October 10, 1920: The Bill Wambsganss Game

Bill Wambganss, wearing the special uniform

that the Cleveland Indians wore in 1921

October 10, 1920, 100 years ago: Perhaps the most eventful game in World Series history unfolds at League Park in Cleveland, and we barely even have photographs of it. No film. Radio broadcasting was in the process of being invented. Television was still just an idea. The Internet wasn't yet an idea.

The American League Champions, the Cleveland Indians, were hosting the National League Champions, the Brooklyn Robins. The name "Dodgers" had already been used, but, since 1914, their manager had been Wilbert Robinson, a former star catcher, and so they were the "Robins," just as the Indians had been the "Naps" from 1903 to 1914, in honor of 2nd baseman and manager Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie.

In the 1950s, it would be a joke that the Dodgers had everything but a left fielder, but in their Robins days, their best hitter was their left fielder. Zack Wheat would finish his career with a .317 batting average and 2,884 hits, 2,804 of them with Brooklyn. After 100 years, this remains a Dodger franchise record. To put this Hall-of-Famer into perspective: According to Baseball-Reference.com, a website which is your friend whether you know it or not, his 2 most statistically similar players are Tony Gwynn and Roberto Clemente.

They had 2 Hall of Fame pitchers: Richard "Rube" Marquard, a former star with their arch-rivals, the New York Giants; and Burleigh Grimes, a pitcher with a nasty spitball and a personality to match. On May 1, at Braves Field in Boston, they played the longest game in Major League Baseball history. Leon Cadore started for the Robins, and Joe Oeschger started for the Braves. The game went 26 innings before it was called due to darkness, tied 1-1. Both starters went the distance.

Burleigh Grimes

Cadore, who had also pitched for the Robins on their 1916 Pennant winners, was held out of his next start, and pitched less than 5 innings in his next one. But he pitched a complete-game shutout in his next, and ended the season at 15-14 with a 2.26 ERA. Oeschger, who had pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies' Pennant winners of 1915, was held out of his next 2 starts, and lost his next 2, but was fine, going 15-13 for a 62-90 team, with a 3.46 ERA.

The Indians were managed by Tris Speaker, still their center fielder, and one of the greatest players in the history of the game. A .345 career hitter, he would collect 3,514 hits, 792 of them doubles, which is still an all-time record. And, until Joe DiMaggio came along, he was regarded as the greatest defensive outfielder ever. He had already helped the Boston Red Sox win the World Series in 1912 and 1915.

Speaker at an old-timers game in 1947

They also had a Hall of Fame pitcher, Stan Coveleski. Like Grimes, he threw a spitball. A son of Polish immigrants, he had escaped the Pennsylvania coal mines, and, when interviewed by Lawrence Ritter for his book The Glory of Their Times in the 1960s, he would say, "Lord, baseball is a worrying thing."

On August 16, the Indians went to the Polo Grounds in New York to play the Yankees, who were in their 1st season with Babe Ruth. Yankee pitcher Carl Mays hit Indian shortstop Ray Chapman in the head with a pitch. The impact was so hard that the ball came right back to Mays, and he threw it to 1st base, because he thought Chapman had hit it.

Chapman got up, and told catcher Wally Schang, "I'm all right. Tell Mays not to worry." He started toward 1st, and collapsed. He was taken to a hospital, and died the next day. He remains baseball's only player to die as the result of an in-game injury. Mays lived until 1971, insisting that he hadn't hit Chapman intentionally. Others backed that up, including Chapman's teammates, who admitted that he crowded the plate at times.

The Indians wore black armbands on their sleeves for the rest of the season, and would dedicate a monument to Chapman, which now stands in the Heritage Park section behind center field at Progressive Field.

Baseball would respond to Chapman's death by supplying umpires with far more balls, and ordering them to throw balls out if they looked too dirty, and thus insufficiently visible. They also outlawed the various altered -- or "doctored" -- pitches that fell under the umbrella category of "spitball." But they allowed 17 pitchers, including Cleveland's Coveleski and Brooklyn's Grimes, to continue throwing the spitball because it was their "bread-and-butter," or what we would call today their "out pitch."

Chapman's replacement was rookie Joe Sewell, and he ended up being a big reason why the Indians edged the Yankees and the Chicago White Sox for the Pennant. The suspension of 7 White Sox players for throwing the previous year's World Series -- an 8th, Chick Gandil, had already retired -- helped the Indians. 

Joe Sewell

It was the 1st Pennant ever won by a Cleveland team. The Robins/Dodgers had won their 1st Pennant in 20 years.

*

This is what the world was like in the Autumn of 1920, as the World Series began:

There were 16 teams in what we would now call Major League Baseball. The American League had teams in Philadelphia, Washington and St. Louis. The National League had a team in Boston. No team played further south than Washington, Cincinnati and St. Louis, and no team played further west than St. Louis. No team played in a stadium with lights, or with artificial turf, or with a roof, or with more than 40,000 seats.

The only stadiums in use now that were in use then were Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field on the North Side of Chicago. And the idea that either of those stadiums would later be beloved classics was not even considered.

There were no Black players in the majors. There were all-black professional teams, but the 1st Negro League had just been founded. There had been Hispanic players, but they were white Cubans.

George Wright of the 1st professional team, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings (no connection to the current Reds franchise), was still alive. Dizzy Dean was 10 years old, Hank Greenberg was 9, Joe DiMaggio was about to turn 6, Ted Williams was 2, Bob Feller was about to turn 2, Jackie Robinson was a year and a half; and Stan Musial, Warren Spahn, Ralph Kiner, Yogi Berra, Duke Snider, Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, and Frank and Brooks Robinson hadn't been born yet.

The previous year's World Series was won by the Cincinnati Reds. The Stanley Cup was won by the Ottawa Senators. The National Football League had been founded on September 17. There was no National Basketball Association. 

Aside from the Olympic Games, there was no tournament that could be called a world championship for soccer. The Olympics had yet to debut their Winter format. The Games have since been held in America 7 times; in France 4 times; 3 times each in Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada; twice each in Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Australia, Britain, Russia and Korea; and once each in the Netherlands, Finland, Mexico, Bosnia, Spain, Greece, China and Brazil.

There were 48 States, 3 of whom -- Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona -- had only gained Statehood within the preceding 14 years. There were 19 Amendments to the Constitution, the newest giving women the right to vote.

There was no banking insurance, no Securities & Exchange Commission, no Medicare, no Medicaid, no Environmental Protection Agency, no OSHA, no Title IX. There had not been a Civil Rights Act since 1875. The ideas that abortion and same-sex marriage would ever be legalized weren't even being considered.

The President of the United States was Woodrow Wilson, and he was the holder of the Nobel Peace Prize. But the stroke he suffered during the previous year's the World Series left him half-paralyzed physically, and almost completely paralyzed politically, ruining his hope that America would enter the League of Nations, founded to keep the pieace after World War I. William Howard Taft was still alive.

The candidates running to replace Wilson were both newspaper publishers from Ohio: The Governor, Democrat James M. Cox; and a Senator, Republican Warren Harding. People were tired of Wilson's high-sounding rhetoric, and wanted what Harding called "a return to normalcy." Harding won in a landslide, and became one of the worst Presidents ever.

Harding's Vice President was Calvin Coolidge, then Governor of Massachusetts. Herbert Hoover, no longer doing so as an official of the federal government, was privately raising money for food relief in war-torn Europe. Franklin Roosevelt had recently resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, so that he could be Cox's running mate.

Harry Truman had recently been discharged and married, and he had bought an interest in a lead and zinc mine in Commerce, Oklahoma, which would employ members of the Mantle family. Major Dwight D. Eisenhower was commanding a tank battalion at Fort Meade, Maryland. Lyndon Johnson was 12 years old, Ronald Reagan was 9, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford were 7, John F. Kennedy was 3. Jimmy Carter, both George Bushes, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden had not been born yet.

The Governor of New York was Alfred E. Smith; of New Jersey, William N. Runyon; and of Ohio, home of the Indians, as I said, James M. Cox. The Mayor of New York City was John F. Hylan; of Chicago, the massively corrupt "Big" Bill Thompson; and of Cleveland, William S. FitzGerald.

