GR: The Gene Rayburns

Infield: First baseman Gary Redus (1982-94) was always a better player than people realized. He was a .250 hitter, but he drew a lot of walks, he had some power, and he was very fast and could steal 40-50 bases a year at an 80 percent success rate. He could play outfield or first base, and he was the most outspoken guy among several young players on the Reds’ roster who had trouble getting playing time because player-manager Pete Rose kept himself in the lineup chasing Ty Cobb. He never played more than 130 games in a season, even after he left Cincinnati, but he was a very effective player. Second baseman George Rohe (1901-07) had an undistinguished major-league career, except that at age 31 he played great in the 1906 World Series to help the White Sox upset the powerhouse Cubs. Third baseman Goldie Rapp (1921-23) was a minor-league batting champion who never hit well in the majors. Gene Robertson (1919-30) was primarily a third baseman but could be stretched to play short, which is where he will start here. He grew up in St. Louis, attended St. Louis University and landed on the St. Louis Browns, where he was a role player for several years before eventually making his way to the Yankees and winning a World Series title in 1928.

Outfield: Left fielder Gene Richards (1977-84) could fly. He was basically a slap hitter, but with his speed he could hit 10-12 triples a year, and he stole as many as 61 bases. He drew enough walks to get on base a little bit. With Richards and Gary Redus at the top of the order, this team will have fleet runners on base. The question is whether anyone will drive them in. Right fielder Gary Roenicke (1975-88) will be one of the guys trying to do that. Best known as one of the role players who used to give Earl Weaver great production as a half-time starter, Roenicke hit 121 home runs in his career despite the fact that he never came to the plate 500 times in a season. He was a .250 hitter, but he drew some walks and he hit the ball hard. Center fielder Goody Rosen (1937-46) was a pretty fair player for the Brooklyn Dodgers who had his best season in 1945, when he batted .325 and scored 126 runs. A year later, after he was traded to the Giants, he ran into an outfield wall and sustained a career-ending injury.

Catcher: Gil Reyes (1983-91) is not to be confused with the boxer of the same name, or with Andre Agassi’s longtime fitness trainer, though truth be told, either one of those gentlemen, given 283 plate apperarances, probably could have matched this guy’s production in the majors. He was tough to run on, though. Give him that.

Rotation: Glendon Rusch (1997-2009) was a lefty who had a couple of good years and some really bad ones. He went 8-12 with the Mets in 2001, then went to the Brewers in a three-team trade and proceeded to lead the N.L. with 16 losses in 2002. Then, in 2003 he went 1-12 before the Brewers pulled the plug on him. He had a couple of decent years as a swingman for the Cubs, but he never became the pitcher who people somehow kept expecting him to become. Gordon Rhodes (1929-36), like Rusch, had some decent years but also some ugly ones. He went 2-10 in 1932, split between the Yankees and the Red Sox, and then he went 2-10 for the Sox in 1935 and 9-20 for the A’s in 1936, ending his big-league career. Unlike Rusch and Rhodes, Gary Ross (1968-77) never led the league in losses, but it wasn’t for lack of effort. In 1976 he went 8-16 for the Angels, tying for fourth in the league in losses. Two of the guys who lost more than him that year are in the Hall of Fame – Nolan Ryan (who was 19-18) and Goose Gossage (who lost 17 games while his idiot manager tried to make a starter out of him). Gary Ryerson (1972-73), who in a later generation might have been dubbed “Needlenose Gary,” had a career record of 3-9. The top four pitchers in this rotation have a combined career won-loss record of 138-229. George Rettger (1891-92), by contrast, had a winning record. He went 9-6 while pitching for three teams in the 19th century. Sportswriter Grantland Rice, covering this team for the local paper, will no doubt write Rettger up as a heroic figure being dragged down by the Four Horsemen preceeding him in the rotation.

Bullpen: Nominal closer Gary Roggenburk (1963-69) had seven saves in a brief career that finished up with a short stint with the Seattle Pilots. Gordie Richardson (1964-66) had a promising rookie year for the World Series champion Cardinals in 1964 but was never very effective again. Grant Roberts (2000-04) was a promising young pitcher for the Mets who was out of baseball before he was 30 because of injuries. George Riley (1979-86) pitched a few games here and there for three teams in four seasons. Gil Rondon (1976-79) got rocked in 19 games for the Astros, then made it back up for a cup o’coffee with the White Sox a few years later. Greg Reynolds (2008- ) has gotten pounded in a couple of go-rounds in Colorado, but he’s still relatively young and could work his way back. Gene Rounsaville (1970) had a 9.95 career ERA in eight appearances.

