Our Polish-American All Star Teams

“I started out as Aloysius Szymanski. ~Do you know my legal adult famous-in-life baseball identity?”

Let’s put it this way. ~ Were it possible, either of the variations offered here is challenge-ably good enough to win any All Star Game they enter by strength of talent alone. The first offering, the one restricted to using only those past MLB Polish-American players whose names end in “ski”, could be more challenged in the event of game injuries to their limited roster, but, come on! ~ If we can bring most of these guys back from the dead with the help of the baseball gods to play a one-shot all-star game, you might think we could also get a little insurance against stubbed toes and Tommy John arm problems suddenly popping up to spoil the fun!

The second roster table has more reserves because we opened the identity gates to include Polish-American MLB vets whose families apparently tried to “Americanize” their surnames by either dropping the “ski” caboose phrase or by simply changing their names to something else.

Lopatynski became Lopat and Szymanski became Simmons. And we don’t personally know what the Musial, Niekro and Konstanty families may have done to change their surnames without further research.

It’s all in fun here. So enjoy. And please feel free to suggest changes or additions.

~ The Pecan Park Eagle

The Warsaw Skis ~ Our Polish All Stars

#	Batters	L/R	Pos	Year	BA	RBI	HR
1	Whitey Kurowski	R	3B	1945	.323	102	21
2	Troy Tulowitzki	R	SS	2011	.302	105	30
3	Carl Yastrzemski	L	LF	1967	.326	121	44
4	Ted Kluszewski	L	1B	1954	.326	121	49
5	Greg Luzinski	R	RF	1975	.300	120	34
6	Rip Repulski	R	CF	1954	.283	79	19
7	Hank Majeski	R	DH	1948	.310	120	12
8	Bill Mazeroski	R	2B	1962	.271	81	14
9	A.J. Pierzynski	L	C	2012	.278	77	27

	Pitchers	L/R	Pos	Year	ERA	W-L	Sv
	Stan Coveleski	R	S	1920	2.49	24-14	2
	Ron Perranoski	L	R	1963	1.67	16-3	21

The Greater Polish-American All Stars

#	Batters	L/R	Pos	Year	BA	RBI	HR
1	Whitey Kurowski	R	3B	1945	.323	102	21
2	Al Simmons	R	RF	1931	.390	128	22
3	Stan Musial	L	CF	1948	.376	131	39
4	Greg Luzinski	R	DH	1975	.300	120	34
5	Ted Kluszewski	L	1B	1954	.326	121	49
6	Carl Yastrzemski	L	LF	1967	.326	121	44
7	Troy Tulowitzki	R	SS	2011	.302	105	30
8	Bill Mazeroski	R	2B	1962	.271	81	14
9	A.J. Pierzynski	L	C	2012	.278	77	27
	Bench
	Carl Sawatski	R	C	1961	.299	33	10
	Hank Majeski	R	INF	1948	.310	120	12
	Rip Repulski	R	OF	1954	.283	79	19

	Pitchers	L/R	Pos	Year	ERA	W-L	Sv
	Phil Niekro	R	S	1974	2.38	20-13	1
	Joe Niekro	R	S	1979	3.00	21-11	0
	Stan Coveleski	R	S	1920	2.49	24-14	2
	Eddie Lopat	L	S	1951	2.91	21-9	0
	Ron Perranoski	L	R	1963	1.67	16-3	21
	Jim Konstanty	R	R	1950	2.66	16-7	22

********************

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags: Our Polish-American All Star Teams

This entry was posted on August 19, 2018 at 4:32 pm and is filed under Baseball, culture, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Our Polish-American All Star Teams”

maxwell1901 Says:
August 19, 2018 at 5:09 pm | Reply
I think Musial’s name was always Musial but his first name at birth was Stanislaus (“Stash”) for short. Lopat I believe was Lopatynski.

Bill Nahorodny was once quoted in the Sporting News that he was sorry they didn’t play winter ball in Poland because there he could at least understand the language. He’s from Hamtramck, Michigan, just like the Paciorek brothers. I believe Tom and John were both UH alumni.

Barney McCosky was actually Makowski.
Tom Hunter Says:
August 19, 2018 at 5:30 pm | Reply
I don’t think you would mind a mention of a Lithuanian-American ball player, who made his major league debut with the St. Louis Browns on this date, August 19, 1951: Eddie Gaedel (ne Gaedele).

Number 1/8 on the program, but number 1 in your heart.
PrayThroughHistory Says:
January 27, 2019 at 11:19 pm | Reply
My grandma was a Musial, and a relative of Stan the Man! Fun article!