September 25, 1917: Holy Cow, It's Phil Rizzuto's Centennial!

September 25, 1917, 100 years ago today: Philip Francis Rizzuto is born in Brooklyn.

Actually, 2 Yankee stars are born on this day. John Franklin Sain is born in Havana, Arkansas. Johnny Sain went on to pitch for the Boston Braves, was a 3-time All-Star, and was the 1st man to throw a regular-season major league pitch to Jackie Robinson. Had there been a Cy Young Award in 1948, he probably would have won it, going 24-15 and helping the Braves win their last Pennant in Boston.

He then helped the Yankees win the World Series in 1951, 1952 and 1953, and retired with a career record of 139-116. He became one of baseball's greatest pitching coaches, winning Pennants with the Yankees in 1961, 1962 and 1963; the Minnesota Twins in 1965; and the Detroit Tigers in 1968. He nearly helped the Chicago White Sox get into the postseason in 1972, and returned to the Braves, where his last major league job was in 1986. He died in 2006, at the age of 89.

But he's not the biggest Yankee born on this day. The tallest, but not the biggest.

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The son of a trolley motorman, Phil Rizzuto graduated from Richmond Hill High School in Queens. Other alumni include his eventual Yankee teammate Marius Russo, comedian Rodney Dangerfield, and singer Cyndi Lauper. Despite being only 5-foot-5 and maybe 140 pounds, he was the quarterback on their football team.

His dream was to play shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He went to them for a tryout, but the manager told him he was too small: "Go get a shoeshine kit, kid." Phil never forgave that manager. His name was Casey Stengel.

So he took his revenge by going to the Dodgers' arch-rivals, the New York Giants. With considerably more tact, their manager, Bill Terry, also turned him down. Then he went to the New York Yankees. In 1937, they signed him.

In the minor leagues, a teammate named Billy Hitchcock, who went on to play for several major league teams and manage 3, saw the way he moved around the infield, and gave him the nickname "Scooter." 

After hearing him curse after making an error, his manager told him an umpire could throw him out of a game if he heard that, so he should come up with something clean to say when he got upset. So he went back to saying what he used to say in such situations: "Holy cow!"

For the record: Harry Caray was saying, "Holy cow!" on the radio when Phil was still playing; but Phil was saying it before anybody ever heard of Harry. So neither stole it from the other.

In 1940, helping the Kansas City Blues win the American Association Pennant, Phil was named Minor League Player of the Year by The Sporting News. He was called up, and made his major league debut on April 14, 1941. In front of an Opening Day crowd at Griffith Stadium in Washington, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he led off, played shortstop, wore Number 10, and went 0-for-4, but the Yankees beat the Washington Senators 3-1, as a Joe DiMaggio triple backed up Russo against Dutch Leonard.

The Yankees won the American League Pennant that year, as Phil's .307 batting average, alert baserunning and slick fielding contributed. Had there been a Rookie of the Year award at the time, he surely would have won it.

They faced the Dodgers in the World Series. By this point, Stengel was managing the Boston Braves. Ironically, the Dodgers had traded for not one, but two fine shortstops. First, they got Leo Durocher, and even made him their manager. Then, as Leo's skills declined, they got Harold "Pee Wee" Reese.

Grantland Rice, the greatest American sportswriter of that time, predicted a Yankee victory, and included this reason:

Billy Herman and Pee Wee Reese around the highly important keystone spot don't measure up, over a season anyway, with Joe Gordon and Phil Rizzuto, a pair of light-footed, quick-handed operatives who can turn seeming base hits into double plays often enough to save many a close scrap.

The Yankees won in 5 games. They won the Pennant again in 1942, as Phil made his 1st of 5 All-Star Games. Phil then entered the U.S. Navy for the duration of World War II. Shortly before his entry, he met Cora Anne Ellenborn. He married her in his Navy dress uniform, and they remained together 'til death did they part. They had a son, Phil Jr., and 3 daughters, Cindy, Patricia and Penny.

Like several other Yankees, Phil had trouble getting his swing back after returning from The War in 1946. But he helped them get back into the World Series in 1947, and he started a double play to get the Series' last 2 outs.

In 1949, the Yankees hired a new manager: Casey Stengel. Some of them, so used to the way Joe McCarthy managed them, never took to Stengel. Two, in particular, hated him, the men who, by this point, were the 2 most important players on the team: Rizzuto and DiMaggio.

The Scooter hadn't forgotten how the Ol' Perfesser cruelly dismissed him in Brooklyn 12 years earlier. But Stengel knew he'd made a mistake, saying, "If I were a retired gentleman, I would come to Yankee Stadium just to watch Rizzuto play."

The Yankees overcame a slew of injuries in 1949, needing to beat the Boston Red Sox in the last 2 games to win the Pennant. Not only did the Sox have Ted Williams, but Phil's minors teammate Billy Hitchcock, and were managed by McCarthy.

Still, the Yankees won, beginning a string of 5 straight World Championships, which, as Phil's teammate Yogi Berra later said of Don Larsen's perfect game, "It's never been done before, and it still hasn't."

Phil would later write The October Twelve, about the 12 players, including himself and Yogi, who were on the World Series roster all 5 times. The book also included reminiscences of DiMaggio, who retired after the 1951 season; Mickey Mantle, who arrived that year; and Whitey Ford, who arrived in 1950, missed the next 2 years serving in the U.S. Army for the Korean War, and returned for the 1953 title.

In spite of the 1949 title, Phil finished 2nd to Williams in the voting for the AL Most Valuable Player award. But in 1950, he overcame a terrible start to win it, batting .324 - with a bat borrowed from one of the biggest and best hitters of the era, a man known as the Big Cat:

I started out hitting 0-for-12. Couldn't buy a base hit! Then, Johnny Mize said, "Phil, why don't you use my bat?" It was 36 inches, 36 ounces. It was almost as big as I was!

First time up, I tried to duck away from the pitch, and the ball hit the bat and went over the infield for a base hit! And I ended up getting 200 hits with that bat!

As with most players then, Phil needed an off-season job. He worked at a clothing store with some other local ballplayers. Then, he and Yogi went halfsies on owning a bowling alley, which they sold for a tidy profit. In 1950, Phil was the mystery guest in the 1st episode of the CBS game show What's My Line?

The Yankees won another Pennant in 1955, but late in the 1956 season, with Phil in decline and about to turn 39, they released him. Let's just say the tact they used was closer to Stengel's in 1937 than to Terry's.

There were no Gold Gloves then, although once Lou Boudreau of the Cleveland Indians retired, Phil would have had a better chance. He retired with a .273 batting average, 9 Pennants and 7 World Championships.

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But Phil's baseball career was far from done. The Giants took him on as a broadcaster for the remainder of the season. That got the attention of WPIX-Channel 11, and they hired him for the Yankees' broadcasts. He stayed on them for 40 seasons.

