HC: The Harrold Carswells

Infield: Prince Hal Chase (1905-19) was a stylish first baseman and inveterate ruffian during the rough-and-tumble era when gamblers and roustabouts threatened to sieze control of the sport. He was a .290 hitter who didn’t draw many walks or hit with any power, but the writers of his day described him as a fielder who left observers gasping for adjectives worthy of his brilliance. He was also a cad and a charmer, perhaps the central figure in the downward spiral that led to the fixing of the 1919 World Series. He was greedy and corrupt, and he seemed to have the ability to corrupt those around him and draw them into his various schemes. Many teammates fell under his charismatic spell, and many managers came to bitterly resent the influence he cast over any team that he played on. In 1910, playing for the New York Highlanders, Chase decided that he didn’t like manager George Stallings, who had taken over a miserable team and turned it into a winner. But Chase thought that he should have been manager, so he began throwing games to make his Stallings look bad. When the situation came to a head, the owner fired Stallings and made Chase the manager. He operated brazenly, bribing teammates and opponents while somehow earning the loyalty of enough people to keep himself around. He was ultimately banned for life, but not before he played a central role (perhaps the central role) in dragging baseball into a gutter of gamblers, criminals and cheats. His name is not well known to modern fans, but he was one of the most fascinating and (unfortunately) influential players of the deadball era. Third baseman Harlond Clift (1934-45) is another guy who modern fans don’t know, but he was a very good player. The historian Bill James refers to Clift as the first modern third baseman, marking the transition of that position from a “defense first” position into one that came to breed sluggers. Clift was not a bad defensive player, but he was a home run hitter in a time when third basemen were expected to be bunters and hit-and-run guys. He also drew 100 walks a year and put a ton of runs on the board, but he was never recognized for his skills in large part because he spent his career with the St. Louis Browns and the Washington Senators. Hughie Critz (1924-35) was a slick-fielding, weak-hitting second baseman for the Reds and Giants.In 1926, batting .270 for a second-place Cincinnati team, he impressed onlookers enough to finish second in the MVP voting, and two years later, batting .296 for a team that slipped to fifth place, he finished fourth in the voting. Clearly he made an impression, though his stats are hardly eye-catching today. Horace Clarke (1965-74) primarily played second base but he moves to his secondary position to play shortstop on this team. Clarke was a decent enough player, but he had the misfortune of arriving with the New York Yankees at the precise moment that the team marked (rather decisively) the end of its long period of dominance. The Babe Ruth Era had given way to the Joe DiMaggio Era which led to the Mickey Mantle Era, and through no fault of his own, the late 1960s became derisively known as the Horace Clarke Era. In truth, he was a similar player to Critz – good glove, not much offense but not a complete disaster at the plate, a little bit of speed – but where Critz got MVP votes, Clarke was held up as the symbol of the Yankees’ collapse.

Outfield: Left fielder Hub Collins (1886-92) was a .284 hitter who stole lots of bases and scored bunches of runs. In May of 1892, at age 28, he asked out of a game because he was not feeling well. He died a week later of typhoid fever. He was never a frontline star on the level of an Anson or a Lajoie, but he was a good player who might have put up some impressive numbers if he’d been lucky enough to have a full career. Center fielder Harry Craft (1937-42) was a .250 hitter who would hit a dozen home runs a year. He was a good defensive outfielder, but he never made it back to the majors after World War II. Right fielder Henry Cotto (1984-93), a.k.a. “Cotto the Swatto,” had great tools – he was fast and threw well – but he never produced much in the way of offense. He was never able to nail down a full-time job, but he would always get another shot at playing time because he just looked like he could play.

Catcher: Harry Chiti (1950-62) was a big, burly guy who made his major league debut at age 17 and hung around for a decade (interrupted by military service) as a part-time player. He earned his own little niche in the annals of baseball trivia in 1962 when the Indians traded him to the expansion Mets for a player to be named later. The Mets, after watching him bat .195 for a few weeks, told the Indians that Chiti himself would be the “player to be named later,” thus completing a deal in which Harry Chiti was traded for himself. (The team’s broadcasts will operate on an eight-second delay in case announcer Harry Caray mispronounces “Chiti.”)

