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I admit it, I can get pretty narcissistic here on Batter's Box when my birthday rolls around. So before this year's rendition completely rolls into the history books, what can we do to, um, "celebrate" this year? In years past, we've already seen the All-July 20 team and the All-Mick(ey) squad, even putting together one HoN entry that featured two teams, All-"Doc" and All-MD ... then last year, upon reaching a milestone (or is that millstone?), we met the All-Age-40 team, followed later (without actually waiting for, y'know, today) by the All-Age-41 squad. So are we totally out of ideas?

Not on your (okay, my) life ...


... as today we meet a team made up of players all born the same year I was, 1966. None of those players are in the Hall of Fame yet -- heck, more than a few are still active! -- though at least two certainly will be and another three or four can make a pretty good case. So here we go, it's time to blow out the candles and say hello to ...

The Phillips 66ers
** indicates Hall of Famer (none yet)
* indicates All-Star

LINEUP
C Sandy Alomar Jr.* (.274, 112 homers so far)
1B David Segui (.291, 139 homers)
2B Mickey Morandini* (.268, 123 SB)
SS Bill Spiers (.271 over 13 years)
3B Scott Brosius* (.257, 141 homers)
LF David Justice* (.279, 305 homers)
CF Bernard Gilkey (.275, 118 homers, 115 SB)
RF Larry Walker* (.313, 383 homers)
DH Albert Belle* (.295, 381 homers)

BENCH
C Darrin Fletcher* (.269, 124 homers)
IF Jeff Frye (.290 over 8 years)
IF Terry Shumpert (.252 over 14 years)
3B/1B Dave Hollins* (.260, 112 homers)
OF Moises Alou* (.301, 321 homers so far)
OF/IB/3B Jeff Conine (.285, 212 homers)

ROTATION
RHSP Greg Maddux* (340-210 so far)
LHSP Tom Glavine* (298-197 so far)
RHSP Curt Schilling* (213-142 so far)
RHSP Jack McDowell* (127-87)
RHSP Juan Guzman* (91-79)

BULLPEN
CL-RH John Wetteland* (48-45 330 saves)
LH-SET Chris Hammond (66-62 3 saves)
RH-SET Jeff Shaw* (34-54 203 saves)
LHRP Derek Lilliquist (25-34 17 saves)
RHRP Mike Timlin (70-68 140 saves so far)

Birthday (Okay, Birth Year) Notes ... Among those considered for roster spots but not making it through final cutdowns were good character backup catchers like Bill Haselman and Greg Myers, briefly shining cornermen like John Jaha, Orlando Merced, Sean Berry and Ron Coomer, and outfielders John Vander Wal and Hard-Hittin' Mark Whiten ...

The bullpen is loaded, with Wetteland, Shaw and Timlin combining for 673 career saves; if we weren't set on having a couple of lefties in the 'pen, we could bump Hammond and Lilliquist for Gregg Olson and Jose Mesa and feature a five-man bullpen with more than 1,200 career saves among them to their credit -- and that doesn't even count Mel Rojas, another righty with another 126 saves to his name ...

Not that the bullpen has to be all that deep -- with Maddux, Glavine and Schilling, all likely Hall of Famers, at the front of the rotation, there's certainly no need to go hunting for a long man (Tim Wakefield?) to add to the 'pen, especially when your back of the rotation is fortified by All-Stars like McDowell and once-upon-a-time Jay shooting star Guzman ...

But just for the record, among the guys who didn't even make the team are names you'll probably recognize like Heathcliff Slocumb, Bob Scanlan, Armando Reynoso, Melido Perez, Alan Mills, Greg McMichael, Darren Holmes, John Hudek, Bob Wells, Dave Veres, Mike Harkey, Jeff Nelson, Pete Smith, Dave Burba, Pete Harnisch, Woody Williams and Anthony Young ... You could construct a pretty formidable pitching staff from that list of names alone!

So, Bauxites, what do you think of this team? Did we miss anyone who should definitely be on the roster? (Here's the full list of Born-in-'66, thanks to Sean Forman's usual genius work at BaseballReference.com) ... And, can you come up with a full roster based on those players born in your favorite year?

My Favorite (Birth) Year | 8 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
scooter - Friday, July 20 2007 @ 09:29 PM EDT (#171834) #
Wow, I knew Maddux was good, but not *that* good...
Mike Green - Friday, July 20 2007 @ 09:56 PM EDT (#171835) #
Happy birthday, Mick.  That's quite a fine pitching staff working for you.

