October 15, 1964: The Last Day of the Old Yankee Dynasty

Bob Gibson pitching to Mickey Mantle, Sportsman's Park

October 15, 1964, 60 years ago: Game 7 of the World Series is played at Sportsman's Park – or, as Cardinals owner and Anheuser-Busch beer baron August Anheuser Busch Jr., a.k.a. "Gussie" Busch, has renamed it, Busch Stadium. The Cardinals start Bob Gibson, loser of Game 2 but winner of Game 5, on 2 days' rest. The Yankees start rookie Mel Stottlemyre, who had defeated Gibson in Game 2.

Lou Brock's 5th-inning home run triggers a 3-run frame and a 6-0 lead for Gibson. Mickey Mantle‚ Clete Boyer‚ and Phil Linz homer for New York – for Mantle, the record 18th and final Series homer of his career – and the Yanks close to within 7-5 in the 9th. But it's not enough, as an exhausted Gibson finds enough gas in his tank to finish the job, and the Cards are the World Champions.

Both Boyers‚ Ken for the Cards and Clete for the Yankees‚ homer in their last Series appearance. While they had homered in back-to-back games, Clete in Game 3 and Ken a grand slam in Game 4, this remains the only time in Series history that 2 brothers have both homered in the same game.

The three games at Yankee Stadium had attendances of 67,101, 66,312 and 65,633. In contrast, of the four games at Busch Stadium, built in 1909, three had an official attendance of 30,805, while Game 7 had one of 30,346. Never again has a World Series been played in front of a crowd so low, or in a stadium with a seating capacity so low -- or in a stadium built before 1912. One of many turning points that this World Series represented: On May 8, 1966, the Cardinals left their old neighborhood ballpark, and moved into Busch Memorial Stadium, a concrete circle built downtown for as many events as possible. They would play the 1967, 1968, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 2004 World Series there, before moving next-door to a new Busch Stadium (no "Memorial").

Although the Yankees (27) and the Cardinals (11) have each won more World Series than any other team in their respective Leagues, they have never met in another, despite both making the Playoffs in 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2012 and 2015. (Both teams came close to making the Playoffs in 1974, the Cards just missed in 1981, and the Yanks just missed in 1985.)

For each manager, it is his last game at the helm. Johnny Keane had nearly been fired by Cardinal management in mid-season, and their come-from-behind run to top the Philadelphia Phillies had saved his job. But he had had enough, and he resigns.

Yogi Berra, after helping the Yankees to 14 World Series as a player and now 1 as their manager, also coming from behind, to top the Chicago White Sox, thinks he's done a good job, and expects to be offered a new contract. Instead, he gets fired, and Yankee management hires… Johnny Keane.

This will turn out to be a massive mistake. While the Cardinals will hire their former star 2nd baseman Red Schoendienst, who will lead them to the 1967 World Championship and the 1968 Pennant, Keane, already in ill health, will be a terrible fit for the Yankees, getting fired early in 1966, and he dies in 1967.

Del Webb and Dan Topping, who had owned the Yankees since 1945, had just sold the Yankees to CBS – yes, the broadcast network – and had cared little for keeping the farm system stocked. As a result, there was very little talent left to call up to the majors when the Yanks' current stars got hurt or old, and it seemed like they all got hurt or old at once.

In the 44 seasons from 1921 to 1964, the Yanks won 29 Pennants and 20 World Series, but fell to 6th place in 1965, 10th and last in '66. Despite a 2nd-place finish in '70, they were well behind the World Series-winning Orioles. They didn't get into a race where they were still in it in August until '72, to the last weekend still in the race until '74 (by which time George Steinbrenner had bought the team from CBS), to the postseason until '76 and the World Championship until '77.

In 2008, Buster Olney published The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty, about the one that began in 1996, and ended at what's now called Chase Field in Phoenix on November 4, 2001. But no baseball dynasty, indeed no sports dynasty, was as, well, dynastic as the 1949-64 Yankees. Peter Golenbock's Dynasty: The New York Yankees 1949-64 tells of how it was built, and how it began to fall apart; David Halberstam's October 1964 tells of how both the Yankees and the Cardinals got to this Game 7, and what happened thereafter; both books put the teams in the context of their times, at home and abroad.

There are 11 surviving players from the 1964 Cardinals, 60 years later: Catcher and future Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker, shortstop Dal Maxvill, 2nd baseman Julián Javier, 1st baseman (and future Yankee broadcaster and NL President) Bill White; outfielders Carl Warwick, Bob Skinner and Charlie James; and pitchers Bob Humphreys, Gordie Richardson, Ray Washburn and Ron Taylor. Taylor was thus the only 1969 Met who had previously won a World Series.

There are 5 surviving players from the 1964 Yankees: Pitchers Rollie Sheldon, Al Downing and Pedro Ramos; shortstop and future broadcaster Tony Kubek, and 2nd baseman Bobby Richardson. (In each case, this only counts players who were on the World Series rosters.) 

None of the players on either side, those now living or those now dead, had any inkling that this was anything other than the last day of a great season, that it was The Last Day of the Yankee Dynasty.

Winning Is a Team Effort. And So Is Losing.

October 11, 1964, 50 years ago: Al Downing is cruising through the 1st 5 innings of Game 4 of the World Series, but he loads the bases in the 6th, and Ken Boyer, the Cardinal Captain and 3rd baseman who will soon be named NL MVP, hits a grand slam. The 4 runs his hit drives in are all the runs the Cards get, but that’s all they need, as they beat the Yankees 4-3, and tie up the Series at 2 games apiece.

This is not the most famous home run Downing will ever give up -- 9 1/2 years later, pitching for the Dodgers, he will give up Hank Aaron's 715 career homer -- but it is the most damaging. However, there were plenty of reasons the Cardinals ended up winning this Series, and Downing shouldn't be blamed -- at least, not more than any other Yankee. Winning is a team effort, and so is losing.

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October 11, 1856: For a game between the host Atlantics of Brooklyn and the Athletics of Philadelphia, scorecards are printed for the first time. The attendance was said to be 30‚000. I can find no definitive account of who won, but one source I have says that the Atlantics, lead by the best player of the period, Dickey Pearce, were undefeated that year.

October 11, 1897: The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Beaneaters 9-3, to win the Temple Cup. However, the Beaneaters had already won the National League Pennant, ending the Orioles' streak of 3 straight. With the Pennant meaning more to most fans than the Cup, the crowd is so small that the Baltimore front office refuses to give the exact number to the newspapers.

October 11, 1898: The Boston Beaneaters beat the Washington Nationals 8-2 in Washington, and win their 2nd straight National League Pennant -- their 5th in the last 8 years, their 8th overall, and their 12th if you count their days as the Boston Red Stockings of the National Association.