Rotation: Howie Camnitz (1904-15) was a very fine pitcher for some very fine Pirates teams led by Honus Wagner. He won 20 games three times, including a 25-6 record for the 1909 world champions (though the Tigers lit him up in his one start in the World Series). He finished his career with a 133-106 record. Hal Carlson (1917-30) was also a teammate of Honus Wagner, pitching for the Pirates a few years after Camnitz. Carlson won 114 games in his career, split relatively evenly among Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the Cubs. He was pitching for the Cubs at age 38 when he missed a couple of starts because he was not feeling well. Two weeks later, he collapsed and died of a hemhorrage. (Considering the deaths of Hub Collins and Hal Carlson, the team’s training staff will be instructed to rush any player to the hospital at the slightest sign of fever, nausea or general achiness.) Harry Coveleski (1907-18) made a big first impression. In 1907, at age 21, he worked four games in relief for Philadelphia and allowed just 10 hits and two runs (both unearned) in 20 innings. The following year, he beat the powerhouse Giants twice in stretch run, costing New York dearly in a tight pennant race that was ultimately won by the Cubs. Even so, Coveleski did not become a full-time starter until 1914 when he joined the Detroit Tigers rotation and proceeded to win 65 games in three years. He finished with an 81-55 career record, and he also had three 20-win seasons in the minors. He was a fine pitcher, but ultimately overshadowed by his younger brother, Hall of Famer Stan Coveleski. (The two brothers worked hard, with some cooperation from their managers, to never pitch against one another.) Harry Courtney (1919-22) was a tall drink o’water who hung around as a lefty with the Washington Senators for a few years but never did much to distinguish himself. Hugh Campbell (1873) made 18 starts for the Elizabeth Resolutes in the National Association. He won two games (the only two that his team won all season) and lost 16. When he wasn’t pitching, he would occasionally play infield, but he was a .150 hitter, so he didn’t stick around long.

Bullpen: Closer Hugh Casey (1935-49) was a fine reliever for the Brooklyn Dodgers, leading the NL twice in saves and winning quite a few games in relief as well. He was a heavy drinker who fancied himself as a macho man. One spring training, while in Cuba, he became friends with Ernest Hemingway, and they amused themselves by getting drunk in Hemingway’s basement, putting on boxing gloves and beating each other bloody. (From all reports, by the time they were done “boxing,” there was not a piece of furniture in the room that remained intact.) The alcoholism continued to get worse, and Casey committed suicide at age 37. Hector Carrasco (1994-2007) was an effective reliever but never a star for seven different teams. Howard Craghead (1931-33) had no record and a 6.26 ERA in 15 games for the Indians, but he is noteworthy for the facts that (a.) he won 200 games in the minors, and (b.) he was a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Harry Camnitz (1909-11) is Howie’s less successful brother. He was a career minor-leaguer who appeared in one game for Pittsburgh and two for the Cardinals. Henry Coppola (1935-36) pitched briefly for the Washington Senators. If he is any relation to the legendary movie family, history has not recorded it. Hap Collard (1927-30) pitched for a few years in Cleveland and Philadelphia and got roughed up pretty good. Henry Clarke (1897-98) was the son of a prominent Nebraska businessman, and for a couple of years he spent his summer break from college pitching for the Cleveland Spiders and the Chicago Cubs before moving on to a propserous career in law and business. His middle name was Tefft. Yes, with two F’s.