Bench: Gary Rajsich (1982-85) was a minor-league slugger who never got it going in the majors. A lefty first baseman who could also play outfield, he will get some platoon at-bats here. German Rivera (1983-85) batted .350 in 17 at-bats as a 22-year-old rookie, and the Dodgers were convinced he would be their third baseman for the next decade. They were wrong. Gene Roof (1981-83) was an outfield prospect who never quite stuck. He is best known as the brother of longtime backup catcher Phil Roof. (Because of the 17-year age difference between the brothers, Phil played for 16 seasons in the majors but was finished four years before his brother got called up, prompting fans to initially assume they were father and son.) Guillermo Rodriguez (2007-09) is the backup catcher. Infielder Glenn Redmon (1974) had four hits in his big-league career, three of which were doubles.

Manager: Greg Riddoch had a winning record in parts of three seasons as manager of the Padres, but his players were frequently fighting with each other, and petulant first baseman Jack Clark memorably referred to Riddoch as “a ssssssssnake.”

GS: The Getrude Steins

Infield: First baseman George Sisler (1915-30) was a very fine player, a Hall of Famer, but it’s easy to overstate his greatness. He batted .340 lifetime and had a couple of seasons over .400. He had 257 hits in a season and a 41-game hitting streak, and he led the American League in stolen bases four times. But he played in an era of high batting averages, and in the context in which he played, his on-base and slugging percentages were not as high as you would expect. He played his best years with the St. Louis Browns in a park that was a hitter’s paradise – the year he had 257 hits, he batted .473 at home and .341 on the road. At age 30, he missed the entire 1923 season with an eye ailment, and though he returned to play many more years, he wasn’t anything like the player he was before the missed season. Historians and statistical analysts have come to believe that his reputation for defensive greatness was tremendously exaggerated. None of this is to insult the man. He was a very fine player. George Scott (1966-79) was “Boomer” before Berman, Esiason or that doctor on “St. Elsewhere.” He spent most of his career at first base, but Sisler’s presence will move Boomer to his secondary position of third base. Scott was a good hitter -- .268 lifetime, with 271 home runs and 1,051 RBI – and a fun guy to watch. He wasn’t fast, but he was a smart, aggressive baserunner who used to wear a necklace that he joked was “made out of second basemen’s teeth.” He would occasionally score from second base on a sacrifice fly if the ball was hit deep enough and he sensed that the defense was playing a bit lax. Second baseman Germany Schaefer (1901-18) was a fairly ordinary player who had a rather extraordinary presence on the field. He was one of the most colorful people ever associated with baseball, and stories about his antics abound. He once dove headfirst while stealing a base and later explained that he couldn’t slide because he didn’t want to crush the cigar he had in his back pocket. An oft-told story, surely exaggerated but apparently grounded in a true incident from 1906, has him stepping to the plate as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the ninth inning, grandly introducing himself to the crowd and announcing that he is about to hit a home run into the left-field bleachers, then hitting just such a home run and, after rounding the bases, informing the crowd, “This concludes today’s performance.” In one famous stunt, with runners on first and third, Schaefer stole second base in an attempt to draw a throw that would allow his teammate to score. When the catcher didn’t make the throw, Schaefer tried again by running back to first base on the next pitch. The umpire acknowledged that this was a legal ploy, so baseball quickly changed the rules to state that a player cannot run the bases backward. After his playing career, he worked as a coach and would try to distract opponents with such tricks as walking on the foul line as though it were a tightrope, or sitting in foul territory and using two bats to pantomime rowing a boat. Shortstop Germany Smith (1884-98) shared a name with Germany Schaefer, but not a demeanor. He was a very weak hitter but a decent enough defensive infielder, though he was one of the teammates who intentionally kicked the ball around throughout an 1885 game in Brooklyn to humiliate an arrogant young pitcher who had introduced himself as Phenomenal Smith.