There were still living veterans of the Mexican-American War, the European Revolutions of 1848, and the Crimean War. Telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell was still alive. So was phonograph and light bulb inventor Thomas Edison. So were Wild West figures Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and Annie Oakley.

The Pope was Benedict XV. The Prime Minister of Canada was Arthur Meighen, and of Britain David Lloyd George. The Monarch of both nations was King George V. There have since been 18 Presidents of the United States, 4 British monarchs, and 9 Popes. The FA Cup was won by Birmingham team Aston Villa, and the Football League was won by Birmingham-area team West Bromwich Albion.

Major novels of 1920 included This Side of Paradise, the debut of F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in which Agatha Christie introduces her private detective Hercule Poirot; Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence, and The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting.

Sigmund Freud published Beyond the Pleasure Principle; H.L. Mencken Prejudices: Second Series, which Richard Wright would later cite as inspiring his own desire to write; and Frederick Jackson Turner The Frontier in American History. New plays included Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones; Karel Čapek's R.U.R., which introduced the word "robot"; and The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood.

Superheroes and comic books as we would come to know them did not yet exist. Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Batman creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Flash creator Gardner Fox and James Bond creator Ian Fleming were children. Wonder Woman creator William Marston was a young psychologist. But 1920 saw the film The Mark of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Like The Bat, it would be an influence on Kane and Finger.

J.R.R. Tolkien was about to be discharged from the British Army. C.S. Lewis had recently been discharged, and had resumed his studies at Oxford University. Like so many others, they had survived World War I only to be emotionally compromised for life. Lewis had published 1 book of poetry, Tolkien 16 of them; but, as yet, neither of them had published a novel, fantasy or otherwise. Gene Roddenberry was born 10 months later, Stan Lee a year after that, Rod Serling 2 years after that.

There was no television. Radio broadcasting was about to begin. Films were still black & white and silent. D.W. Griffith directed Way Down East. Mary Pickford starred in a version of Pollyanna. She and Fairbanks were married. The 3 of them, and Charlie Chaplin, had founded United Artists a year earlier. Fred Niblo directed Sex, which was racy for the time, and had a theme that adultery was bad. Actress Olive Thomas died at age 25, from drinking her husband's syphilis medication, thinking it was a sleeping aid.

Rudolph Valentino had recently debuted in films. James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart had recently debuted on Broadway. Clark Gable was working for his father in the oil fields outside Tulsa, Oklahoma. Henry Fonda and Greta Garbo were 15 years old. Jimmy Stewart was 12. Lorne Greene was 5. Jack Webb was 6 months old.

Popular songs of 1920 included "I'll Be With You In Apple Blossom Time" and "Crazy Blues." Jazz was a new phenomenon. So was country music. George M. Cohan, Florenz Ziegfeld and Irving Berlin still ruled Broadway. Edward "Duke" Ellington had recently formed his 1st music group. Louis Armstrong was playing on ferryboats on the Mississippi River. Richard Rodgers, Harry "Bing" Crosby and Roy Acuff were in high school. So was William "Count" Basie, who had begun playing gigs on Jersey Shore boardwalks. McKinley Morganfield, a.k.a. Muddy Waters, was 7 years old. Frank Sinatra was 4. Ella Fitzgerald was 3. Hank Williams wasn't born yet.

Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $12.94 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 2 cents, and a New York Subway ride a nickel. The average price of a gallon of gas was 25 cents, a cup of coffee 15 cents, a movie ticket 15 cents, a new car $860, and a new house $6,296. The hamburger had been invented, but wasn't yet as widely known as the hot dog, which usually cost a nickel. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the preceding Friday at 84.42.

The tallest building in the world was the Woolworth Building in Lower Manhattan. Most Americans didn't have telephones or air conditioning in their homes. There were no photocopiers, credit cards or automatic teller machines. Computers were still just a concept. Alan Turing was 8 years old. In spite of the fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, no one had yet launched a rocket toward space.

Artificial organs were not yet possible. Transplantation of organs was not possible. The distribution of antibiotics was not possible: If you got any kind of infection, you could easily die. There was no polio vaccine. There was no birth control pill, but there was no Viagra, either.

In the Autumn of 1920, Poland and Finland both defeated the Soviet Union in wars, forcing the Bolsheviks to concentrate on the civil war within the borders of the former Russian Empire. The Irish War of Independence was ongoing, and 14 people, including a player, would be killed at a Gaelic football match at Croke Park in Dublin.

Mohandas Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement in India. An earthquake killed 171 people in Tuscany, Italy. President Álvaro Obregón was settling Mexico down after a 10-year revolution and civil war. Dr. Frederick Banting recorded his insight on how to isolate insulin for the treatment of diabetes. And Adolf Hitler made his first political speech, in Vienna, Austria.

In America, a bomb killed 38 people on Wall Street. Westinghouse sold the first domestic radio sets. In San Francisco, Edison Mouton completed the 1st successful coast-to-coast airmail delivery, taking 3 days. Professional boxing was legalized in New York State, making the rise of Madison Square Garden as "the Mecca of Boxing" possible. And the Black Sox Scandal broke, tarnishing baseball, while the home runs of Babe Ruth helped people to act as though it didn't matter.

Carl Fabergé, and John Reed, and King Alexander of Greece died. Mickey Rooney, and Roger Angell, and Bob Lemon were born.

That's what the world was like in the Autumn of 1920, as the World Series began.

*

Game 1 was played on October 5 at Ebbets Field. In a game that lasted just 1 hour and 41 minutes, Stan Coveleski outpitched Rube Marquard, and a pair of RBI doubles by Steve O'Neill gave the Indians a 3-1 win. Burleigh Grimes pitched a shutout in Game 2, and the Robins won 3-1. The Dodgers took the lead in the Series in Game 3, when Sherry Smith outpitched Ray Caldwell, and Brooklyn won 2-1.

The Robins/Dodgers would not take a games lead in a World Series again for 33 years. The series moved to Cleveland, and the Indians knocked Leon Cadore out in the 1st inning. In spite of that, their win turned out to be just 5-1, but the Series was tied. Game 5 would be the one for the ages.

League Park, built 1910, torn down 1951.

A previous ballpark had stood there from 1891 to 1909.

In the bottom of the 1st inning, Grimes gives up hits to Charlie Jamieson, Bill Wambsganss, and center fielder/manager/legend Tris Speaker. Tribe outfielder Elmer Smith then hits the 1st grand slam in Series history.

Elmer Smith

In the 3rd‚ Jim Bagby comes up with 2 on, and crashes another Grimes delivery for a 3-run blast‚ the 1st home run ever by a pitcher in Series play.

Jim Bagby

In the 5th, with Pete Kilduff on 2nd and Otto Miller on 1st with nobody out, Robins reliever Clarence Mitchell bats for himself, and hits a line drive, right at 2nd baseman Wambsganss. One out. "Wamby" takes a couple of steps, and tags Kilduff before he can get back to 2nd base. Two out. Then Wambsganss tags the off-and-running Miller, before he can see what's happening and get back to 1st base. Three out.

An unassisted triple play. And, 100 years later, this remains the only triple play of any kind in World Series history.

The only known photo of the play

The Indians win the game, 8-1, and their 1st appearance in the World Series will soon be a successful one. Duster Mails outpitched Sherry Smith for a 1-0 Cleveland win in Game 6. in Game 1. The Series went back to Brooklyn for Game 7 and a potential Games 8 and 9, but on October 12, 1920, Game 7 was won 3-0, as Coveleski pitched a shutout to beat Grimes, whose error allowed the deciding run.

Wambsganss, suddenly nationally famous, later lamented that he had a pretty good career (and a case can be made that he was right), but that, for most people, he might as well have been born the day before this game and died the day after.

As it turned out, Wamby died on December 8, 1985, in a suburb of Cleveland, where he'd lived all his life, making him 89 years old.

The last living player from this game was Joe Sewell, the man who had been called up after Ray Chapman had been killed. Sewell went on to a Hall of Fame career, including helping the Yankees win the 1932 World Series, and lived until 1990.

The Indians began to split their home games in 1932, with their bigger-attendance games, and eventually their night games, at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. They last played at League Park in 1946, and it was demolished in 1951. The only surviving part is the ticket booth, outside the right field corner.