Bench: Shortstop Harry Chappas (1978-80) was a reserve shortstop for the White Sox. He was 5-foot-7, but as a publicity stunt team owner Bill Veeck listed him as 5-foot-3 and lots of publications fell for the ruse and did big stories on the little fellow (including a cover story in Sports Illustrated). Chappas was an interesting fellow – his hobbies included crafting model airplanes and raising finches – but he wasn’t a very good ballplayer. He was rushed to the majors at age 20 and finished by his mid-20s. His minor-league record suggests that he might have been a useful utility infielder if he hadn’t been promoted from Single-A to the majors as a publicity stunt. Third baseman Hector “Heity” Cruz (1973-82), younger brother of Jose Cruz, was a very good minor-league hitter who arrived in the majors amid much hype and then flopped badly, never even reaching .240 in his nine-year career. Hee-Seop Choi (2002-05) was a hulking first baseman from South Korea who signed with the Cubs, had a fine minor-league career and produced a bit of power for a few years in the majors. Howie Clark (2002-08) looked like he might be useful as a fourth outfielder, but he fizzled out pretty quickly, though he had some decent years in the minors into his late 30s. Hick Cady (1912-19) was a backup catcher who won three World Series titles with the Red Sox in the teens. There’s not a lot of difference between Hick Cady and Harry Chiti, so Cady will see his share of starts.

Manager: Harry Craft will be the player-manager. His managerial record (360-485) isn’t good, but then, he managed the Kansas City A’s and the expansion Houston Colt .45’s, so he didn’t have a lot to work with.

HH: The Haven Hamiltons

Infield: Highpockets Hudspeth was a big, strong Negro League first baseman. No indication on where his nickname came from, other than that he was 6-foot-6 and therefore had pockets that were higher than normal. Hudspeth was a slow-footed power hitter, a decent glove but immobile in the field. In his prime he was a very good hitter, but his prime was relatively short. Second baseman Harry Hinchman (1907) was a switch-hitter who played for two decades in the minors, collecting almost 2,300 hits and batting .260. His major-league career consisted of a couple of weeks in Cleveland. Third baseman Harry Hanebrink (1953-59) was a bit player on the Milwaukee Braves teams that won two pennants in the late 1950s. Shortstop Hob Hiller (1920-21) played briefly for the post-Ruth Red Sox.

Outfield: Right fielder Harry Heilmann (1914-32) played alongside Cobb in Detroit as part of one of history’s greatest outfields. Heilmann’s .342 career average is one of the best of all time, and he was good for 40 doubles a year (as well as a double-figures in triples and home runs). He won four AL batting titles – every odd-numbered year between 1921-27. Like Heilmann, center fielder Harry Hooper (1909-25) is in the Hall of Fame, but they were very different types of players. Hooper was a great defensive outfielder and a steady but unspectacular hitter. He played right field for much of his career, but only because he was sharing the Boston outfield with Tris Speaker. Hooper is the only player in history to win four World Series titles with the Red Sox. For his career, he batted .281, but he had only moderate power and slightly above-average speed. Left fielder Harvey Hendrick (1923-34) batted .308 for his career, during a high-average era. He had decent line-drive power. He bounced around the league, playing for seven teams in 11 seasons, and most of his career was as a part-time player.

Catcher: Hughie Hearn (1901-03) was a pretty decent catcher who played for Brooklyn but was always in a role backing up an established veteran. He was essentially a .280-.290 hitter, both in his short major-league career and his longer minor-league career.

