EB: The Ed Begleys

Infield: Hall of Famer Ernie Banks (1953-71) spent the first half of his career at shortstop and was adequate there, but he will start here at his subsequent position, first base, in order to allow slick-fielding Ed Brinkman (1961-75) to hold down short. Banks, as famous for his enthusiasm (“Let’s play two!”) as for his prodigious power, spent his entire career with the Chicago Cubs and has remained a fixture at Wrigley Field throughout his retirement. He hit 40-plus home runs five times between 1955-60, and he finished his career with 512 home runs and 1,636 RBI. Banks was respected enough to win back-to-back MVP awards in 1958-59 despite the fact that the Cubs had losing records both years. Steady Eddie Brinkman couldn’t hit. In a career that lasted 1,845 games, he batted below .200 more often than he batted above .240. But he was a very fine fielder. He won the AL Gold Glove at shortstop in 1972, interrupting Mark Belanger’s streak, and he even finished ninth in the MVP voting that season despite batting .203 with no power, no walks and no speed. Third baseman Emilio Bonifacio (2007- ) has terrific speed, but at this point he still doesn’t get on base enough to really put that speed to good use. Emmanuel Burriss (2008- ), a young infielder with the Giants who missed the 2010 season with an injury, has been named the E.B. starter at second base, but his grasp on the starting job is not a firm one, and if he doesn’t start picking it up a bit, he could well land on the bench while utility infielder Eddie Bressoud takes over second.

Outfield: Center fielder Ellis Burks (1987-2004) was a very good slugger who benefited from a move in mid-career to the high altitude of Colorado, where in 1996 he batted .344 with 45 doubles, 40 home runs, 142 runs, 128 RBI and, for good measure, a career-high 32 steals. He was a good hitter - .291 career, with 352 home runs – but his 1996 season was an anomaly, the only time he ever scored or drove in 100 runs. He was a solid defensive outfielder before his knees started to give him trouble, and even after he left Colorado, he had 30-homer seasons in San Francisco and Cleveland. Right fielder Eric Byrnes (2000-10) was a hustling player with some pop, and colorful enough to had three nicknames (Captain America, Pigpen and the Crash Test Dummy). Playing for Arizona in 2007, he batted .286 with 21 home runs and an eye-opening 50 steals, doubling his previous career high. He was rewarded with a lucrative contract extension, but he immediately got injured and was never an effective player again. Now one of the approximately 795 former big-leaguers working as “analysts” at ESPN. Left fielder Emil Brown (1997-2009) had a little bit of speed and some pop, and he put together a couple of pretty good seasons for Kansas City in 2005-06, but he went downhill after that.

Catcher: Wicked platoon of lefty Ed Bailey (1953-66) and righty Earl Battey (1955-67). Bailey had power (155 career home runs), and so did Battey (104 career home runs). Both men had good batting eyes and strong throwing arms. In his New Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James ranked both Battey and Bailey among the top 50 catchers in major-league history.

Rotation: Ewell “The Whip” Blackwell (1942-55) was a devastating pitcher when he was healthy. A 6-foot-6 stringbean with extraordinarily long arms and fingers, he threw with an exaggerated sidearm motion (one observer said he “looked like a man falling out of a tree”) that made it appear as if the ball was coming from somewhere in the vicinity of third base. The velocity he generated, combined with the astonishing release point, was very unnerving to batters. He pitched in six consecutive all-star games, and in 1947 he almost pulled off a VanderMeer – he pitched a no-hitter, and then in his next start took a no-hitter into the ninth inning before giving up a single to Eddie Stanky. His unorthodox pitching motion apparently put tremendous strain on his arm, and his career was curtailed by injuries. His career stats (82-78, 3.30 ERA, 839 strikeouts) don’t do justice to the impression he made on the folks who saw him pitch. Big Ed Brandt (1928-38) was a decent enough pitcher who torpedoed his career stats with a few bad seasons at the start of his career. In his first three seasons, he went 21-45 with a 5.20 ERA; in the remaining eight years of his career he had six seasons at .500 or better, and his cumulative ERA was 3.45. Put them all together and you get a 121-146 record with an ERA right around leage average. Lefty Erik Bedard (2002- ) arrived as a highly touted prospect with a wicked curve, and he had a couple of strong years for the Orioles – 15-11 in 2006, 13-5 in 2007, with good ERAs and lots of strikeouts. This prompted the Mariners to trade half of their farm system to the Orioles for Bedard, who subsequently got injured and won a grand total of 11 games for Seattle. He missed the entire 2010 season with setbacks to his recovery from shoulder surgery. He’s still in his early 30s, but he’s got a lot to overcome if he’s going to reestablish himself. Ernie Broglio (1959-66) won 21 games for the Cardinals in 1960, and he won 18 in 1963, but his biggest legacy in St. Louis came midway through the 1964 season when he was traded to the Cubs for Lou Brock (with other players tossed in on both sides of the deal). Broglio would win just seven games for the Cubs in 2 1/2 years, while Brock would amass 3,000 hits, break the single-season and career stolen base records, and bat .391 with 14 steals in 21 World Series games. Ed Beatin (1887-91) has a lousy name for a pitcher, although his full name (Ebenezer Ambrose Beatin) would qualify him for inclusion in a Dickens novel. In his two seasons as a full-time starter for the Cleveland Spiders, he went 20-15 and 22-30, back when winning 20 games was no big deal.

