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As John Northey put it, "there are many second basemen and shortstops who were fantastic but rarely are two greats playing together." So who's the #1 combo?

Whitaker / Trammell 44 (29.33%)
Morgan / Concepcion 22 (14.67%)
Alomar / Vizquel 51 (34.00%)
Fox / Aparacio 2 (1.33%)
Robinson / Reese 21 (14.00%)
Doerr / Stephens 1 (0.67%)
Herr / Smith 1 (0.67%)
Larkin / Boone 2 (1.33%)
Hornsby / Jackson 6 (4.00%)
Gordon / Boudreau 0 (0.00%)
As John Northey put it, "there are many second basemen and shortstops who were fantastic but rarely are two greats playing together." So who's the #1 combo? | 5 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Mick Doherty - Tuesday, June 05 2007 @ 08:42 PM EDT (#169325) #
Apologies to other combos nominated as the poll limits options to 10 ... I removed duos that replicated one member of another that is listed. Picking which Alomar combo to post was toughest -- Ripken or Vizquel? Although, Gordon with which Hall of Famer, Rizzuto or Boudreau, wasn't easy either, nor was Jackson with, again, which Hall of Famer -- Frisch or Hornsby?

Please feel free to object to or contradict the choices I made for the final 10. Thanks for stopping by the booth:
  • Alomar/Fernandez
  • Alomar/Ripken
  • Gordon/Rizzuto
  • Frisch/Jackson

Craig B - Tuesday, June 05 2007 @ 10:22 PM EDT (#169335) #
Alomar and Ripken, I would have had to think about.

I went with Pee Wee and Jack, by a hair over Morgan and Concepcion.  I really respect the Whitaker/Trammell choices because they played two decades together and were both great, but I went with year-by-year value rather than career value as a duo.
ChicagoJaysFan - Tuesday, June 05 2007 @ 10:32 PM EDT (#169339) #
Are there really people here who can vouch for Hornsby and Jackson?  I mean, it's hard to vote (as I did) for two non-hall of famers (Whitaker and Trammel) over two hall of famers (Hornsby and Jackson), but who is to say that Jackson makes it into the hall of fame with today's understanding of baseball?  Jackson was in the top 10 in MVP voting 4 times, but it's gotta be for something that doesn't appear in the numbers.

Speaking of Whitaker and Trammel - has there ever been a combination (at any positions) like that in baseball?  Two guys that have a short call-up in the same year, their rookie year together the following year, play on the same team for 19 seasons, and have nearly identical statistics at the end of their career (they're #2 and #3 the most similar players for each other according to baseball reference).

Mike Green - Tuesday, June 05 2007 @ 11:48 PM EDT (#169353) #
Bill James once pointed out that Ray Schalk and Wally Schang not only were catchers at the same time, and sat next to each other in the Baseball Encyclopedia, but ended their careers with the same number of at-bats.   Schang was the better hitter, of course.
John Northey - Wednesday, June 06 2007 @ 12:33 PM EDT (#169384) #
Not quite up to Trammell/Whitaker but the trio in Milwaukee was interesting...
Robin Yount - 1974-1993
Paul Molitor - 1978-1992 (93-98 elsewhere)
Jim Gantner - 1976-1992

So from 1978 to 1992 the three of them were on the same team. Yount was first at short, then center. Gantner at second mainly but spent a lot of time at third too. Molitor started at 2B/SS, moved to the OF briefly, then to third, back to 2B, then at 1B before coming here. Lots of DH time from year one for Moli thanks to his regular injuries.

15 years for 3 guys to be together on one team has to be close to a record if not the record.
As John Northey put it, "there are many second basemen and shortstops who were fantastic but rarely are two greats playing together." So who's the #1 combo? | 5 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.