Rotation: Harvey Haddix (1952-65) is famous for pitching one of the greatest games in history. On May 6, 1959, pitching for the Pirates, he worked 12 perfect innings but was still stuck in a scoreless tie with Milwaukee. In the 13th, he lost the perfecto and the game, but the performance remains legendary. That game remains his legacy, the first thing people think of when they heard Haddix’s name, but he was actually a good pitcher for a long time. He won 136 games, mostly for the Cardinals and the Pirates, and in the 1960 World Series he was the winning pitcher in Game 5 (starter) and Game 7 (reliever). Harry Harper (1913-23) was known as “Hackensack Harry,” after his hometown in New Jersey. He spent most of his career with the Senators, which led to a career record of 57-76 despite an ERA that was better than league average. His reward was to spent 1921 with the pennant-winning Yankees. Harper was in the majors at age 18 and out of baseball by 30, at which point he embarked on a very successful career in business and politics (though he ultimately came up short in a U.S. Senate election in 1948 and a Congressional election two years later). Hardie Henderson (1883-88) lost 32 games in 1883 and then, to prove it wasn’t a fluke, he lost 35 in 1885. OK, so, losing 30 games in a season wasn’t all that rare in the 1880s. Still, there weren’t a lot of guys who did it twice. Henderson was a fairly average pitcher who finished his career 81-121 because, like Harry Harper, he pitched for bad teams. Harry Howell (1898-1910) bounced around for a few years before settling in with the St. Louis Browns. He finished with a career record of 131-146 and an ERA of 2.74. He never won 20 games in a season, but he lost 20 three times. Harry Hulihan (1922) came home from World War I and pitched a handful of games for the Boston Braves in 1922. He was a 23-year-old lefty, and he pitched very well (3.15 ERA in 40 innings for a terrible team in a league where the average ERA was 4.10). He hurt his arm, kicked around the semipro ranks for a while without ever playing in the minors, and then retired in his mid-20s and spent the rest of his life selling real estate and insurance. We suspect that Harry Harper and Harry Hulihan will be business partners in the offseason (Harry & Harry Inc., a consulting firm).

Bullpen: Hal Haid (1919-33) saved five games for the Cardinals in 1928. That was enough to lead the National League, and it's enough to make him the H.H. closer. Haid finished his career with a dozen saves. Haid pitched one game for the Browns at age 21, then pitched in the minors for severals years before resurfacing with the Cardinals at age 30. After a few years in the bigs, he went back to the minors and pitched until he was 40, finishing with 139 minor-league wins. Herb Hutson (1974) pitched in 20 games for the Cubs. Not much of a big-league career, but he did a decent job of getting people out (3.45 ERA, 22 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings). Hal Haydel (1970-71) had a 6-2 record and, yes, one save in his brief career in Minnesota. Homer Hillebrand (1905-08) could actually count as two players, partly because his full name was Homer Hiller Henry Hillebrand and partly because he was both a hitter and a pitcher. In truth, he wasn’t much of a hitter, for which reason he washed out as a first baseman in his early 20s, but as a pitcher he had a couple of pretty good years for the Pirates. Harry Hoch (1908-15) was a minor-league starter who pitched well in three starts for the Phillies in 1908 but didn’t stick, so he went back to the minors and resurfaced with the St. Louis Browns a few years later to go 0-6 primarily as a reliever. His durability will make him valuable in the exceedingly thin H.H. pen. Herm Holshouser (1930) pitched a few games for the St. Louis Browns in which the league batted about .350 against him, which led to a 7.80 ERA. Hilly Hathaway (1992-93) was a tall lefty who pitched very well in the minors but got hit hard when the Angels gave him a dozen starts in his early 20s. He went back to the minors and struggled, and he was out of baseball before he turned 30. If Hathaway struggles, there is a crowded field of guys who appeared in fewer than five games, including guys like Harry Hedgpeth, Herb Hippauf, Hanson Horsey, Harley Hisner, Heath Haynes and Horace Heimbold ready to step in and hurl.

Bench: Ham Hyatt (1909-18) was an outfielder and first baseman who batted a respectable .267 during the deadball era. He will compete for playing time with Harvey Hendrick, but there’s no possibility of platoons since they are both lefty hitters (as is Highpockets Hudspeth at first base). Heine Heitmuller (1909-10) was a big, strapping outfielder who played well in a couple of extended trials with the Philadelphia A’s but couldn’t crack their formidable lineup. He returned to the minors and was leading the Pacific Coast League in batting in 1912 when he died of typhoid fever. Hugh High (1913-18), another outfielder, was a decent hitter (though not as good as his brother Andy), and he was a part-time starter for the pre-Ruth Yankees. Herb Hunter (1916-21) couldn’t hit, but he beats out Heine Heltzel and Hunter Hill for the utility infield spot in part because he has the distinction of organizing some of the first barnstorming trips that took American players to Japan, helping to popularize the sport there. His tours included major stars such as Lou Gehrig, Lefty Grove and Mickey Cochrane. Hub Hart (19905-07) was the backup catcher for some very good White Sox teams, including the World Series champions of 1906. If one of the backup outfielders gets injured, we would look forward to the pitched battle between Hinky Haines and Hunky Hines for the last roster spot.

