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The legendary greatness of Lou Brock (who truly was "great," much to the chagrin of Ernie Broglio and Chicago Cub fans everywhere) turned the ripe old age of 71 last week.

Brock, who led the National League in stolen bases eight times (and in caught stealings a full seven times, as well!) hereby inspires another edition of Baseball's Hall of Names. No, we're not celebrating the seven Major League vets named "Brock" (two first names, five last/family names), but rather correcting the oversight that has been our error in ignoring the many great players in baseball history named "Lou" or "Lew."

First, as always, a few rules ...



  • We are only considering players who had the anglicized first or middle name Louis or Lewis -- but not Luis, a name which might bear a Hall of Names squad of its own at some point.
  • Speaking of a separate team, we are obviously not going to consider the 22 MLB alumni with the surname "Lewis," but maybe we could scrabble together a whole squad for them, too.
  • There have been dozens of first-named Lews/Lous in big league history, so we actually will only consider those players with the given first name "Louis" or "Lewis," unless the player both had the given middle name AND actually WENT BY the name Lou/Lew. (This is pretty rare, but just for the record, it nets us Henry Louis Gehrig, for one!)

Among those fine -- sometimes even great -- baseball men we will not be considering are Hall of Famers like OF Henry Louis Aaron, SP Vernon Louis "Lefty" Gomez and legendary team owner William Louis Veeck, Jr. Then there were worthy All-Stars like IF Oswald Louis "Ossie" Bluege, 1B Adolph Louis "Dolph" Camilli, SS James Louis Fregosi, SS Barry Louis Larkin, OF Lee Louis Mazzilli, RP Donald Louis Mossi and 2B Stephen Louis Sax. Then of course there's the inevitability of future Hall-of-Famer Justin Louis "Joba" Chamberlain, also not eligible ... alas! Come to think of it, that's the start of a pretty awesome roster in and of itself!

Luzerne Atwell "Lu" Blue, who was a fine first baseman for 13 seasons in the Ruth era, is not eligible. Neither is the heroic All-Star hurler Leland Victor "Lou" Brissie. No go for you, either, Shane Loux.

MGR
Lou Piniella* (1815-1677 so far since '86; won '90 WS with CIN)
Coaches: Lou Boudreau** (1162-1224; 1948 champs with CLE); Lew Fonseca (120-196, 1932-34 CHW); Lou Klein (65-82, parts of 1961-65 CHC)

LINEUP
C Louis "Big Bertha" Santop** (Negro League legend)
1B Lou Gehrig** (.340/493/1995, 1923-39)
2B Lou Whitaker* (.276, 244 HR, 143 SB, three Gold Gloves, 1977-95)
SS Lou Boudreau** (1948 AL MVP)
3B Lew Riggs* (.262, 1934-42, '46)
LF Lou Brock** (1961-79; .293, 938 SB)
CF Lou Finney* (.287, 1931-47; played OF and 1B)
RF Lou Piniella* (.291, 102 homers, 1964-84)

PITCHING
RHSP Selva Lewis "Lew" Burdette* (203-144, 1950-67)
RHSP Lou Fette* (20-10 as '37 rookie; 10-10 as '39 All-Star)
RHSP Louis Norman "Bobo" Newsom* (211-222, 1929-48, '52-53)

"Lew"se Ends .... Santop was primarily a catcher in the Negro Leagues. He is considered the top Negro League backstop of the Deadball Era and is often ranked third all-time behind Josh Gibson and Biz Mackey among Negro League catchers ... Boudreau started his managerial career at the age of 24 with the Indians as a WWII player/manager; his 16-year managerial career included 10 full seasons as a player/manager ... He's not eligible for this team, of course, but Boudreau's son-in-law could pitch for almost anyone -- kid named Denny McLain ...

If we need a backup backstop to the Hall of Famer Santop, Lou Criger (.221, 1896-1912)  was reputedly the favorite "personal" catcher of one Denton True "Cy" Young ... Piniella, after six hitless at-bats with the '64 Orioles and '68 Indians, was 1969 AL Rookie of the Year with the expansion Royals ... Klein was apparently part of the infamous Cubbies' experiment with a "College of Coaches" ... We could easily fill out a full rotation and bullpen, but there is no obvious closer for this team ... And that's a truly horrible defensive outfield, isn't it? ...

The position players in the lineup above comprise four Hall of Famers and four more All-Stars ... Though we could probably build a really fine bench and inflated 25-man roster, why tempt fate? That lineup card is nearly perfect -- even Bobo would finish over .500 with that team!

But I have probably missed someone or someones, Bauxites ... so speak up and tell me who! But be polite (not Cliff Politte, just "polite") -- that is, {{drumroll}} ... don't be lewd ...

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Mike Green - Tuesday, June 22 2010 @ 09:31 AM EDT (#217362) #
You'd go by Lew too if your first name was Selva. 
Matthew E - Tuesday, June 22 2010 @ 09:44 AM EDT (#217364) #

The legendary greatness of Lou Brock turned the ripe old age of 71 last week.

Neat. Is Lou older or younger than his greatness?

Mike Green - Tuesday, June 22 2010 @ 09:55 AM EDT (#217367) #
Come on, Matthew.  Mick explicitly requested that lewdness be avoided; the age of the "legendary greatness of Lou Brock" is clearly an out-of-bounds topic. 

FWIW, CHONE has Lou Brock as a 39 WAR player, less even than Jim Rice, and with less peak.  The statistics say he had average range, the worst arm of his generation, didn't get on base much and had medium range power.  If you have Lou Brock in your Hall of Fame, you shouldn't have to think more than a second about Tim Raines. 

Mick Doherty - Tuesday, June 22 2010 @ 11:25 AM EDT (#217373) #

Touche, Matthew. But really, shouldn't subject/verb agreement were being optional mostly?

As for the Raines argument, I think the one thing that really weighs him down is the shadow of drug use. Don't attack me  for that -- I absolutely believe the guy should have been first-ballot -- but the specter is there for many voters. He will get in, eventually.

Matthew E - Tuesday, June 22 2010 @ 11:57 AM EDT (#217378) #

But really, shouldn't subject/verb agreement were being optional mostly?

It were if you willan on-want it to are being. I will guessed.

smcs - Tuesday, June 22 2010 @ 12:09 PM EDT (#217379) #
No love for Lew Ford?
92-93 - Tuesday, June 22 2010 @ 12:33 PM EDT (#217385) #
Speaking of names, the trade the O's and A's made today was pretty neat...a Fox for a Wolf.
Mick Doherty - Tuesday, June 22 2010 @ 12:35 PM EDT (#217386) #
Fair point, smcs, and I actually considered Jon Lew Ford, who would be the best defensive OF on the team by a long way; he gets a bench spot if we expand to a full roster. Hey, Ford's only 33 and playing indy ball somewhere, so he may be back in the bigs some day!
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