Outfield: Right fielder Gary Sheffield (1988-2009) came to the majors as a brash young third baseman who couldn’t get along with anyone and who admitted that he made errors on purpose so that the Brewers would give in to his request for a trade. He matured quite a bit after that point, but he frequently bickered with management, made controversial statements, and was accused of steroid use during a long career with eight different teams. All of that is true. So is this: The man could hit. For his career he batted .292 with 509 home runs and 1,676 RBI. He ran well enough to steal 253 bases, and while he was not an especially good outfielder, he had a powerful arm. Center fielder Grady Sizemore (2004-) is right in the prime of his career but seems to have gotten sidetracked by injuries. In his early 20s, he was a .280 hitter with tons of doubles, the potential for 30 homers and 30 steals, a good batting eye and Gold Glove defense in center field. He’s been struggling for a couple of years now. He still has time to get his game back and become an all-star again, but each season adrift makes that less likely. Left fielder George Stone (1903-10) put a lucrative banking career on hold in his mid-20s to playe for the St. Louis Browns, and as a 28-year-old rookie in 1905 he led the American League in hits with 187. The following year he led the league in batting (.358), slugging (.501) and on-base (.417). He was never close to that level again, though he remained a good player for the rest of his career.

Catcher: Geovany Soto (2005- ) was the NL Rookie of the Year in 2008 when he batted .285 with 23 home runs. He slumped off the next season and has been up-and-down since, though he is certainly a solid catcher.

Rotation: Lefty Greg Swindell (1986-2002) was a star at University of Texas, taken by the Indians with the second pick of the 1986 draft and rushed to the majors after three starts at Single-A. He acquitted himself well and then, after an elbow injury interrupted his rookie year, he had several seasons of very fine pitching for bad Cleveland teams. He wasn’t overpowering but had outstanding control, and when his effectiveness began to wane as a starter he moved to the bullpen and had several more good years, winning a World Series title with Arizona in 2001. George Suggs (1908-15) was a diminutive righty who won 20 games for Cincinnati in 1910 and who jumped to the Federal League and won 24 for Baltimore. He was a lifelong resident of Kinston, N.C., and played a large role in landing a Carolina League team for his hometown. George Stone (1967-75) was a tall lefty who spent most of his career with the Atlanta Braves. He was teammates with his cousin, reliever Cecil Upshaw, who had the save in a dozen of Stone’s victories. He had a very good year (12-3, 2.80) as a swingman for the pennant-winning 1973 Mets, but his career went downhill after that. Garrett Stephenson (1996-2003) went 16-9 for the Cardinals in 2000; for the rest of his career he was 23-30. George A. Smith (1916-23) went to Columbia University and was known as “Columbia George.” He was a relatively average pitcher who ended up with a miserable record of 41-81 largely because he spent a few year with some dreadful Philadelphia A’s teams in the moribund stage between Connie Mack’s powerhouses.

Bullpen: Closer Gerry Staley (1947-61) was a good starter for the Cardinals (winning 54 games from 1951-53) but had his best seasons after he went to the White Sox and shifted to the bullpen. He was a durable, effective reliever for several years. Lefty George Sherrill (2004- ) will set up Staley and pick up some closing opportunities as well. He’s an erratic but occasionally overpowering pitcher, and he averages a strikeout per inning. George Spencer (1950-51) had a good year for the NL champion Giants in 1951, but that season accounted for more than half of his career innings and more than half of his career wins (though he was in the majors for parts of eight seasons). He was a good minor-league pitcher and a passabale one in the bigs. George S. Smith (1926-30), who spent most of his career with Detroit, gave up a few too many hits and way too many walks. George Susce (1955-59) was the son of a catcher named George Susce whose nickname was “Good Kid.” George Junior didn’t have a nickname, but we’ll call him “Egbert,” in honor of W.C. Fields. George “Egbert” Susce had a decent career for the Red Sox. Gene Stechschulte (2000-02) had a largely forgettable career with the Cardinals, but it was fun to hear the announcers pronouncing his gutteral last name. Glenn Spencer (1928-33) spent most of his career with the Pirates and then finished up with the championship Giants of 1933.

