Who’s The Best?
By Blake VandeBunte • Nov 28th, 2008 • Category: UncategorizedI am still in between computers. I sold my old one on Craigslist last week and am still awaiting my new computer from the good people at Dell. So, for now, I am stuck using my wife’s computer. Her computer is fine and all but I couldn’t move all of my blog work and research onto her computer and just make a big mess. Why do I share all of this? Well, I was well on my way with my “Top 100 Tigers of All Time” list when I made the switch and that work has been put on hold until the new computer arrives.
However, I didn’t want to get rusty, so I am still doing my research on some of the greatest players ever to wear the Old English D. Part of my research led me to Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Lineups. The book features all kinds of fun lineups for every team in baseball. The highlight for each team is of course, the all time greats. I won’t rip Rob off completely, so this is the only list of his I will share here. If you want some more, you’ll have to buy the book (I just got it for 43 cents on Amazon.com). Here is All Time Tigers lineup:
- DH: Rusty Staub
- C: Bill Freehan
- 1B: Hank Greenberg
- 2B: Charlie Gehringer
- SS: Alan Trammell
- 3B: George Kell
- LF: Bobby Veach
- CF: Ty Cobb
- RF: Al Kaline
- SP1: Hal Newhouser
- SP2: Mickey Lolich
- SP3: Tommy Bridges
- SP4: Jack Morris
- RP: John Hiller
Not bad, right. It’s worth pointing out that this list was made after the 2002 season, so some of the more current players were not even considered for this list.
Some of the names here are no-brainers like Cobb, Greenberg and Kaline. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who has beef with any of those players being in the lineup. However, there are some guys who could have an argument like Lance Parrish or maybe Sam Crawford or Dizzy Trout.
I just thought this was a fun list. It helps put things in perspective. For example, I didn’t know much about a player like Bobby Veach (1912-1923) until I started doing a little reading. Veach put up some pretty impressive numbers for his era but was constantly over-shadowed by the likes of Cobb and Crawford. However, when I see Veach get the spot in this lineup over a player like Willie Horton, it really does make me appreciate a player like Veach.
Part of the reason I wanted to make this post was to let you all know that I have not forgotten about the Top 100 list and that it will for sure start while the calender still reads, 2008. I’ll get the ball rolling on it as soon as possible and will have it all wrapped up by the time we kick off the 2009 season.
Blake VandeBunte is a posting fiend.
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Despite neyer’s lack of knowledge on Tigers past other than a few Tigers’ Greats names,
I cut him and others from espn some slack. They do have to cover every ML team.
Blake you have a good list here and I am glad to see your pick of Bobby Veach in leftfield with all due respect to a player many of us watched his whole career while with the Tigers, our beloved Willie Horton.
A problem I have with all time teams, whether for our Tigers or another teams all time team, is that many people will move a righfielder or centerfielder over to leftfield. Case in point are many all time Yankee’s teams will move either Mantle, DiMaggio or even Ruth to left field to get them all in the starting nine.
The only place imo, you can or should do this is in the bullpen, where many pitchers were starters but had better success in relief. and not many with distinguished careers in relief except closers, and DH.
One last point is that this is for fun and like the All Star game and teams, there should be an allowance for more than a 25 man roster for an all time team.
My All Time Tigers Team :
DH : Harry Heilmann , Goose Goslin. Great Right and Left handed batters slow of foot and not all that great defensively. Fielder and York miss out.
C : Freehan , Cochrane. Parrish, Pudge, Tettleton miss out.
1B : Greenberg , Cash. York, Wertz, Clark miss out.
2B : Gehringer , Whitaker. McAuliffe, easley miss out.
SS : Trammell, Kuenn. Guillen, Rogell, Bush miss out.
3B : Kell, Boone. Rodriguez, Fryman, Owen, Higgins miss out.
LF : Veach, Horton. White, Fox, Walker miss out. Goslin Lefty DH.
CF : Cobb Lemon, McCoskey, Northrup, LeFlore miss out.
RF : Kaline, Crawford. Higginson, Colavito miss out. Heilmann Righty DH
SP 1 : Newhouser.
SP 2 : Morris.
SP 3 : Lolich.
SP 4 : Bridges.
Sp 5 : Bunning.
BP 1 : Mullin.
BP 2 : Trout.
BP 3 : Tanana.
BP 4 : McLain
BP 5 : Lary.
BP 6 : Dauss.
BP 7 : Hutchinson
Closer : Hiller, Hernandez.
Just like the email I sent you regarding the Tigers’ Top 100, It is most difficult to remember mentioning players who did not make the cut for “my Tigers team”. Players like Heinie Manush and charlie Maxwell in leftfield, as well as Kirk Gibson in center and right. Most difficult to remember every player when drawing from a Tigers team pool of over 100 years. and probably missed naming a few more.