His broadcast partners included:

* Mel Allen, 1957-64, and again 1982-86
* Red Barber, 1957-66
* Jerry Coleman, 1963-69
* Joe Garagiola, 1965-67
* Frank Messer, 1968-84
* Whitey Ford, 1969-71
* Bob Gamere, 1970
* Bill White, 1971-88
* Fran Healy, 1982-83
* Bobby Murcer, 1983-96
* Spencer Ross, 1985-87
* Mickey Mantle, 1985-88
* Billy Martin, 1986-87
* Jim Kaat, 1986, and again 1995-96
* Ken Harrelson, 1987-88
* Lou Piniella, 1989
* Tommy Hutton, 1989
* George Grande, 1989-90
* Tom Seaver, 1989-93
* Al Trautwig, 1990-96
* Dewayne Staats, 1990-94
* Tony Kubek, 1990-94
* Paul Olden, 1994-95
* Dave Cohen, 1995-96
* Rick Cerone, 1996

Coleman, Ford, Mantle and Martin were former Yankee teammates. Healy, Murcer, Kaat, Piniella, Hutton, Cerone and Kubek (who ended up replacing him as Yankee shortstop) also played for the Yankees.

Phil Rizzuto and Bill White, 1986

Those are the bare facts. They cannot tell you what Phil Rizzuto meant to generations of Yankee Fans.

Several teams have a former player who became a beloved broadcaster. The Philadelphia Phillies had Richie Ashburn. The Cleveland Indians had Herb Score. The Cincinnati Reds had Joe Nuxhall.

Among those still living: The Boston Red Sox have Jerry Remy, the Pittsburgh Pirates have Steve Blass, the Minnesota Twins have Bert Blyleven, the San Francisco Giants have Mike Krukow, the Houston Astros have Larry Dierker, and the Seattle Mariners have ex-Yankee Mike Blowers. The St. Louis Cardinals had the now-retired Mike Shannon, and now they have Al "The Mad Hungarian" Hrabosky. And the Mets? Who does their guy think he is? "I'm Keith Hernandez!"

(The late Ernie Johnson Sr. pitched for the Braves in Milwaukee, but broadcast for them in Atlanta, so he doesn't count. For the same reason, nor does F.P. Santangelo: He broadcasts for the Washington Nationals, and did play for that franchise, but while it was still the Montreal Expos.)

Some people got upset that Phil usually called Bill White, a former National League 1st baseman who was the 1st black man to be a regular announcer for any MLB team, by his last name: "I tell ya, White, these Yankees... " It wasn't a racial thing. They didn't get that he called his other broadcast partners by their last names, too: "Messer," "Murcer," "Seaver," and so on. Sometimes, he used both names, particularly "Frank Messer" and "Bill White."

Phil Rizzuto did "shout-outs" before anybody thought to call them that. On the air, he would wish people Happy Birthday, Congratulations on graduation, or Get Well. He would wish couples Happy Anniversary, or Congratulations on the birth of a baby. He would plug restaurants he liked, usually Italian ones. There would always be food, often cannoli, in the booth, when the Scooter was in the booth.

If he was in the booth. He would sometimes wander off. It wasn't due to advancing age: He did it when he was younger, and his mind was just as sharp at the end as it always was, however sharp you think that was. Sometimes, he'd say, "I'll be home soon, Cora!" Every now and then, an aerial shot of the George Washington Bridge would be shown, and he'd think about going home to Cora in Hillside, Union County, New Jersey, and say, "I gotta get over that bridge!"

Cora and Phil Rizzuto.

He was right: "She's a doll!"

He would go into stories that seemed not at all connected to the game at hand. His mind would drift so much that, one time, White saw a notation on his scorecard, and asked him what "W.W." meant. It meant "Wasn't Watching." As a result, one of the more popular Yankee-themed blogs is known as Was Watching.

Phil made a mistake that Mel Allen made, which John Sterling makes today: He watched the ball as it flew toward the outfield. Red Barber pointed out that you should watch the outfielder: If you know whether he thinks he can catch the ball, you'll know if it's going to be caught. Many times, the Scooter would say, "That's gone! No, it's not!"

Yeah, he made a lot of mistakes. He liked to say, "I like radio better than television, because if you make a mistake on radio, they don't know. You can make up anything on the radio."

And, in his homerism, he might yell, "Stay fair!" One time, around 1985 or so, Mike Pagliarulo hit a drive down the right field line, and Phil said, "All right! Stay fair! No, it won't stay fair. Good thing it didn't stay fair, I think he woulda caught it."

Oh, was he ever a homer! "Ooh, these Yankees can get the clutch hits, Murcer! I might have to go home early! I just got a cramp in my leg!" He never did explain why a cramp in his leg was going to affect his broadcasting.

Yes, he was a homer. And Yankee Fans loved him for it. For cumulative total, he might have been the most beloved figure in Yankee history. More than Babe Ruth. More than Mickey Mantle. More than Derek Jeter. Yes, Michael Kay, even more than Don Mattingly.

There were many Scooterisms. Everyone remembers "Holy cow!" He used it twice when describing Roger Maris' 61st home run of the 1961 season:

Here's the windup, fastball, hit deep to right, this could be it! Way back there! Holy cow, he did it! Sixty-one for Maris! And look at the fight for that ball out there! Holy cow, what a shot! Another standing ovation for Maris, and they're still fighting for that ball out there, climbing over each other's backs. One of the greatest sights I've ever seen here at Yankee Stadium!

And he used it twice when describing the home run that Chris Chambliss hit to win the 1976 Pennant, off Mark Littell of the Kansas City Royals, after there had already been a delay to pick trash thrown by the fans up off the field:

He hits one deep to right-center! That ball is out of here! The Yankees win the Pennant! Holy cow, Chris Chambliss on one swing!

(After a momentary pause, as fans poured onto the field, tearing it up for souvenirs) And the Yankees win the American League Pennant. Unbelievable, what a finish! As dramatic a finish as you'd ever want to see! With all that delay, we told you, Littell had to be a little upset. And, holy cow, Chambliss hits one over the fence, he is being mobbed by the fans, and this field will never be the same, but the Yankees have won it in the bottom of the 9th, seven to six!

White had the call when one of Phil's successors as Yankee shortstop, Bucky Dent, hit the home run that turned the 1978 Playoff with the Boston Red Sox around. A couple of batters later, Phil walked back into the booth. White asked him what he thought. "I was in the Red Sox press room, I let out three holy cows, and I thought Frank Malzone was gonna bite me on the ankle!"

After the game, Phil was on the field, got the interview with Bucky, and said, with the biggest grin his tiny body could muster, "You gotta have a shortstop!"

October 2, 1978. Bucky and the Scooter.

Other Scooterisms:

* "Unbelievable!"
* "Did you see that?"
* "How do ya like that?"
* "I tell ya, (broadcast partner's name)... "
* A player hitting a home run was "really stroking that potato!"
* And, of course, when somebody did something inappropriate, "You huckleberry!"

One of my favorite moments was when the camera focused on the Con Ed Kids in the left-center field bleachers. Consolidated Edison, New York's electric company, sponsored a program to bring inner-city kids to the game for free. Willie Randolph, later a Yankee 2nd baseman and coach (and a Met manager), was a counselor for the Con Ed Kids as a teenager.

And Rizzuto said, "White, you were deprived as a child, you didn't have the Con Ed Kids."

And White, who grew up in Cleveland, said, "Well, we had Ohio Edison. They took us to Indians games."

And Rizzuto said, "Oh. Well, I guess that's all right."