Bullpen: Ed Bauta (1960-64) wasn’t a very good pitcher, but he did save 11 games in his career, which qualifies him as the closer in this rather thin bullpen. Bauta was a Cuban righty who came up with the Cardinals and finished his career with the moribund post-expansion Mets. Erv Brame (1928-32) was a swingman for the Pirates who won 52 games and, yes, saved one. He is almost certainly the best pitcher in this bullpen, though it remains up for debate whether he would be best utilized in long relief (to keep his team in games) or in short relief (trying to protect a late-inning from the rest of this kerosene brigade). Eric Bell (1985-93) had a career record of 15-18 with a 5.18 ERA. Lefty Elmer “Shook” Brown (1911-15) pitched briefly for the Browns and the Brooklyn Robins and posted a 3.48 career ERA in the deadball era. Elmer “Swede” Burkart (1936-39) was with the Phillies for parts of four seasons, and if you add it all together he appeared in 16 games and worked 42 innings. His career ERA was 4.93. Lefty Enrique Burgos (1993-95) worked five games for the Royals in 1993 and had an ERA of 9.00. The Giants gave him a shot in 1995, and he worked five games with an ERA of 8.64, which at least shows that he was consistent. Emil Bildilli (1937-41), a lefty for the Browns, was known as Hill Billy Bildilli. His nickname was better than his pitching.

Bench: Outfielder Eddie Brown (1920-28) was a .300 hitter with some gap power, and he had 201 hits to lead the NL in that category in 1926. He also had a .322 career average in the minors with more than 2,100 hits (giving him more than 3,000 career hits in the majors and minors). He will press Emil Brown for the starting job in left, though his nickname (Glass Arm Eddie) doesn’t bode well for his defense. After Brown, the best hitter on the bench will most likely be whichever platoon catcher (Battey or Bailey) is not in the starting lineup. The presence of a third catcher, Earle Brucker Sr. (1937-43), makes it easier to use them as pinch-hitters (and Brucker was a decent hitter, too, with a .290 career average and a bit of pop in his bat despite not making it to the majors until age 36). Infielder Eddie Bressoud (1956-67) was primarily a shortstop, and he hit better than Brinkman, with a .250 average and enough pop to hit 40 doubles a couple of times and double-figures in home runs four times. Bressoud could very well work his way into the starting lineup here, either at short (relegating Brinkman to a defensive replacement role) or at his secondary position at second base (nudging Burriss to the bench). Utility man Eric Bruntlett (2003- ) has played every position except pitcher and catcher. He doesn’t hit much, but versatility is a plus, and he has been a member of four playoff teams, including three pennant winners and one World Series champion.

Manager: Hall of Famer Ed Barrow managed the Tigers and the Red Sox, winning the 1918 World Series in Boston, but his true legacy rests on his subsequent career in the front office of the Yankees. He was one of the key architects of the dynasties built upon the shoulders of Gehrig, Ruth, Dickey and DiMaggio.