Future Hall-of-Famers on the 1898 Beaneaters include outfielders Hugh Duffy and Billy Hamilton, 3rd baseman Jimmy Collins, pitchers Kid Nichols and Vic Willis, and manager Frank Selee.

For the team that will, by 1912, be known as the Boston Braves, this is the end of a golden age. They had finished 1st in their League 12 times in their first 28 seasons, effectively dominating professional baseball the way no team would again until the Yankees started winning Pennants in 1921. But in their last 54 seasons, they would win just 2 more Pennants.

But at least they would still exist, and still do, if not in the same city (they’re in Atlanta now). The Nationals would be contracted out of existence after the 1899 season, opening the door to a new team called the Washington Senators in the American League in 1901. Today's Washington team in the NL has no connection to the earlier one except for the name "Nationals."

The last survivor of the Beaneaters’ 1890s dynasty was Duffy, who played all 3 outfield positions, and who lived on until 1954, spending the last few years of his life still involved in Boston baseball, as an executive with the Red Sox.

October 11, 1899: Edwin Hawley Dyer is born in Morgan City, Louisiana. Like so many mediocre players -- he went 15-15 as a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1920s -- Eddie became a successful manager, leading the Cardinals to the 1946 World Championship, having played on their 1926 World Championship team. He died in 1964.

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October 11, 1913: New York Giants manager John McGraw loses his 3rd straight World Series – something that, a century years later, no other team, let alone manager, has done since, although his former Orioles teammate, Hughie Jennings, did it with the 1907-08-09 Detroit Tigers.

In Game 5‚ Christy Mathewson is good‚ but his fellow future Hall-of-Famer Eddie Plank is better: His 2-hitter wins the 3-1 finale. Plank retires the first 13 batters‚ bettering the mark of 12 set by the Cubs’ Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown on Ocotber 9‚ 1906. It is the A’s 3rd title, all in the last 4 years.

This turns out to be the last postseason appearance for Mathewson, who, at this point, is identified with the World Series as much as anyone, even though his team is only 1-for-4 in them.

October 11, 1915: Game 3 of the World Series. The largest paid attendance that baseball has yet recorded, 42,300, crams into Braves Field, which the Red Sox use for the World Series this year, and in 1916 and 1918, because it's larger than Fenway Park. (The Braves are returning the favor the Sox did for them in 1914, when they left the small, outdated South End Grounds and Braves Field wasn't ready yet.) Duffy Lewis singles home Harry Hooper in the bottom of the 9th for a 2-1 hometown win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Dutch Leonard walks none‚ yields 3 hits‚ and sets down the last 20 Phils to face him.

October 11, 1925: Elmore Leonard is born in New Orleans, but grew up in Detroit and was a hard-core Tigers fan.  Or, perhaps I should say, “hard-boiled” instead, as he was the writer of hard-boiled fiction such as Get Shorty, one of several of his novels to be turned into popular movies.  He died last year.

October 11, 1934, 80 years ago: Burleigh Grimes is released by the Pittsburgh Pirates. At the age of 41, hHe was the last remaining pitcher who had an exemption from the rule banning all doctored pitches that fell under the umbrella term "spitball." In 1935, he would go 10-5 as pitcher and manager of the Bloomington Bloomers of the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League (a.k.a. the Three-I League), and then hang up his spikes. He lived long enough to accept his election to the Hall of Fame.

October 11, 1943: The Yankees defeat the Cardinals, 2-0 at Sportsman’s Park, to take Game 5 and the World Series. It is the Yankees’ 10th World Championship. It will be 2006, and the Cardinals themselves, before another team wins a 10th World Series.

October 11, 1944, 70 years ago: Mike Fiore is born in Brooklyn. He was basically a journeyman, but on April 13, 1969, he hit the first home run in Kansas City Royals history, off John “Blue Moon” Odom of the Oakland Athletics – appropriately enough, the team whose move out of Kansas City had made the Royals possible.

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October 11, 1946: In one of the rare trades that works out well for both teams, the Yankees trade Joe Gordon, Allie Clark and Ed Bockman to the Cleveland Indians for Allie Reynolds. Gordon, a future Hall-of-Famer, and Clark, a native of South Amboy, New Jersey, would help the Indians win the 1948 World Series.

Dan Daniel, the legendary sports columnist of the New York World-Telegram, will later report that Yankee GM Larry MacPhail and newly-hired manager Bucky Harris originally wanted another Cleveland pitcher, Red Embree. But, Daniel said, Joe DiMaggio advised them to take Reynolds, a part-Cherokee pitcher from Oklahoma, whose record with (perhaps appropriately) the Indians had not been good, but DiMaggio had never been able to hit him well.

The Yankee Clipper guessed well, as “the Superchief” (Yankee broadcaster Mel Allen nicknamed him that not just for his heritage but because his fastball reminded Allen of the Santa Fe Railroad’s fast Chicago-to-Los Angeles train “the Super Chief”) began a portion of his career that put him in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park. Had he come along 30 years later, with his fastball and his attitude, he might have been a Hall of Fame closer.

It is around this time that, allegedly, MacPhail and Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey had been drinking (as both men liked to do -- a lot), and wrote out on a cocktail napkin an agreement to trade their biggest stars for each other, Joe DiMaggio for Ted Williams.

At first glance, it looked like a great idea: DiMaggio, a righthanded hitter, hated hitting into Yankee Stadium’s left- and center-field “Death Valley,” while at Fenway Park he would have the nice close left-field wall -- whose advertisements would come down in this off-season, debuting nice and clean and green for 1947, giving rise to the nickname “the Green Monster.” While Williams, hitting to a right field that was 380 feet straightaway at Fenway, would flourish with Yankee Stadium’s right field “short porch.”

But it wouldn’t have been a good trade. DiMaggio wouldn’t have been happy in the smaller city of Boston, and he would have forced his brother Dom to move out of center field. And Williams, who had enough problems with the media in Boston, would have been scorched by the press of much bigger New York.

Neither man would have closed his career as well as he actually did: DiMaggio might have outright retired after his 1948 heel spurs (at age 34), and Williams might have said the hell with it at the end of his Korean War service in 1953 and retired (at 35).

Why did the trade not happen? Supposedly, in the morning, Yawkey sobered up and decided that Williams was more valuable than DiMaggio. (Yeah, right: Ted was a great hitter; Joe was a great hitter and a great fielder.) So he called up MacPhail and demanded a throw-in. A rookie left fielder who could also catch a little. MacPhail refused, and the deal collapsed. The rookie’s name was Larry Berra. Yes, Yogi, although the nickname he already had was not yet widely known.

