In the recent Bicentennial Men Hall of Names feature here on Batter's Box, which formed a fine All-Star team made up of big leaguers all born in the year 1976 a number of people stepped up with alternate all-year teams, and so we also met at least partial squads from, among others, 1957, 1959, 1980, 1982 and 1983. [Wednesday 7/5 Update: already added to this story are teams or partial teams for 1903, 1934, '35, 1945, '46, '47, '49, 1951, '55, '58, 1963, '64, '65, '66, 1970, '75, '77, '79 and 1981.]
Nice teams, one and all. But what's the very best year for producing big league talent? I'm going to set the bar pretty high with the year ...
... 1931.
Why 1931? Simple, really. I started with the one player I wanted to make sure was on the team, The Say Hey Kid, then at the genius of Sean Forman's BaseballReference.com, clicked on Mays' birth year, which was of course, 1931. After quickly scanning the list -- just 53 players overall, barely half the number (104) we had to choose from to build the '76 squad but including Cooperstown names like Banks, Bunning, Mantle and Mathews -- I figured this team might be okay.
Can you do better? Feel free to give it a try and post it here. But first, get a load of this squad, definitely with two scoops of power, it's time to meet ...
The 31 Flavors
** indicates Hall of Famer
* indicates All-Star
LINEUP
C Ed Bailey* (.256 in 14 seasons)
1B Bob Skinner* (.277, 103 homers in 12 years)
2B Frank Bolling* (.254 in 12 seasons)
SS Ernie Banks** (512 homers)
3B Ken Boyer* (.287, 5 GG in 15 seasons)
LF Mickey Mantle** (536 homers)
CF Willie Mays** (660 homers)
RF Joe Cunningham* (.291 in 12 years)
DH Eddie Mathews** (512 homers)
BENCH
C Earl Averill (.242 in seven seasons)
IF Ken Aspromonte (.249 in seven seasons)
IF Charlie Neal* (.259 in eight seasons)
OF Chuck Essegian (.255 in six seasons)
OF Whitey Herzog (.257 in eight seasons)
UTIL Don Zimmer* (.235 in 12 seasons)
ROTATION
RHSP Jim Bunning** (224-184)
RHSP Larry Jackson* (194-183)
RHSP Tom Brewer* (91-82)
LHSP Karl Spooner (10-6, 1954-55)
RHSP Russ Kemmerer (43-59)
BULLPEN
CL-RH Ed Roebuck (52-31, 62 saves)
LHRP Hank Aguirre* (75-72, 33 saves)
RHRP Dave Sisler (38-44, 29 saves)
LHRP Marshall Bridges (23-15, 25 saves)
RHRP Don Bessent (14-7, 12 saves)
Notes ... That's right, every single player in the starting lineup, and a couple on the bench, not to mention several pitchers, made at least one All-Star team ... Who manages this team? Well, check those last two names on the bench again and ask yourself, with that kind of brainpower, does this team really need a manager? ...
That's right, Mathews is the DH so the five-time Gold Glove winner Boyer can man the hot corner ... And yes, Mantle returns to LF, where he spent his rookie year with the Yankees in deference to Joe DiMaggio, only this time it is in deference to the greatest CF who ever played the game, Mays ... Both Mathews and Boyer, as well as Aspromonte, also managed in the big leagues ...
Sure, the starting pitching is a little thin after the front three, but the 3-4-5-6 hitters in the lineup combined for 2,220 career homers, so giving the ball to Karl Spponer everyone once in a while isn't going to be a bad thing ... And though the bullpen doesn't have the single Eckersley-like star to anchor it anywhere, the five-deep relief corps is splendid from one to five, with any one of them capable of taking the ball in the ninth or making a spot start if Kemmerer can't go ...
So seriously, is it possible to find a year that produced a team better than the '31s?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20060702153641391