About a month ago, my OS baseball buddy Andy Wolfenson came up with the challenge of creating an all-star baseball team with one player representing each letter of the alphabet (original post here). I foolishly suggested an American League versus National League roster, and Andy talked me into a challenge. (That is, he mentioned it as a possibility, and I grabbed it, because it’s a lot more fun than work.) 

Having both been somewhat preoccupied by work—though Andy managed to get in some fun too—we were delayed in putting together our teams until serendipitous procrastination gave us the right arm slot for the perfect delivery point: today, the day of the real All-Star Game. 

I have the National League, and Andy the American (which is to say, twenty Yankees plus Eckersley, Ichiro, Dan Quisenberry, and Robin Yount). The rules are these (adapted from Andy’s original post): 

1.       You can only use each letter once. That means you will have to exclude two letters – one is easy, since there has never been a major leaguer whose last name begins with “x”. The other is optional.

2.       The team should be created “rotisserie baseball” style – two catchers, one 1B, one 3B, one 1B/3B, one 2B, one SS, one 2B/SS, five OFs, one OF/DH, and ten pitchers.

3.       Only use players who played most of their careers after World War II.

4.       They have to be placed in a position where they played the majority of their careers. 

Here is mine: 

C: Johnny Bench (Hall of Fame [HOF hereafter])

            Joe Torre

1B: Albert Pujols (HOF to be)

2B: Ryne Sandberg (HOF)

SS: Barry Larkin (HOF to be?)

3B: Chipper Jones (HOF to be) (Switch)

2B/SS: Chase Utley (L)

1B/3B: Ryan Zimmerman (warm body with the right letter)

OF (oh, I love this): Hank Aaron (HOF)

            Jim Edmunds (L)

            Willie Mays (HOF)

            Frank Robinson (HOF)

            Billy Williams (HOF) (L)

OF/DH: Dmitri Young (warm body with the right letter)

Starting pitchers: Steve Carlton (HOF) (L)

            Don Drysdale (HOF)

            Bob Gibson (HOF)

            Sandy Koufax (HOF) (L)

            Phil Niekro (HOF)

            Roy Oswalt

            Fernando Valenzuela (L)

Relief pitchers: John Franco (L)

            Trevor Hoffman (HOF to be)

            Jason Isringhausen 

Eleven of 24 are in the Hall of Fame, and three more are likely, with another a maybe. 

Toughest choice was Ryne Sandberg over Mike Schmidt, but going with Schmidt, my original choice, meant picking Gregg Jeffries for the bench, and I think the Sandberg/Chipper/Utley trio beats Schmidt/Utley/Jeffries. 

Next toughest was Edmunds and Drysdale over Andre Dawson and Dock Ellis. Edmunds has comparable numbers to Dawson, although it’s true that some of that has to do with his comparative longevity and the toll of Dawson’s injuries. But Drysdale is more of an upgrade over Dock than Edmunds is a downgrade from Hawk. Also, Edmunds gives me a lefty bat and a second true centerfielder. (On the other hand, not having Dawson cost me a five of a kind outfield: all Hall of Famers.) 

Pete and Barry? They are, as we use to tell the boys when they did something wrong, castigado (punished). Besides, I’ll take their alphabetical replacements (Frank Robinson and Johnny Bench) without a qualm. 

Here’s my batting order (Frank graciously moves to left to make way for Hank):

Willie Mays (CF)

Ryne Sandberg (2B)

Albert Pujols (1B)

Hank Aaron (RF)

Frank Robinson (LF)

Johnny Bench (C)

Chipper Jones (3B)

Barry Larkin (SS)

(pitcher)

If we’re using the DH, I’m DH’ing Billy Williams; Dmitri Young can pout all he wants. He’s lucky to be in the clubhouse. 

Yes, the switch-hitting Chipper is the only left-handed bat. I do believe, though, that Willie, Hank, Frank, Albert, and Johnny can handle right-handed pitching. (Hmm, three Reds in the starting lineup!) 

Leading off Willie? Well, he used to do it in All-Star Games of old, and getting him an extra at-bat a game sounds like good managing to me. Besides, with this bottom of the order, he’ll come up plenty of times with men on base. 

The starting rotation is a bit more balanced (in order):

Sandy Koufax (L)

Bob Gibson (R)

Steve Carlton (L)

Don Drysdale (R)

Phil Niekro (R) 

There you have it.

Check out Andy’s team (here) and then give a cheer (of the approving or Bronx variety) to let us know how you think we've done. And, of course, we're both open to debate the choices.

(For the record, absent the alpha constriction, I’d make these changes: Roy Campanella over Torre as backup catcher; Joe Morgan starting at second; Schmidt for Chipper; Sandberg and Ernie Banks as infield backups; Roberto Clemente for Edmunds; Willie Stargell as DH; and Niekro, Oswalt, Valenzuela, Isringhausen, and Franco booted in favor of Tom Seaver, Warren Spahn, Robin Roberts, Bruce Sutter, and John Smoltz. [Greg Maddux always had trouble with the big game.]) 

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