Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
Ladies and gentleman, welcome to Leesburg, Virginia for tonight's game.

Currently being driven to the mound in the world-famous 1969 Dodge Charger from "The Dukes of Hazzard" The General Lee, to perform tonight's national anthem is the love-lee star of stage and screen, actress LeeLee Sobieski. She will be accompanied by noted musicians Tommy Lee and David Lee Roth followed by a special rendition of "God Bless the U.S.A." by Lee Greenwood.

Throwing out tonight's ceremonial first pitch is Lee Chaden, executive vice president of the Sara Lee Corporation.

You get the idea?

"Lee" is just the 24th most-common surname in the United States, birthplace of baseball, and the most famous man to bear the name was a general who led the Confederacy in its attempt to secede from the union. So it's a dicey proposition to build an all-Lee team.

A total of 30 men with the surname "Lee" have played in the major leagues, and six of them have been All-Stars -- two for the very first time in 2005, Carlos and Derrek. Compare that to the fact that there have been 37 All-Stars with the middle name Lee (not including Hall of Fame manager George Lee "Sparky" Anderson).

There have also been six All-Stars with the first (given) name Lee, including matinee idol Lee Mazzilli, slugging 1B Lee May and the all-time saves leader (regardless of name), Big Lee Smith. And that doesn't take into account the five All-Stars and three Hall of Famers who had the first or middle name "Leroy" -- unfortunately, there were no Bad, Bad Leroy Browns, but Leroy "Satchel" Paige, James Leroy Bottomley and Frank Leroy Chance have found their way into the Hall of Fame. Oh, and there is the one first-name Lee who is a Hall of Famer, Lee-gendary General Manager Lee MacPhail.

We're not going to extend our Lee-search to include Leighs, Leos, Leons and Leonards, or we'd be expanding too, um, wide-lee -- though it would be nice to have Hall of Famers like 2B Joe Leonard Morgan, DH Paul Leo Molitor, OF Leon "Goose" Goslin and RHSP Leon Day as roster options.

What we will do is match up every single one of the 37 All-Stars with the middle name Lee against the 30 men with that surname who have reached the big leagues. Sure, that's not fair; but anyone who shares a name with General Robert E. Lee should understand the allure of fighting the establishment against insurmountable odds. With that said, then, let's move on to meet our challengers.

As always:
** indicates Hall of Famer
* indicates All-Star

The Middling Lees   The Lasting Lees
MGR: Sparky Lee Anderson**   MGR: Jim Leyland (close as we get!)
Starting Lineup:
C Johnny Lee Bench**
1B Willie Lee McCovey**
2B Don Lee Blasingame*
SS David Lee Chalk*
3B Eddie Lee Matthews**
LF Robert Lee "Indian Bob" Johnson*
CF Bobby Lee Bonds*
RF Jesse Lee Barfield*
DH Mickey Lee Tettleton*

Bench:
C Thurman Lee Munson*
COR IF Terry Lee Pendleton*
MID IF Ernest Lee "Junior" Spivey*
OF David Lee Henderson*
OF Tommie Lee Agee*
UTIL Henry Lee "Peanuts" Lowrey*

Rotation:
RHSP Richard Lee "Rick" Sutcliffe*
LHSP James Lee Kaat*
RHSP Steven Lee Busby*
LHSP David Lee Wells*
5SP-X Johnny Lee "Blue Moon" Odom*

Bullpen:
CL-R Dennis Lee Eckersley**
RHRP Jeffrey Lee Russell*
RHRP Jeffrey Lee Shaw*
RHRP Ronald Lee Reed*
LONG-R Hilton Lee Smith**

  Starting Lineup:
C Cliff W. Lee (UTIL/1B/3B/OF)
1B Derrek L. Lee*
2B Manuel Lee
SS Dud Lee
3B Tom Lee (mostly a RP)
LF Carlos Lee*
CF Hal Lee
RF Leron Lee
DH Travis Lee

Bench:
C
COR IF
MID IF
OF Derek G. Lee
OF/3B Billy J. Lee
UTIL

Rotation:
RHSP "Big Bill" Lee*
LHSP Bill "Spaceman" Lee*
LHSP Wyatt "Watty" Lee
LHSP Cliff P. Lee
5SP-L Thornton Lee*

Bullpen:
CL-R Bob Lee*
RHRP Mark L. Lee
LHRP Mark O. Lee
RHRP Don Lee
LHRP Mike Lee

Well, that about does it ... the All-Lee Surname team doesn't run really deep and we don't even really have a proper catcher. But we are able to (bare-lee) fill out a starting lineup, and as long as everyone stays healthy, the lack of a bench won't hurt TOO much (knock wood).

We're already filling the hot corner for the Last-Lee team with a guy who did more pitching in the bigs than anything else; that hardly matches up with Hall of Famer Eddie Matthews and former MVP Terry Pendleton, two former Braves sharing the -- here in Texas we have to call them the "Midland Lees" -- playing time over in the other dugout.

In fact, the Bench comparison is compounded when you realize that the Midland Lee gang not only has a bench stuffed with former All-Stars, it has a Hall of Fame Bench behind the plate.