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October 11, 1947: Thomas M. Boswell is born in Washington, D.C. The longtime columnist for the Washington Post helped keep alive the flame of baseball fandom in the Nation’s Capital, never ceasing in his belief that the city needed to get Major League Baseball back after Bob Short moved the Senators to Texas in 1971.

He spoke nobly in Ken Burns’ Baseball miniseries about Senators legend Walter Johnson ("We live in a disposable society, but we don't dispose of Babe Ruth, we don't dispose of Walter Johnson, and we treat these men as family, and as contemporaries though they are dead."), and poignantly about the fall of Pete Rose ("We want our heroes to be good at life.")

However, his job also led him to cover the team then closest to D.C., and that was the Baltimore Orioles (which led Burns to ask him about O’s manager Earl Weaver).  Covering the Orioles allowed Boswell to become part of the propaganda machine for Cal Ripken.

His books include Why Time Begins On Opening Day, and How Life Imitates the World Series. The former book is sunny and optimistic, like Opening Day itself; the latter is more serious, suggesting the pressure that comes with October play.

October 11, 1948: At Braves Field, the Indians defeat the Braves behind “rookie” 30-year-old knuckleballer Gene Bearden, 4-3, and take Game 6 and win the World Series. It is their 2nd title, the first coming in 1920. Despite some agonizing close calls in 1952, ’54, ’59, ’95, ’97, ‘98 and 2007, and nearly 2 generations of never even being in a Pennant race from 1960 to 1993, the Indians have never won another World Series.

But at least they’re still in Cleveland, despite a number of fears of having to move in the 1960s, ’70s and ‘80s. In contrast, despite all their success in the 19th Century and winning Pennants in 1914 and 1948, this was the last late-season meaningful game the Boston franchise of the National League would ever play. The Braves would be in Milwaukee by the next time they reached the Series.
Surviving players from these teams, 66 years later: Indians Al Rosen and Eddie Robinson, and Braves Alvin Dark and Clint Conatser.

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October 11, 1956: AL President Will Harridge announces that Calvin Griffith, who has owned the Senators for a year since the death of his uncle Clark, cannot move the team to Los Angeles as he would like, unless unanimously approved by the other AL owners. It doesn't happen, and he's stuck in D.C. -- for now.

Over 20 years later, he will admit the real reason he wanted to leave Washington: Not that Griffith Stadium was too small, or that D.C. was a bad baseball market, but because it was becoming a majority-black city. That's why he eventually chose Minnesota: It was the whitest major city in America at the time.

October 11, 1965: After dropping the 1st 2 games of the World Series to the Twins in Minnesota, the Dodgers have won 3 straight in Los Angeles. Sandy Koufax pitched a 4-hit shutout, and the Dodgers win 7-0. The Dodgers only have to win 1 of the last 2 in Minnesota to take the title.

October 11, 1967: Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Smith and Rico Petrocelli hit the only back-to-back-to-back home runs in World Series history. Petrocelli adds another, and the Red Sox defeat the Cardinals, 8-4 at Fenway Park, and send the World Series to a deciding Game 7.

Cardinal manager Red Schoendienst, himself a World Series winner as a player with the Cardinals of 1946 and the Milwaukee Braves of 1957, announces his choice to pitch Game 7: Bob Gibson, on 3 days rest. Sox manager Dick Williams, knowing that his ace, Jim Lonborg, would have only 2 days rest, announces his starter to the Boston media: “Lonborg and champagne.” Those words are put on the front page of the Boston Globe the next day, and it ticks the Cards off. And the last thing anyone wants to see in a World Series game is a ticked-off Bob Gibson.

Also on this day, former Dodger star Gil Hodges, who married a Brooklyn woman, Joan Lombardi, and stayed in the Borough after the Dodgers moved, leaves the managerial post of the Washington Senators to become the manager of the Mets. The Mets do compensate the Senators. Hodges will only manage the Mets for 4 seasons before a heart attack claims his life, but one of those seasons will be the Miracle of ’69.

October 11, 1968: Billy Martin, age 40, gets his 1st managing job, with the Minnesota Twins. Over a 20-year career, he will manage Minnesota, Detroit, the Yankees and Oakland into the postseason, and Texas to its highest finish until the 1996 season -- but only the Yankees will he get into the World Series, and, for all his "genius," he wins just 1 World Series.

Also on this day, the expansion Seattle Pilots hire their 1st manager, Cardinals coach Joe Schultz. His tenure with the Cardinals, owned by beer baron Gussie Busch, has already had a tremendous effect on him: He will frequently tell his Pilots to "Go get 'em, and then go pound that Budweiser!" He forgot that he no longer had to toe the company line, now that he'd left the company.

October 11, 1969: As expected, the New York Mets lose the 1st World Series game in franchise history, as Don Buford hits a leadoff home run off Met ace Tom Seaver, and the Orioles win, 4-1. Most people expected the O’s to win this game, and win the Series. But they will not win another game that counts until April 7, 1970.

Fast facts with which you can amaze your friends: The Mets have been in 4 World Series, and have never won Game 1 -- including in the Series they have ended up winning. They won Game 2 in 1969 and ’73; Game 3 in ’69, ’86 and 2000; Game 4 in ’69, ’73 and ’86; Game 5 in ’69 and ’73; Game 6 in ’86; and Game 7 in ’86. They lost Game 1 in 1969, ’73, ’86 and 2000; Game 2 in ’86 and 2000; Game 3 in ’73; Game 4 in 2000; Game 5 in ’86 and 2000; Game 6 in ’73; and Game 7 in ’73.

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October 11, 1970: The love affair between Boston Red Sox fans and local boy Tony Conigliaro comes to an end – or, as it turned out, it comes to an an interruption – as the Sox trade him to the California Angels for 2nd baseman Doug Griffin.

Despite a courageous comeback from his August 18, 1967 beaning, his eyesight had begun to deteriorate again, and he was making a nuisance of himself within the organization. There was also dissension between him and his brother and teammate, Billy Conigliaro.

The fans, knowing little about this, were shocked, but the team decided that Tony C had to go. He would be back for the Sox, twice, first as a player and then as an interviewee for a broadcast position, but his playing career would end with a fizzle, and his useful life with a tragedy.

October 11, 1971: Just one year to the day after trading Tony C, the Red Sox trade his brother Billy, and the pitching hero of the 1967 “Impossible Dream” Pennant, Jim Lonborg, who hadn’t been the same since a skiing accident following that season. They are sent to the Milwaukee Brewers, along with 1st baseman George Scott.

Although Lonborg turned out to still have something left, as he went on to help the Phillies make the Playoffs 3 times, letting go of Scott turned out to be the bigger mistake, as they really could have used his bat in 1972, ’73, ’74 and ’75.