Bench: George “Twinkletoes” Selkirk (1934-42) inherited right field in Yankee Stadium from Babe Ruth, and he was a fine player – a .300 hitter who drove in 100 runs twice. Because he played for the Yankees, he won six AL pennants and five World Series titles. Backup catcher Gabby Street (1904-12) was a poor hitter but a decent catcher who worked a lot with Walter Johnson. He was a veteran of both the Spanish-American War and World War II, and he later managed the Cardinals to the 1931 World Series title and spent several years as a broadcaster in St. Louis. A colorful character, he is perhaps most famous for a stunt in which he caught a baseball dropped from the top of the Washington Monument. First baseman Gus Suhr (1930-40) will step in when Sisler’s double vision is acting up. Suhr was a consistent, durable player for the Pirates, and his streak of 822 consecutive games was a National League record for several years. George Stovall (1904-15) was a light hitting infielder (and player-manager) who spent most of his career in Cleveland. His nickname, “Firebrand,” suggests that he had a bit of a temper. Utility infielder Gary Sutherland (1966-78) couldn’t hit, was a terrible base runner and wasn’t a very good fielder, but he stuck around for more than a decade because teams valued his versatility.

Manager: Gentleman George Stallings, most famous for leading the Boston Braves to their Miracle championship of 1914, will run the team. He was famous as an early proponent of platooning, so look for him to make ample use of guys like Selkirk and Suhr. Between eccentrics like Germany Schaefer and Gabby Street, and hotheads like Gary Sheffield and George Stovall, Stallings will have his hands full. Street and Stovall will no doubt help him with his managerial chores, as will Sisler. Stallings will be getting more advice than he wants. And, God help him, he gets to do it all under the watchful eye of team owner George Steinbrenner.

GW: The George Washingtons

Infield: Shortstop Glenn Wright (1924-35) was a good enough defensive player to move Rabbit Maranville to another position, and a good enough hitter to drive in 100 runs four time and bat cleanup for the championship Pirates teams of the mid-1920s. His arm was powerful but sometimes erratic, leading to the delightful nickname “Buckshot,” but he was a highly respected glove man. His career was cut short by injuries, but he was a very fine player and a respected gentleman. His double player partner will be (no relation) George Wright (1871-82), a star shortstop during baseball’s formative years who will move over to second base on this team. Along with his brother Harry (baseball had Wright Brothers long before Kitty Hawk), he was one of the sport’s earliest stars. It’s hard to truly make sense out of the stats from those early leagues, but it is abundantly clear that George Wright was a very fine player and will form one hell of a good defensive combo up the middle. (Team slogan: Two wrongs don’t make a right, but two Wrights turn a double play.) First baseman Greg Walker (1982-90) came up as one of a group of powerful first basemen whom Bill James dubbed “The Young McCoveys.” Well, he wasn’t Willie McCovey good (not many are), but he was a big, strong slugger for the White Sox for a few years. In 1988 he began to experience a series of terrifying brain seizures, the first of which struck during pregame warmups and almost killed him. He was diagnosed as epileptic and apparently got the condition under control, but his career was never the same after that. Third baseman Glenn Williams (2005) has a career batting average of .425. His career consisted of 13 games for the Minnesota Twins in which he went 17 for 40 before a dislocated shoulder ended his season. He never made it back to the majors, which means that he holds the “modern baseball” record for the most at-bats by a player with a career average over .400. A native of New South Wales, Australia, and he played for the country’s Olympic teams in 2000 and 2004.

Outfield: Right fielder Gene Woodling (1943-62) played for six teams but is mostly remembered for his six years with the Yankees, which included five straight World Series titles between 1949-53). Woodling was a good player, and in those 26 World Series games he batted .318 with lots of extra-base hits and more than twice as many walks as strikeouts. After a great minor-league career in which he batted .348, he made his way to the majors and put together a fine career in which he batted .284 and averaged about 80 walks and a dozen home runs per year. He was known as a hustling ballplayer who got the most out of his abilities. Center fielder Gee Walker (1931-45) was a .300 hitter with a line-drive stroke that produced a ton of doubles and a few home runs. He was a fiery player (“The Madman from Mississippi”) and very fast, but he had occasional lapses in judgment on the basepaths, such as getting thrown out trying to steal while the batter was being intentionally walked, or getting picked off base while trash talking with players in the opposing dugout. He was immensely popular in Detroit and the fans nearly rioted when he was traded after the 1937 season. Left fielder George “Dandy” Wood (1880-92), a Canadian gent who hailed from Prince Edward Island off the coast of Nova Scotia, played for several teams in the late 19th century. He appears to have been a good hitter with some speed and a little pop in his bat. He and George Wright will try to convince their teammates to grow ornate facial hair.