Today, a baseball field is on the site, and the City of Cleveland has named the facility "League Park." 

Cleveland was World Champions. Brooklyn would have to wait.

On the other hand, in the 100 years since, the Indians have won just 1 more World Series, while the Dodgers have 6, with a chance this year for a 7th.

Milwaukee's All-Time Baseball Team

Milwaukee's baseball history is a bit checkered. The Brewers of the Class AAA American Association won 8 Pennants: 1913, 1914, 1936, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1951, and 1952 -- the last 2 being in their last 2 seasons of existence. Then the Braves arrived from Boston, and they won National League Pennants in 1957 (winning the World Series over the Yankees) and 1958 (losing the Series to the Yankees).

After that, Milwaukee baseball teams have won just 1 Pennant in 55 years. The Braves got close again in 1959 and 1964, but moved to Atlanta after the 1965 season. The Brewers arrived in 1970, but have been to the postseason only 4 times: 1981, when they won the American League Eastern Division in the second half of a strike-forced split-season format and lost the AL Division Series to the Yankees, who had won the first half; 1982, when they won the Pennant but lost the Series to the St. Louis Cardinals; 2008, when, 10 years after switching to the NL, won the Wild Card, but lost the NLDS to the Philadelphia Phillies; and 2011, when they won the NL Central, and beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS before losing to the Cardinals in the NLCS.

The Brewers have had some great talents over the years. True, Hank Aaron was at the end of the line, but they had Rollie Fingers at his best, and Robin Yount and Paul Molitor built Hall of Fame careers with them. Prince Fielder began his career with them, and might make the Hall of Fame. But they've never quite been able to put it all together.

Could this team do it?

26. Milwaukee’s All-Time Baseball Team

Players are eligible if they came from anywhere in Wisconsin, except for the westernmost part of the State that's closer to Minneapolis than it is to Milwaukee; and also from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, although I couldn't find any big-league players from there that were good enough.

Sports personalities, yes: Notre Dame football legend George Gipp, former San Francisco 49ers coach Steve Mariucci, Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo, and if you count professional wrestling, Lou Thesz; but baseball, no.

Still, this All-Badger State team has a solid infield and a very powerful outfield. And the first 3 starting pitchers are pretty strong. After that... uh...

1B Fred Luderus of Milwaukee. A star for the Phillies in the 1910s, he helped them win their 1st Pennant in 1915. A career OPS+ of 114, he hit 251 doubles despite only having full seasons in the majors between the ages of 25 and 33, although he remained a productive player in the high minors until he was 39.

2B Jim Gantner of Fond du Lac. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, he was the starting 2nd baseman for the only Brewer Pennant-winner in 1982, and in that World Series he batted .333 with a .943 OPS. He never batted .300, but batted at least .280 6 times, and hit 262 doubles. He played over 1,400 games at 2B and over 300 at 3B. He pitched an inning for the Brewers in a 1979 game, allowing 2 hits but no walks and no runs.

SS Tony Kubek of Bay View H.S. in Milwaukee. He received the Ford Frick Award, equivalent to election to the Hall of Fame as a broadcaster, for his work with NBC on the Saturday Game of the Week and on World Series broadcasts, most notably the 1975 Cincinnati-Boston epic.

But he was a pretty good player, too. He was the 1957 AL Rookie of the Year, and in both that season and 1958 he returned home to play the Braves in the World Series, losing in '57 but winning in '58. He made 3 All-Star teams, formed a superb double-play combination with Bobby Richardson, and hit 178 doubles and 30 triples despite a back injury ending his career when he was just 29.

Unfortunately, his playing career is probably best known for a ground ball that hit a pebble and hit him in the throat in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, helping the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Yankees. But he did help the Yankees win the Series in 1958, 1961 and 1962.

3B Lafayette "Lave" Cross of Milwaukee. This guy goes back a ways, all the way to 1887, the 1st term of President Grover Cleveland. A converted catcher, he starred for 3 Philadelphia teams: The Athletics of the American Association (a major league that ran from 1882 to 1891, not the minor league that would have the current Brewers' predecessors), the Phillies in the NL, and the Athletics in the AL (no connection to the AA Athletics except by name).

A career .292 hitter, he had 2,651 hits, 412 of them doubles in the really dead-ball era, and stole 303 bases. Twice had an OPS+ of 132, and 2 others times over 120. He helped the Brooklyn Dodgers win the NL Pennant in 1900 (technically, the last "World Championship" the franchise would win for 55 years) and the A's win AL Pennants in 1902 and 1905.

Honorable Mention to Ken Keltner of Boy's Technical H.S. in Milwaukee. A 7-time All-Star with the Cleveland Indians, he had an OPS+ of 112, 308 doubles, and 2 100-RBI seasons. But he's best known as a good fielder, who made 2 stirring stops to help the Indians halt Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak on July 17, 1941.

He nearly helped the Indians win the Pennant in 1940, and had his best season for their World Champions of 1948, batting .297 with 31 homers and 119 RBI. But injuries made that his last full season, and 3 years later he was retired. He spent much of the rest of his life as a scout, and was inducted into the Indians' team Hall of Fame.

LF Al Simmons of Milwaukee. The State of Wisconsin is loaded at left field, with Davy Jones of Cambria (the 1907-09 Detroit dynasty), Morrie Arnovich of Superior (a 1940s All-Star), Andy Pafko of Boyceville (who won Pennants in the 1950s both with the Dodgers and with his home-State Braves), and even Harvey Kuenn played a lot of left field.

But I’m going with Aloys Harry Szymanski, known as Bucketfoot Al for the way he stepped toward 3rd base when he swung. He swung very well: .334 batting average, 132 OPS+, 2,927 hits – just 73 more and he would have been in the 3,000 Hit Club and would probably be much better-remembered today. Those were the most hits of any righthanded hitter in AL history until surpassed by Al Kaline. Of those 2,927, 539 were doubles and 307 were homers – that total ranked him 5th on the all-time list when he retired, behind Babe Ruth, A’s teammate Jimmie Foxx, Mel Ott and Lou Gehrig. He had 1,827 RBI.

He helped the Philadelphia Athletics return to glory, winning the World Series in 1929 and '30 and 107 games and the Pennant before losing the Series in '31. Here’s his averages for 1925 (age 23) through 1931 (29): .387, .341, .392, .351, .365, .381 and .390 (the last 2 winning the AL batting title). He had at least 100 RBI in each of his 1st 11 seasons, getting 157 to lead the AL in '29, 165 in '30 and 151 in '32. (Incredibly, in '30 he lost the RBI title to Gehrig with 174, and in '32 to Foxx with 169.)

After the 1932 season, needing cash after having lost all his money in the stock market and the A's successes not paying for themselves, Connie Mack sold Simmons to the Chicago White Sox. As a South Sider, beginning with the next season, he started in the 1st 3 All-Star Games. He began to decline and then bounced around a bit, before returning to the A's as a player-coach under Mack. He died of a heart attack shortly after turning 54, in 1956.

He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame. (His plaque there, and those of the other A's honored, were moved from Veterans Stadium to a storefront run by the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society in nearby Hatboro, and are now housed at Spike's Trophies in Northeast Philadelphia.) However, the A's, out of Philly since 1954, have not retired a number for him. (He wore several, but in '31 when the A's started wearing numbers, he wore 7.)

On August 19, 1996, to highlight an article about the 1929 A's, suggested that they were the greatest baseball team ever, Sports Illustrated put Simmons on the cover, rather than Mack or fellow Hall-of-Famers Foxx, Mickey Cochrane or Lefty Grove. Three years later, The Sporting News named him Number 43 on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

CF Clarence "Ginger" Beaumont of Rochester. Another old-old-old-timer, this graduate of Wisconsin's Beloit College helped the Pittsburgh Pirates win the NL Pennant in 1901, '02 and '03. In 1902 he won the NL batting title, and in 1903 he led the League in games played, at-bats, hits, total bases and runs. His career batting average was .311, OPS+ 123. Unfortunately, the Pirates had already traded him by the time they won the 1909 World Series, but in his last season, 1910 (he was only 33), he helped the Cubs win a Pennant.