And what did the Sox get in this trade? Pitchers Marty Pattin and Lew Krausse, and outfielder Tommy Harper. Harper would be a good hitter and baserunner, but nothing Earth-shaking. Pattin would also not develop into much in Boston, although he would become a good pitcher later in Kansas City. (He also turned out to be the last member of the 1969 Seattle Pilots still active in the majors.) Krausse was pretty much finished.

By the time the Sox won the Pennant again in 1975, all 3 of them were gone, and after losing the World Series that year, the Sox would trade 1st baseman Cecil Cooper to the Brewers to get Scott back. Trading him away was a mistake, and, considering how fat Scott got and how good Cooper got, getting Scott back wasn’t a good idea, either.

October 11, 1972: The Pittsburgh Pirates lead the Cincinnati Reds 3-2 in the bottom of the 9th inning of the final game of the NLCS at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. But Johnny Bench hits a home run off Dave Guisti, over the left-field fence to tie the game‚ over the head of the Pirates’ legendary right fielder, Roberto Clemente, who had joined the 3,000 Hit Club just 2 weeks earlier. The Reds collect 2 more singles, and Bob Moose, who had come in to relieve Guisti, throws a wild pitch, and the Reds win, 4-3.

Not since Jack Chesbro in 1904 had a wild pitch decided a Pennant, and not since Johnny Miljus in the 1927 World Series had a wild pitch ended a postseason series. By a weird coincidence, Miljus threw his wild pitch as a Pirate, and Chesbro had also pitched for them before coming to the Highlanders/Yankees.

The Reds, taking their 2nd Pennant in 3 years, would go on to lose the World Series to the Oakland A’s. The Pirates, having won their 3rd straight NL East title but having only 1 Pennant to show for it, would lose something far greater: A plane crash on New Year’s Eve would make this game the last one that Clemente would ever play.

October 11, 1973: Dmitri Dell Young is born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and grows up in Oxnard, California. The slugging 1st baseman known as “Da Meathook” helped the Cardinals reach the postseason in 1996, although personal problems and diabetes led the Detroit Tigers to release him in 2006 before they could win that season’s AL Pennant. He is now retired, and runs a charity in Southern California.  His brother Delmon Young is now with the Orioles, after having been a key cog for the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers.

October 11, 1975: Luis Tiant shuts down the Big Red Machine, and drives in the 1st run, as the Red Sox win the opening game of the World Series 6-0. The Sox score all their runs in the 7th.

Later that night, Saturday Night premieres on NBC. After this 1st season, it will be renamed Saturday Night Live. The first cast, “the Not Ready for Prime Time Players,” includes John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin and Garrett Morris -- but not, as is commonly believed, Bill Murray, who replaced Chase after 1 season.

The 1st guest host is George Carlin, who begins his monologue with a whacked-out version of the Lord’s Prayer, and goes on to do his now-classic routine “Baseball and Football.” (This version is from 1990, from the State Theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey.)

Not long before Carlin died, someone took a poll to determine the greatest standup comedians of all time. Carlin came in 2nd. Coming in 1st was Richard Pryor, who, like Carlin, was at the peak of his powers in the mid-Seventies.

A month into SNL’s run, Pryor was asked to host the show. But, nervous that he would issue some four-letter words — they didn’t seem as nervous about such language coming from Carlin, creator of the bit “Seven Words You Can Never Use On Television,” none of which he used when he hosted -- the show was not quite “Live, from New York.” They used a 7-second delay, in case they had to bleep anything out. They did. Ever since, even SNL hasn’t been totally live.

October 11, 1977: Ty Allen Wigginton is born in San Diego. One of several bright young stars for the New York Mets who never did quite pan out, the utility player did not play in the 2014 season.

On this same day, the Yankees win Game 1 of the World Series in 12 innings, 4-3, as Paul Blair singles home Willie Randolph.

And, apparently, the scene shown taking place before that game in the miniseries The Bronx Is Burning actually happened: George Steinbrenner really did leave 20 tickets to be given to Joe DiMaggio at the Yankee Stadium will-call window for this game, but the tickets weren’t at the window, and there really was a brouhaha about it, before Joe and George smoothed things out, allowing Joe to throw out the first ball before Game 6.

October 11, 1978: The Dodgers go 2 games up with a 4-3 win in Game 2. Ron Cey drives in all the Dodger runs, and Reggie Jackson does the same for the Yankees. But Bob Welch saves Burt Hooton’s win in dramatic fashion by striking out Jackson in the 9th inning. The only teams that have ever come back from 2 games to 0 to win the Series have been the ’55 Dodgers and the ’56 Yankees.

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October 11, 1980: In one of the most exciting and controversial games in postseason history‚ the Phillies tie the NLCS at 2 games apiece with a 10-inning 5-3 win over the Astros at the Astrodome.

In the 4th inning‚ Houston is deprived of an apparent triple play when the umpires rule that pitcher Vern Ruhle had trapped Garry Maddox’s soft line drive. In the 6th‚ Houston loses a run when Gary Woods leaves the base early on Luis Pujols’ would-be sacrifice fly. (Luis, a future big-league manager, is no relation to Albert Pujols.)

October 11, 1981: The Yankees won the 1st 2 games of their strike-forced Playoff series for the AL East title in Milwaukee. But the Brewers, playing in their 1st postseason series (and the first by any Milwaukee team since the ’59 Braves), won the next 2 at Yankee Stadium, forcing a deciding Game 5.

This led to a postgame tirade by George Steinbrenner in the locker room, lambasting the players, telling them how they had let him down, and how they had let New York down. Trying to play peacemaker, Bobby Murcer said, “Now is not the time, George, now is not the time.” George insisted that it was the time, and continued to rant, until catcher Rick Cerone stood up and told The Boss, “Fuck you, George.” Stunned, George left the room.

So, on this night, back-to-back home runs by Reggie Jackson and Oscar Gamble, and a later homer by, yes, Cerone give the Yanks a 7-3 victory over the Brewers, and the series. The Yanks will move on to face the Oakland Athletics in the ALCS. The Brewers, however, will be back.

On this same day, the Playoff for the NL East is won by Steve Rogers. No, not Captain America:
This one doesn’t even work in America. Steve Rogers of the Montreal Expos drives in 2 runs and shuts out the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Expos win, 3-0, in Game 5 of the series. In 46 seasons of play, this remains the only postseason series ever won by the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals franchise.

October 11, 1986: Former Detroit Tigers star Norm Cash dies when he slips off his boat in Lake Michigan, hits his head, and falls into the lake and drowns. One of the most beloved Tigers of all time, a former batting champion, a man who had slugged 377 home runs, and a member of their 1968 World Champions, he was only 51.