Manager: Holly Hollingshead had a career record of 16-66 in two partial seasons managing the Washington Nationals in the 19th century. He was just 22 years old when he led the team in 1875 but he went just 4-16. They gave him another shot in 1884 at age 31, but the results weren’t much better.

HM: The Henry Mancinis

Infield: First baseman Hal Morris (1988-2000) was a consistent run producer for the Reds in the 1990s. He was a career .304 hitter who made good contact and had some line-drive pop but not much actual power. Third baseman Hank Majeski (1939-55) was also a consistent but unspectacular player – sure-handed at the hot corner, never struck out, good for some doubles and the occasional home run. He bounced around the American League for more than a decade, and in his best season he batted .312 for the A’s in 1948 with 120 RBI. Other than that season, his career high in RBI was 72. Third baseman Heinie Mueller (1938-41) was a decent-at-best player for the Phillies, but he never made it back to the majors after he returned from World War II in his early 30s. Shortstop Harvey McClellan (1919-24) was a weak-hitting infielder for the White Sox. Actually, weak-hitting doesn’t really do justice to his weaknesses at the plate. He was nicknamed “Little Mac” a few decades before McDonald’s introduced the big one.

Outfield: Awfully good outfield here, with one qualifier – positioning is going to be an issue, as none of the three is a natural center fielder, to put it mildly. As a youngster, Hal McRae (1968-87) had good speed and was projected as a center fielder, but a badly broken leg ended all of that. He spent a few years playing corner outfield part time on the teams that formed the basis for the Big Red Machine, and then in 1973 he was traded to Kansas City and became the first great designated hitter. He batted .300 regularly, bashed doubles all over the place and ran the bases so aggressively that they had to make rule changes to keep him from putting opposing infielders in the hospital. He was a hustling, fiery player who was one of the key figures on the Kansas City Royals teams that dominate the AL West for a decade. Heine Manush (1923-39) played during a time (and place) of very high offensive totals, and he took advantage. His career batting average was .330, and he led the American League in batting once, and hits and doubles twice apiece. He broke in with Detroit as a kid battling for time in the great outfield that included Cobb, Heilmann and Veach. He spent most of his career with the Tigers and the Senators, but he spent time with four other teams. Hideki Matsui (2003- ) went from being a legend in Japan to being a fixture in New York. As a rookie with the Yomiuri Giants, he was so highly touted that he was assigned the number 55, which represents Sadaharu Oh’s single-season home run record. He was also given the nickname “Godzilla” – at first it was an unkind refence to his acne problem (which must have been pretty bad), but soon it was transformed into a tribute to his physique and his strength. After nine years with Yomiuri, including three MVP awards and three league championships, he made international headlines when he signed with the New York Yankees. He became a regular 100-RBI guy and a respected slugger in the Yankees’ star-studded lienup. In 56 postseason games, he has hit .312 and slugged .541, winning the World Series MVP Award in 2009. Thee very fine outfielders here – but what to do with them? If McRae’s injury had happened in mid-career, like with Andre Dawson’s knees, we could pencil him in at center field and let it go. But it didn’t, and as a result none of the three has any real claims to center field. Matsui played a fair number of games there, both in Japan and in his early days with the Yankees, so he’ll start out there, but he’s not going to win any Gold Gloves. With Manush in left and McRae in right, the pitching staff is going to want to keep the ball low.

Catcher: Harry McCurdy (1922-34) was a decent enough hitter for a long time, though he never got much beyond part-time status. Playing with four teams, he was a .280 hitter with enough gap power to hit a lot of doubles.