Catcher: George Williams (1995-2000) was a switch-hitting catcher for Oakland who had a good batting eye and a little bit of pop, but his time in the big leagues didn’t last long.

Rotation: Gus Weyhing (1887-1901) was an itinerant right-hander known as Rubber-Arm (or Rubber-Wing) Gus because he generally worked about 400-450 innings per year. Granted, it was the dead ball era when pitchers worked a lot of innings, and no, he never actually led the league, but still, the guy was a workhorse, and he did win 30 games in four straight seasons (though he never led the league in that category either). He did once throw 56 wild pitches in a season, and he holds the all-time career record for hit batsmen with 277. (That’s almost 100 more than the active leader, Tim Wakefield.) George Lovington “Sassafrass” Winter (1901-08) came along just as Gus Weyhing was departing. A diminutive righty (5-8, 155 pounds) and a teammate of Hall of Famer Eddie Plank at Gettysburg College, Winter had a solid career with the Red Sox, winning 83 games. Gene Wright (1901-04) arrived on the scene the same year as George Winter, but they didn’t have much in common. Wright was much bigger (6-2, 185, known as “Big Gene”) and wasn’t nearly as good (14 career wins). George Wheeler (1896-99) spent his whole career pitching for the Phillies, going 21-20. He was a righty who would occasionally switch things up and pitch lefty. Gary Wheelock (1976-80) had a couple of very brief callups, sandwiched around 17 ineffective starts for the expansion Mariners. He is the only pitcher in this rotation who does not date back to the turn of the 20th century. He’ll wear a high collared jersey just to fit in.

Bullpen: Lefty Gabe White (1994-2005) spent most of his career in a setup role, but his 570 innings with a 17 saves and a reasonble 4.51 ERA makes him the closer on this squad. He had his best years in Cincinnati and spent the second half of his career moving around the majors. He earned his niche in baseball trivia history by giving up the final hit of Tony Gwynn’s career. Gary Wagner (1965-70) pitched for the Phillies and wasn’t terrible. Gary Wayne (1989-94) was an effective lefty who spent most of his career with the Twins. Gary Waslewski (1967-72) actually holds a major-league record – fewest career wins for a pitcher making a World Series start. He went 2-2 as a rookie for the Red Sox in 1967 and then started Game 6 against the Cardinals. He finished his career with an 11-26 record, mostly in relief, pitching for five teams in six seasons. Gene Walter (1985-88) was a very ordinary lefty. George “Breezy” Winn (1919-23) is another lefty, ensuring that this bullpen will tilt southward. Gene Woodburn (1911-12) put too many people on base. As a rookie, he only gave up 22 hits in 38 innings, but he walked 40. So his second season, he really worked on his control, and in 48 innings he gave up 42 walks – but also allowed 60 hits. If you’re good at math, you can see that this means he finished his career having allowed 82 hits and 82 walks in just 76 innings. Woof.

Bench: Outfielder Glenn Wilson (1982-93) would generally hit about .270 with a dozen or so home runs. He drove in 102 runs in 1985 and made the all-star team, but that was an anomaly. He was best known for his cannon arm from right field. Outfielder Gary Ward (1979-90) was a similar hitter to Wilson, but a little bit better across the board, for which rearson he made the all-star team twice. Gerald “Ice” Williams (1992-2005) put together a long career as an outfielder who ran well but didn’t hit much. Infielder George Williams (1961-62) shall be known as George Williams the Elder, to differentiate from the catcher of the same name. Gil Whitehouse (1912-15) didn’t hit much, but he did log three games behind the plate, and we do need a backup catcher.

Manager: George Wright will be player-manager. He managed Providence in 1879 at age 32 and took the team to a 59-25 record and a league championship. Good enough to get this job.