On the same day, Game 3 of the NLCS is played at Shea Stadium. Lenny Dykstra tees off on Dave Smith of the Astros, and becomes the 1st Met to hit a postseason walkoff home run. Mets 6, Astros 5. The Mets lead 2 games to 1.

October 11, 1988: David Cone, not yet a Met when they won their 1986 title, comes through big-time, allowing only 5 hits in a complete-game 5-1 victory over the Dodgers, sending the NLCS to a Game 7.

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October 11, 1993: The Phillies notch their 2nd 4-3‚ 10-inning victory of the NLCS and take a 3-games-to-2 lead over the Braves. As with that earlier bit of modern-day ruffians, the '86 Mets, it is Lenny Dykstra who wins it for "Macho Row," with a home run off Mark Wohlers. Darren Daulton also knocks a round-tripper.

October 11, 1996: Game 3 of the ALCS. The Orioles won Game 2 after the controversial Yankee win in Game 1, and lead 2-1 in the top of the 8th. But the Yanks hang 4 on the O's in the inning, and win 5-1.

October 11, 1997: Game 3 of the ALCS. The Orioles waste a masterful pitching performance from Mike Mussina, as Cleveland scores a run in the bottom of the 12th inning when Marquis Grissom steals home on a botched bunt attempt. Baltimore catcher Lenny Webster fails to chase after the ball‚ which he is sure was tipped by batter Omar Vizquel. Mussina gives up only 3 hits and 1 run in 7 innings‚ while striking out 15 Indians, an ALCS record. Orel Hershiser holds Baltimore scoreless through 7 innings‚ allowing only 4 hits himself‚ as the Indians win‚ 2-1, which is also the lead they now hold in the series.

October 11, 1998: Game 5 of the ALCS at Jacobs Field in Cleveland, and feeling before the game was that the winner of this game would take the series. The Yankees once again take the early lead with a 3-run 1st inning, but the Indians respond. A leadoff homer by Kenny Lofton and a sacrifice fly by Manny Ramírez make it a 1-run game. Paul O’Neill singles home a run in the 2nd to make it 4–2 Yankees. Chili Davis homers in the 4th to put the Yankees ahead by three, but Jim Thome hits his 3rd homer of the series in the bottom of the 6th to make it a 2-run game.

Chuck Knoblauch, still fighting for redemption after his Game 2 “brainlauch,” starts a key 4-6-3 double play in the 8th inning for the 2nd night in a row. David Wells, who claimed to have heard Indian fans insulting his dead mother all through the game, and the Yankee bullpen hold off any further Indians scoring, and the Yankees win 5-3. The Bronx Bombers are 1 win away from the World Series, as the series goes back to The Bronx.

October 11, 1999: The Red Sox defeat the Indians‚ 12-8‚ to win their ALDS 3-games-to-2. Troy O'Leary's 2 homers‚ including a grand slam‚ power the Sox to the victory‚ as the outfielder drives home 7 of Boston's runs. Nomar Garciaparra draws 2 intentional walks and both times O'Leary follows with a homer. Pedro Martinez picks up the win by hurling 6 hitless innings in relief of Derek Lowe.

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October 11, 2000: The Yankees snap out of a 21-inning scoreless streak, scoring 7 runs in the bottom of the 8th, including a home run by Jorge Posada, and beat the Seattle Mariners 7-1, tying the ALCS at 1 game apiece. Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez improves his postseason record to 7-0.

October 11, 2003: Pedro Martinez commits 3 felonies: Assault with a deadly weapon on Karim Garcia, conspiracy to commit murder against Jorge Posada, and assault (and possibly attempted murder) on Don Zimmer.

In spite of this, he is not arrested. The felonies, after all, occurred at Fenway Park, not Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees beat the Red Sox, 3-2, with Roger Clemens outpitching Martinez, and take a 2-games-to-1 lead in the ALCS.

The New York Post, in one of the rare instances in which I agree with it, labeled Pedro the Fenway Punk.  Ever since, he has been the opposing athletes I have loathed the most.  Which is why my favorite home run of all time is no longer the one Aaron Boone hit 5 days later, but the one Hideki Matsui hit off Pedro to clinch the 2009 World Series -- Pedro's last game.

On the same day, the Cubs beat the Florida Marlins 8-3 at Pro Player (Joe Robbie/Sun Life) Stadium, and take a 3-games-to-1 lead in the NLCS. Just 1 more win, and the Cubs will have their 1st Pennant in 58 years.

They're still looking for that 1 more NLCS win.

October 11, 2004, 10 years ago: The Houston Astros win a postseason series for the 1st time in their 43-season history, defeating the Braves‚ 12-3‚ to take their Division Series. Carlos Beltran is the hero for Houston with 4 hits‚ including 2 HRs‚ and 5 RBIs.

October 11, 2006: Cory Lidle, newly acquired by the Yankees as pitching help for the stretch drive and the postseason, dies when his single-engine plane crashes into an Upper East Side apartment high-rise. He was 34. Killed with him is his pilot instructor, Tyler Stanger.

That night, the Mets are scheduled to open the NLCS against the Cardinals at Shea Stadium, but the rain that falls shortly after Lidle’s crash gets the game postponed. It’s just as well. This, of course, is the only season since 1988 in which the Mets have been playing after the Yankees have been eliminated.

October 11, 2009: In the final baseball game to be played at the Metrodome, the Yankees advance to the the ALCS by defeating the host Twins, 4-1. A costly 8th inning baserunning blunder by Nick Punto ends Minnesota’s hopes of a comeback. Alex Rodriguez went 5-for-11 with 2 homers and six RBIs in the 3-game Division Series sweep.

Also on this day, Jonathan Papelbon, who had never given up a run in any of his previous 26 postseason innings, allows 2 inherited runners to score in the 8th, and yields another 3 runs in the 9th, giving the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, who trailed 5-1 going into the 6th inning, a 7-6 victory over the Red Sox.

The Halos’ comeback victory — or, if you prefer, the Red Sox’ characteristic choke — at Fenway completes a 3-game sweep of ALDS over a team which historically had been their nemeses, having been eliminated from the Playoffs in their past 4 post-season encounters with Boston. The Angels will now face the Yankees for the Pennant.

October 11, 2010: The San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2 in Game 4 of the NLDS, and win the series at Turner Field. After the last out, the Giants come onto the field and applaud Braves manager Bobby Cox, who has announced his retirement. This was his last game.

His 1st game as a major league manager was also for the Braves, on April 7, 1978, at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The Braves were beaten by the Dodgers 13-4. Now, 32 seasons later, with the game and the world having changed so much, Cox is done. He was elected to the Hall of Fame this year.