RF Harvey Kuenn of West Allis. He actually played more shortstop than any other position, but right field was his 2nd-most frequent position, and I needed someone here. He was AL Rookie of the Year in 1953, and made the All-Star team in each of his 1st 8 full seasons. He led the AL in hits in 1953, '54, '56 and '59, and in doubles in '55, '58 and '59.

He won the '59 batting title with a .353 average, but just before the next season, the Detroit Tigers traded him to the Indians for the previous season's home-run leader, Rocky Colavito. The trade worked out much better for the Tigers, as Cleveland fans, loving the Rock, booed Kuenn for no good reason: He didn't hit for much power, but he did bat .308 that season. The Indians traded him to the San Francisco Giants, and he helped them win the 1962 Pennant.

His lifetime batting average was .303, with 2,092 hits, 356 of them doubles, and an OPS+ of 108. He is also the manager of this team, having taken the Brewers – nicknamed "Harvey's Wallbangers" for their power hitting – to that 1982 Pennant, still the only Pennant won by a Milwaukee team since the Ike Age. His son Harvey Kuenn Jr. also played in the Brewers’ system.

C Damian Miller of West Salem. He had a relatively short career, but he did make the NL All-Star Team in 2002. I selected him because of his fielding – and because the next-best choice is Charlie Ganzel, who won 5 NL Pennants from 1887 to 1897, but was not substantially better, stat-wise. Miller helped the Diamondbacks reach 3 postseasons (including the 2001 World Championship) and the Chicago Cubs 1 (2003, nearly winning the Pennant).

SP Charles “Kid” Nichols of Madison. This is a tough choice, geographically speaking, because, while he's listed as having been born in Wisconsin's State Capital, he's mentioned on Wikipedia as having moved to Kansas City as a child, and Baseball-Reference.com lists him as having gone to Queen Elizabeth High School in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. (Which Queen Elizabeth? He would have graduated in 1887, so not Elizabeth II, nor her mother the wife/widow of King George VI.) Anyway, I can't find a source that shows where he learned to play baseball. But the Kansas City team that you'll eventually see is absolutely loaded, pitching-wise, so I'm keeping Nichols with Milwaukee.

There's no doubting why he's in the Hall of Fame: 361 wins against just 208 losses from 1890 to 1906, including 7 times in 8 years winning at least 30 – both before and after the pitching distance moved from 50 feet in 1892 to 60 feet, 6 inches in 1893, so it didn't affect him. He was the youngest pitcher ever to crack the 300-win plateau, having notched his 300th before his 31st birthday. He won an additional 103 games in the high minors, for 464 – he could have ended up 2nd on the all-time wins list behind Cy Young, his only rival for the title of Pitcher of the Decade for the 1890s.

He had a career ERA of 2.96, an ERA+ of 140, and a WHIP of 1.224. He won Pennants with the Boston Beaneaters in 1891, '92, '93, '97 and '98, and was probably the best pitcher that the franchise eventually known as the Braves had until Warren Spahn, to say nothing of Greg Maddux.

SP Adrian "Addie" Joss of Beaver Dam. From 1902 to 1910, he was 160-97, ERA 1.89 (2nd-lowest ever), WHIP 0.968 (lowest ever). He pitched a perfect game in 1908. He won 51 games in 2 years for the Cleveland Indians in 1907 and '08. Absolutely sensational. After just 9 seasons, he was 31, and he should have been just getting started.

But just before the 1911 season, he died of spinal meningitis. Today's medicine could have saved him. It wasn't until 1978 that the Hall of Fame waived its 10-season requirement for him. After all, it wasn't his fault: If he'd been stricken just 1 week later, he would have pitched at least once in a 10th season and qualified.

SP Burleigh Grimes of Emerald. In 1920, the spitball and other doctorings of the baseball were banned, but 17 pitchers were allowed to continue using it for the rest of their careers. Grimes was the last to use the spitter legally, in 1934. He was also the last survivor of those 17, living until 1985.

He won 270 games and lost 212. He had 5 20-win seasons, and won Pennants with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1920, the Cardinals in 1931, and the Cubs in 1932 -- making him one of the few players to win Pennants with both the Redbirds and their Chicago arch-rivals. He is in the Hall of Fame.

SP Dick Bosman of Kenosha. He was not up to the level of the 1st 3; in fact, he was just 82-85 for his career. But in 1969, pitching for the Washington Senators, he went 14-5 and led the AL with a 2.19 ERA. He went 16-12 in 1970, but the next season, the Senators' last before moving to become the Texas Rangers, his run support vanished and he was only 12-16.

On September 30, 1971, he started the last game the Senators ever played, against the Yankees at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, and stood to be the winning pitcher as the Senators led 7-5 with 1 out left in the 9th, before the angry fans stormed the field and the game was forfeited to the Yankees. He also started the team’s first game as the Rangers. He had only 1 more winning season and was done at 32. He has since gone on to become one of baseball’s best pitching coaches.

SP Shane Rawley of Racine. Don't get me started: This one hurts. He was a journeyman for the Seattle Mariners, but in 1982 the Yankees traded for him, and he went 27-28 for the Pinstripes before being traded to the Phillies for Marty Bystrom and Keith Hughes on June 30, 1984. Stupid trade! Why would the Phillies give up a proven reliever like Bystrom, a key cog in their 1980 World Championship, for a .500 pitcher like Rawley?

Guess what: It was the Yankees, not the Phillies, who were stupid. Bystrom made just 15 appearances for the Yankees, was awful and injured, and never pitched after age 26. Rawley went 13-8 in '85, 11-7 in '86, and 17-11 in '87. Think the Yankees couldn't have used his arm in those seasons?

He fell apart in '88, and was done a year later at 33, finishing 111-118 – but at a time when he could have helped the Yankees a lot, he was stuck on a poor Phils team. That trade didn't work out for anybody, but George Steinbrenner and "my baseball people," as George called them, really screwed themselves.

RP Rinold "Ryne" Duren of Cazenovia. He was known for his "coke-bottle glasses" and his wild warm-up tosses. He was one of those guys who could throw hard, but you never knew where it was going to go. He was one of those players the Yankees of the 1950s always seemed to get from the Kansas City Athletics, in his case in 1958. That year, he led the AL with 20 saves and had a 2.02 ERA and a 1.097 WHIP. It was his only good year in a Yankee uniform, but it meant a World Championship.

It was injuries and alcohol that did him in, although, years later, he beat the booze. In 1982, I was watching the Yankees' Old-Timers Game on WPIX-Channel 11, and Joe Pepitone stepped in to bat against Duren. Mel Allen said, "Don't worry, Joe. He won't hit you... hard!" Legend has it that Ryne Sandberg was named after Ryne Duren.

Honorable Mention to Jerry Augustine of Kewaunee and the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse. A lefty complement to the righthanded Duren, Augustine played his entire career for his home-State Brewers. He won 25 games for the Brewers in 1977 and '78 as they became a respectable team, then was converted into a reliever. He didn't help much down the stretch in 1982, and did not appear in the World Series. But he did help a terrible team become a good one.

Finally, add to this team, Honorable Mention to Bob Uecker, of Technical H.S. in Milwaukee, the 1st Badger Stater to play for a Wisconsin MLB team, with the Braves in 1962 and '63, and was the backup catcher on the 1964 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, and has been the voice of the Brewers almost since their inception. He also starred as family patriarch George Owens on the ABC sitcom Mr. Belvedere, and in a hilarious series of commercials for Miller Lite beer.

With his penchant for comedy, intentional and otherwise, he titled his autobiography Catcher In the Wry. Of course, if you ever saw him hit, you'd probably use his home-run call on him: "Get up! Get up! Get outta here!"

Top 10 Greatest Brooklyn Dodgers

I had hoped to get this all-time teams for all the New York Tri-State Area major league teams project done before February ends. Looks like that's not going to happen.

*

The Dodgers played in Brooklyn from 1883 to 1957 -- in 1883 in the Eastern League, 1884 to 1889 in the American Association, and from 1890 onward in the National League.

As the team of the City that, in an 1898 referendum to create "Greater New York", became a Borough (and was easily the closest vote of the 5 Boroughs), and didn't always like it, the Dodgers became the living embodiment of Brooklynites' contradictory desires of wanting to belong to the big City but also their anger at it. They became something romantic, whether good (1916-24, 1939-57) or bad (in between those eras).

