Hi there, and welcome to our first Gather.com discussion under the Texas Public Radio banner. We picked a little lighter topic to begin with as we experiment with this online community. On the July 28 edition of Texas Matters, former Astro Larry Dierker was interviewed about baseball and his new book, My Team, wherein he picks his all time dream team. Dierker limited his choices to players he has observed during his career, eliminating greats like Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, and Jackie Robinson.
Here's a further description from Simon & Schuster's press materials:
Dierker selects twenty-five players for My Team and another twenty-five for the opposition, the Underdogs, or "Dogs." There are two players at each position, five starting pitchers, and four relievers. (When your starters are the likes of Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, and Juan Marichal, you don't worry about bullpen depth.) All are players that Dierker has played with or against or watched in his years as player, coach, manager, and commentator. Each athlete must have played at least ten years in the major leagues to qualify, and players are judged on their ten best seasons. Leadership skills and personality -- critical components of team chemistry -- are highly valued.
Dierker's squad shakes down like this:
Starting Pitchers: Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson
Catchers: Johnny Bench, Mike Piazza
1st Base: Jeff Bagwell, Willie Stargell
2nd Base: Joe Morgan, Craig Biggio
3rd Base: Mike Schmidt, George Brett
Shortstop: Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter
Left Field: Barry Bonds, Frank Robinson
Center Field: Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle
Right Field: Hank Aaron, Ken Griffey, Jr.
Relievers: Dennis Eckersley, John Smoltz, Tervor Hoffman, Mariano Rivera
Myself, I think I would want Nolan Ryan on board for his power and intimidation factor. Few hitters liked to face him. It's a shame that the Angels weren't able to back him up with some offense in the 1970s. But it's hard to argue with Dierker's pitching choices that are already up there.
So, what do you think? Who would make your dream team?
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Comments: 5
Also, I noticed you didn't have a lot of the old-time old-timers either. Shame on you for ignoring the Babe, the Georgia Peach, and the Iron Horse. :-)
Also, props to you for avoiding the Steroid Crew and the ethically dubious Pete Rose.
The reason for leaving out the old-timers is that the list is made up only of players we've observed in action over the past 40 years. Before that was before Dierker's time, and therefore it's unfair to judge.
Zinc Gothic, if you're interested, check out my interview with Dierker on our website, www.tpr.org. Look to the program "Texas Matters" in the drop down menu, or on the right side of the page.
That said, I still like having at least one world-class leadoff hitter like Rickey. Besides his ability to generate a ton of walks, he forces opposing fielders to drastically adjust their positioning and contingency planning when he's on the basepaths. That dispruptive presence alone helps to cause more stress, mistakes, non-preferable fielder alignment,s and pitcher-exhausting pickoff attempts amongst the fielders. Call that an "intangible" benefit if you will, but it certainly was present and was duly noted in the annals of baseball history. Fielders had to stay way more attentive to ensure Rickey wouldn't steal or move from 1st to 3rd on simple singles. Keep in mind, Rickey also holds the record for scoring the most times from 1st on singles. Which is a rare threat, but a terrifying and embarrassing one for a fielder as well.
Granted, I only mention his name because within his baseball specialties, he was of epic material. Just like Bonds and Ruth were in the HR & BB department. Otherwise, I agree with you - I'd rather have a high potency slugger in the roster lineup than a decent 60+ base steal guy.
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I'll look up your interview. Sounds interesting!
As for Rickey Henderson, I agree that his career stats far exceed those of others from the old era. But we must note that his stats are inflated because of changes in MLB that occurred since the mid 70s:
In the old era the strike zone was from the top of the shoulders to the bottom of the knees - consequently, there were far fewer walks. The balk rule was far more liberal, back then. With fewer runners at first and with that liberal interpretation, there were fewer steals.
Nolan Ryan was an intidimator but Larry Jackson, Bob Gibson, and Don Drysdale were every bit as intimidating if not worse. My all time favorite pitcher was Whitey Ford who threw the best spitter and who bruised many knuckles with his inside fastballs.
The fences were further back than they are now. So even though the players on average are bigger and stronger than Babe Ruth, those field dimensions help inflate the home run and RBI stats.
I still enjoy the game of baseball but it is not as much fun as it was in the old days. Give me a game that features the pre-mid 1970s rules and you would see that it was a vastly superior game back then.