Players I Liked

Seen many great players, with the exception of career American-Leaguers like Brett and Carew. Pretty sure I saw Koufax OR Drysdale. May have saw Fisk play in Chicago…I’ll have to look that up. Did see Frank Robinson manage, and I loved Kruk the player way back in his Padre days, certainly before he grew hair and got on ESPN. Liked ARod when he was a rookie, though these last few years he hasn’t conducted himself as well. Loved the 69 Mets and 70’s Orioles, Oakland A’s, Dodgers, Big Red Machine…Dave Conception, Brooks Robinson, Derek Jeter, Orel Hershieser, and Jim Palmer almost made the team. All these guys had just missed my earlier cut when I had older players on the team.

Still don’t know many second-basemen. Always loved Rod Carew from his Twins days…he was born in Panama, you know. When I went to the Cubs Fantasy Camp I wore 23 for Ryno, because Sammy Sosa wasn’t a favorite of mine…he wore “my” number 21. Ferguson Jenkins always seemed dominant yet unappreciated, playing for the second-division Cubs. Hated that I missed seeing Ichiro and the Mariners play at the Ted last month, they’re the only MLB team I haven’t seen play.

Even as a kid I loved to read about the old timers…mostly hitters. Joe Jackson from the movies “Eight Men Out” and “Field of Dreams”…Mel Ott made an appearance in FOD as well. Since the 500 HR club was such an elite group that Aaron had joined, and there were so few in it, I studied those guys all the more. I knew less about the old-time pitchers, so I picked most of them from my youth…Seaver and Ryan from the 69 Mets, Drysdale and Koufax from the Dodgers. Didn’t like Gibson as a coach, but loved him and the Cardinals from the late 60’s…from reading as a kid the book “Big League Batboy” and going to a game at Busch Stadium in 1968. There have been many articles to read about Bob Feller. Likewise, Musial has been an interesting subject, with his unique batting style and harmonica-playing exploits every year at the Hall of Fame ceremonies.

Today I was in a meeting, doodling different lineups of favorite players.