The Pecan Park Eagle

Lance Berkman is my pick for Right Field.

The switch hitter lineup was a fun pick. With apologies to the less iconic figures of the Negro Leagues and their lack of comparable stats and limited anecdotal testimony, I stuck with MLB players, even a few that haven’t made it to the Hall of Fame at Catcher, Third, or Right Field. My guess is that Chipper Jones will get there in time and that Lance Berkman may even put himself into the running with 3-5 more outstanding years at St. Louis (or somewhere) before he retires. I’d like to see Lance tweak that BA up over .300 and the HR totals beyond 400 before he’s done. These improvements would help Berkman’s HOF chances. Not sure if anything can still happen to help Ted Simmons with the HOF, but he sure was a dangerous hitter in key games in his time, along with a steady handler of some excellent pitchers.

George Davis was an outstanding shortstop for the Cleveland Spiders, New York Giants, and Chicago White Sox during the last decade of the 19th century and the first ten years of the 20th. During the era of the move-the-runners strategies of the dead ball era, Davis flourished when witch hitters were highly valued for their ability to hit to all fields. He was good enough for the HOF and I picked him over Ozzie Smith for this club, knowing full well what I was giving up on defense, although Davis was reputedly excellent in the field too.

That being said, here are my starting nine:

Roster Spots & Player Stats

Pitcher: Carlos Zambrano (.241, 23 HR, 69 RBI)

Catcher: Ted Simmons (.285, 248 HR, 1,389 RBI)

1st Base: Eddie Murray (.287, 504 HR, 1,917 RBI)

2nd Base: Frankie Frisch (.316, 105 HR, 1,244 RBI)

3rd Base: Chipper Jones (.304, 454 HR, 1,561 RBI)

Shortstop: George Davis (.295, 73 HR, 1,440 RBI)

Left Field: Pete Rose ( .303, 160 HR, 1,314 RBI)

Center Field: Mickey Mantle (.298, 536 HR, 1,509 RBI)

Right Field: Lance Berkman (.296, 358 HR, 1,193 RBI)

Batting Order / Game Time:

Rose, LF

Frisch, 2B

Mantle, CF

Murray, 1B

Jones, 3B

Berkman, RF

Simmons, C

Davis, SS

Zambrano, P