Brooklyn, to this day, considers itself both part of New York City and separate from it. My grandmother, born in Brooklyn and growing up in Queens as a Dodger fan, confirmed something I once read in a book: That people going from Brooklyn to Manhattan on the Subway considered it "a major border crossing." (Could have been due to the heavy immigrant population in the Borough, who may have crossed European borders in those days before the Eurozone.)

So the Dodgers became something special, and the Dodger-Giant and Dodger-Yankee (in the World Series) rivalries became the American equivalent of English soccer "derbies." This is why the 1951 loss in the NL Playoff to the Giants is still the most painful defeat in the history of New York sports -- although that distinction should go to the Mets' loss to the Yankees in the 2000 World Series.

That's the most painful defeat. The most painful loss was the move of the Dodgers to Los Angeles by owner Walter O'Malley, who can be retroactively nicknamed Lord Waltemort. The details have been discussed in previous posts on this blog, and will be again.

Although, as a Yankee Fan, back then I probably would not have liked the Dodgers, this time, I come to praise them, not to bury them.

If we were to include the Dodgers' honors with the Mets, it would read as follows:

National League Champions 1890 1899 1900 1916 1920 1941 1947 1949 1952 1953 1955 1956 1969 1973 1986 2000. 16 Pennants.

World Champions 1890 1899 1900 1955 1969 1986. 6 Titles.

Still well behind the Yankees, but more than most teams have done.

Top 10 Greatest Brooklyn Dodgers

Honorable Mention to Dodger Hall-of-Famers who didn't make this list: Willie Keeler, Joe Kelley and Billy Herman; managers Wilbert Robinson, Leo Durocher and Walter Alston; team presidents Larry MacPhail and Branch Rickey; and broadcasters Walter "Red" Barber and Vin Scully.

And, while he's not in the Hall of Fame, team owner and ballpark builder Charlie Ebbets. (Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale debuted with the team while it was in Brooklyn, but didn't become Hall of Fame quality until after the move.)

The toughest call was Keeler, who played 4 seasons with the team in its Superba days (1899-1902) and 1 before that when they were the Bridegrooms (1893). Although he was still a pretty good hitter with the Highlanders (forerunner of the Yankees) up until 1908, thus sort of bridging the gap between the 19th Century and 20th Century rules, he just wasn't a Brooklyn player for long enough. Too bad, because he was a Brooklyn native. If I were doing the top 100 New York baseball players, I'd have to combine what he did for the teams later known as the Dodgers and the Yankees, and he'd probably be in the top 30.

Also Honorable Mention to Floyd "Babe" Herman, who wasn't with the Dodgers for as long as people seemed to think, but, in spite of his fielding difficulties -- he once angrily denied having ever been hit on the head by a fly ball, but when asked about being hit on the shoulder said, "That doesn't count" -- was a great hitter. Phil Rizzuto, born in Brooklyn and grew up a Dodger fan in Queens, said that Herman belongs in the Hall of Fame. He had a case.

Also, Honorable Mention to the players profiled in The Boys of Summer, the 1972 book written by Roger Kahn, the Brooklyn native who'd been the Dodgers beat writer for the New York Herald Tribune in 1952 and '53. In addition to those in the Top 10, there were Elwin "Preacher" Roe, Billy Cox, Joe Black, Clem Labine, Andy Pafko and George "Shotgun" Shuba.

Also, Honorable Mention to the 2 men without whom the one and only Brooklyn World Series win would not have happened: Pitcher Johnny Podres and left fielder Edmundo "Sandy" Amoros.

And let me note that the Dodgers retired no numbers until June 4, 1972, when, in a ceremony at Dodger Stadium, they retired Jackie Robinson's 42, Roy Campanella's 39, and Sandy Koufax' 32.

10. Carl Furillo, Number 6, right field, 1946-57. (Actually 1946-60, but I'm not going to include these players' Los Angeles service in their qualifications for this list.) The Reading Rifle not only had one of the best outfield arms of all time, but was so good with the glove that he never allowed a single ball to hit the "HIT SIGN WIN SUIT - ABE STARK, BROOKLYN'S LEADING CLOTHIER" sign at the base of the right-field scoreboard at Ebbets Field.

Told that Furillo had saved him a lot of money, someone told Stark to give Furillo a free suit. He did. Stark's sign made him so famous that he was elected President of the City Council in the Fifties and Borough President in the Sixties.

Furillo was also a really good hitter, batting .344 to win the 1953 NL batting title, 7 times driving in at least 88 runs, and posting a career OPS+ of 112.

9. Burleigh Grimes, Number 37, pitcher, 1918-26. (He wore the number as Dodger manager, 1937-38.) The last legal spitballer (with the Yankees in 1934), he won 270 games in the major leagues, 158 for the Dodgers, including 4 20-win seasons. He helped the Dodgers win the 1916 and 1920 Pennants. He's in the Hall of Fame.

8. Don Newcombe, Number 36, pitcher, 1949-57. (Actually 1949-51 and 1954-59, as he missed 2 seasons due to military service and remained after the L.A. move.) Born in Jefferson Township, Morris County, New Jersey, and growing up in Elizabeth, Union County, he played with Monte Irvin and Larry Doby on the 1946 Negro League Champion Newark Eagles.

He was the 1st black pitcher to be a regular starter in the majors, and the 1st to start a World Series game. He was a World Champion with the Dodgers in 1955, going 20-5 and hitting 7 home runs. he was the NL MVP and the 1st-ever Cy Young Award winner in 1956, going 27-7 -- only 3 pitchers since have matched those 27 wins (Denny McLain's 31 in 1968, Steve Carlton's 27 in 1972 and Bob Welch's 27 in 1990).

Missing nearly 3 years due to the Korean War, and heavy drinking, cost him his chance at the Hall of Fame: He had his last good season at age 33 and was out of the majors a year later -- but he did win 149 games against just 90 losses for a fine .623 winning percentage. He had a career ERA 3.56, but an ERA+ of 114. His career WHIP was a nice 1.203.

He later quit drinking and became a substance-abuse counselor. Now 85 years old and living in the Colonia section of Woodbridge, Middlesex County, New Jersey, he, along with Carl Erskine, is one of the last 2 men to turn to for doing interviews about the Brooklyn "Boys of Summer." His son Donald Jr. briefly played in the Dodger organization in 1984.

7. Harold "Pee Wee" Reese, Number 1, shortstop, 1940-57. (Actually 1940-42 and 1946-58.) The only man to bridge all the Pennants the Dodgers won from 1921 until the 1957 move: 1941, '47, '49, '52, '53, '55 and '56. He was the Captain from '49 onward, and arguably the most beloved Dodger.

Jackie Robinson never would have made it if this Southerner (Louisville, Kentucky) hadn't stood by him in his darkest hour. Pee Wee is well deserving of his place in the Hall of Fame, of the retirement of his number, and of getting to field the last out (a ground ball hit by Elston Howard) on October 4, 1955, to get Dem Bums the out that clinched a World Series win for the one and only time.

And let me dispel a legend: Yes, it's true, Pee Wee was in the Boston Red Sox' minor-league system (his hometown Louisville Colonels were their top farm team in 1939); and, yes, it's true, Red Sox manager Joe Cronin had him traded while he, Cronin, was still the starting shortstop. But if Cronin saw Reese as a threat to his own (playing) position, why did he not trade away Johnny Pesky, who turned out to be an All-Star? Whatever you want to say about Cronin (and he was no angel), getting rid of Pee Wee Reese was not one of his mistakes, because Pesky was a very good player.

6. Gil Hodges, Number 14, 1st base, 1943-57. (Actually 1943 & 1946-61.) They don't let guys into the Hall of Fame by combining their achievements as player and as manager; if they did, it would be insane to keep out an 8-time All-Star who also managed the New York Mets to a World Series win.

He hit 370 home runs at a time when very few players had hit more than that. He won Gold Gloves in the 1st 3 seasons in which they were awarded, meaning he probably should have won 7 or 8 more. To put Hodges into modern terms, he was Keith Hernandez without the ego.