HB: The Halle Berries

Infield: Home Run Baker (1908-22) hit more triples (103) than home runs (96) in his career, so modern fans may not understand why he was nicknamed “Home Run.” It helps to know that in the Dead Ball Era, he led the AL in home runs three times (with 11, 10 and 12 home runs), and that he earned the nickname during the 1911 World Series when he hit key home runs off of Christy Mathewson and Rube Marquard to lead the Philadelphia A’s to the championship. He was one of the major stars on Connie Mack’s first great teams in Philadelphia, the man at the hot corner of the famed $100,000 Infield. He later played with the Yankees, and he batted .363 in 25 World Series games. He belongs on the short list of the greatest third basemen of all time. Shortstop Hubie Brooks (1980-94) presented a quandary in real life, in that he was a pretty good hitter for a shortstop but not really a good enough defender to handle that position – but when you moved him to third base or the outfield, he didn’t look like such a good hitter. In the Realm of Initials, his role is simpler. We’ll live with his defense at shortstop because that’s where he fits in, and because there isn’t really an adequate alternative. He was generally good for a .270 average and 15-20 home runs. First baseman Hank Blalock (2002-10) and second baseman Homer Bush (1997-2004) could have had truly significant careers until the injuries set in. Blalock looked like a rising star when he drove in 110 runs for the Rangers at age 23 (and hit the ninth-inning home run that won the 2003 All-Star Game), but things went steadily downhill from that point – slumps, a rare affliction that required surgery to remove a rib, and injuries to his hamstring, shoulder and other body parts. He was finished before he turned 30, with 153 home runs. Bush was even unluckier. A spectacular athlete – he still holds high school football records in Illinois, and he turned down scholarship offers to be a major college wide receiver – he batted .378 in 82 at-bats during a couple of brief call-ups to the Yankees. He went to Toronto as one of the key players in the trade that brought Roger Clemens to New York, and he batted .320 with 32 steals in his first season with the Blue Jays. That’s the approximate time that the hip injuries set in. They got worse and worse until they finally forced him to retire. He played in his first Yankees Old-Timers Game at age 34.

Outfield: Right fielder Harold Baines (1980-2001) had a pretty remarkable career. He was the top pick in the 1977 draft and a major-league regular at age 21. He played for 22 years, collecting 2,866 hits and 1,628 RBI. For what it’s worth, those two stats are the highest totals for any player eligible for the Hall of Fame who has not been elected to Cooperstown. This is not to suggest that Harold Baines was a Hall of Famer, just to note that he had one hell of a career. He never became especially famous, for a variety of reasons. He was a quiet guy who didn’t feel the need to publicize himself, and he was the type of uncannily consistent player who often goes underapprciated. Knee injuries early in his career relegated him to full-time designated hitter duties, and he spent the second half of his career moving around the American League. It is still impressive to look at his numbers at baseballreference.com. He never hit 30 home runs, but he was in double-digits for 18 consecutive seasons between 1980-97. In 1998 he hit only nine home runs (though he batted .300), but bounced back to go .312-25-103 in 1999 at age 40, and then hit 11 home runs in 2000. So if he had hit one more home run in 1998, he would have had double-digit home run totals for 21 consecutive years. He drove in 100 runs for the White Sox in 1982 and ’85, and then didn’t do it again until 2000 – breaking Willie Horton’s record for the longest gap between 100-RBI seasons. He was a hard-working professional who didn’t became famous but who was tremendously appreciated by those who watched him play. Left fielder Hank Bauer (1948-61) won nine AL pennants and seven World Series championships. That kind of stuff happens when you share the Yankee Stadium pasture with the likes of DiMaggio and Mantle. Bauer was the type of dependable, no-nonsense second-tier star who the Yankees always seem to have in the outfield of their dynasties (a Paul O’Neill type). He sandwiched a fine playing career in between military service (decorated Marine who earned two Bronze stars for his service in Okinawa during World War II) and a good run as a manager (incluidng a World Series title with the Orioles). Center fielder Harry “Deerfoot” Bay (1901-08) was a diminutive guy, listed at 5-8 and 138 pounds, who led the American League in stolen bases twice. His career was short, just a few years as a regular, but his speed will come in handy between two corner outfielders who were solid but not fleet.

Catcher: Henry Blanco (1997- ) is a well-traveled catcher who has never hit enough to nail down a fulltime job, but whose defense and throwing arm are good enough to keep him in regular work.