In 1977, Phil was asked to narrate a baseball scene for "Paradise By the Dashboard Light," a song written by Jim Steinman for Marvin Aday, a.k.a. Meat Loaf. It was designed to illustrate Meat's character "getting to first base" with his girlfriend, "getting to second base," "getting to third base," and, finally, trying to "score," before she tells him to "Stop right there!"

He asked Steinman, "Do I have to be high to understand this song?" He was told he didn't. I have no idea what would have happened if he had been told that he did.

He also did commercials for Miller Lite beer and lenders The Money Store. In 1998, he "broadcast" a Claymation ad for Lipton Brisk Iced Tea, which also featured figures of Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, George Steinbrenner, and Reggie Jackson doing his own voice.

Joe Grifasi played him in Billy Crystal's Yankee tribute film 61*, and actual recordings of his broadcasts were used in the film about the 1977 Yankees, The Bronx Is Burning (in which Grifasi played Yogi).

In 1994, after he was finally elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Phil was named one of the honorary captains at the All-Star Game in Pittsburgh, along with Buck Leonard, the Negro League star who played for teams in that city. Meat Loaf sang the National Anthem.

Yankee broadcasters would occasionally have to come back from commercials on Channel 11, and plug shows the station was showing. When it began showing Seinfeld reruns, Phil said, "I love Seinfeld. That Kramer, he cracks me up. I tell ya, I haven't had this much fun in bed since my honeymoon!"

Rizzuto was a good Catholic. Most of the time. He became friends with Ed Lucas, a student at St. Joseph's School for the Blind, and when Ed became a sportswriter and broadcaster despite his handicap, he and Phil became fundraisers for Ed's former school.

But when the announcement came over the wire on August 6, 1978 that Pope Paul VI had died, Phil said, "Well, that kind of puts a damper on even a Yankee win."

The Vatican didn't hold it against Phil: When he finally got into the Hall of Fame, one of the gifts he received from Yankee management was a free trip to Italy and a meeting with Pope John Paul II for himself and Cora.

Phil also introduced Ed Lucas to his 2nd wife, who was legally blind. They became the only couple ever married on the field at the old Yankee Stadium.

*

In 1984, Pee Wee Reese and Luis Aparicio were elected to the Hall of Fame. Pee Wee was Scooter's contemporary, his fellow New York City shortstop. Aparicio was also a shortstop, albeit in the generation after. Both were deserving inductees. But fans began the old game of, "If Player A is in the Hall of Fame, and Player B is similar, why isn't Player B in?"

Phil was every bit as good of an all-around player as either Reese or Aparicio, and more accomplished than either. Each won only 1 World Series (Reese with the 1955 Dodgers, Aparicio with the 1966 Baltimore Orioles, although he's mainly remembered with the Chicago White Sox), while Phil won 7 (1941, '47, '49, '50, '51, '52 and '53).

Surely, if playing and broadcasting could be combined into a single category, Phil would have been in -- and so would Ashburn (more about whom in a moment), Score, Nuxhall, and perhaps others.

But baseball doesn't work that way. Nor do they combine playing and managing, to the detriment of Gil Hodges and, until his great managing career was complete, Joe Torre. Phil could be elected as a player or as a broadcaster. Or, theoretically, in each category. (In the big 4 North American sports, only 2 men have ever been so honored: Football's Frank Gifford and Len Dawson.) But not for his playing and his broadcasting combined.

On August 4, 1985, the Yankees held Phil Rizzuto Day. I was there. They retired his Number 10, and dedicated a Plaque in his honor, calling him the greatest Yankee shortstop. (At the time, it was a completely fair statement.) Mickey Mantle came out, and gave him some golf clubs. (This was the 1st time I got to see The Mick in person. Both men loved golf.)

And he was given a cow with a cardboard halo. A "holy cow." It was named Huckleberry. It was to be donated in his name to a local petting zoo. And it head-butted him, knocking him over. Phil was approaching his 68th birthday, and we all worried that he'd gotten hurt. He wasn't.

And in his speech, he said, "This means more to me than being elected to the Hall of Fame ever could." Huge ovation.

He was lying. He knew it. We all knew it.

On July 27, 1991, the Yankees held Old-Timers Day. The theme was the 50th Anniversary of DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, and the World Series win that resulted.

There were 8 living members of the 1941 Yankees. Bill Dickey was too ill to come, and Frank Crosetti never returned for Old-Timers' Day. The other 6 came: Rizzuto, DiMaggio, Russo, Tommy Henrich, and 2 guys who aren't usually remembered as Yankees, Johnny Sturm (it was the 1st baseman's only season in the major leagues) and Stanley "Frenchy" Bordagaray (a 3rd baseman better known for playing elsewhere).

Joe said, "Nobody had a better view than I did of Phil playing shortstop." He gave a few details, and said, "And, Phil, I just want you to know that you're my Hall-of-Famer. And I mean that." That statement got a bigger ovation than either of them, or Mickey, or Whitey, or Reggie Jackson got on their introductions. (Yogi was feuding with George Steinbrenner at the time, and refused all invitations between 1985 and 1998.)

Vic Raschi, a member of Phil's "October Twelve," once said, "My best pitch is anything the batter grounds, lines, or pops in the direction of Rizzuto."

Paul Richards, a decent catcher who became one of the game's best scouts and executives, said, "Among those shortstops whom I have had the good fortune to see in action, it's got to be Rizzuto on top for career achievement. For a five-year period, I would have to take Lou Boudreau... But, year after year, season after season, Rizzuto was a standout."

And poet Ogden Nash, who called himself "an all-time incurable fan" of the New York Giants, called Phil "this dandiest of shortstops."

My grandmother, Grace Golden, was a fan of Nash. And a fan of Rizzuto. She was with me on his Day, as were my parents. Grandma was a Dodger fan, and later a Met fan. She hated the Yankees. Hated Mickey Mantle. Hated Yogi Berra. How can anyone hate Yogi Berra? She did. She really hated Casey Stengel. And hated Billy Martin more than anybody.

But she loved 2 Yankees: Phil Rizzuto and Whitey Ford. She loved the Scooter because he was a little guy who made it big. And she loved the Chairman of the Board because he was so cool under pressure, unlike Martin, whom she called a "hothead." There was nothing, except maybe errors and bases on balls, she hated more than a hothead. But she loved Phil and Whitey. The fact that they were from Queens, as she was, may have had something to do with it.

But it did bother him that he was passed over, over and over again. In public, he said things like, "I never thought I deserved to be in the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is for the big guys, pitchers with 100 mph fastballs and hitters who sock homers and drive in a lot of runs. That's the way it always has been, and the way it should be." 

But, in private, he said things like, "I'll take any way to get into the Hall of Fame. If they want a batboy, I'll go in as a batboy."

The Baseball Writers Association of America, which votes on recently retired players, never let him get close. The Hall of Fame Committee on Veterans, which elected Reese, passed him over repeatedly as well.

In 1993, 2 members of the Veterans Committee died, both Hall-of-Famers themselves: Charlie Gehringer and Roy Campanella. Neither voted for Phil, despite Campy having seen him up close in 4 World Series.