5. Jackie Robinson, Number 42, 2nd base, 1947-56. If we put aside the pioneers of the game, the 2 most important players in the history of baseball were Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth -- without whose contributions baseball might not have become a grand enough stage on which to attempt Branch Rickey's "great experiment." Once on that stage, Jackie became a symbol of determination, courage, and brotherhood.

The story of Jackie Robinson the trailblazer is familiar, but what about Jackie Robinson the player? He was damn good: A .311 lifetime batting average, a 131 OPS+, and his 1,518 career hits in 10 seasons (and only enough games to add up to 9 full) means that, had he been allowed a full career (assuming that, had American work life already been fully integrated, he would still have wanted to play baseball, which is by no means a given), he would have had a good shot at 3,000 hits.

He stole 197 bases in those 10 seasons, and what might not be possible to calculate with any accuracy is how many added bases and runs he led to by threatening to steal, thus making pitchers nervous and causing walks and balks. Jackie is often said to have brought the Negro League style of play into the majors, so he changed how the game was played, not just by whom.

And he helped the Dodgers win 6 Pennants (and very nearly 2 others) and the 1955 World Series. (Not now, Yogi.) Putting him at Number 5 on this list seems a little low, but then, this is based on on-field performance rather than cultural significance. He did play "only" 10 seasons, there is significant competition. To wit...

4. Arthur "Dazzy" Vance, Number 15, pitcher, 1922-32, with a brief comeback in 1935. Like Koufax, it took him a while until he found his control, but, when he did, wow.

Before his 31st birthday, his major league won-lost record was 0-8. (This included 0-3 with the 1915 and '18 Yankees.) After he turned 31, he was 197-132. Pretty strong. He might have been the fastest pitcher of the Roaring Twenties, his fastball "dazzling" hitters and giving him his nickname.

His career ERA+ was 125. In 7 straight years, 1922-28, he led the NL in strikeouts, in 5 leading the entire majors, eventually fanning 2,045 batters in a career that essentially lasted 15 full seasons. Had there been decent pitching coaches back then, he could've been the 1st NLer to top 3,000. (It would take until 1974 for that to happen, with Bob Gibson.)

And he did this for a Brooklyn team that only twice in his 11 seasons with them finished higher than 4th (2nd in '24 and 3rd in '32). Imagine if he'd had the Yankee, or even the Giant, bats behind him. As it was, he lived long enough to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

3. Roy Campanella, Number 39, catcher, 1948-57. He won 3 NL Most Valuable Player awards, made 8 All-Star Games, and hit 242 home runs in a career shortened to 10 years by the color barrier at the front (though he excelled for the Negro Leagues' Baltimore Elite Giants, even at age 16) and a paralyzing car crash at the back (though he was already starting to fade and the starting catcher position was beginning to be given to John Roseboro).

After Jackie Robinson, he was the 2nd black player elected to the Hall of Fame. "Baseball is a man's game," he supposedly said, "but you have to have a lot of little boy in you, too."

2. Zack Wheat, pre-number era, left field, 1909-26. He collected 2,884 hits, 2,804 of them with Brooklyn, which still a Dodger record (even if the team was known as the Robins, for manager Wilbert Robinson, for most of Wheat's time in the Borough). He batted .317 lifetime, with an OPS+ of 129.

He was not really a Lively Ball Era player, hitting only 132 home runs, but 476 doubles and 172 triples. He played 19 MLB seasons, in 18 of them batted at least .284, in 16 at least .290, in 11 at least .312, in 8 at least .320, and in 1923 and '24 batted .375 each time. (He only won 1 batting title, with .335 in 1918, but part of that was due to Honus Wagner early on and Rogers Hornsby late.)

Apparently, he was a great fielder, too: In 1917, Baseball Magazine had this to say: "What (Napoleon) Lajoie was to infielders, Zach Wheat is to outfielders, the finest mechanical craftsman of them all... Wheat is the easiest, most graceful of outfielders with no close rivals."

It's kind of funny that, in their Forties and Fifties glory days, the Dodgers were mocked for never finding a permanent left fielder, yet the man who might have been their greatest ever player -- as well as the man who finally cinched the Series for them, Sandy Amoros -- was a left fielder.

But Wheat might not have been their greatest player. I think this man was:

1. Edwin "Duke" Snider, Number 4, center field, 1947-57. (Actually 1947-62.) One of the great ironies of North American sports history is that, while the greatest of all Los Angeles Dodgers, Sandy Koufax, was from Brooklyn but didn't find his control until after the move, the 2 men often cited as the greatest Brooklyn Dodgers, Robinson and Snider, were both from Los Angeles. (Well, Jackie was born in Georgia and grew up in Pasadena, while the Duke was, I swear I'm not making this up, straight outta Compton.)

Snider hit 407 home runs. Today, there's some real donkeys with more than that, but, when he retired in 1964, the only ones with more were Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Mel Ott, Willie Mays, Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, Eddie Mathews and Mickey Mantle. His 389 homers in a Dodger uniform is still a franchise record, regardless of coast. (Eric Karros is the L.A. leader, with a mere 289.)  Duke's lifetime batting average was .292, and 8 times he hit at least .300. His career OPS+ was a whopping 140. He wasn't as good in center field as Mays, but he was roughly as good as Mantle.

And that brings up the inevitable question of the 3 New York center fielders: Willie, Mickey, and the Duke. Who was better? Looking at their career stats, it seems silly to put the Duke into the equation; it's got to be either the Say Hey Kid or the Mick, not the Duke.

And yet...

Mickey and Willie entered the majors in 1951. Duke was in his 5th full season. Makes sense, he was 5 years older:

* Edwin Donald Snider, born September 19, 1926 in Los Angeles.
* Willie Howard Mays Jr., born May 6, 1931 in Westfield, Alabama.
* Mickey Charles Mantle, born October 20, 1931 in Spavinaw, Oklahoma.

If you look at what they did while all 3 were together, the case for the Duke gets a lot better:

* In 1951, Willie had a sensational rookie season, while the Duke a pretty good season, and Mickey struggled and got sent down to the minors before regaining his stroke and keeping it for a generation. Willie 1st, Duke 2nd, Mickey 3rd.

* In 1952, Willie was drafted into the Army early on, and missed most of the season. The Duke's stats went down a little. Mickey, still only 20 until right after the World Series, had a little bit better year. Mickey 1st, Duke 2nd, Willie 3rd (not that it was his fault).

* In 1953, Willie was still in the Korean War, but the Duke bounced back with a season in which he led both leagues in slugging percentage and OPS+ (not that the former was then mentioned much or the latter, well, at all). Mickey's season was more bark than bite, as some of his 21 homers were of the variety that came to be called "tape measure" due to their distance, hitting shots that were contenders for the title of longest ever hit in Washington, Philadelphia and St. Louis. But he didn't have as good a season as the Duke. Duke 1st, Mickey 2nd, Willie 3rd (again, through no fault of his own).

* In 1954, Willie returned with his best season, a batting title and a World Championship. The Duke had a sensational season, but not quite as sensational as Willie's. In spite of the Yankees not winning the Pennant for the first time since he arrived, Mickey had his best season yet, but not as good as the other two. Willie 1st, Duke 2nd, Mickey 3rd.

* In 1955, the Duke had his best season, and not just because the Dodgers finally went all the way. I don't want to say Campy didn't deserve the MVP, but the Duke led both leagues in RBIs and he, as much as Podres, was deserving of being named MVP of the '55 Series. Willie had another great year, and Mickey finally began to not just hit the tar out of the ball, but do so with consistency. Great year, but not as good as the other two. Duke 1st, Willie 2nd, Mickey 3rd.

* In 1956, Mickey came into his own, winning the Triple Crown -- in fact, becoming the last player to date to lead both leagues in all 3 categories. The Duke had another great year, leading the NL with a career-high 43 homers. By almost anybody else's standards, Willie had a great year, but not as good as the other two. Mickey 1st, Duke 2nd, Willie 3rd.

* In 1957, the last season of all 3 teams in New York, Mickey won another MVP had batted .365, a figure neither Willie nor the Duke ever approached (in fact, no New York-based player has since). The Duke was still quite productive; his tailoff in 1958 can be attributed to going from the cozy confines of Ebbets Field to the misshapen field at the L.A. Coliseum, but he still had 88 RBIs in leading what was now his hometown team to the 1959 World Championship and a .296 average in 1961.