Rotation: Harry McIntire (1905-13) spent the bulk of his career with some really terrible Brooklyn Superbas teams, for which he went 46-98 despite pitching just a little bit worse than league average. In 1910 he benefited greatly from a trade to the outstanding Chicago Cubs teams, for whom he pitched about the same but posted a record of 25-18 in three seasons. Handsome Hugh McQuillan (1918-27) also benefited from a trade in mid-career – going from the Boston Braves to the New York Giants in 1922, leading to three straight pennants. He finished with a career record of 88-94. Heine Meine (1922-34) goes on the list, along with guys such as Johnny Dickshot and Dick Pole, of ballplayers whose names would make Beavis & Butthead snicker. After one game with his hometown St. Louis Browns in 1922, he spent several years as a minor-league Meine before resurfacing with the Pirates at age 33. He went on to go 66-50 for Pittsbugh, leading the NL with 19 victories in 1931. Harry McCormick (1879-83) went 18-33 for Syracuse in 1879, partly because he didn’t pitch very well, but also partly because his team was last in the league in runs per game. Over the course of his career, he wasn’t half bad. Hugh Mulcahy (1935-47) pitched for some absolutely dreadful Philadelphia Phillies teams, and from 1937-40 he went 40-78. During this period, he received one of the great nicknames in baseball history. Because so many box scores included the line “Losing pitcher-Mulcahy,” the poor guy became known as Hugh “Losing Pitcher” Mulcahy. He had a career record of 45-89, even though his ERA was only a little bit worse than league average.

Bullpen: Hal McKain (1927-32) will start out as the closer, but his grasp is tenuous in this highly flammable bullpen. He had a career record of 18-23 with six saves and a 4.93 ERA, mostly for the White Sox. Hector Mercado (2000-03) was a lefty who went 5-4 with one save during a short career with the Reds and Phillies. Heath Murray (1997-2002) might wrest the “Losing Pitcher” nickname away from Hugh Mulcahy (or at the very least become known as Heath “Blown Save” Murray), based on his 2-15 career record. He earned that record with a 6.41 ERA and almost 17 baserunners per nine innings. Herb Moford (1955-62) won 143 games in the minors. In the majors he was 5-13 with a 5.03 ERA and finally hung it up after the idignity of pitching for the expansion Mets. He was a teammate of Jim Bunning’s and later, after retiring to his Kentucky tobacco farm, worked on some of Bunning’s political campaigns. Hank McDonald (1931-33) had the good fortune of coming up with the powerhouse Philadelphia A’s and the bad fortune of then getting traded to the awful St. Louis Browns. Herb McQuaid (1923-26) had a short career that ended with the ’26 Yankees, but he did not appear in the legendary World Series that ended with Grover Cleveland Alexander and the Cardinals beating the Bombers. Hal Manders (1941-46) was a cousin (and youth baseball teammate) of Bob Feller. He was a promising young pitcher who served a long apprenticeship in the Cardinals’ farm system and then had some success in the majors before World War II interrupted. When he came back from the war, he didn’t last long.

Bench: Hi Myers (1909-25) was a fleet center fielder who is going to get plenty of time as a defensive replacement on this team. He was a decent hitter, too, leading the NL in triples twice and in slugging and RBI in 1919 while playing for Brooklyn. Outfielder Herbie Moran (1908-15) was a 5-foot-5 speedster who played for the Miracle Braves of 1914. Herschel Martin (1937-45) is another outfielder, one who had almost 2,300 hits in the minors for a .317 average. In the majors, he batted .285 as a part-time player for the Yankees and Phillies. Utility infielder Hal Marnie (1940-42) couldn’t hit, but he is the only player in major-league history whose name is also the title of a Hitchcock film. (If you include nicknames, Steve “Psycho” Lyons and Bob "Rope" Boyd qualify, and I'm all in favor of trying to popularize such nicknames as Royce "Topaz" Ring, Aaron "Lifeboat" Laffey or Kevin "Frenzy" Frandsen. It's probably too late for Richie "Family Plot" Hebner.). Backup catcher Henry Mercedes (1992-97) went four for five as a rookie with the A’s, but everyone was pretty sure he wasn’t really an .800 hitter. They were right. He was a .247 hitter with no power.