Ted Williams was on the Committee as well, and when Ted wanted to make a point, he could talk your ear off. He told anyone who would listen that Phil belonged. In what could have been taken as a slight to his teammate Johnny Pesky, Ted liked to say, "If we'd had Phil Rizzuto at shortstop all those years, we would have won all those Pennants, not the Yankees."

Yogi and Whitey were appointed to the Committee to replace Gehringer and Campanella. On February 25, 1994, a call was placed from Montclair, Essex County, New Jersey to nearby Hillside. It was Yogi, calling Phil. No need for Yogi to get cute with one of his sayings: He simply said, "Congratulations: You're in."

It was like the weight of the world had been lifted from his little shoulders. I went to his induction ceremony in Cooperstown, New York. (By the way: If you haven't been to Cooperstown, don't go on Induction Weekend. Trust me on this one. It's next to impossible to get a hotel room, and a town that is home to 2,500 people simply isn't equipped to handle 100,000 visitors at once. Go any other time.) And, interrupted a few times by flies (it was hot), he gave a long, rambling speech that was alternately hilarious and touching.

He stayed with the Yankee broadcast team through the 1996 season, Derek Jeter's rookie year. He didn't need long to call Jeter "my favorite." He had no problem with people saying Jeter had surpassed him as the greatest Yankee shortstop.

During the 2001 American League Championship Series, Jeter escorted him to the pitcher's mound for a first ball ceremony. At first, Phil seemed to be wandering back to the dugout, and we wondered if the 84-year-old Scooter was losing it. Nope, he knew exactly what he was doing: He got to the point on the field where, in Oakland a few days earlier, Jeter had done "The Flip," and threw the ball to Jorge Posada behind the plate the exact same way, and the fans, getting the joke, erupted.

As part of the celebrations around his Hall election, Channel 11 showed him taking the tour of the Hall's museum that all new inductees get. Included was a scale model of Yankee Stadium before its 1973-76 renovation. He said, "It would be a shame if they ever tore it down."

By 2005, it was no longer a matter of "if," but "when." That year, he showed up for Old-Timers' Day, but, for the 1st time since he was elected, didn't make the trip to Cooperstown for Induction Weekend. In 2006, with the groundbreaking for the new Yankee Stadium a few weeks away, he didn't show up for Old-Timers' Day.

It was soon announced that he was in a nursing home in West Orange, Essex County, New Jersey. Although his mind and memory were intact, he was too frail to leave the house anymore.

On August 13, 2007, 12 years to the day after Mickey Mantle died, Phil Rizzuto passed away, a few weeks short of his 90th birthday. The Yankees put black 10s on their left sleeves for the remainder of the season. He was cremated, so there is no gravesite.

The next day's Daily News covers

When the old Stadium hosted its last game on September 21, 2008, some of the Yankee Legends who had died were represented by family: Billy Martin by his son Billy Joe, Mickey Mantle by his son David, Elston Howard by his daughter Cheryl, Roger Maris by his son Randy, Bobby Murcer by his wife Kay and their children, Jim "Catfish" Hunter by his wife Helen, and Thurman Munson by his son Michael. Derek Jeter escorted Cora Rizzuto, wearing a Number 10 jersey, out to the shortstop position. (She died in 2010.)

Today would have been Phil Rizzuto's 100th Birthday, his Centennial. Holy cow, I loved that huckleberry.

Dallas' All-Time Baseball Team

The Texas League featured the Dallas Eagles and the Fort Worth Cats, before 1965 when Turnpike Stadium was built in Arlington, and became home to the Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs. It seated 10,000, with room for expansion, in the hope of landing a moving major league team.

After failing to convince Charlie Finley to move the Kansas City Athletics there (before he eventually moved them to Oakland for 1968), Turnpike Stadium was expanded to 20,000 in 1970. With the announcement that the "new" Washington Senators were coming, under the Texas Rangers name, it was expanded to 35,000 in 1972, renamed Arlington Stadium, before a final expansion to 43,000 in 1978.

The new stadium, previously known as "The Ballpark in Arlington" and Ameriquest Field before the insurance company bearing that name went to the last roundup, opened in 1994, right next to Arlington Stadium, which was demolished. The new ballpark hosted the All-Star Game in 1995 and the Rangers' home games in the 1996, '98 and '99 American League Division Series -- all of them won by the Yankees.

This was before the Rangers won the AL West in 2010 and finally beat the Yankees in the AL Championship Series, but lost 2010 and '11 World Series (the latter in crushing fashion), and choking away the 2012 AL West title.

23. Dallas' All-Time Baseball Team

This is a powerful team, with Hall-of-Famers at every position but 1st base (and even that comes pretty close), and 1st base and the outfield are particularly deep. The pitching is quite strong, with 2 starters whose careers were sadly cut short, but one made the Hall of Fame anyway and the other could have. It also includes the former all-time saves leader.

For all players mentioned below, their hometowns are in the State of Texas, unless otherwise specified.

1B Joe Carter of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He starred for the San Diego Padres and Cleveland Indians before becoming a 5-time All-Star with the Toronto Blue Jays, hitting 396 home runs with 10 100-RBI seasons. In 1992, he caught the final out as the Jays won the World Series. He was also involved in the final play of the 1993 World Series, hitting a home run off Mitch Williams to take the Jays from a 6-5 deficit against the Philadelphia Phillies to an 8-6 win in Game 6 to clinch.

Baseball-Reference.com has him at 87 on its Hall of Fame Monitor, where a "Likely HOFer" is at 100; and a 32 on its Hall of Fame Standards, where the "Average HOFer" is at 50, so he'll probably never make it. But you'd have to be a Phillies fan who still hasn't gotten over '93 to not like Joe Carter. The Jays have only retired one number to date (Roberto Alomar's 12), but Carter's Number 29 is on their "Level of Excellence," a sort of combined Jays and CFL Toronto Argonauts hall of fame on the luxury boxes of the Rogers Centre.

Honorable Mention to Norm Cash of Post. He was a rookie on the 1959 American League Pennant-winning Chicago White Sox, but general manager Frank Lane then traded him to the Detroit Tigers for Steve Demeter.

Bone. Head. Trade. Stormin' Norman became a 4-time All-Star for the Tigers, winning the batting title with a .361 average in 1961 (he later admitted to having corked his bat that season) and helping them win the 1968 World Series, also coming close in 1961, '67 and '72. He finished with 377 home runs and a career OPS+ of 139. Sadly, he drowned in a boating accident near Detroit in 1986, shortly before his 52nd birthday.

Honorable Mention to Mike Hargrove of Perryton. Actually, Perryton is at the northernmost edge of the Texas Panhandle, almost exactly halfway between Dallas and Denver, so, theoretically, I could have made him the manager of the Colorado Rockies' all-time regional team. But his ties to the Rangers solidify his case for this team.

He was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1974, and an All-Star for the Rangers and Indians, batting .290 lifetime. Unfortunately, as a player, he is best remembered for all his fidgeting with his equipment at the plate, giving him the nickname "the Human Rain Delay."

He is also the manager of this team, leading the Indians to Pennants in 1995 and 1997, making him the only living human ever to do so. (Tris Speaker in 1920, Lou Boudreau in 1948 and Al Lopez in 1954 are all dead.) He managed the Tribe to the AL Central Division title 5 straight seasons, 1995 to '99. He later managed the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners, and is now a special advisor in the Indians' front office.

