RD:The Roberto Durans

Infield: Third baseman Ray Dandridge is one of the guys who got caught in the generation of Negro Leaguers who saw the color line come down but weren't given their chance. He was probably the most egregious case, actually. A great line drive hitter and a spectacular fielder, he was a star for more than a decade in the Negro Leagues and in Mexico. He was in his mid-30s when the color line came down, and he was still at or near the top of his game. He was eventually signed by the Giants and he batted well over .300 for several years in their minor-league chain but never got brought up to the majors. Second baseman Ray Durham (1995-2008) could be an electrifying player to watch. He was fast and quick and had some power, just a marvelous athlete. The year that Michael Jordan came to spring training with the White Sox, Durham reportedly bested him in the vertical leap. Durham scored 100 runs six straight years, topping 120 twice. He would hit 30-40 doubles, 15-20 home runs, steal 25-30 bases and even draw some walks. First baseman Ryan Doumit (2005- ) is in mid-career with the Pirates. He is actually a catcher who can be moved to first base or corner outfield. He has hit well enough but still has not batted 500 times in a season, and the Pirates seem dead set against giving him a full-time job anywhere. Shortstop Red Downs (1907-12) was a utility-type player, primarily a middle infielder, who had a very brief career in the majors but had a couple of 200-hit seasons in the Pacific Coast League in his thirties. (As a side note, dozens of major-leaguers have gone by the nickname “Red.” They made all-star games, even the Hall of Fame. But the nickname abruptly died out sometime after World War II, and we can’t find a single player whose career began after 1950 or so who was nicknamed “Red.” We blame Joe McCarthy. The senator, not the Hall of Fame manager.)

Outfield: Left fielder Rob Deer (1984-96) was a very extreme player. A typical Rob Deer season involved a batting average around .225 or .230 and leading the league in strikeouts, but also drawing some walks and hitting 25-30 home runs. He had a lot of very strange distinctions, such as the most RBI with a batting average below .200 (64 RBI, .179 BA) and the first ever with 100 more strikeouts than RBI (186 K, 80 RBI). You wouldn’t want a whole team of Rob Deers, but when you added up his pluses and minuses, he was a good player. Right fielder Rap Dixon was a Negro League star who combined power and speed, as well as a powerful throwing arm. With the Keystone Giants in the 1920s, he played alongside Oscar Charleston and Fats Jenkins in one of the great outfields of all time. Center fielder Ray Demmitt (1909-19) was a fast guy who hit a lot of triples and bounced around four teams.

Catcher: Rick Dempsey (1969-1992) didn’t hit much, but he was a fine defensive catcher, a smart player and a popular teammate, so he stuck around long enough to play in four decades. An inveterate comedian, he would sometimes entertain the crowd during rain delays by running onto the field and flopping around the water pooled on top of the tarp while pantomiming an inside-the-park home run. He was MVP of the 1983 World Series.

Rotation: Ron Darling (1983-95) grew up in Hawaii, attended Yale and was a tremendously handsome man named “Darling.” Everything a man needs to be a star in New York. Darling was a fine pitcher for several years, a key player on the Mets’ 1986 championship team. He finished with 136 victories, but a lot of people in baseball thought of him as a guy who never got the most out of his ability. Ryan Dempster (1998- ) is a Canadian with a wicked changeup and a funky pitching motion that involves shaking his glove around during his “stretch.” A good starting pitcher, he took a detour through the bullpen and spent three seasons as a closer in mid-career before returning to the rotation. Red Donahue (1893-1906) won 164 games and had three 20-win seasons. He finished at 164-175 but would have been 31 games over .500 for his career if he hadn’t gone 17-59 in two years for a couple of dreadful St. Louis Browns teams. Richard Dotson (1979-90) went 22-7 for the 1983 White Sox, part of a pitching staff that looked like it was really going to be something. Reality set in the following year. Dotson won 111 games in his career. Ryan Drese (2001-06) was a big, strapping righty whose best season was in 2004, when he went 14-10 with a 4.20 ERA for Texas. An elbow injury sidetracked his career at age 30, but by that point it seems to have largely run its course already.

Bullpen: Rob Dibble (1988-95) was the nastiest of The Nasty Boys, a 6-foot-4, 230-pound fireballer who averaged 12 strikeouts per nine innings. He was known for his histrionics and temper flare-ups on the field, and one of the most famous images of Dibble is the footage of him ripping his vintage jersey off after surrendering a walk-off home run during a “Turn Back the Clock” game. Injuries effectively ended his career before he turned 30, but he was a hellacious pitcher for a few years there. Ron Davis (1978-88) might have been the first reliever to be specifically called a “set-up man,” helping to establish a new role in support of the modern closer. He spent three years setting up the Goose in New York, going 27-10 with ERAs below 3.00. He signed with Minnesota and spent a few years closing, but he is best remembered for his years with the Yankees. Ryne Duren (1954-65) was the right-handed version of the prototypical wild lefty. He threw an overpowering fastball, often couldn’t control it, and for good measure, he had terrible eyesight and wore thick glasses, a combination the scared the hell out of hitters. Yogi Berra used to stand up behind the plate and wave his hands around shouting, “Can you see me, Ryne? I’m over here!” Just to scare the batters a little more. He had a couple of terrific seasons, in 1958-59, for pennant-winning Yankees teams. Rick DeHart (1997-2003) was a lefty who gave up too many hits, including too many long ones. The Rangers drafted R.A. Dickey (2001- ) in the first round in 1996, then realized that he was inexplicably missing a tendon in his right elbow. Everyone assumed he would break down, but he never did. He never pitched all that well, even after reinventing himself as a knuckleballer, until he unexpectedly got his act together in his mid-30s and had a fine year for the Mets in 2010. If he keeps this up, he will be moving into the rotation. Rob Dressler (1975-80) was a control specialist who gave up a lot of hits but very few walks or strikeouts. Predictably, he did not last long, though he did not pitch all that badly. Ramon de los Santos (1974) went 1-1 with a 2.19 ERA in 12 games for the 1974 Astros. He went back and pitched fairly well in the minors for a couple of years but never made it back to the bigs.

Bench: Third baseman Russ Davis (1994-2001) hit a bunch of home runs in the Yankees’ minor-league organization and a lot of people got all crazy about what a great slugger he was going to be. It didn’t work out quite that way. He was traded to Seattle in a deal for Tino Martinez, and Tino went on to win four World Series titles with New York. In Seattle, Davis hit 20 home runs a year for a few seasons (including the first home run ever at Safeco) and then faded away. A dreadful defender with no speed and poor command of the strike zone. But he came billed as a power hitter, and he did OK with that. Rich Dauer (1976-85) was the Orioles second baseman in the years after Davey Johnson and Bobby Grich. He couldn’t hit like those guys, but he was a slick fielder, one of Earl Weaver’s role players, and he was a starter on two pennant winners. Backup catcher Red Dooin (1902-16) hit even less than Rick Dempsey, but he hung around for almost 1,300 games. Outfielder Rajai Davis (2006- ) is a fast guy in mid-career. Rolla Daringer (1914-15) was a shortstop who couldn’t hit.

Manager: Rod Dedeaux coached Southern Cal to 11 College World Series titles and was sort of the beloved paterfamilias of amateur baseball in the U.S. for several decades. He was the on-set consultant who helped the actors hone their baseball skills for “Field of Dreams,” and when director Phil Alden Robinson asked him about his major-league career, he realized the Dedeaux was almost a “Moonlight Graham” himself – he made it to the majors in 1935 at age 21, played two games, then got injured and never played again. Like Doc Graham, he found his calling and built a tremendously successful career just the same.