Odd-lee enough, the Surname Lee Gang, in its rotation, swings way to the left (leeft?) with four starters being southpaws, while the middle-name Lees can come up with just one portsider for their rotation.

Clear-lee, at least one of these squads could use some help. Suggestions sure-lee are welcome!

Giving a Little Lee-Way | 15 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
westcoast dude - Sunday, August 14 2005 @ 11:13 PM EDT (#125554) #
How about Bill Lee Martin, manager of those Seventies Yankees teams?
Mick Doherty - Sunday, August 14 2005 @ 11:48 PM EDT (#125556) #
Alas, Billy's real name was Alfred Manuel Martin, so you can see why he went by "Billy."

Interesting that today as this is posted, the Devil Rays knock off the Indians, 1-0. Why is that interesting? The Tribe wasted eight shutout innings from Cliff Lee, and the D-Rays won it on the ninth with a pinch-hit homer by Travis Lee.

Nice.
Leigh - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 09:07 AM EDT (#125561) #
How about Robert Leigh Higginson? Being given a gender-neutral name has its disadvantages, a fact to which my fellow Rosterite Gwyn can attest. Barring the advent of a "Hey, Isn't That a Girl's Name?" Hall of Names Team, this is my only chance.
Mick Doherty - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 01:15 PM EDT (#125578) #
Leigh, I actually thought of you when I wrote this:

We're not going to extend our Lee-search to include Leighs, Leos, Leons and Leonards, or we'd be expanding too, um, wide-lee

Sorry! But that's a genius idea for a "Hey, Lady!" (say that in a Jerry Lewis voice) team. Morgan Burkhart. Terry Crowley. Tracy Stallard. Who else?

Let's stay with female or gender-neutral spellings, so Gene Locklear is right out but Jean Dubuc is in (and first names only, so sorry Domingo Jean; Sherry Magee yes, Larry Sherry no.)

Who else?

Mike Green - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 01:22 PM EDT (#125581) #
Tracies Jones and Woodson would be good. All the Leslies went by Les, except for Auld.
Mick Doherty - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 01:24 PM EDT (#125584) #
Paul Blair doesn't qualify. How about a couple of Hall of Famers in Jesse Burkett and Jesse Haines?

I suppose Jamie Campbell is our pbp guy?
Four Seamer - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 01:41 PM EDT (#125586) #
The Jays alone provide a good number of possibilities - Shannon Stewart, Kelly Gruber, Candy Maldonado, Kerry Ligtenberg (although I guess Kerry Wood would be an upgrade).

It's really just a guy's name, but Sean Young is a whole lotta woman. I think that's enough to qualify Sean Casey.

A good starter like Allie Reynolds would make this team pretty competitive, although I wouldn't want to be the one telling Superchief he's on this team!
Mick Doherty - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 01:47 PM EDT (#125588) #
Great stuff, four seamer. While you were posting that, here's what I came up with:
  • Brandy Davis
  • Bill "Mary" Calhoun (no kidding)
  • Julie Freeman
  • Julie Wera
  • Robin Ventura (and many others)
  • Pat Collins (and many others)
  • Kim Batiste (but not Byung-Hyun or Sunny Kim)
  • Carroll Hardy
  • Sandy Koufax (and many others)
  • Anna Sebastian "Pete" Compton (no kidding!)
  • Connie Mack
  • Bonnie Hollingsworth
  • Lynn McGlothen (but not Fred Lynn!)
  • Holly Hollingshead
  • June Greene
  • Kris Benson
  • Christy Mathewson
  • Gale Wade (but not Rich Gale)
If somebody wants to do this team, shoot me a note at mickwrites@hotmail.com or else I'll put it together later this week. More suggestions welcome, of course!
Alex0888 - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 01:50 PM EDT (#125589) #
Sal Fasano? Sal(ly) ? I don't know?
Mick Doherty - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 01:51 PM EDT (#125590) #
What a starting rotation! Mathewson, Haines and Koufx, three Hall of Famers, at the front, with Wood and Reynolds filling out the five.

Boo-yah! Who cares if this team hits?

Mike Green - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 02:49 PM EDT (#125600) #
Do Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig (or Boudreau) qualify? Jackie Robinson and Nellie Fox certainly should. Chris Hoiles could catch. Maury Wills works too, as does Sam Rice.

I do believe that there are the bats to accompany those arms.
Mick Doherty - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 03:04 PM EDT (#125602) #
Babe Ruth? Doh! Just what we need, another HOF-quality pitcher. Or, am I remembering right that he had some sort of mid-career position switch?

As for Gehrig and Boudreau, from a spelling perspective, I think Lu Blue might be more appropriate, as appealing as those other unisex guys are.
Mike Green - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 03:15 PM EDT (#125605) #
Actually, I thought we might name the team "The Ladies that are known as Lou" from the Shooting of "John McGraw" Service poem. Canadian content regulations, eh?
HoJu - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 04:38 PM EDT (#125626) #
Mick I was thinking Jerry Howarth and Jerry Coleman in the booth.
costanza - Monday, August 15 2005 @ 04:50 PM EDT (#125629) #
Kris Benson

FWIW, I was somewhat amused to learn that Benson's name is actually Kristin...

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