Infield: First baseman Cecil Cooper (1971-87) was a quietly effective player, and it took a long time for folks to realize that. He came up through the Red Sox organization and hit consistently well in the minors. The Cardinals selected him in the Rule V draft before the 1971 season but – even though they had no adequate first baseman – they returned him to the Red Sox. He gradually nudged his way into playing time in Boston and he hit well, but in 1977 – when Cooper was in his prime – the Red Sox traded him to Milwaukee for another first baseman, George Scott, who was seven years older and putting on weight. He spent the rest of his career with the Brewers, making five all-star teams, winning a couple of Gold Gloves. He led the AL twice each in doubles and RBI and once in total bases; he never led the league in batting, though he hit .300 for seven straight years including one season at .352. He finished his career with a .298 batting average, 415 doubles and 241 home runs, driving in 1,125 runs and scoring 1,012. (He will probably end up batting cleanup on this team and driving in a ton of runs (with Cupid Childs, Cesar Cedeno and Carl Crawford on base ahead of him). Second baseman Cupid Childs (1888-1901) batted .306 for his career and walked 100 times a year, pushing his on-base average to .416 (top 25 all time). He ran well, had some gap power, and scored 100 runs a year. Third baseman Craig Counsell (1995- ) was a utility infielder in his 20s and more of a fulltime player in his 30s. He’s not a great hitter, but he’ll hit .260 and draw a few walks, and you have to like his persistence – if someone had told you a decade ago that Craig Counsell would have more than 1,200 hits and 600 runs, you would have made the little "cuckoo" motion with your index finger near your temple. Won a couple of World Series titles, one with Florida and the other with Arizona. Shortstop Chico Carrasqual (1950-59) was the prototypical diminutive, slick-fielding Venezuelan shortstop. He played in four all-star games representing the White Sox before Chicago traded him to accommodate another slick-fielding Venezuelan (Luis Aparicio) who stole more bases but didn’t draw as many walks. Carrasqual played a few more years for Cleveland, Kansas City and Baltimore.
Outfield: Center fielder Cesar Cedeno (1970-86) was supposed to be the second coming of Willie Mays. A starter at age 19, he was a .300 hitter with good power, great speed and spectacular defense in center. He had some injury problems, and his career trajectory wasn’t helped by an incident in the winter of 1973 when he accidentally shot and killed his girlfriend. In the end, he had a great career – a .285 average, 2,087 hits, 199 home runs, 550 steals, five Gold Gloves – but his best years came in his early 20s. Left fielder Carl Crawford (2002- ) has never been compared to Willie Mays, but he’s a pretty good comparison for Cesar Cedeno. Crawford is still in his prime, having just left the Tampa Rays for the Red Sox and Fenway Park, and already he’s got 427 stolen bases, 830 runs and 115 home runs in his career. He’d led the American League four times in triples and four times in stolen bases, and he won his first Gold Glove in 2010. Right fielder Coco Crisp (2002- ) also has a combination of power and speed, albeit not nearly as electrifying as Crawford and Cedeno. At age 25, he looked poised to break out as a star, but he has regressed since then and as he hits his 30s he is looking to reestablish himself.
Catcher: Clint Courtney (1951-61) was 5-foot-8 and wore eyeglasses behind his catcher’s mask, but don’t let the image fool you. His nickname was “Scrap Iron,” and he was a tough competitor who was known to get into fistfights. He could hit a bit, too, with a .268 career average and almost twice as many walks as hits.
Rotation: Chris Carpenter (1997- ) was a run-of-the-mill starter in Toronto but became a Cy Young Award winner when he came to St. Louis in mid-career. He won the award in 2005 (21-5, 2.83 ERA, 213 strikeouts) and finished third in 2006 (15-8, 3.09). He missed most of the next two seasons with injuries but came back strong in 2009 to go 17-4 with a league leading 2.24 ERA, finishing as runner-up in the Cy Young vote. When he’s healthy, he’s a top-tier pitcher, and his current career record is 144-92. Candy Cummings (1872-77) weighed 120 pounds and threw underhand, which was the strict rule in his era – not sidearm or submarine, but underhand. But he began experimenting with releases that would allow him to get the ball to move in mid-flight, and he is credited with inventing the curveball (though this is a matter of some dispute). He won 145 games in his short career, and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame as an innovator for supposedly inventing the curveball. (A distant relative, John Cummings, pitched with the Mariners in the 1990s; upon learning of his famous ancestor he commented: “Imagine that – one of my relatives invented the pitch, and I didn’t learn to throw it until Single-A.”) Lefty Cliff Chambers (1948-53) went 48-53 for the Cubs, Pirates and Cardinals. Lefty Chris Capuano (2003- ) won 18 games for the Brewers in 2005 but went downhill from there. He missed two full seasons with injuries and is working on his comeback in his early 30s. Charlie Case (1901-06) won more than 100 games in the minors and went 23-19 in the majors, mostly with Pittsburgh.
