For me, it's Will Clark.  Most likely for no other reason than his baseball card featured him getting 'inked up' (under the eyes) before a game.  I thought it was cool.  That, and his name rolls of the toungue nicely.  It's no Billy Jo Robidoux, but it's a good baseball name nonetheless.

Now that I think about it, I also had an unusual infatuation with Ryan Sandberg.  Again, probably the cool name thing.

There are a lot of baseball players that I liked when I was a kid. thats what comes from growing up in the baseball card era. But being a catcher and playing on a team called the A's I liked Terry Steinbach.   I liked Benny Santiago better but he was a part of the Blue Jays later so i guess he is disqualified.

I didn't have many of those as a child as far as baseball goes, hockey yes, baseball not as much.  I always cheered for the hometown baseball teams.  Blue Jays and Expos.  I wasn't a huge baseball fan as a child, and the only other players I can remember liking other than Jays and 'Spos were Ryne Sandberg and Nolan Ryan because of the obvious name connection.  And Wade Boggs but that's because he was on Cheers.

Most of my favourite non-Jays were National Leaguers, since the American League opponents would come into town often enough that I'd learn to dislike them.  (I hated all of the Red Sox and Tigers of the '80s and early '90s.)

I liked the way Andy Van Slyke played, and I liked John Tudor's smooth delivery (once he went to the NL).  Also, it's worth mentioning Padres-era John Kruk.  People now all think of his Phillies days and/or his TV persona, but watching a young Kruk flailing around the bases in brown pinstripes was just plain fun.

Favourites when I was a kid:

Frank Howard because he was a giant of a man playing baseball - the bat always looked like a twig in his hands.  Walt  'No Neck'  Williams for his bizarre mannerisms and bang-on nickname.  Luis Tiant for his funky delivery which we sometimes tried to imitate in the schoolyard.   Eric Davis for his world class talent that his fragile body wouldn't let him use with any consistency.  Gaylord Perry was always my favourite pitcher.  I still wear #44 in the slowpitch leagues I play in because I really liked Willie McCovey.  The last 2 don't really count for this exercise because I was a Giants fan as a kid. 

Not a Hall of Famer - that disqualifies Al Kaline. Not on my favourite team - that takes Tim Raines out. Maybe Gus Triandos - I'm apparently somewhat older than most of you. I thought his name was sort of outrageous at the time (like a cartoon character; I had not yet met anyone of Greek extraction), and he looked great on the Topps cards - big, hulking dude. He always seemed like he was going to be one of the great sluggers, and he hit 30 HR once, but,  really - don't ask me why.

  Mention of Andy Van Slyke brings good memories. He did everything well, didn't he? Just not for long enough.

I'd vote for Tony Phillips and Mickey Tettleton - both were guys who could switch-hit, play a lot of positions and always seemed to get on base. Even though I didn't realize it at the time I was an OBP freak...

I especially liked Tettleton once I imitated his bat-held-horozontally stance I actually started to hit for (moderate) power.

Acknowledging the hometown team violation up front: Ron Brand. I remember cheering for him when I was very young because he appeared at a baseball banquet when I was a kid. Looking at his career through a harsher prism, he was not much of a player. The Expos certainly did not send their finest!

Still, I challenge anyone to find me another catcher who's second highest number of games played was at shortstop. In 1970, the nascent Expos brass decided that the 30-year old washed up catcher could best serve the team as a shortstop, and so Brand played 41 games at the position (for the first time ever in his career) at ages 30 and 31. He must have been quite a sight in 1971 when his range factor was 3.05 compared to the league's 4.46.

For me, it will always be Matt Williams.

He played the game the way it was meant to be played, always had dirt on his uniform, and is a member of the Hall of the Very Good.  Having Matt Williams and Will Clark on the corners was a solid recipe for success for those Giants teams, but they never could put it all together and overcome earthquakes and the A's.  I was really pleased for him that he was able to top off his career with the World Series win in Arizona.  It was a shame that the 1994 strike cut short one of his best seasons - he and Jeff Bagwell were putting up a pre-steroid version of the McGwire-Sosa show that year.

The topper for me was when I caught a foul ball that he hit at Candlestick Park against the Astros.  Gotta love Baseball Reference, it was August 12, 1992 in the 7th inning vs. Joe Boever.  Still have the ball too.

AJ Piercynski. Loud, obnoxious, gets the fans going, and people hate him.

Before that, Mo Vaughn, just because of how scary he was at the plate.

Growing up I actively tried to select a not-so good player to be my favourite, since I was a lover of all things underdog.  However I was entirely unsuccessful in that my first pick was Greg Maddux during his first go around with the Cubs (possibly because of our shared name).  When I finally clued in that he was too good for me I went for some weenie rookie catcher in Houston.

Unfortunately Craig Biggio turned out to be far too good as well

So I think I have to go back to my #2 during my Maddux days and select Jeff Pico.  I look back fondly at the silliness of 7 year olds when I actually though Maddux and Pico had the same level of talent.

Well, my three favorite players have always been Joe Carter, Nolan Ryan and Griffey Jr., but those are all disqualified....

For some reason, back in the day I really liked Dick Schoefield (sp?).  I have no idea why, I just liked him for some reason.  Also had a thing for Alan Trammel - I got a card of his in my very first pack of baseball cards ever [I thought that on his card the symbol "h" meant homeruns and so figured that was the greatest player ever.....I was 6, what did I know?].

My favourite non-Jays in the 80s (my childhood) did include several HoFers, of course (Raines, Gwynn, Schmidt, Puckett....)

I did love Eric Davis, Whittiker, Mike Scott, Dale Murphy, Viola, Blylevyn, Kevin McReynolds, and Benito Santiago, too. There are a couple of should-be HoFers on the list, but none is in yet.

Steve Balboni (happy to see him mentioned already) was a big favourite of mine, too. I loved the all or nothing approach, and in Baseball Stars for the Nintendo game, I generally spent all of my money recreating him. 

...one of my favourite players was Rip Repulski because I had this "really neat" baseball card that folded in half  with two players on the same card and because he played for the St Louis Cardinals which had such great uniforms. I also really liked Ken Boyer because of his Topps BB card which had this great photo of him at 3rd base. I also liked Elston Howard because he had played for the Leafs and Bobby Shantz because ...and Enos Slaughter... and Ted Kluzewski... and Jackie Jensen ... it's surprising how the names come back. I had alot of favourites obviously. Rocky Nelson, too!

Frank Howard. He was playing for the Rangers in the first game I ever saw in person, and he was so big that even from the top of the grandstand, I asked my grandfather who the big guy was.

John Pacella. Not because he was any good (although he was good enough to get six years of entries at baseball-reference.com). But because one of his baseball cards noted that his cap fell off every time he pitched. Now that at least is an A for effort.

Any knuckleball pitcher ever. The knuckleball is an exemplary way to subvert the dominant paradigm.