Rotation: Harry “The Cat” Brecheen (1940-53) was a very fine lefty for the Musial-era Cardinals. For his career, he went 133-92 with a 2.92 ERA, and in three World Series with St. Louis he went 4-1 with an 0.83 ERA (including three wins in the 1946 World Series against Boston). Hank Borowy (1942-51) was a pretty decent pitcher whose best years came against the diluted World War II competition. He won 108 games, mostly for the Cubs and Yankees. Pitching for the Cubs in 1945, he had the rare distinction of having four decisions in a single World Series – he started and won Game 1, started and lost Game 5, worked the last four innings of relief to win Game 6, then started Game 7 and got hammered to take the loss. Handsome Henry Boyle (1884-89) was a 19th-century workhorse who led the NL in ERA in 1886 and was generally pretty good, but he pitched for bad teams and lost 20 games a year. Hugh Bedient (1912-15) shone brightly and briefly. When he was 19 years old he drew attention by striking out 42 batters in a semipro game that went 23 innings. As a 22-year-old Red Sox rookie, he went 20-9 and outdueled Christy Mathewson for a 2-1 victory in Game 5 of the World Series. In 1915 he jumped to the upstart Federal League and pitched well, but then he was done. Hal Brown (1951-64) went 85-92 in his career – that breaks down to 62-48 with the Orioles and 23-44 with four other teams, dragged down by a couple of years with the expansion Houston Colt .45s.

Bullpen: Closer Heath Bell (2004- ) served a two-year apprenticeship as Trevor Hoffman’s set-up man in San Diego, then assumed the closer role in 2009 and led the NL with 42 saves. He strikes out more than a batter per inning, with a K-BB ratio of better than 3-to-1. Hi Bell (1924-34) once led the NL in saves, too. In 1930, with a total of eight. He was a good reliever, won two pennants with the Cardinals and one with the Giants. As a rookie starter in 1924, he accomplished the rare feat of pitching complete game victories in both ends of a doubleheader – on July 19, 1924, he threw a 2-hitter and a 4-hitter against the Boston Braves, giving up one run in each game. He won two games that day but finished the season with a 3-8 record. Hank Behrman (1946-49) had a nondescript career in the years following World War II. Huck Betts (1920-35) pitched six years for the Phillies, went to the minors for another six years (winning 105 games), then came back and pitched four years for the Boston Braves. He finished with a record of 61-68. Homer Blankenship (1922-28) had a brief career (13 games) in the majors, some of which was spent as a teammate of his brother Ted. Hiram Bithorn (1942-47) was the first Puerto Rican to play in the majors, and the main stadium in San Juan is named in his honor. He was a pretty effective pitcher for the Cubs whose career was interrupted by military service. He died at age 35 under strange circumstances in Mexico – shot in the belly by a policeman, reportedly in a dispute over an automotive sale, with the misfortune of being almost 100 miles from the nearest hospital. The police officer tried to say Bithorn was a communist but later was convicted of murder in the case. Heinie Berger (1907-10) was a relatively effective spitball specialist in Cleveland for a few years.

Bench: Handome Harry Bemis (1902-10) was a catcher for Lajoie’s Cleveland teams during the deadball era, and he was a good enough hitter that he will press Henry Blanco for the starting job behind the plate. Herman Bronkie (1910-22) was a minor-league infielder who would occasionally spend time in the majors, playing 122 big-league games spread over seven seasons. Hugh Bradley (1910-15) was a reserve outfielder who sang baritone in the Boston Red Sox’s team barbershop quartet. Harry Blake (1894-99) was a 19th-century outfielder with Cleveland. Hiram Bocachica (2000- ) is a reserve outfielder who has had plenty of opportunities but has never hit much. Hasn't played in the majors since '07, but still knocking around the Mexican League.

Manager: Hugo Bezdek managed the Pirates for three seasons with moderate success. He will be assisted by Howie Bedell, who managed our hometown Peninsula Pilots to a Single-A Carolina League title in 1971. (Bedell’s brief major-league playing career is noteworthy for the fact that his only RBI in 1968 came on the sac fly that ended Don Drysdale’s streak of scoreless innings.) It is assumed that Hank Bauer will have some input into strategic decisions as well.