Bullpen: Closer Clay Carroll (1964-78) was a key reliever on The Big Red Machine. Sparky Anderson didn’t use his bullpen in traditional ways, so Carroll only had one season over 20 saves (he had 37 in 1972), but he was a heck of a reliever and finished his career with 96 wins, 143 saves and a 2.94 ERA. Carroll had six seasons with more than 100 innings pitched, and another six between 90-100. Chad “The Chief” Cordero (2003- ) had a league-high 47 saves for the Nationals in 2005. He had 128 career saves by age 25, but injuries have set in and he has pitched infrequently since 2007. Chuck Crim (1987-94) was a solid, durable pitcher for a few years, but he slid into ineffectiveness as he approached 30. Chuck Cary (1985-93) was a lefty who had a few effective years en route to 14 career victories. Cris Carpenter (1988-96), with no “H” in his first name, was a first-round draft pick who pitched for the Cardinals about a decade before the Cy Young Award winner with (almost) the same name. He was a functional pitcher, but never much more than that. Casey Cox (1966-73) was a 6-foot-5 swingman who won 39 games for the Washington Senators. Chris Codiroli (1982-90) won 38 games for the Oakland, including seasons of 12-12 and 14-14 as a starter.
Bench: First baseman Chris Chambliss (1971-88) was an exact contemporary of Cecil Cooper and a similar type player, but not quite as good, for which reason he is relegated to the bench. His career triple crown stats were .279-185-972, and he will always be remembered for his walkoff home run in the bottom of the ninth in Game 5 of the 1976 ALCS, beating Kansas City and sending the Yankees to the World Series. (As much as for the home run itself, he will be remembered for running around the bases while dodging thousands of fans who had flooded the field, carrying his helmet like a football to prevent it from being stolen, and piledriving one fan near home plate like a fullback.) Utility man Casey Candaele (1986-97), whose mother and aunt both played in the women’s baseball league portrayed in “A League of Their Own,” played all over the outfield and infield. Outfielder Chad Curtis (1992-2001) was an intense, hot-tempered competitor who hit 101 home runs and stole 212 bases in his career. He takes the final outfield spot from Chuck Carr, who would have served well as a pinch-runner and defensive sub, but our starting outfield doesn’t seem to need any defensive subs. Infielder Creepy Crespi (1938-42) has one of the great names in baseball history. (He and Coco Crisp will room together.) Crespi was a promising second baseman for the Cardinals in his mid-20s when he was drafted into the Army during World War II. He broke his leg playing for a service team at Fort Riley and never made it back to the majors. Backup catcher Chris Cannizzaro (1960-74) had a strong arm and a weak bat, but he made the all-star game in 1969 because they had to take someone from the expansion Padres. (He beats out Clarence “Choo Choo” Coleman, his teammate on the 1962 expansion Mets, as well as Cam Carreon for the backup catching job.)
Manager: The team will be managed by Charles Comiskey, the autocratic skinflint who owned the Chicago White Sox and helped spark the Black Sox scandal with his persistent effort to avoid paying his players what they had earned. Before becoming an owner, he was a successful manager including four straight first-place finishes with the St. Louis Browns in the American Association during the 1880s.
Outfield: Center fielder Cesar Cedeno (1970-86) was supposed to be the second coming of Willie Mays. A starter at age 19, he was a .300 hitter with good power, great speed and spectacular defense in center. He had some injury problems, and his career trajectory wasn’t helped by an incident in the winter of 1973 when he accidentally shot and killed his girlfriend. In the end, he had a great career – a .285 average, 2,087 hits, 199 home runs, 550 steals, five Gold Gloves – but his best years came in his early 20s. Left fielder Carl Crawford (2002- ) has never been compared to Willie Mays, but he’s a pretty good comparison for Cesar Cedeno. Crawford is still in his prime, having just left the Tampa Rays for the Red Sox and Fenway Park, and already he’s got 427 stolen bases, 830 runs and 115 home runs in his career. He’d led the American League four times in triples and four times in stolen bases, and he won his first Gold Glove in 2010. Right fielder Coco Crisp (2002- ) also has a combination of power and speed, albeit not nearly as electrifying as Crawford and Cedeno. At age 25, he looked poised to break out as a star, but he has regressed since then and as he hits his 30s he is looking to reestablish himself.
Catcher: Clint Courtney (1951-61) was 5-foot-8 and wore eyeglasses behind his catcher’s mask, but don’t let the image fool you. His nickname was “Scrap Iron,” and he was a tough competitor who was known to get into fistfights. He could hit a bit, too, with a .268 career average and almost twice as many walks as hits.
