Early this year, Jim Thome and Trevor Hoffman were inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame. These inductions came just a year removed from Ivan Rodriguez and Tim freaking Raines were enshrined into immortality in Cooperstown, New York. Yes ladies and gentleman, the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame has become a complete and utter joke. It is littered with players that simply do not deserve to be remembered as legends while it has told the sport’s greatest competitors of the game--like 7x MVP Barry Bonds--to go pound sand. Forget the HoF; today I present to you my All-Time Major League Dream Team.
1. Alex Rodriguez, SS
This pick may catch people off guard, but it’s my personal opinion that Alex Rodriguez is the greatest shortstop who has ever laced ‘em up. Had it not been for some marketing concerns, Jeter's general clout in the Yankees organization, and Rodriguez putting some weight on late in his career, he likely would’ve been the one to stay at short and Jeter would’ve kicked over to third. He hits leadoff because my dream team doesn’t exactly feature a lot of speed and young A-Rod once was a 40-base stealer.
2. Babe Ruth, DH
The Sultan of Swat is probably the most iconic athlete in the history of American sports and deserves all of the admiration he receives. A career .690 slugger, Ruth won 7 World Series and is third on the all-time home runs list. I decided to DH him because we could bring him out of the pen and, well, he’s fat and slow.
3. Barry Bonds, LF
Barry Bonds is statistically the greatest hitter of all time. Did he use steroids? Absolutely. But he also played in an era where everyone else used steroids. Many will claim that him using steroids gave him a competitive advantage--a fair argument--but I prefer to look at it as him evening the playing field between himself and all the other stars of the time. Comparing him to the other greats of his era, we can see that Bonds won 7 MVP awards--more than anyone else in the history of the sports--and was shockingly an 8x Gold-Glover.
4. Hank Aaron, RF
One, two, three and four we have the top three home run hitters in major league history. Not too shabby, huh? Hank Aaron isn’t necessarily a no-brainer like the other three guys, as he isn’t nearly as well-rounded of a hitter or a ballplayer, but I think his sheer power puts him on this roster without any contention.
5. Ted Williams, CF
Teddy Ballgames is playing centerfield for a less-than-stellar defensive outfield. But hey, when you hit a combined 2,000 home runs, you can afford to make an error or two. Williams is pretty much a no-brainer. The only thing that’s missing from his scary good resume is a World Series that he would surely capture with my dream team. But he does have a WWII win up there, so that’s pretty cool too.
6. Albert Pujols, 1B
Frankly, this is kind of a reach by me, but I think we needed at least a little bit of modern-day representation, and who better to represent the 21st century than King Albert. Here’s a ridiculous stat: from 2001-2010, Albert hit 30 home runs, batted over .300, and knocked in 100 runs in every season. The 3x MVP is the model of consistency.
7. Roger Hornsby, 2B
Second base isn’t exactly the position where stars shine, but that’s exactly what Hornsby did during his 23 major league seasons. Hornsby led the majors in OPS a startling 11 times during his career. Perhaps even more impressive were Hornsby's 7 batting titles and 2 Triple Crowns.
8. Josh Gibson, C
Not to pat myself on the back, but Josh Gibson was kind of a sleeper pick. Haven’t heard of him, have ya? Well, Josh Gibson may or may not be the greatest baseball player who ever lived. He never actually played in the major leagues (baseball was segregated when he played), but he was said to have hit possibly more than 1,000 home runs in the Negro leagues.
9. Mike Schmidt, 3B
Third base is sneaky a position that lacks all-time baseball players, and Mike Schmidt was the only one that really stuck out to me. Nerd baseball writers will tell you that Brooks Robinson was the greatest third baseman in the history of the sport, but those nerds are wrong. Robinson had a .726 career ops--I don’t care how many defensive runs he saved.
Roger Clemens, P
There isn’t really one good answer when discussing the greatest pitcher in major league history. There are many in the conversation, but none stand alone like Bonds or Ruth do at their respective positions. I chose Clemens because he hits every category of greatness better than any other pitcher that I could identify. He was remarkably consistent, won 7 Cy Young awards, was a strikeout pitcher, and captured 2 World Series.
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