October 11, 2012: For the first time since the divisional playoffs began in 1995, all 4series will go the distance to a Game 5. Both the Nationals and Orioles knot their respective series against the Cardinals and Yankees. Washington and Baltimore join the A's and Giants, who also forced a decisive game with victories over the Tigers and Reds in yesterday's LDS games.

The Nats win their game 2-1 in the bottom of the 9th, on a home run by Jayson Werth, one of the heroes of the 2008 title-winning Phillies. They are now 1 win away from the 1st postseason series win by any Washington team since the 1924 Senators.

Kansas City's All-Time Baseball Team

While the Kansas City Royals haven't reached the postseason in 29 years, their all-time regional team is one of the best. Certainly, if "Pitching is 75 percent of baseball," then this Great Plains team could be the greatest of them all.

It's also pretty strong at 1st base, and in the outfield. Especially in center field, although the man I picked probably wouldn't want to be identified with Kansas City.

21. Kansas City's All-Time Baseball Team

Kansas City's "market" includes the western half of Missouri, the eastern 2/3rds of Kansas, the eastern 2/3 of Nebraska, the southwest quadrant of Iowa, the northeast quadrant of Oklahoma, and the northwest quadrant of Arkansas.

With 6 States to sift through, this made KC one of the hardest markets for which to make out a team. However, the first time I made this list, having all of those States in my database made it easier to go through the other big-league markets that overlap into those States (St. Louis, Colorado, Dallas, and the Cub half of Chicago -- Minnesota already having been done by that point).

1B Albert Pujols of Independence, Missouri. He was born in the Dominican Republic, but grew up in President Harry Truman's home town, before crossing the State to star for the St. Louis Cardinals. In his 1st 10 seasons, he made 10 All-Star teams. He drove in at least 99 runs in each of his 1st 12 seasons. He won 3 National League Most Valuable Player awards, and finished 2nd 4 other times. He even won 2 Gold Gloves. He helped the Cardinals reach 7 postseasons, including winning the 2006 and 2011 World Series.

The narrative on him now is that he went to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim with a gigantic contract, beginning in the 2012 season, and fell apart. But that's not true: In 2012, he batted .285, hit 30 home runs, and had 105 RBIs. In 2013, he batted .258, but he still hit 17 home runs and drove in 64 runs -- and, remember, Angel Stadium (formerly named Anaheim Stadium) is a pitcher's park.

His lifetime batting average is .321. His career OPS+ is 165, a sicko stat that is only topped by 9 players -- ever. Only 1 of them is, like Phat Albert, a righthanded hitter: Rogers Hornsby. He has 2,347 hits, including 524 doubles and 492 home runs, and 1,498 RBIs -- and, as far as we know, it's all clean.

And he just turned 34. He'll probably end up with over 600 home runs, and he has a serious shot at both 3,000 hits and 2,000 RBIs. Barring a mistake as stupid as Pete Rose's, he'll be elected to the Hall of Fame in the latter half of the 2020s, and you'll be able to see his Number 5 retired and a statue dedicated in his honor at Busch Stadium. He could well be considered to be right up there with his fellow Cardinal Hornsby and Hank Aaron as 1 of the 3 greatest righthanded hitters who ever lived.

Honorable Mention to Dale Long of Springfield, Missouri. In 1956, the Pittsburgh Pirate homered in 8 straight games, a record that has since been matched, but not beaten. In 1958, with the Chicago Cubs, he played 2 games behind the plate, making him a rare left-handed catcher. (The only one since has also been in Chicago, Mike Squires with the 1980 and ’81 White Sox.) He went to the Yankees and played on their 1962 World Championship team. He had a career OPS+ of 115.

2B Jerry Lumpe of Lincoln, Missouri. They can't all be present or future members of the Hall of Fame. As Casey Stengel, who managed him on the Yankees, once said, "He looks like the greatest player in the world, until you play him." But he's the best of a weak bunch, the only weak position on this team. (In contrast, when searching Missouri, I found several good 2nd basemen.)

He wasn't a bad ballplayer at all, but he was only ever going to be a reserve on a Yankee team that had Bobby Richardson at 2nd base and Tony Kubek at shortstop coming up at the same time. Still, he helped the Yankees win the American League Pennant in 1957 and '58, winning the World Series in the latter year. In 1959, the Yankees traded him to his "hometown" team, the Kansas City Athletics, and he became a regular. batting .301 with 10 homers and 83 RBIs in 1962. In 1964, with the Detroit Tigers, he was named to the All-Star Team.

SS Joe Tinker of Herington, Kansas.  If the Hall of Fame ever had to drop 10 members, Tinker might be one of them. True, he was the shortstop of the Chicago Cubs' 1906, '07, '08 and ’'0 Pennant winners, winning the 1907 and 1908 World Series. And had there been an All-Star Game at the time, he would have been in it a few times. But, let's be honest, the only reason he's in the Hall is because of Franklin P. Adams' poem "Baseball's Sad Lexicon," with its refrain: "Tinker to Evers to Chance."

3B Ken Boyer of Alba, Missouri. He was 1 of 14 children, and his brother Clete was himself an All-Star 3rd baseman with the Yankees, and brother Cloyd was a big-league pitcher. He succeeded Stan Musial as the superstar and Captain of the Cardinals, and led them to an amazing run to the Pennant, which earned him the NL MVP. In the 1964 World Series, Ken and Clete became the 1st brothers to oppose each other in a World Series, and the 1st brothers to both homer in a World Series. Ken's homer, a grand slam in Game 4, turned the Series around, and the Cards won.

His career OPS+ was 116, and his 282 home runs are a very good total for a third baseman in that era. He wasn’t quite at Hall of Fame levels, but the Cardinals retired his Number 14. He also briefly managed them.

LF Zack Wheat of Hamilton, Missouri. For all the jokes about how the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s couldn't find a left fielder, Wheat was a great one for them in the 1910s and 1920s, including playing for the Dodgers in the 1916 and '20 World Series (though they lost both). He won the NL batting title in 1918, had a lifetime batting average of .317, an OPS+ of 129, and 2,884 hits -- awfully close to the magic 3,000, which would probably have gotten him better remembered today.

Honorable Mention to Fred Clarke of Winterset, Iowa. He starred for the Louisville Colonels in the 1890s and, like his teammate Honus Wagner, went to the Pittsburgh Pirates when the Colonels were folded into the Pirate organization.  He had a lifetime batting average of .312, an OPS+ of 132, and 2,678 career hits. He also managed the Pirates to Pennants in 1901, '02 and '03, and to the 1909 World Series, all while still playing.