Honorable Mention to Chris Davis of Longview. He just turned 28, but the Oriole made his 1st All-Star team last season, leading the AL in home runs with 53 and RBIs with 138, finishing 3rd in the AL Most Valuable Player voting. His career OPS+ is 120, and the Rangers are going to look dumber and dumber for dumping him after 3 injury-plagued seasons that he definitely seems to have shaken off.

2B Rogers Hornsby of Fort Worth. He was a rotten person: A grouch, a snob, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and on more than one occasion was nearly suspended from baseball due to his compulsive gambling. And, as it turned out, Rogers Hornsby the manager was lousy when he didn't have Rogers Hornsby the player in anything resembling his prime.

He may also have been the greatest right-handed hitter who ever lived. He batted .358. For his career. That's 2nd all-time behind Ty Cobb, and 1st among righthanders and among players who played mainly in the National League. He averaged .402 from 1921 to 1925. That's (roughly) 2 hits in every 5 at-bats for 5 years. In 1924, he set a 20th Century record (or just one for the NL, depending on whose stats you believe) with a .424 average. He won the Triple Crown in 1922 and 1925, along with Ted Williams one of only 2 men to do it twice (and the only one to do it in the NL).

In 1926, he was the player-manager for the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals. But he could never get along with management anywhere, and was immediately traded to the New York Giants for All-Star Frankie Frisch. It was a great trade for the Cards, and it might've been a great one for the Giants, if they could have hung onto him. Except Hornsby didn't let anyone tell him what to do, not even John McGraw, the imperious manager of the Giants. He did win 2 more Pennants, with the 1929 and 1932 Chicago Cubs.

He didn't quite make it to the 3,000 Hit Club, finishing with 2,930. But he had a career OPS+ of a staggering 175. He hit 301 home runs, 3rd all-time behind Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig at the time he retired, and 1st among NLers.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame and the All-Century Team -- keeping in mind that, when the ACT was voted on in 1999, he'd had his last good season 68 years earlier, played his last game 62 years earlier, and had been dead for 36 years, so hardly anybody who voted had seen him play, and he didn't live long enough to give a comprehensive interview in the age of baseball nostalgia. Also in that year, when The Sporting News announced its 100 Greatest Baseball Players, he came in at Number 9.

He played most of his career before uniform numbers were worn, and, as a result, the modern Cardinals have honored him on the retired-number display of the wall at the new Busch Stadium with a representation of their "STL" logo instead of a number, instead of the only number he actually wore in a Cardinal uniform, in a return to them in 1933, which was Number 4. (He also wore that number with the St. Louis Browns.)

SS Ernie Banks of Dallas. Dallas gets insanely hot in the summer, so Chicago's summers must've seemed cool to him by comparison, enabling him to say, "It's a beautiful day for a ballgame, let's play two!" He was the NL MVP with the Cubs in 1958 and '59, even though they were in the second division. He hit 512 home runs for his career, still the honest record in Chicago. (Sammy Sosa hit 545 as a Cub, and 28 as a White Sock, but in a city noted for official corruption, his homers fit in a lot better than Ernie's.)

He labored so long and so hard to bring Cub fans a Pennant, only getting close in 1969 and '70. (People forget the Cubs actually finished closer in '70, mainly because they finished 2nd to Pittsburgh, not to New York.)

Despite the achievements of Michael Jordan, Walter Payton and Bobby Hull, "Mr. Cub," now 83 years old, remains the most popular athlete in Chicago history -- among Chicagoans, anyway. Hall of Fame, All-Century Team, and his Number 14 was the 1st retired by either Chicago ballclub. When The Sporting News announced its 100 Greatest Baseball Players in 1999, he came in at Number 38.

3B Brooks Robinson of Little Rock, Arkansas. Until Cal Ripken Jr., Brooksie was the most popular athlete in Baltimore history, even more so than Johnny Unitas. He won 16 Gold Gloves. In a row. And gained himself one of the great nicknames, for the way he sucked up grounders and liners: The Human Vacuum Cleaner.

He won Pennants with the Orioles in 1966, '69, '70 and '71, winning the World Series in '66 and '70 (Series MVP in the latter). A 15-time All-Star, and not just for his fielding: He collected 2,848 hits, including 482 doubles and 268 home runs, despite playing his home games in Baltimore's Memorial Stadium.

He went on to become a broadcaster, in effect Baltimore's answer to Phil Rizzuto and Richie Ashburn, although he was a better all-around player than either one of them.  He was named to the Hall of Fame and the All-Century Team. His Number 5 was retired, and he and Frank Robinson were the 1st 2 inductees into the Orioles Hall of Fame. (Frank was born in Texas, but grew up in Oakland, California, and is thus eligible for the A's regional all-time team, not the Rangers'. This is also true of Willie Stargell and Joe Morgan.) When The Sporting News announced its 100 Greatest Baseball Players in 1999, he came in at Number 80.

Honorable Mention to Travis Jackson of Waldo, Arkansas. A lifetime .291 hitter, he played on 4 Pennant winners for the New York Giants, including winning the 1933 World Series. He might not have been an obvious choice for the Hall of Fame, but he's in.

LF Lou Brock of Monroe, Louisiana. While Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox and Maury Wills reawakened interest in baserunning, Brock took it to another level. He was a better runner than Aparicio and Fox, and better at everything else than Wills.

He set major league records, which still stand as NL records, with 118 stolen bases in a season (1974) and 938 in a career. Lifetime batting average .293, 3,023 hits including 486 doubles, and might have had a lot more than 149 home runs if he'd played most of his career at the last Sportsman's Park (a.k.a. the 1st Busch Stadium) with its 310-foot right-field fence, instead of the spacious Busch Stadium II.

He won World Series with the Cardinals in 1964 and '67, and nearly again in '68. In '67, he became 1 of only 3 players (Bobby Richardson in '64 and Marty Barrett in '86 are the others) to collect 13 hits in a single Series, and stole a record 7 bases in the '67 Series and again in '68.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame, his Number 20 was retired, and has a statue outside Busch Stadium III (previously outside Busch II) dedicated by the Cardinals. When The Sporting News announced its 100 Greatest Baseball Players in 1999, he came in at Number 58.

Dishonorable Mention to Albert Jojuan Belle of Shreveport, Louisiana. Known first as "Joey" and then, after angry protests, as Albert, he brings to mind what Sparky Lyle said about Thurman Munson: "(He's) not moody, he's just mean. When you're moody, you're nice sometimes." And yet, he was an Eagle Scout as a boy.

His lifetime batting average is .295, his OPS+ is a mighty 143, he hit 381 homers including 50 in the strike-truncated 1995 season, and had 9 straight 100-RBI seasons with a peak of 152 in 1998, leading the AL 3 times. He made 5 All-Star teams, finished 3rd in AL MVP voting in '94 and '96 and 2nd in '95, as he helped the Indians win a Pennant.

