This post is for sports, or more accurately, baseball nerds. There are some cool immigration posts below. Read them.
This article (insider required) about Derek Jeter's place in history got me thinking. What would a all-time NY team look like? An all-time Yankee team would obviously be the best of all-time but probably could not compete against the best of every other team. But what about an all-NY team vs. everyone else in a seven game series?
So I decided to come up with a 25 man roster. Here are the rules:
1) I'm going with a DH. Yeah, I'm a baseball purist but the DH would make this series more entertaining and would save me from having to decide which top 10 player on the NY team to leave on the bench.
2) There must be relievers on the team. No, a team can't use Nolan Ryan as its closer. Yes, this benefits the NY team since they have Mariano Rivera and less starters. But a team can have more than four starters.
3) Here's a rule that hurts the NY team. A player is only eligable if he played a major part of his career on on a NY team (excludes Nolan Ryan or Pedro Martinez). He also must have played for the team while it was in NY (excludes Barry Bonds and Sandy Koufax, who wasn't very good when the team was in NY).
Ok here are the teams. Feel free to add or subtract if you'd like:
NY
2B: Jackie Robinson
RF: Joe DiMaggio
DH: Babe Ruth
CF: Willie Mays
1B: Lou Gehrig
LF: Mickey Mantle
C: Yogi Berra
SS: Derek Jeter
3B: Graig Nettles
SP: Christy Mathewson
Whitey Ford
Carl Hubbell
Tom Seaver
Hoyt Wilhem
Sparky Lyle
Goose Gossage
Waite Hoyt
Bench: Mel Ott
Roy Campanella
Pee Wee Reese
Bill Terry
Pete Reiser
Alex Rodriguez
Mike Piazza
The World
CF: Ty Cobb
SS: Honus Wagner
DH: Ted Williams
RF: Hank Aaron
1B: Jimmie Fox
2b: Rogers Hornsby
LF: Barry Bonds
3b: Mike Schmidt
C: Johnny Bench
SP: Walter Johnson
Lefty Grove
Cy Young
Sandy Koufax
RP: Roger Clemens
Dennis Eckersley
Rollie Fingers
Randy Johnson
Warren Spahn
Bench: Rickey Henderson
Ozzie Smith
Stan Musial
Mark McGuire
Ivan Rodriguez
Brooks Robinson
Tris Speaker
The NYers have a better outfield, both at the plate and in the field. SS and 3B go to the World team by a large margin, but 1st and 2nd are fairly close (mainly because Gehrig was a lot better than Fox). C is basically even, maybe a slight edge to the World. The World's starting pitching is a little better but NY has a better bullpen because of Rivera. This would be a great series.
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