Texas Baseball History Goes Way, Way Back!
Lone Stars of the Diamond, like most good reference books, is a work that lingers. I couldn’t resist having a minor run this morning at organizing my all-time native Texan team of former college players. In the short run, all I could do was come up with a roster I wouldn’t mind taking to spring training for the sake of allowing performance to whittle things down from there – with one major exception. If Tris Speaker goes 0 for 50 in spring training, he will still be my starting center fielder on Opening Day.
If you’re wondering where Roger Clemens is because you don’t know any better, he’s missing, of course, because he wasn’t born in Texas. He was born in Ohio. Otherwise, had he been a native Texan, Roger Clemens would have been my Opening Day starting pitcher, no matter what.
Here’s the spring training roster, with all of these guys showing up in their primes. Brad Mills should be so lucky, but that’s not how these kinds of all star teams work. We fans can put this kind team together and not be impeded by reality. If we were, I’d hate to consider what this team would cost us at today’s market values:
C – Matt Batts, Baylor; Chris Snyder, Houston; Jason LaRue, Dallas Baptist
1B – Lance Berkman, Rice; Norm Cash, Sul Ross; Eddie Robinson, Paris JC
2b – Davey Johnson, Texas A&M; Chuck Knoblauch, Texas A&M; Debs Garms, Howard Payne
3b – Grady Hatton, Texas; Max Alvis, Texas; Pinky Higgins, Texas
SS – Spike Owen, Texas; Roger Metzger, St. Edward’s; Ben Zobrist, Dallas Baptist; Topper Rigney, Texas A&M
LF – Don Baylor, Blinn JC; Bibb Falk, Texas; Ox Eckhardt, Texas; Steve Henderson, Prairie View A&M; Jose Cruz, Jr., Rice; Glenn Wilson, Sam Houston State; Aubrey Huff, Miami
CF – Tris Speaker, Texas Wesleyan; Curt Walker, Southwestern; Michael Bourn, Houston; Max West, North Texas; Jim Busby, TCU
RF – Beau Bell, Texas A&M; Ernie Koy, Texas; Keith Moreland, Texas; Carl Warwick, TCU; Hunter Pence, UT Arlington
P – John Lackey, UT-Arlington
P – Doug Drabek, Houston
P – Woody Williams, Houston
P – Burt Hooton, Texas
P – Tex Carleton, TCU
P – Bert Gallia, St. Mary’s
P – Murray Wall, Texas
P – Dou Rau, Texas A&M
P – Huston Street, Texas
P – Greg Swindell, Texas
P – Bill Henry, Houston
P – Calvin Schiraldi, Texas
P – Joel Horlen, Oklahoma State
P – Dennis Cook, Texas
P – Tex Hughson, Texas
P – Kip Wells, Baylor
P – Ryan Wagner, Houston
Have a great weekend, everybody!
Tags: All Star Teams, Baseball, History
The Pecan Park Eagle 
November 21, 2009 at 4:10 pm |
Does being a quarterback disqualify you? James Street was a three time All America in baseball, one more time than he was in football, I believe. And Bobby Layne spun two no-hitters for the Longhorns, something even Clemens never did. And I double checked, they were both born here. Forgive me if you had to have a major league career to qualify, but if these are based on college performance, I nominate two more Horns.
November 22, 2009 at 12:19 am |
Mike –
You make good points, but I was going with only those who later played major league ball. Basing the team on college ball performance and you have to add a few others like Bobby Layne, James Street, and the lesser known Frank Womack of Texas and, at least in my view, a great little shortstop from Houston back in the 1950s, an agile, athletic playoff performer named Carlton Hanta. Hey, Bibb’s little brother Chet Falk was a pretty good one too.