But his anger issues hurt his reputation, and a hip injury ended his career in 2000, at age 32 -- despite batting .281 with 23 homers and 103 RBI that year. He hit a home run in his last major-league at-bat, and among all players who've done that, only Ted Williams hit more career homers. Baseball-Reference.com's Hall of Fame Monitor has him at 135 to 100, and their Hall of Fame Standards at 36 to 50. Another season or two at the same pace, and he might be in, even with his issues.

CF Tris Speaker of Hubbard. "The Grey Eagle" (always written as "Grey," never "Gray") was regarded as perhaps the greatest defensive outfielder in history until Joe DiMaggio came along, known for playing shallow enough to turn 6 unassisted double plays at 2nd base in his career. He would have been ideal for today's shifts on lefty hitters who won't hit to the opposite field.

And he was as good a hitter as anyone who played in the Dead Ball Era. In 1912, he had over 50 doubles and 50 stolen bases, a feat since matched only by Craig Biggio. He helped the Boston Red Sox win the World Series in 1912 and 1915, then refused to take a salary cut when his batting average dropped, yes, dropped, to .322.

So the Sox traded him to the Indians, and although they also won the Series in 1916 and 1918, this was one of the dumbest trades ever. Speaker became player-manager of the Indians and won the 1920 World Series, also finishing 2nd to the Yankees in 1921, '23 and '26.

He had to resign as Indians manager, and Ty Cobb as Tigers manager, after the 1926 season because they were accused of colluding to fix games; however, when the main witness against them didn't show up at the hearing, they were allowed to remain in the game, but both retired as players 2 years later. Thanks to playing at the same time and in the same League as Cobb, Shoeless Joe Jackson and George Sisler, he only won 1 batting title, in 1916, but (probably unbeknownst to him, as the category wasn't well-known then) he led the AL in on-base percentage 4 times.

He batted .345 lifetime, with 3,515 hits, 2nd all-time to Cobb upon his retirement and still 5th. His 792 doubles (some sources say 793) and 449 outfield assists make him the all-time leader in those categories. Career OPS+ of a whopping 157.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in its 2nd election in 1937. In 1947, despite (as was Hornsby) having once been a member of the Klan, Speaker accepted an appointment from new Indians manager Bill Veeck to coach Larry Doby, the AL's first black player, on how to play center field, which he hadn't played before. Speaker would assist other black players on the Indians as well, showing no outward signs of racism, and earning praise for this from Doby in his Hall of Fame induction speech.

As an Indians coach, Speaker wore Number 43, and while that number has not been retired by the team, they have honored him with a plaque in their Heritage Park at Progressive Field. When The Sporting News announced its 100 Greatest Baseball Players in 1999, he came in at Number 27, even though he'd played his last game 71 years earlier.

Honorable Mention of Lloyd Waner of Harrah, Oklahoma, who along with his brother Paul forms one of only 2 brother combinations in the Hall of Fame (the others being pioneers Harry and George Wright, the Wright Brothers who invented professional baseball rather than the airplane).

Some people say Lloyd doesn't deserve to be in the Hall, and B-R.com backs them up: 86 out of 100 on their HOF Monitor, 31 of 50 on their HOF Standards. But he wasn't that far behind HOF quality: He batted .316 lifetime, and had 2,459 hits. He also struck out 173 times. In his entire 18-year career. (For perspective: The aforementioned Chris Davis struck out 199 times last year alone, and 169 times the year before.) And, like his brother Paul, he helped the Pittsburgh Pirates win the NL Pennant in 1927, and nearly again in 1938.

Honorable Mention to Bobby Murcer of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who wasn't "the next Mickey Mantle" but was something beloved anyway. Beyond his role as a Yankee broadcaster and de facto club ambassador, he was a 5-time All-Star, and had a 124 OPS+. He led the AL in slugging in 1971, and in runs and total bases in 1972. He hit 252 home runs, despite missing 2 early seasons (1967 and '68) serving in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War (although not in combat).

Although he helped the Yankees get close to the Playoffs in 1972, '73 and '74, and then went to San Francisco and Chicago before being brought back, he did help the Yankees win the AL East in 1980 and the Pennant in 1981. He wore Number 1 the first time around, and it is retired, although for Billy Martin. He wore Number 2 the second time around, and it will be retired, although for Derek Jeter.

Honorable Mention to Torii Hunter of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. One of the best glove men of his generation, he was nicknamed Spider-Man because of his ability to climb walls to make catches, including one of a Barry Bonds drive in the 2002 All-Star Game that is his signature moment. He's made 4 All-Star teams, won 9 Gold Gloves, has a 111 OPS+, 443 doubles, 314 homers, and 8 seasons of at least 90 RBIs (twice reaching 100 and just missing another).

He helped the Minnesota Twins win the AL Central in 2002, '03, '04 and '06, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim the AL West in 2008 and '09. He turns 39 this season, and comes off a year with the Detroit Tigers in which he batted .304, hit 17 homers and had 84 RBIs, on route to the AL Central title and the ALCS.

Honorable Mention to Matt Kemp of Midwest City, Oklahoma. Only 29 years old, "the Bison" (one of the few really good nicknames in baseball these days) is one of the top players in the game at the moment. Already with 2 All-Star berths, 2 Gold Gloves, a .293 lifetime batting average, a 126 OPS+, and 157 home runs despite playing his entire career at pitcher-friendly Dodger Stadium. He led the NL with 39 homers and 126 RBIs in 2011, and has now led them to 3 NL West titles. This could be a future Hall-of-Famer.

By the way, if you're seeing these Oklahoma players, and remembering that Mickey Mantle was from Oklahoma, and that he lived his off-season life in Dallas, and wondering why I haven't mentioned him here, it's because his hometown of Commerce was in the northeastern corner of the Sooner State, which puts him in the Kansas City market, not the Dallas one.

RF Paul Waner of Harrah, Oklahoma. A reporter from Brooklyn called Paul and his brother Lloyd "a big person and a little person." Another reporter overheard this, in the Brooklyn reporter's accent, and started calling them "Big Poison" and "Little Poison." Except that Paul was 5-foot-8 and 153 pounds, and Lloyd was 5-foot-9 albeit roughly the same weight

Unlike Lloyd, there is no doubt about Paul's HOF credentials: He was the NL MVP in the Pennant-winning 1927 season (he came up in '26 and missed out on the Bucs' '25 World Championship), he had a .333 BA, a 134 OPS+, 3 batting titles and 3,152 hits (the only player to crack the 3,000 barrier between 1925 and 1958), including 605 doubles -- 62 in 1932, an NL record until broken by Joe Medwick 4 years later and not surpassed since.

He had 5 seasons batting .360 or above. He was the NL's starting right fielder in the 1st 3 All-Star Games. The Pirates retired his Number 11 -- but have not retired Lloyd's Number 10. When The Sporting News announced its 100 Greatest Baseball Players in 1999, he came in at Number 62.

Honorable Mention to Willard Brown of Shreveport, Louisiana, a powerful slugger who starred in the Negro Leagues for the Kansas City Monarchs in the 1930s and '40s, before playing 21 games in the majors, all with the St. Louis Browns in 1947. For his Negro League contributions, he is in the Hall of Fame, included in that making-up-for-lost-time election of 2006.