Your birth year would clean my team's clock.  I've got a real fine outfield with Raines, Moseby and Barfield (and Bell and Baines on the bench), and Tony Phillips and Ryne Sandberg in the infield, but a rotation of Gullickson, Moore, Morgan, Dotson and Oil Can Boyd would do nothing except bring happy thoughts to Mike Moffatt.

CeeBee - Friday, July 20 2007 @ 10:15 PM EDT (#171838) #

Happy birthday Mick :)

Your team would kick my teams butt, though I do have a few good position players including Jim Sundberg, Dave Parker, Rick Burleson, Bill Madlock, Dave Winfield, Cesar Cedeno and Dwight Evans. It's my pitching staff besides Burt Blyleven, Mike Flanagan and Goose Gossage that scares me.

Mick Doherty - Friday, July 20 2007 @ 11:27 PM EDT (#171839) #
CeeBee, I couldn't resist looking up your year after seeing your post, and I gotta tell you, I think you're underselling your pitching staff. A rotation that starts with Blyleven and Flanagan and is filled out with Don Gullett, Dennis Leonard and Dick Ruthven, and  a bullpen of Gossage set up by Sid Monge, Dan Spillner, Greg Minton and  Don Stanhouse ... I admit, the '66 staff is better, but there aren't too many GMs in the game today who would think twice about trading their current staff for that one!
 
And with a lineup that goes something like, around the horn, Sundberg-Cedeno-Madlock-Burleson-Buddy Bell-Jeff Burroughs- Winfield-Parker-Evans (you missed Burroughs and Bell) with one of those last four DH'ing and Cedeno at 1B (or maybe Parker at 1B so Cedeno can play CF), I think that's a hell of a team!

And the '51s have a natural hometown, too,  though it's a bit of a gamble ...  Vegas!

Mick Doherty - Friday, July 20 2007 @ 11:32 PM EDT (#171840) #
Mike, on the other hand, I fear you are not underselling the pitching staff of the '59s at all ...  On the other hand, an OF of Bell-Moseby-Barfield should at least lead to happy memories in Greater Toronto.
CeeBee - Saturday, July 21 2007 @ 07:10 AM EDT (#171848) #
Mike, I thought of Burroughs DH'ing and Stennett at second but didn't really get into the bench. As to the pitching staff, it isn't terrible  but the class of 51 is certainly not as strong as the class of 66. Now that we've started down this road I'm going to have to do a couple more years that are of personal interest. :)
Mike Green - Saturday, July 21 2007 @ 04:54 PM EDT (#171876) #
My father's birth year (1931)  would field a pretty amazing every day lineup:

LINEUP
C         Ed Bailey* (155 career HR, 110 career OPS+)
1B       Eddie Mathews**
2B       Frank Bolling* (106 career HR, 1958 GG)
SS      Ernie Banks**
3B      Ken Boyer* (282 HRs, GGs)
LF      Bob Skinner* (good player Pirates 57-62)
CF      Willie Mays**
RF      Mickey Mantle**
DH     Joe Cunningham (54-56, 120 career OPS+)

BENCH
C         Hal Smith*
IF         Ken Aspromonte
IF        Charlie Neal*
3B       Andy Carey
OF      Bill Virdon (56 RoY)
OF/IB Harry the Horse Anderson (57-58 MVP candidate)

ROTATION
RHSP Jim Bunning**
LHSP Hank Aguirre* (116 career ERA+)
RHSP Larry Jackson* (194-183)
RHSP Tom Brewer* (91-82, big year in '56)
LHSP Chet Nichols (34-36, big year in '50)

BULLPEN
CL-RH   Ed Roebuck
LH-SET  Marshall Bridges (closer for 62 Yankees, 18S, 119 ERA+)
RH-SET Don the Weasel Bessent
LHRP     Don Gross
RHRP    Carl Willey (38-58 with the great Braves teams, why on earth did they trade Joey Jay and give this guy starts?)

With Mantle, Mays, Mathews and Banks in your lineup, you might lead-off with Mickey, hit Cunnigham and his .420 OBP second, and then follow with Mays, Mathews, Banks and Boyer.  It would be interesting to see Mick's year's  pitching against my father's year's hitting.

Mike Green - Saturday, July 21 2007 @ 04:56 PM EDT (#171877) #
I forgot to mention that the 1931 club has Whitey Herzog to manage and Don Zimmer and Bill Virdon to assist in case the going gets tough for Whitey!
My Favorite (Birth) Year | 8 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.