Manager: Hal McRae's managerial career is intriguing. He was a very respected player in Kansas City, and as the sun began to set on the glory days of the George Brett Era, McRae was hired as manager to turn the team back into a winner. He did that, with three winning records in four seasons and a combined mark of 286-277. But his intense manner rubbed some people the wrong way – players, bosses, media members, etc. – and he was fired after taking the Royals to a 64-51 record in the strike season of 1994. Since then, in almost two decades, the Royals have gone through a series of managers and had just one winning season. McRae spent a couple of futile years in Tampa Bay and has worked as a hitting coach, but there are those in K.C. who wonder what might have happened if the Royals had kept McRae in the dugout.

HR: The Harry Reasoners

Infield: Shortstop Hanley Ramirez (2005- ) is one of the most exciting young players in the game today. He’s won a Rookie of the Year, been runner-up for an MVP, led the National League in batting and runs scored, and he’s just now hitting his prime. He’s a .300 hitter with power and enough speed to steal a lot of bases at a very high rate of success, and defensively, while he’s no Gold Glover, he’s good enough that no one is talking about moving him off the position. He is so firmly entrenched as the face of the Florida Marlins franchise that there are probably a lot of people who forget that he came up with the Red Sox and moved to Florida as the key player in the mutually beneficial deal that brought Josh Beckett to Boston. Third baseman Hardy Richardson (1879-92) was one of the early stars of the sport. His full name was Abram Harding Richardson, and he was known as “Old True Blue.” He played his prime years in Buffalo and Detroit, though he was with Boston when he led the Players League with 146 RBI in 1890. Second baseman Harold Reynolds (1983-94) was nowhere near as explosive or talented as HanRam, but he could be an exciting player. He is the answer to a trivia question: Who was the only person other than Rickey Henderson to lead the AL in stolen bases during the 1980s? (Reynolds stole 60 in 1987; Henderson was hurt and stole just 41 bases in 95 games.) He spent a decade as a speedster with a good glove and a mediocre bat, and he won many awards for community service, including being named one of George Bush’s “Points of Light.” Upon retirement, he moved on to a broadcasting career at ESPN that ended abruptly amid charges of sexual harassment. First baseman Herman Reich (1949) is the weak link on this infield. A career minor-leaguer, he spent one itinerant year in the majors at age 31. The Indians claimed him after he had a big year in the Pacific Coast League in the fall of 1948 and then waived him at the end of spring training 1949. The Senators claimed him off the waiver wire, gave him two pinch-hitting appearances, then shipped him back to Cleveland, where he appeared in one game an outfielder before he was waived again. The Cubs claimed him this time and he played part time as a first baseman and outfielder for the reason of the year. The following winter, the Cubs sold him to the White Sox, and he was released and returned to the minors for good.

Outfield: Center fielder Harry Rice (1923-33) played for the St. Louis Browns in the early years of the “Live Ball Era,” when the Browns actually had some good teams. He was a .300 hitter with a little bit of line drive pop, but his career fizzled out in his late 20s. Right fielder Henry Rodriguez (1992-2002) hit 119 home runs between 1996-99, but just 41 home runs in the rest of his career. He was an all-star in Montreal in 1996, and he batted behind Sammy Sosa the year Sosa hit 66 jacks for the Cubs. For a while, it was traditional for fans to throw “Oh Henry!” candy bars on the field after he hit home runs, but that practice ended when they started filing criminal charges against the fans for doing so. Hal “Hoot” Rice (1948-54) would not crack the starting outfield for the all-Rice team (Sam, Harry and Jim Ed), but he gets the nod in left field here. He primarily backed up Stan Musial on the postwar Cardinals.

Catcher: Harvey Russell (1914-15) was a backup for a couple of years in the Federal League.

