In choosing which letter of the alphabet to go with for today's Hall of Names entry, I thought to choose the one that would yield the best team overall. Originally, I leaned toward building a "J" team, which we will get to eventually, but finally settled on the "R" squad.
I think we have a winner.
There are 15 players whose last or family name began with the letter "R" already enshrined in the Hall of Fame; and three of them didn't even make this team! The weakest part of the team is the starting rotation, in which we find five Hall of Famers who combined to win 1,430 big league games -- and another Hall of Famer, Negro League star Joe Rogan, relegated to the bullpen, while poor old Red Ruffing, who strung together 273 wins himself, is one of the aforementioned Cooperstown trio who didn't even make final cuts.
And yes, the rotation is the weak link on this team -- down in the bullpen, you have the greatest closer of all time set up by a righty/lefty combo who nailed down 619 saves between them, and a couple of long relief guys nicknamed "Bullet" and "The Gambler." Sure, Ruffing probably deserves to make the team over Rogers, but we wanted another lefty down there.
And oh, that starting lineup ... suffice it to say that no less than three Hall of Fame shortstops (Reese, Rizzuto and Ripken) aren't starting for this team, and two of those didn't make the team at all, thanks to the presence of the best baseball player on the planet today. But A-Rod could end up hitting sixth for this team, what with Ruth, F-Robby and Ramirez good for the 3-4-5 holes.
In fact, the starting lineup is made up entirely of Hall of Famers -- five guys already in (Jackie, Brooks and Frank Robinson; Ruth and Roush); two who are first-ballot locks (A-Rod, Pudge) and one who will probably end up in on the first try (Manny); and of course, one guy who would be in the Hall if it weren't for the pesky matter of a lifetime ban.
The bench is two more Hall of Famers (Ripken, Rice), a future inductee (Rolen), a guy who should get more attention than he will (Raines), a former MVP (Rosen) and an All-Star catcher (Roseboro). Not that any of the bench guys will ever get to play; poor Iron Cal!
You could fill a heck of a roster with players who had no chance of ever making this team -- how about the three Hall of Famers mentioned earlier, along with Jim Rice, a righty/lefty combo of J.R. Richard and Preacher Roe ... the list goes on. Oh, the GM and the manager are both in the Hall of Fame, too.
But for now, let's just meet ...
WE "R" THE CHAMPIONS
** indicates Hall of Famer
* indicates All-Star
GM: Branch Rickey**
MGR: Wilbert Robinson**
C Ivan Rodriguez*
1B Pete Rose*
2B Jackie Robinson**
SS Alex Rodriguez*
3B Brooks Robinson**
LF Frank Robinson**
CF Edd Roush**
RF Babe Ruth**
DH Manny Ramirez*
C Johnny Roseboro*
IF Cal Ripken Jr.**
IF Scott Rolen*
OF Tim Raines Sr.*
OF Sam Rice**
PH/DH Al Rosen*
RHSP Nolan Ryan**
LHSP Eppa Rixey**
RHSP Robin Roberts**
RHSP Amos Rusie**
RHSP Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn**
CL Mariano Rivera*
LHRP Dave Righetti*
RHRP Jeff Reardon*
LHRP Kenny Rogers*
LONG-RH "Bullet" Joe Rogan**
Now seriously, this is the part where I usually challenge Bauxites to come up with a way to improve the team. But there's no way this team -- the first in our alphabet series to be made up entirely of Hall of Famers and All-Stars -- would finish worse than, say, 150-12 (or make that 144-10 in the old 154-game format) in a regular season, right? So what's left to add?
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