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?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20070720204824687