Honorable Mention to Hunter Pence of Arlington. He's about to turn 31, but he's already got a 120 OPS+, made 2 All-Star teams, and hit 165 home runs. He now plays for the San Francisco Giants, having helped them win the 2012 World Series after getting to the postseason the year before with the Philadelphia Phillies.

C Johnny Bench of Binger, Oklahoma.  He was the NL Rookie of the Year in 1968, and its MVP in 1970 and '72. He won NL Pennants in '70 and '72, and the World Series in '75 (he was named Series MVP) and '76. His 389 homers made him the all-time leader among catchers until passed by Carlton Fisk.

His manager on the Reds, Sparky Anderson, may not have been intentionally slighting Thurman Munson by saying this after the '76 Series, in which Munson got hits in his last 6 at-bats but Bench hit 2 homers in the Game 4 clincher, but, insulting or not, Sparky had a point: "Don't ever embarrass anybody by comparing them to Johnny Bench."

Late in his career, he hosted the kids' TV series The Baseball Bunch as a warmup act for NBC's Saturday Game of the Week. He was named to the Hall of Fame and the All-Century Team. The Reds have retired his Number 5. When The Sporting News announced its 100 Greatest Baseball Players in 1999, he came in at Number 16 -- the highest-ranking catcher, and the highest-ranking Oklahoman, ahead of Mantle.

Honorable Mention to Sherm Lollar of Durham, Arkansas. A 9-time All-Star, he was the catcher for the 1959 "Go-Go White Sox," Chicago's only Pennant-winner from 1945 to 2005.

Honorable Mention to Louis Santop of Tyler. Because he played before the founding of the original Negro National League, he was sort of lost by history, before the 2006 Hall of Fame election to find great black players from the pre-Jackie Robinson era who were deserving of a long-overdue election. Starring in both Philadelphia and New York, he appears to have been one of the most sensational hitters of the 1910s and '20s, black or white.

Whether he was as good as Negro League catchers Biz Mackey and Josh Gibson, let alone Negro Leaguer-turned-big-leaguer Roy Campanella, or big leaguers such as the aforementioned Bench, we may never know. But he's in the Hall, and he should have been in decades before.

SP Jay Hanna “Dizzy” Dean of Lucas, Arkansas, born in 1910. Or is that Jerome Herman Dean of Hodgenville, Oklahoma, born in 1911? Or was he born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1912? (The first set of name, birthplace and year of birth is officially, legally true.) One time-honored story is that Dean gave conflicting information to 3 different reporters, in quick succession, as to his name and birthplace. A teammate questioned him about that, and he answered, "I wanted to give each of them fellers an exclusive story!"

He reached the Cardinals' rotation in 1932, along with his brother Paul, known as Daffy Dean (who, unlike Diz, was not particularly odd and hated his nickname). In 1934, Diz said, "Me an' Paul are gonna win 50 games this season." He was almost right: Diz won 30 (losing only 7) and Daff won 19, leading the "Gashouse Gang" to the Pennant. Then Diz said, "Me an' Paul are gonna win this here World Series." He was completely right: Not only did he and Paul each win 2 games of the Series, but Diz pitched a shutout against the mighty Tigers in Game 7.

He remained, with Carl Hubbell and Satchel Paige, one of the 3 best pitchers on the planet, until the 1937 All-Star Game, when he took a line drive off his toe (supposedly telling the doctor, "Fractured, hell, the damn thing's broken!"), and began to favor the toe by changing his motion, thus wrecking his elbow. Despite a favorable trade to the Cubs in 1938 and a memorable "last stand" against the Yankees in Game 2 of that year's World Series, Diz was done after the 1941 season, only 31 years old. (He made a one-game comeback in 1947, which is a hell of a story.)

Although injury limited him to 150 wins, he lost only 83 for a .644 winning percentage. ERA+, 131. "Only" 1,163 strikeouts, and never topped 200 in a season, but led the NL 4 times. Hall of Fame, Number 17 retired and a statue dedicated by the Cards, and since he lived his adult life in Mississippi, a Dizzy Dean Museum was built next to Smith-Wills Stadium in the State capital of Jackson, now a part of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. When The Sporting News announced its 100 Greatest Baseball Players in 1999, he came in at Number 85.

He went on to become a legendary broadcaster, mangling syntax and pronunciations. A teacher wrote him a letter, saying he shouldn't use the word "ain't" on the air, because children would copy him. He said, on the air, "Teach, a lot o' folks that ain't sayin' 'ain't' ain't eatin'. So you learn 'em English, and I'll learn 'em baseball." I wonder if, while growing up in St. Louis, Yogi Berra's speech was affected by listening to Diz call Cards and Browns games?

Diz was the Terry Bradshaw of his time: A great athlete turned star pundit of his sport, and since people already thought of him as a dumb, even "dizzy" redneck, he decided to use it to his advantage. "The Good Lord was good to me," Diz said. "He gave me a strong right arm and a weak mind."

SP Lon Warneke of Mount Ida, Arkansas. While Diz was the ace of the Cards, "the Arkansas Hummingbird" was the ace of the Cubs, pitching them to Pennants in 1932, '35 and '38 -- including '35 when the Cubs won 20 straight games, most since 1916 (since tied by the 2002 A's), and caught the Gashouse Gang for 1st. The Cubs lost the Series to the Tigers in 6, but both of their wins had Warneke as the winning pitcher. Strangely, he was traded to the Cards in '37 and became Diz' teammate, although only for a year or so; effectively, if not officially, Diz and Lon were traded for each other.

He finished his career 192-121 for .613, an ERA+ of 119. He's not in the Hall of Fame, but according to Baseball-Reference, of his 10 most statistically similar pitchers, 4 are: Jack Chesbro, Dazzy Vance, Stan Coveleski and Bob Lemon; 2 others should be, Urban Shocker and Carl Mays; and the other 4 aren't that far off, Art Nehf, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar and Jimmy Key.

SP Allie Reynolds of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I thought about cheating a little with Allie, because while he was a great starter, Yankee manager Casey Stengel frequently used him in relief. If he’d been born later, and reached the majors in the 1970s onward, instead of being born in 1917 and reaching the majors in 1942, he probably would have been one of the greatest relievers ever, because he had the speed and the guts for it.

He played on 6 Yankee World Championship teams: 1947, '49, '50, '51, '52 and '53. He formed the "Big Three" with fellow righthanded fireballer Vic Raschi and lefty junkballer Steady Eddie Lopat. He went 182-107 for his career, and while he only won 20 once (in 1952), he also saved 49 games in his career. Of those 182 wins, 36 were shutouts, and 2 were no-hitters, both in 1951, the latter a Pennant-clincher against the Red Sox.

He went 7-2 in World Series play, including a 1-0 duel against Don Newcombe in Game 1 in '49, and 3 clinchers: Game 5 in '49, Game 4 in '50, and Game 7 in relief in '52. Had Casey left him as a starter, he would've had well over 200 wins and he'd be in the Hall of Fame.

The Yankees have honored him with a Plaque in Monument Park, although his Number 22 remains in circulation. His alma mater, Oklahoma State University (known as Oklahoma A&M until 1958), named their baseball stadium after him. Due to his Creek heritage, he was called "the Indian," "the Big Indian," and "the Superchief," which was also a reference to his fastball and the fast Chicago-to-Los Angeles train of the same name on the Santa Fe Railroad, which went through his home State.