Honorable Mention to Matt Holliday of Stillwater, Oklahoma. He just turned 34, and has already made 6 All-Star teams, hit 375 doubles and 251 homers, and notched 5 100-RBI seasons. His career OPS+ is 138. He's reached the last 3 postseasons with the Cardinals, including the 2011 World Championship

But he'll be best remembered for scoring the controversial game-winning run in the 2007 NL Wild Card play-in game for the Colorado Rockies against the San Diego Padres. Let the record show that, while a reasonable person could doubt that Holliday ever touched the plate, he certainly didn't break any rule in his attempt to score.

CF Mickey Mantle of Commerce, Oklahoma. Though his short stay with the minor-league Kansas City Blues in the summer of 1951 was a hard part of his life, geographically, he belongs in the Royals' area. All-Century Team, Hall of Fame, Monument Park, Number 7 retired, 500 Home Run Club. When The Sporting News announced its 100 Greatest Baseball Players in 1999, he came in at Number 17.

So much has been spoken and written about the Mick, so let me sum up by quoting his own summing-up, from what he said in his speech on Mickey Mantle Day, June 8, 1969: "Baseball has been really good to me, and playing 18 years in Yankee Stadium for you folks was the greatest thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer."

Yeah, I know: That picture shows him on an Old-Timers' Day, older and overweight. Well, this picture has 2 advantages to me: A, It's in color; and 2, this is how I knew him. (Not that I actually met him, but this is how I saw him when we were in the same building together, the building being the old, although post-renovation, Yankee Stadium.)

Very Honorable Mention to Richie Ashburn of Tilden, Nebraska. That Ashburn is second to anyone is "Hard to believe, Harry,", but that anyone is Mickey Mantle, so "Bet your house on it, Harry." Still, Rich (or "Whitey," nicknamed like Mickey's pal Edward Charles Ford for his very light hair) was, rightfully, the most beloved sports figure in Philadelphia history for his long career as a player and a broadcaster.

He lived long enough to be elected to the Hall of Fame, and his Number 1 was retired by the Phils. The center field concourse at Citizens Bank Park is named Ashburn Alley, and a statue of him stands in the middle of it. And a Happy Birthday to the Celebre's Twins, Plain and Pepperoni.

RF Sam Crawford of Wahoo, Nebraska. "Wahoo Sam" is baseball's all-time leader with 309 triples. He batted .309, had an OPS+ of 144, collected 2,961 hits (another one just short of 3,000), and with Ty Cobb and Davy Jones (not the sailor or the Monkee) formed one of the greatest outfields of the Dead Ball Era, winning 3 straight AL Pennants, 1907, '08 and '09 -- but losing all 3 World Series.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame, but played long before uniform numbers were worn. When The Sporting News announced its 100 Greatest Baseball Players in 1999, he came in at Number 84.

C Walker Cooper of Independence, Missouri. He and his brother Mort were a major part of the St. Louis Cardinals' 1942, '43, '44 and '46 Pennant winners, winning the World Series in all of those except '43. An 8-time All-Star, he had a career OPS+ of 116 and 173 homers, an extraordinary total for a catcher in that era (although somewhat inflated by a few years with the New York Giants with the cozy confines of the Polo Grounds).

Honorable Mention to Darren Daulton of Arkansas City, Kansas. Okay, let'’s put aside his occult beliefs, and note that he was the heart and soul of the 1993 NL Champion Phillies, and while injuries cut his career short, he did get a ring as Charles Johnson's backup on the 1997 World Champion Florida Marlins.

And now for what has to be the most extraordinary pitching staff for any of these teams.

SP Walter Johnson of Humboldt, Kansas. This could be considered a slight bending of the rules: His family moved to Olinda, California, and he went to Fullerton Union High School, which should place him on the Anaheim team. But they moved when he was 14, so he "became a ballplayer" in the Kansas City "market."

His 110 shutouts are the most all-time. His 3,508 strikeouts were the most all-time -- he held the career record from 1921 (surpassing Cy Young) until 1983 (surpassed by Nolan Ryan). His 417 wins are the most in AL history. And "the Big Train" did this for the Washington Senators, a ballclub which hardly ever got into a Pennant race. They finally won Pennants in 1924 and '25, and after losing 2 games in the '24 Series, he came on in relief in Game 7, and ended up as the winning pitcher.

Neat piece of trivia: His final career appearance was not as a pitcher, but as a pinch-hitter -- he had a career OPS of .616, pretty good for a pitcher -- on September 30, 1927, the same game in which Babe Ruth hit his 60th home run of that season. He then became manager of the Newark Bears, living in nearby Millburn, New Jersey. He went on to manage the Senators and the Cleveland Indians, without much success. One of the most decent men ever involved with the game, he sadly died of a brain tumor in 1946, only 59 years old.

Outside his former home park, Griffith Stadium, there was a monument to his memory, which was moved to Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland, the D.C. suburb where Johnson lived during and after his career. Today, a statue of him is outside Nationals Park.

He was one of the 1st inductees into the Hall of Fame in 1936, and in 1999 was named Number 4 on The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Players (the highest of any pitcher) and elected to the MLB All-Century Team, despite having been dead for 53 years and having thrown his last pitch 72 years earlier. He retired before uniform numbers were worn, but he wore 28 and 25 as Senators manager and 10 as Indians manager.

SP Grover Cleveland Alexander of St. Paul, Nebraska. This is how great Johnson was: Alexander won 373 games, tied with Christy Mathewson for most in NL history, and yet he's only the 2nd starter on this team. (Cy Young's 511 were split over both Leagues.)

Check out these numbers: 28, 19, 22, 27, 31, 33, 30. Those were Alexander’s win totals for the 1st 7 seasons of his career. He also led the NL in strikeouts 7 times, and in ERA 4 times. His career ERA+ was 135; his WHIP, 1.121. He helped the Phillies to their 1st Pennant in 1915, and in 1916 -- as a right-handed pitcher at Baker Bowl, where lefty hitters had a 280-foot right-field fence -- he threw 16 shutouts. Considering even aces now work hard just to get 16 wins, most of them not complete games, this record of Alex's looks safe for the foreseeable future. His 90 shutouts were 2nd only to Johnson.

Sadly, serving in World War I shellshocked him, triggered epilepsy, and exacerbated his alcoholism. He went on to the Cubs, and the Cardinals picked him up in 1926 and won the World Series. After winning Game 6, the 39-year-old "Pete" (no one seems to be sure why he got that nickname) celebrated hard, and was hungover when he was called into to pitch the 7th inning of Game 7 with the bases loaded. He struck out the Yankees' Tony Lazzeri, perhaps the most famous strikeout in baseball history (unless you count the Mighty Casey of Mudville). He then pitched 2 more scoreless innings to finish the Yankees off.