Rotation: Harry Rasmussen (1975-83) was sort of an odd case. He was born Harold Ralph Rasmussen, but a few years into his major-league career he decided to legally change his name to Eric. If memory serves, he did this in order to reflect his pride in his Scandinavian heritage. Oddly enough, when he became father he named his son … Harry. For initial purposes, we’re giving Harry Rasmussen credit for his entire career, regardless of the name change. He pitched primarily for the Cardinals during their 1970s malaise, and he finished with a career record of 50-77. Lefty Hank Robinson (1911-18) won 273 games in the minors and, in the middle of that career, also managed to go 42-37 in the bigs with a 2.53 ERA. Horacio Ramirez (2003- ) had a spot in the Atlanta Braves rotation for a few years, alongside the likes of Smoltz, Maddux and Hudson. He couldn’t hang with that company, so he's bounced around as a lefty reliever for the past several years. Howie Reed (1958-71) was a very good starter in the minors and spent more than a decade bouncing up and down as a fairly decent swingman in the majors. He pitched for the 1965 World Series champion Dodgers. Humberto Robinson (1955-60) was, like Howie Reed, a very good starter in the minors who never fully established himself as a starter in the majors but spent a lot of time as a very good swingman. He was the first Panamanian to play in the majors, a tall, skinny stringbean. It’s worth noting that Hank Robinson, Howie Reed and Humberto Robinson combined to go 76-79 in the majors, but 522-364 in the minors.

Bullpen: Closer Hal Reniff (1961-67), affectionately known as “Porky,” pitched for the Yankees at the end of the Mantle-Berra-Ford era, which is to say at the end of the dynasty that stretched across four decades. He pitched in two World Series, allowing no runs in four relief appearances, but the Yankees were on the losing end both times. He finished his career with 45 saves. Hank Ritter (1912-16) sounds like a country singer but he was actually a relief pitcher who had a short and mostly ineffective career with the New York Giants. Hector Ramirez (1999-2000) also had a short career in which he did little to distinguish himself. Venezuelan righty Henry Rodriguez (2009- ) is a young guy who came up with Oakland and now pitches for Washington. He’s just now getting started, but it wouldn’t take much for him to move up the hierarchy of the H.R. bullpen. Hans Rasmussen (1915) is no relation to Harry (or Eric). He was a 6-foot-6, 220-pound behemoth who pitched a couple of innings for the Chicago Whales in the Federal League as a 20-year-old and then disappeared from the baseball landscape. Hal Raether (1954-57) pitched two innings for the Philadelphia A’s in 1954 and then came back to pitch two more innings for the Kansas City A’s in 1957. Charles Finley apparently resisted the temptation to bring him back to work two innings in Oakland in 1968.

Bench: Infielder Heine Reitz (1893-99) played on the rough-and-tumble Orioles teams who dominated the NL in the late 19th century. His 31 triples in 1894 was the single-season record for many years and is still the second-highest total. In 1914, Reitz had the distinction of becoming the first major-league player to die in a car accident. Backup catcher Hank Riebe (1942-49) was a terrible hitter, but then, you knew that when you saw that he couldn’t beat out Harvey Russell for the starting job. Hal Rhyne (1926-33) was a weak-hitting utility infielder for the Red Sox and Pirates. Harry Raymond (1888-92) was also a weak-hitting infielder. He was born Harry H . Truman. There is no indication of (a.) why he changed his name or (b.) if he was any relation to the future president. Completing the team’s collection of infielders, Hector Rodriguez (1952) was a Cuban third baseman who started for the White Sox in 1952 but other than that spent his professional career collecting more than 2,300 hits in various minor leagues in the U.S. and Mexico. Henri Rondeau (1913-16) came up as a catcher but later moved to the outfield, which is where he’ll play on this team. He never did anything noteworthy, other than being apparently the only player named Henri in major-league history.

Manager: According to baseballreference.com and retrosheet.org, no H.R. has ever managed or coached in the majors. For now, we'll let Heinie Reitz manage the team, hoping that he will benefit from his proximity to Ned Hanlon, John McGraw and Uncle Robby during his playing career.