He was also responsible for negotiating the first players' pension fund. This he did not have to do, since investing in Oklahoma oil made him richer than most players, and enabled him to retire following a 1954 back injury, only 37, since he didn't need baseball income anymore. So for him to help out his fellow players like that makes him a bigger hero than most players of his era.

SP Johnny Sain of Havana, Arkansas. In 1948, the Boston Braves won the Pennant, their last until moving to Milwaukee, with a superb rotation, with Sain, Warren Spahn, Vernon Bickford and Bill Voiselle. Both Bickford and Voiselle had better ERAs than Spahn that year, but Gerald V. Hern of the Boston Post coined the phrase "Spahn and Sain and two days of rain." (It's frequently been incorrectly printed as "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain." In 1999, Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe would say the Red Sox rotation should be "Pedro and Lowe and three days of snow.")

Sain was later traded to the Yankees, and won the World Series with them in 1952 and '53. As with Reynolds, Casey used him as a reliever, and he led the AL with 22 saves in 1954, a big total for that era. Sain went on to become one of the best pitching coaches ever, winning Pennants with the Yankees in 1961, '62 and '63, and with the '65 Minnesota Twins and the '68 Tigers.

SP Vida Blue of Mansfield, Louisiana. He made his major league debut on July 20, 1969, the day of the 1st Moon walk, although it would be his Oakland Athletics teammate, Johnny Odom, who would (for a reason that escapes me) be known as Blue Moon. In 1971, Vida Blue had one of the most sensational years any pitcher has had in the Divisional Play Era (which is also the post-1968, 10-inch-high pitcher's mound era), going 24-8 with a 1.82 ERA and a 0.952 WHIP, to win both the AL Cy Young Award and MVP.

(This led to a trick question: Who was the last switch-hitter to win the MVP? People who asked that tended to forget that Pete Rose was a switcher, or that he won the NL MVP in '73. Five have done it since, most recently Jimmy Rollins.)

Then Blue demanded a big raise, which was a bad idea, as he pitched for the A's while they were owned by Charlie Finley. He held out for a while, and went 6-10 in '72. But he won 77 for them in the next 6 years, as he helped them with the 1972, '73 and '74 World Series. In 1978, 2 years after his sale of Blue to the Yankees for $1.5 million was vetoed by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Finley finally traded him, across the Bay to the San Francisco Giants, and he went 18-10. He was 28 and had a nice career record of 142-96.

Then cocaine began to take its toll, and not only would he never again top 14 wins in a season, but he would miss the 1984 season due to prison and suspension. In 1986, at 36, he was done: 209-161. On Baseball-Reference's HOF Monitor, he's at 114 of 100; on its HOF Standards, 35 of 50; of the 10 Most Similar, only 3 are in. (Catfish Hunter, Hal Newhouser and Don Drysdale. The others, all good but not quite good enough for Cooperstown, were Billy Pierce, Orel Hershiser, Bob Welch, Milt Pappas, Luis Tiant, Kevin Brown and Bucky Walters. At his peak, Blue was better than any of those 7 except maybe Hershiser in '88.) What a waste, but he has spent his post-playing days in charitable causes, and promotes youth baseball in the Bay Area.

Honorable Mention to Lynwood “Schoolboy” Rowe of El Dorado, Arkansas. He won 62 games for the Tigers from 1934 to '36, and opposed Dean in the '34 Series (lost) and Warneke in the '35 Series (won). An injury at age 27 curtailed his career, but he still went 16-3 for the Pennant-winning Tigers in 1940, and 14-8 and 11-4 for weak Phillies teams later in the Forties, hanging on until age 39. He went 158-101 for his career.

Honorable Mention to Cliff Lee of Benton. Now 35, he's had a very inconsistent career. His record currently stands at 139-86, but 18-5 of that was in 2005, 22-3 of it in 2008. Take out that 40-8, and he's 99-78, not especially noteworthy. His ERA+ is a neat 119, his WHIP a nifty 1.189. He's a 4-time All-Star, and won the 2008 AL Cy Young.

He reached the postseason with the Phillies in 2009 and '11, and the Rangers in '10, but was not placed on the postseason roster by the Indians in '07 -- meaning that, just 1 year before he went 22-3, he wasn't good enough to help them win the 1 more game they would've needed in the ALCS to win the Pennant.

Clearly, there's reasons why 4 different teams have acquired him (including the Phillies twice) -- but there's also got to be a reason why 4 different teams have let him go (including the Phillies once). Also, it should be noted that, despite playing on 4 teams that reached the postseason in a span of 5 years, he hasn't won a World Series ring.

Honorable Mention to Clayton Kershaw of Highland Park. He just turned 26, but he might be the best starting pitcher in baseball today. He's won the last 3 NL ERA titles, including a miniscule 1.83 ERA last year; and he just missed winning the last 3 NL Cy Youngs. He's 77-46 for his career, has already led the NL in strikeouts twice, and has helped the Dodgers win 3 NL West titles. If he doesn't get hurt, he could be one of the best pitchers we'll ever see.

Very Honorable Mention to Andy Cooper of Waco. Another Negro Leaguer elected in the 2006 vote, he was one of those rare players who batted right but threw left. He starred for the Detroit Stars in the 1920s, and in the 1930s was both pitcher and manager of the Kansas City Monarchs -- which means he had to both share a rotation with and manage Satchel Paige. Unfortunately, a stroke ended his magnificent career and his life in 1941, at just 43 years old.

RP Lee Smith of Castor, Louisiana. The former all-time saves leader with 478, an ERA+ of 132, but only reached the postseason twice, with the 1984 Cubs (infamously giving up a walkoff homer to Steve Garvey in Game 4 of the NLCS) and the 1988 Red Sox (swept). He's eligible for the Hall of Fame, but with Trevor Hoffman and now Mariano Rivera having taken away his all-time saves leader status, I'm not sure he'll ever make it.

Honorable Mention to Fred "Firpo" Marberry of Streetman. Nicknamed for his resemblance to Luis Firpo, the Argentine boxer who nearly knocked out heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey at the Polo Grounds in 1923, he was one of the first real relief pitchers in the game.

The Washington Senator led the AL in games pitched 6 times, and, although it wasn't an official statistic yet, in saves 5 times, with a peak of 22 (then a record) in 1926. He helped the Senators win their only World Championship in 1924 and another Pennant in 1925. In 1929, pitching as both a starter and a reliever for a Senator team that won only 71 games, he went 19-12. He helped the Tigers win a Pennant in 1934 and a World Series in 1935. His career record was 148-88, and his 101 saves were a record upon his 1936 retirement.

Honorable Mention to Lindy McDaniel of Hollis, Oklahoma. A career save total of 172 isn't all that impressive these days, but he led the NL 3 times, with the Cardinals and Cubs. His 987 appearances once made him 2nd on the all-time list to Hoyt Wilhelm, and in 1973 he went 12-6 with 10 saves for the Yankees.

Then he got traded to the Kansas City Royals for Lou Piniella, and it was a great trade: McDaniel was pretty much done but was able to be an extra pitching coach for the Royals' bright young staff, and if you're a Yankee Fan then you know what Sweet Lou did.