Sadly, both Alexander and Lazzeri were epileptics who died young. Alexander's drinking damaged his health, and he died in 1950, drinking doing him in at just 63 -- just like Mantle. He still outlived Lazzeri, who in 1946 suffered a seizure and fell down his stairs, breaking his neck, dying at only 42.

In 1952, 2 years after Alexander's death, Ronald Reagan played him in the film The Winning Team. He did live long enough to be elected to the Hall of Fame, and while he played before uniform numbers were worn, the Phils put a "P" notation on the outfield wall, first at Veterans Stadium and now at Citizens Bank Park.

SP Carl Hubbell of Meeker, Oklahoma. The 1st NL player to have his number retired, the Giants retired his Number 11. He was known as King Carl and the Meal Ticket, and in the 1930s, along with Dizzy Dean and Satchel Paige, he was one of the 3 best pitchers on the planet. He won 253 games, and had a lifetime ERA+ of 130 and a WHIP of 1.166.

He started the 1st 2 All-Star Games, and in the 1934 Game, at his home park of the Polo Grounds, he struck out 6 batters in 2 innings -- including, in succession, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin, fellow Hall-of-Famers all. In 1933, he won 23 games and led the Giants to the World Championship. The Giants won Pennants again in 1936 and ’37, and over those 2 seasons, Hubbell won 24 straight games. More than anyone, even Whitey Ford, this is the greatest lefthanded pitcher in New York baseball history.

SP Bob Feller of Van Meter, Iowa. "Anybody who says sports is war has never been in a war," Chief Petty Officer Robert William Andrew Feller, U.S. Navy, World War II, has taught us. But his 266 wins, 2,581 strikeouts and 3 no-hitters were amazing when you consider he lost 4 seasons -- at ages 23, 24, 25 and 26 -- to the fight against Nazi fascism and Japanese imperialism. In 1936, he struck out a then-record-tying 17 batters in a game -- fanned 17 at age 17. In 1938, at 19, he fanned a new record of 18. (It would be 31 more years before a pitcher got 19 in a 9-inning game.)

He was the greatest pitcher of his generation, but, like Johnson, his team wasn't up to his level. The Indians nearly won a Pennant in 1940, won the Series in 1948, and added a Pennant in 1954, but while Feller did get a ring in '48, he never won a Series game, unlike Johnson. Hall of Fame, Number 19 retired, statue outside Progressive Field in Cleveland (formerly Jacobs Field), museum in his honor in Van Meter.

SP Bob Gibson of Omaha, Nebraska. Do you want to tell Bob Gibson he's a 5th starter? Neither do I. But, on this team, he might be, and not just chronologically.

The Cardinal ace was the MVP of the 1964 and '67 World Series, winning Game 7 both times. In Game 1 in '68, he struck out 17 Tigers, still a Series record, but he ended up losing Game 7. That season, 1968, he went 22-9, with a record-low ERA for the post-1920 Lively Ball Era, 1.12. (So how did he lose 9? The Cards didn't hit much for a Pennant-winner.) His ERA+ that year? 258. It doesn't seem possible. So he wasn't just taking advantage of "the Year of the Pitcher": Even by the standards of 1968, he was beyond great.

He was considered the most intimidating pitcher of his generation. He won 251 games, had a 128 career ERA+, a 1.188 WHIP, and he was the 1st NL pitcher, the 2nd overall, to strike out over 3,000 batters. (With Johnson dead, this meant that, from 1972 to 1978, Gibson had struck out more batters than any living person.) He even presaged Charles Barkley by a generation, by telling a reporter, "Why do I have to be a role model for your kid? You be a role model for your kid."

He was named to the Hall of Fame and the All-Century Team. The Cardinals retired his Number 45, and dedicated a statue in his honor outside Busch Stadium. He recently co-wrote Sixty Feet, Six Inches: A Hall of Fame Pitcher and a Hall of Fame Hitter Talk About How the Game Is Played, with Reggie Jackson.

That's 5 Hall of Fame starters, who were ranked 4th (Johnson), 12th (Alexander), 31st (Gibson), 36th (Feller) and 45th (Hubbell) on The Sporting News' 1999 list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players -- respectively, ranked 1st, 3rd, 10th, 12th and 15th among pitchers on that list. If "Good pitching beats good hitting," this team may be damn near unbeatable.

Honorable Mention to a 6th HOFer, Charles "Dazzy" Vance of Hardy, Nebraska. He struggled, not becoming a big-league regular until 1922, when he was 31. But he really made up for lost time, winning 86 games for the Brooklyn Dodgers over his 1st 4 seasons.

He might have been the fastest pitcher of the 1920s, dazzling NL hitters (and thus the nickname). He won 197 games, and struck out 2,045 batters. Imagine if he'd found his control at age 22. His ERA+ was 125. Although the Dodgers did not retire his number (or any numbers until well after they moved to Los Angeles), he is in the Hall of Fame.

Here's how good this rotation is: Al Orth (204 wins), George Pipgras (102), Mel Harder (223, and the Indians retired his Number 18), Walker's brother Mort Cooper (128), Rudy May (152) and Rick Sutcliffe (171)? All of those men are geographically qualified for this team, and none of them make it.

RP Tom Henke of Kansas City, Missouri. (Gotta say it that way, although there were no viable candidates for this entire team from Kansas City, Kansas.) Hard to imagine a rotation of the Big Train, Alex, King Carl, Rapid Robert and Hoot, with Dazzy ready to step in if necessary, needing relief. But "the Exterminator" saved 311 games, and the Toronto Blue Jays have never reached the postseason without him. With him, they did so 5 times, including their 1992 and '93 World Championships. Career ERA+ of 157, WHIP of 1.092.

Honorable Mention to Joel Hanrahan of Norwalk, Iowa. He's only 32, and missed most of last year due to injury, pitching just 9 games for the Red Sox, thus missing out on his best chance yet to appear in postseason play. But he's got 100 career saves, and was a 2-time All-Star for the Pirates.

MGR Casey Stengel of Kansas City, Missouri. Charles Dillon Stengel got his nickname from his hometown, "Kay Cee," which became "Casey." In 1942, with the Boston Braves, he had an unrealized talent named Warren Spahn on his pitching staff. In 1965, with the Mets, he had Spahn, wrapping up his career. Spahnnie said, "I'm the only guy who played for Casey both before and after he was a genius." In between, with the Yankees, he managed 12 seasons, won 10 Pennants and 7 World Championships.

His runner-up could be his Yankee successor, Ralph Houk. The aforementioned Fred Clarke, Billy Southworth and Bobby Cox could also qualify. That's 4 Hall of Fame managers (including the newly-elected Cox), and a 5th who should be (Houk).

Spahn was from Buffalo, so he doesn't qualify for this team. But he married a woman from Oklahoma, and lived there most of his adult life.