It was only with the move to Dodger Stadium in 1962 that he really began to slow down, at age 35/36, and he was gone 2 years later, playing, ironically, at the Polo Grounds for the Mets and then closing with the Giants. Willie had another really good year, but not quite up to the standard that was being set by New York center fielders; he didn't really have a subpar year until 1969 and was still pretty productive until 1971 when he was 40. So, in '57, Mickey 1st, Duke 2nd, Willie 3rd.

Willie: 1st, 3rd, 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd; average, 2.29.
Mickey: 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 1st, 1st; average, 2.00.
Duke: 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 2nd; average, 1.72.

Surprise! Granted, this takes into account Willie's 2 missing seasons, but even if you count only '51, '54, '55, '56 and '57, the Duke still holds his own, no worse than 2nd each time.

If this Duke wasn't quite a king, he was certainly no bum.

Milwaukee's All-Time Baseball Team

The Mets are playing out the string. So are the Milwaukee Brewers.

Neither of these facts is surprising: Since April 1970, when the Brewers made their debut, these 2 teams have made the postseason a grand total of 9 times in those 41 seasons.

The surprising part is that the Brewers are now, since 1998, in the National League. True, the Braves were in both the NL and Milwaukee from 1953 to 1965 (and had a bit of a rivalry with the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1953 to 1957 and the L.A. edition of the Bums thereafter), but it still doesn’t make sense to see the Brewers on the Mets’ schedule.

They've never faced each other in the postseason – although the Yankees and Brewers played each other in the strike-forced 1981 AL East Championship Series. The Yanks took the 1st 2 at Milwaukee County Stadium, then the Brew Crew took the next 2 at the old Yankee Stadium.

George Steinbrenner then went into the Yankee locker room and reamed them out, spewing profanities left and right. Bobby Murcer, trying to play both the veteran leader and the Christian gentleman, said, "Now is not the time, George, now is not the time." George said, "It is the time, goddamnit!" And did another 30 seconds of that before Rick Cerone stood up and said, "Fuck you, George!" and stormed out of the room. That shocked George and everyone else, and the next night, led by back-to-back 4th-inning homers by Reggie Jackson and Oscar Gamble, and another by, appropriately, Cerone, the Yanks won the deciding Game 5, 7-3.

The closest the Mets and Brewers have ever come to meeting in the postseason was in 2008, when a Playoff matchup was possible going into the final day, but the Mets completed yet another collapse for the NL East, and the Brewers edged the Mets for the NL Wild Card. It was also possible in 2007, when the Mets had their previous NL East collapse and the Brewers finished only 2 behind the Chicago Cubs for the NL Central.

In 1987, the Brewers were in the AL East race most of the way, before stalling at 91 wins and finishing 7 games behind the Detroit Tigers, while the Mets just missed in the NL East, 3 behind the St. Louis Cardinals. It was the Cardinals who beat the Brewers in their only World Series to date, a 7-game thriller in 1982.

Milwaukee's All-Time Baseball Team

This is limited to just 1 State, Wisconsin, and not even all of that: Westernmost Wisconsin, the Eau Claire area, is considerably closer to Minneapolis than to Milwaukee. (Eau Claire itself: 92 miles to Minneapolis, 246 miles to Milwaukee.) Theoretically, you could include the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but no player from that region was good enough to make this team.

Which means that, despite the relatively small region, Milwaukee has a pretty decent all-time baseball team. A solid infield. A very powerful outfield. And the 1st 3 starters are pretty strong. After that, well, I said, "pretty decent," not "great."

1B Fred Luderus of Milwaukee. A star for the Phillies in the 1910s, he helped them win their 1st Pennant in 1915. A career OPS+ of 114, he hit 251 doubles despite only having full seasons in the majors between the ages of 25 and 33, although he remained a productive player in the high minors until he was 39.

2B Jim Gantner of Fond du Lac. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, he was the starter for the only Brewer Pennant-winner in 1982, and in that World Series he batted .333 with a .943 OPS. He never batted .300 but batted at least .280 6 times, and hit 262 doubles. He played over 1,400 games at 2B and over 300 at 3B. He pitched an inning for the Brewers in a 1979 game, allowing 2 hits but no walks and no runs.

SS Tony Kubek of Bay View High School in Milwaukee. He recently received the Ford Frick Award, equivalent to election to the Hall of Fame as a broadcaster, for his work with NBC on the Saturday Game of the Week and on World Series broadcasts, most notably the 1975 Cincinnati-Boston epic.

But he was a pretty good player, too. He was the 1957 AL Rookie of the Year, and in both that season and 1958 he returned home to play the Braves in the World Series, losing in '57 but winning in '58. He made 3 All-Star teams, formed a superb double-play combination with Bobby Richardson, and hit 178 doubles and 30 triples despite a back injury ending his career when he was just 29. 

He's probably best known for a ground ball that hit a pebble and hit him in the throat in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, helping the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Yankees. But he did help the Yankees win the Series in 1958, 1961 and 1962.

3B Lafayette "Lave" Cross of Milwaukee. This guy goes back a ways, all the way to 1887, the 1st term of President Grover Cleveland. A converted catcher, he starred for 3 Philadelphia teams: The Athletics of the American Association, the Phillies in the NL, and the Athletics in the AL (no connection to the AA team except by name).

A career .292 hitter, he had 2,651 hits, 412 of them doubles in the really dead-ball era, and stole 303 bases. Twice had an OPS+ of 132, and 2 others times over 120. He helped the Brooklyn Dodgers win the NL Pennant in 1900 (technically, the last "World Championship" the franchise would win for 55 years) and the A's win AL Pennants in 1902 and 1905.

Honorable Mention to Ken Keltner of Boy's Technical High School in Milwaukee. A 7-time All-Star with the Cleveland Indians, he had an OPS+ of 112, 308 doubles, and 2 100-RBI seasons. But he's best known as a good fielder, who made 2 stirring stops to help the Indians halt Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak on July 17, 1941.

He nearly helped the Indians win the Pennant in 1940, and had his best season for their World Champions of 1948, batting .297 with 31 homers and 119 RBI. But injuries made that his last full season, and 3 years later he was retired. He spent much of the rest of his life as a scout, and was inducted into the Indians' team Hall of Fame.

LF Al Simmons of Milwaukee. The State of Wisconsin is loaded at left field, with Davy Jones of Cambria (the 1907-09 Detroit dynasty), Morrie Arnovich of Superior (a 1940s All-Star), Andy Pafko of Boyceville (won Pennants in the 1950s both with the Dodgers and with his home-State Braves), and even Harvey Kuenn played a lot of left field.

But I'm going with Aloys Harry Szymanski, known as Bucketfoot Al for the way he stepped toward 3rd base when he swung. He swung very well: .334 batting average, 132 OPS+, 2,927 hits – just 73 more, and had he been in the 3,000 Hit Club, he would be much better-remembered today.

Those were the most hits of any righthanded hitter in AL history until surpassed by Al Kaline. Of those 2,927, 539 were doubles and 307 were homers – that total ranked him 5th on the all-time list when he retired, behind Babe Ruth, his A's teammate Jimmie Foxx, Mel Ott and Lou Gehrig. He had 1,827 RBI.

He helped the Philadelphia Athletics return to glory, winning the World Series in 1929 and '30 and 107 games and the Pennant before losing the Series in '31. Here's his averages for 1925 (age 23) through 1931 (29): .387, .341, .392, .351, .365, .381 and .390 (the last 2 winning the AL batting title). He had at least 100 RBI in each of his 1st 11 seasons, getting 157 to lead the AL in '29, 165 in '30 and 151 in '32. (Incredibly, in '30 he lost the RBI title to Gehrig with 174, and in '32 to Foxx with 169.)

After the 1932 season, needing cash after having lost all his money in the stock market and the A's successes not paying for themselves, Connie Mack sold Simmons to the Chicago White Sox. As a South Sider, beginning with the next season, he started in the 1st 3 All-Star Games. He began to decline and then bounced around a bit, before returning to the A's as a player-coach under Mack.