Rotation: Chris Carpenter (1997- ) was a run-of-the-mill starter in Toronto but became a Cy Young Award winner when he came to St. Louis in mid-career. He won the award in 2005 (21-5, 2.83 ERA, 213 strikeouts) and finished third in 2006 (15-8, 3.09). He missed most of the next two seasons with injuries but came back strong in 2009 to go 17-4 with a league leading 2.24 ERA, finishing as runner-up in the Cy Young vote. When he’s healthy, he’s a top-tier pitcher, and his current career record is 144-92. Candy Cummings (1872-77) weighed 120 pounds and threw underhand, which was the strict rule in his era – not sidearm or submarine, but underhand. But he began experimenting with releases that would allow him to get the ball to move in mid-flight, and he is credited with inventing the curveball (though this is a matter of some dispute). He won 145 games in his short career, and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame as an innovator for supposedly inventing the curveball. (A distant relative, John Cummings, pitched with the Mariners in the 1990s; upon learning of his famous ancestor he commented: “Imagine that – one of my relatives invented the pitch, and I didn’t learn to throw it until Single-A.”) Lefty Cliff Chambers (1948-53) went 48-53 for the Cubs, Pirates and Cardinals. Lefty Chris Capuano (2003- ) won 18 games for the Brewers in 2005 but went downhill from there. He missed two full seasons with injuries and is working on his comeback in his early 30s. Charlie Case (1901-06) won more than 100 games in the minors and went 23-19 in the majors, mostly with Pittsburgh.
Bullpen: Closer Clay Carroll (1964-78) was a key reliever on The Big Red Machine. Sparky Anderson didn’t use his bullpen in traditional ways, so Carroll only had one season over 20 saves (he had 37 in 1972), but he was a heck of a reliever and finished his career with 96 wins, 143 saves and a 2.94 ERA. Carroll had six seasons with more than 100 innings pitched, and another six between 90-100. Chad “The Chief” Cordero (2003- ) had a league-high 47 saves for the Nationals in 2005. He had 128 career saves by age 25, but injuries have set in and he has pitched infrequently since 2007. Chuck Crim (1987-94) was a solid, durable pitcher for a few years, but he slid into ineffectiveness as he approached 30. Chuck Cary (1985-93) was a lefty who had a few effective years en route to 14 career victories. Cris Carpenter (1988-96), with no “H” in his first name, was a first-round draft pick who pitched for the Cardinals about a decade before the Cy Young Award winner with (almost) the same name. He was a functional pitcher, but never much more than that. Casey Cox (1966-73) was a 6-foot-5 swingman who won 39 games for the Washington Senators. Chris Codiroli (1982-90) won 38 games for the Oakland, including seasons of 12-12 and 14-14 as a starter.
Bench: First baseman Chris Chambliss (1971-88) was an exact contemporary of Cecil Cooper and a similar type player, but not quite as good, for which reason he is relegated to the bench. His career triple crown stats were .279-185-972, and he will always be remembered for his walkoff home run in the bottom of the ninth in Game 5 of the 1976 ALCS, beating Kansas City and sending the Yankees to the World Series. (As much as for the home run itself, he will be remembered for running around the bases while dodging thousands of fans who had flooded the field, carrying his helmet like a football to prevent it from being stolen, and piledriving one fan near home plate like a fullback.) Utility man Casey Candaele (1986-97), whose mother and aunt both played in the women’s baseball league portrayed in “A League of Their Own,” played all over the outfield and infield. Outfielder Chad Curtis (1992-2001) was an intense, hot-tempered competitor who hit 101 home runs and stole 212 bases in his career. He takes the final outfield spot from Chuck Carr, who would have served well as a pinch-runner and defensive sub, but our starting outfield doesn’t seem to need any defensive subs. Infielder Creepy Crespi (1938-42) has one of the great names in baseball history. (He and Coco Crisp will room together.) Crespi was a promising second baseman for the Cardinals in his mid-20s when he was drafted into the Army during World War II. He broke his leg playing for a service team at Fort Riley and never made it back to the majors. Backup catcher Chris Cannizzaro (1960-74) had a strong arm and a weak bat, but he made the all-star game in 1969 because they had to take someone from the expansion Padres. (He beats out Clarence “Choo Choo” Coleman, his teammate on the 1962 expansion Mets, as well as Cam Carreon for the backup catching job.)
Manager: The team will be managed by Charles Comiskey, the autocratic skinflint who owned the Chicago White Sox and helped spark the Black Sox scandal with his persistent effort to avoid paying his players what they had earned. Before becoming an owner, he was a successful manager including four straight first-place finishes with the St. Louis Browns in the American Association during the 1880s.
Note: Actor Chuck Connors, who played briefly for the Dodgers and the Cubs before going on to a long career in acting, will do public service announcements on the big video board.
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