About 200 major league baseball players had last or family name beginning with the letter "E." This does not include Larry Bowa, who Dave Concepcion used to call "Elmer" because, he claimed every time he read a Phillies box score it referred to "E-Bowa."

Let's hope we don't have any errors called on us in building this team, then! ...

Thought that headline might get your attention.

This team has no room for Bobby Wine (or son Robbie, even if he is younger and therefore arguably a "Wine cooler") ... as for the harder stuff, even Australia's largest group of independent liquor retailers (catch on -- that'd be Porter's) has no place here, where it's all about the Beers... just sidle up to the bar and be careful not to spill, man!

So, what's on "tap" for our All-Beer team?

When the Batter's Box All-Q team was posted recently, user HippyGilmore astutely noted, "I suggest combining the Q's with the U's, a pair of seemingly hopeless letters that may find the strength to compete together. Plus, Q just naturally goes with U."

Well, we're not going to resort to that quite yet. For while it is true that this will be a difficult team to assemble -- perhaps it's not as difficult as we originally feared.

Who said "there is no 'I' in 'team,'" anyway? That's what this particular team is all about.

I admit, I thought the Suzy Q's team, with just 43 candidates for roster spots, would end up being the hardest to fill. But then, there are exactly the same number of candidates, 43, for an "All-I," team -- that is, a team made up entirely of players whose last or family name begins with the letter "I." Let's just hope we don't end up with a team of (sorry) I-sores ...

The Baltimore Orioles raise the first question of eligibility for the Lobby of Numbers.

In choosing which letter of the alphabet to go with for today's Hall of Names entry, I thought to choose the one that would yield the best team overall. Originally, I leaned toward building a "J" team, which we will get to eventually, but finally settled on the "R" squad.

I think we have a winner.

After struggling through the All-Z and All-Q teams recently, with what was actually a nice break for a Y squad that had 93 former major leaguers including three Hall of Famers to choose from, we now head over to the daunting task of forming a team from the 92 men (and just two Hall of Famers) whose last or family name begins with the letter "V."

In the long history of the Great Game, just 43 men whose last or family name begins with the letter "Q" have made it to the major league level. None have been Hall of Famers; really only one even had an oustide shot at Cooperstown, and -- alphabetically anyway -- he appears last on the "Q" list. He'll be the team's closer.

This is going to be a darn sight harder than the Y and Z teams we recently put together. But let's give it a go ...

Well, the recent All-Z team didn't turn out too badly (and if you're wondering, yes, this is leading up to something -- a Batter's Box Challenge, in fact -- this coming off-season). But as we work our way (backwards for now, though we'll probably jump around a bit as we proceed) through the alphabet, we ask ourselves the eternal question, "Y Not?"

That is, what kind of Hall of Names team can be built using only the 93 men to have reached the MLB level whose last/family name begins with the letter "Y"? And unlike our previous Z-team, we actually have a Hall of Famer -- actually, four of them! -- to start with.

The specter of whether or not Babe Didrikson Zaharias should win a spot on the recent All-Babe team raised another interesting question ... what kind of Hall of Names team could be gathered using only the 74 men to have reached the MLB level whose last/family name begins with the letter "Z"?

Jordan raises the issue of M*A*S*H in his latest Minor League Update (a show that managed to never "jump the shark," incidentally) which leads, as you might guess, to an All-M*A*S*H Hall of Names team quest.

We've used movies (All-Grease) and T.V. Shows (All-Sesame Street, All-Simpsons) as the basis for the Hall of Names before, but this is the first time we're going to a franchise that was both a classic movie AND a classic TV show.

Way back on January 10, Batter's Box asked the leading question, what is it with baseball and lawyers? After input from the esteemed Jamey Newberg and the seven or eight dozen shysters who frequent these here parts of the Web, the matter was largely dropped.

Then more recently -- just last week, in fact -- in a standard "Baseball's Hall of Names" feature, we examined the posibilities presented by an "All-Doc" (or alternatively, an "All-M.D.) team.

And if you've been to college, you know the pre-law guys don't want the pre-med guys to have anything they don't get (and vice versa), so we feel obliged to offer an "All-Legal" team here on Batter's Box. However, we'll take a bit of a different tack than we did with our medical squad -- and be sure to watch for the wacky Chief Justice Showdown at the end of the show!

NEW! Sidebar comments with a complete "All-J.D." team and Craig Burley's special complete team of all actual lawyers!

OK, not really Hall of Names. Mick holds proprietary rights there, and I've been doing enough poaching in other people's fields, surely. This is more like the Lobby of Numbers.

It's hard to believe, but slightly more than two years into the series, we have reached baseball's magical number, with this sixtieth installment of Baseball's Hall of Names here on Batter's Box Interactive Magazine (if you're curious, the entire list is available at http://www.mickdoherty.com/sports/hallofnames.htm).

And what better way to celebrate #60 than to put together an All-Babe team, if indeed that's possible?

Today is Mark Funderburk's 48th birthday. A propos of nothing for the former Twin outfielder, but would you believe that not a single player with the first name of "Mark" has ever been inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame? (The closest we get is the great, but in this case only "middling" David Mark Winfield.) Now, that may change shortly when Mark McGwire becomes eligible -- but then again, why talk about the past when we can focus on the future?

Well, in this case, Mr. McGwire, because it's fun(derburk) ... and there have been a whole bunch of really fine Marks to don big league uniforms; wait until you get a load of the pitching staff.