He died of a heart attack shortly after turning 54, in 1956. He is in the Hall of Fame and on the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame (his plaque having been moved from Veterans Stadium to the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society house in nearby Hatboro). However, the A's, out of Philly since 1954, have not retired a number for him. (He wore several, but in '31 when the A's started wearing numbers, he wore 7.)

On August 19, 1996, to highlight an article about the 1929 A's, suggesting that they, not the 1927 Yankees, were the greatest baseball team ever, Sports Illustrated put Simmons on the cover, rather than Mack or fellow Hall-of-Famers Foxx, Mickey Cochrane or Lefty Grove. Three years later, The Sporting News named him Number 43 on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

CF Clarence "Ginger" Beaumont of Rochester. Another old-old-old-timer, this graduate of Wisconsin's Beloit College helped the Pittsburgh Pirates win the NL Pennant in 1901, '02 and '03. In 1902, he won the NL batting title, and in 1903 he led the League in games, at-bats, hits, total bases and runs. His career batting average was .311, OPS+ 123. Unfortunately, the Pirates had already traded him by the time they won the 1909 World Series, but in his last season, 1910 (he was only 33), he helped the Cubs win a Pennant.

RF Harvey Kuenn of West Allis. He actually played more shortstop than any other position, but right field was his 2nd-most frequent position, and I needed someone here. He was AL Rookie of the Year in 1953, and made the All-Star team in his 1st 8 full seasons. He led the AL in hits in 1953, '54, '56 and '59, and in doubles in '55, '58 and '59.

He won the '59 batting title with a .353 average, but just before the next season, the Detroit Tigers traded him to the Indians for the previous season's home-run leader, Rocky Colavito. The trade worked out much better for the Tigers, as Cleveland fans, loving the Rock, booed Kuenn for no good reason. He didn't hit for much power, but he did bat .308 that season. The Indians traded him to the San Francisco Giants, and he helped them win the 1962 Pennant. His lifetime batting average was .303, with 2,092 hits, 356 of them doubles, and an OPS+ of 108.

He is also the manager of this team, having taken the Brewers – nicknamed "Harvey's Wallbangers" for their power hitting – to that 1982 Pennant, still the only Pennant won by a Milwaukee team since the Ike Age. His son Harvey Kuenn Jr. also played in the Brewers' system.

C Damian Miller of West Salem. He had a relatively short career, but he did make the NL All-Star Team in 2002. He is here for his fielding – and because the next-best choice is Charlie Ganzel, who won 5 NL Pennants from 1887 to 1897, but was not substantially better, stat-wise. Miller helped the Arizona Diamondbacks reach 3 postseasons (including the 2001 World Championship) and the Chicago Cubs 1 (2003, nearly winning the Pennant).

SP Charles "Kid" Nichols of Madison. This is a tough choice, geographically speaking, because he's listed as having gone to Queen Elizabeth High School in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. (Which Queen Elizabeth? He would have graduated in 1887, so not Elizabeth II, nor her mother the wife/widow of King George VI.)

But there's no doubting why he's in the Hall of Fame: 361 wins against just 208 losses from 1890 to 1906, including 7 times in 8 years winning at least 30 – both before and after the pitching distance moved from 50 feet in 1892 to 60 feet, 6 inches in 1893, so that didn't affect him much. He won an additional 103 games in the high minors, for a total of 464 – he could have ended up 2nd on the all-time wins list behind Cy Young, his only rival for the title of Pitcher of the Decade for the 1890s. 

His career ERA was 2.96, ERA+ 140, WHIP 1.224. He won Pennants with the Boston Beaneaters in 1891, '92, '93, '97 and '98. He was probably the best pitcher the franchise now known as the Atlanta Braves had until Warren Spahn, to say nothing of Greg Maddux.

SP Adrian "Addie" Joss of Beaver Dam. From 1902 to 1910, he was 160-97, ERA 1.89 (2nd-lowest ever), WHIP 0.968 (lowest ever). He pitched a perfect game in 1908. He won 51 games in 2 years for the Cleveland Indians in 1907 and '08. He was absolutely sensational. After just 9 seasons, he was 31, and should have been just getting started.

But just before the 1911 season, he died of spinal meningitis. Today's medicine could have saved him. It wasn't until 1978 that the Hall of Fame waived its 10-season requirement for him. After all, it wasn't his fault" If he'd been stricken just 1 week, later he would have pitched at least once in the 10th season, and qualified.

SP Burleigh Grimes of Emerald. In 1920, the spitball and other doctorings of the baseball were banned, but 17 pitchers were allowed to continue using it for the rest of their careers. Grimes was the last to use the spitter legally, in 1934.

Before that, however, he was fantastic, winning 270 games and losing 212. He had 5 20-win seasons, and won Pennants with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1920, the St. Louis Cardinals in 1931, and the Chicago Cubs in 1932. He is in the Hall of Fame.

SP Dick Bosman of Kenosha. He's not up to the level of the 1st 3; in fact, he was just 82-85 for his career. But in 1969, pitching for the Washington Senators, he went 14-5 and led the AL with a 2.19 ERA. He went 16-12 in 1970, but the next season, the Senators' last before moving to become the Texas Rangers, his run support vanished and he was only 12-16.

On September 30, 1971, he started the last game the Senators ever played, against the Yankees at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, and stood to be the winning pitcher as the Senators led 7-5 with 1 out left in the 9th, before the angry fans stormed the field and the game was forfeited to the Yankees. He also started the team's 1st game as the Rangers. He had only 1 more winning season and was done at 32. He has since gone on to become one of baseball’s best pitching coaches.

SP Shane Rawley of Racine. He was a journeyman for the Seattle Mariners, but in 1982 the Yankees traded for him, and he went 27-28 for the Pinstripes before being traded to the Phillies for Marty Bystrom and Keith Hughes on June 30, 1984. Stupid trade! Why would you give up a proven reliever like Bystrom for a .500 pitcher like Rawley?

Guess what, it was the Yankees, not the Phillies, who were stupid. Bystrom made 15 appearances for the Yankees, was awful and injured, and never pitched after age 26. Rawley went 13-8 in '85, 11-7 in '86, and 17-11 in '87. Don't get me started: This one hurts. Do you think the Yankees couldn't have used his arm in those seasons? He fell apart in '88, and was done a year later at 33, finishing 111-118 – but at a time when he could have helped the Yankees a lot, he was stuck on a poor Phils team. That trade didn't work out for anybody.

RP Rinold "Ryne" Duren of Cazenovia. He was known for his "coke-bottle glasses" and his wild warm-up tosses. He was one of those guys who could throw hard, but you never knew where it was going to go.

One of those players the Yankees of the 1950s always seemed to get from the Kansas City Athletics right when they needed one, in 1958 he led the AL with 20 saves and had a 2.02 ERA and a 1.097 WHIP. It was his only good year in a Yankee uniform, but it meant a World Championship. It was injury and alcohol that did him in, and years later he beat the booze.

In 1982, I was watching the Yankees' Old-Timers Game on WPIX-Channel 11, and Joe Pepitone stepped in to bat against Duren. Mel Allen was broadcasting from a table behind home plate, piped into the public-address system, and said, "Don't worry, Joe. He won't hit you... hard!" Legend has it that Ryne Sandberg was named after Ryne Duren.

Honorable Mention to Jerry Augustine of Kewaunee and the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse. A lefty complement to the righthanded Duren, Augustine played his entire career for his home-State Brewers. He won 25 games for the Brewers in 1977 and '78 as they became a respectable team, then was converted into a reliever. He didn't help much down the stretch in 1982, and did not appear in the World Series. But he did help a terrible team become a good one.

Finally, add to this team, Honorable Mention to Bob Uecker, of Technical High School in Milwaukee, the 1st Badger Stater to play for a Wisconsin MLB team, with the Braves in 1962 and '63, and was the backup catcher on the 1964 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, and has been the voice of the Brewers almost since their inception.

He also starred as family patriarch George Owens on the ABC sitcom Mr. Belvedere, and in a hilarious series of commercials for Miller Lite beer. With his penchant for comedy, intentional and otherwise, he titled his autobiography Catcher In the Wry. Of course, if you ever saw him try to hit, you'd probably use his home-run call on him: "Get up! Get up! Get outta here!"