Edgar is loved in the Pacific Northwest. (4) Write-In…ARod was worth $250 million when he left Seattle. That trumps Buhner and Moyer to 5.
Devil Rays: How can an expansion team claim end of the line free agents as their greatest player ever? Boggs did provide one of the greatest moments in Rays history with he got his 3000th hit, and the Crime Dog tried to go for his 500th homer. Why not add Jose Canseco? I’d rather Rocko Baldelli get votes. (1) Crawford (2) Huff (3) Boggs (4) Hernandez (5) McGriff.
Rangers: (1) Ivan was a catcher for the ages. Write-Ins…(2) ARod carried Texas while pressured by talk of his salary (was Ryan here much longer than ARod?), and (3) Rafael Palmeiro, he of the 500HR/3000hit club. (4) Ryan was amazing, particularly in his 40’s, but his brilliant career was divided between four teams. (5) Kevin Brown did more damage for Texas than Sundberg and Greer combined. Teixeira, great as is he, is still a baby.
Blue Jays: (1) One last write-in…Fred McGriff. Toronto is where he got his start, he tore up AL pitching for many years, and he was a fan favorite. (2) Alomar was an elite second-baseman, (3) Carter hit the walkoff HR to win the Series, and (4) Stieb and (5) Fernandez were both All-Stars.
John Schuerholz pulls another rabbit out of the hat...getting a veteran for basically nothing in return. Even if Wickman flops in the NL, the Braves are loaded at catcher: McCann is a young all-star, Brayan Pena is hitting over .300 at AAA (as he did during his cup of coffee this year in the ATL), Salty just hit another HR in AA (his 26th?!), and the Georgia kid playing at Mrytle Beach is highly touted as well. Young Ramerez was a Sally League all-star hitting .285, but it's no loss...he was the 20th ranked Braves minor leaguer.
So many guys who call in to sports talk radio discuss trades with no concept of the financial aspect in mind…or what other teams would want. One guy yesterday went through who could be traded from all the starters, and settled on Renteria as the most tradable. Everyone would much rather have the lower salaried Betemit or some of the prospects.
CPA respnds...You are right – few people take the time to understand all of the ramifications of a trade… it seems like there is always that one caller who wants to trade Todd Pratt for ARod… With Boston picking up so much of his salary, Renteria is a very cheap alternative at SS until one of the young prospects are ready in a few years… everyone wants to trade LaRoche, but nobody realizes that there are not a lot of .800+ OPS hitting, gold glove caliber SS with 3+ years remaining until they are eligible for Free Agency… My thought is the organization realized last year that Betemit could hit major league pitching, but his range at SS would hurt the team defensively…
I still think Giles will be traded (probably after the season, unless someone is willing to give up a quality relief pitcher for him this month – SD, maybe, who would move him to 3B), if for no other reason than what he should win in arbitration as a 5-year guy versus putting Betemit there – but I don’t think there will be a huge market for him, because you are just renting him for 1 year… the Andruw Jones thing puzzles me as well… everyone thinks he should be traded after the season since he will be eligible for free agency after next season and Scott Boras is his agent… but, I don’t think that will happen because of the following…
I think next year MAY be the end of this era for the Atlanta Braves – and I think JS and Cox will gear this team up for their possible “last hurrah”… I am not saying I don’t think they will stop winning, but with the impending sale to Liberty Media, A. Jones contract being up, Smoltz contract being up (and possible retirement) and Cox and JS being in their mid –to – late 60’s… I think all of that adds up to the possibility for major changes… Liberty might come in and pump some money into the team and try to keep the value up, especially since they will probably only own it 3 years or they may do what some of the small market teams have done (Kansas City, Tampa Bay, etc), and slash payroll while pocketing the increased revenue sharing money… that is why I think even if they lost the next 10 games, nobody of any value to NEXT YEARS team would be traded by 7/31…
I ended up staying up to watch the game last night… the new guy pitched much better than expected (especially after seeing Travis Smith and Lance Cormier fill-in with starts the last few years)… if we get Kyle Davies back next month, he could be a good arm in the bullpen…
Interesting story about Tom Hanks, Ron Howard and Dennis Miller going on a tour of MLB parks, with Hanks saying this was a 50th birthday present to himself… you would think guys like that would not be excited about just going to different MLB parks…
Last night during the rain delay, FOX was showing ‘The Best Damn Sports Show’ (or whatever the name is) and they had a interview with Chris Webber and Jalen Rose… Webber talked about how college was the best time of his life – hanging out with his teammates, going to parties, just generally doing the normal things you do in college…
And I say...I hadn’t been sleeping good coming out of the vacation, so I fell asleep on the couch watching the game, shortly after Cox took out Barry. I thought that starter pitched well, too.
I’d just read the Hanks story myself. What I figured was they were going to all the “new” parks…Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincy. When Hanks was on Letterman plugging the Code, he talked about camping with a bunch of guys, how they all had these individual brightly #### tents. I know Miller plays golf, but he’s more into football and baseball than some older celebs who golf, party, or travel overseas. I’ve read how Bill O’Reilley (who I don’t watch) still goes on annual camping-type trips with his old high school/college crowd, but you’re right, you don’t hear too much of that. Letterman jokes about doing stuff like that (or just eating dinner) with Regis and Steve Martin, but I doubt much actually takes place.
I always thought it would be fun, if I was in that position, to take 18-20 friends and fill out a baseball camp.
Missed Webber, as well as the promo on the Friday show about the greatest plays in history, which I’d be a sucker to watch. Peyton enjoyed college, as did Pollack and Greene. Most ballers are looking to jump to the NBA. Heard some recent Mike Vick comments, how in high school he was thinking NFL, not about the college experience.
No relation to Dale! Lifetime Georgia boy...enjoys visiting the rest of the USA. The CPA is my buddy with a finger on the pulse of MLB. I'm a GT grad who also appreciates UGA. Love the Braves & MLB, tolerate the Falcons, Hawks, & Thrashers. A worker bee enjoying Little League & ballet - my excuse for not having hours to write & research. More ramblings can be found at www.sacrifice fly.blogspot. com
