[Wizard of Os]

The Yankees: love 'em or hate 'em, you gotta admit that they have a rich history filled with brilliant players. So let's talk the all-time New York Yankee team.

Four positions are locks: you have Gehrig and an outfield of DiMaggio, Mantle and Ruth. (Heck, these four guys might all make the starting all-time American League team.) And the others...?

C - Yogi or Bill Dickey: flip a coin. In seventeen seasons, Dickey hit .313 with 202 homers and .988 fielding percentage. Yogi in nineteen had numbers of .285, 358 HRs and .988 with the glove. Both wore #8. Elston Howard and Thurman Munson get to battle it out for third string.

2B - The classic choice is Joe Gordon, but his stats are suspect. His best year was in 1942, when MLB talent was a bit watered down by the war. His lifetime fielding average of .970 is respectable. The Bombers, it seems, have had few great secondbaseman.

SS - Either Jeter or the Scooter.

3B - Well, Craig Nettles was a favorite of mine; damn, did he have a good glove. It's tempting to cheat and go with 1920s Yanks' Long Bob Meusel with his career BA at .309 at third, but he only played a total of 74 games at the hot corner.

DH - Reggie, maybe...?

P - A fantastic squad can be built for the mound and, interestingly enough, with no one before the 1950s (unless you want to cheat again and put in Babe). Jack Chesbro went a crushing 41-12 in the reliever-less days of 1904, but "Happy Jack" didn't have too many good years in New York. Whitey Ford makes the team and the bullpen is awesome: Joe Page (whom John Halberstam claims in his Summer of '49 made the difference between pinstripes and BoSox in that year and in the 50s), Sparky/Goose and El Duque.

Can anyone help fill in the blanks?

Cheers.

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by Wizard of Os

The Yankees: love 'em or hate 'em, you gotta admit that they have a rich history filled with brilliant players. So let's talk the all-time New York Yankee team.

Four positions are locks: you have Gehrig and an outfield of DiMaggio, Mantle and Ruth. (Heck, these four guys might all make the starting all-time American League team.) And the others...?

C - Yogi or Bill Dickey: flip a coin. In seventeen seasons, Dickey hit .313 with 202 homers and .988 fielding percentage. Yogi in nineteen had numbers of .285, 358 HRs and .988 with the glove. Both wore #8. Elston Howard and Thurman Munson get to battle it out for third string.

2B - The classic choice is Joe Gordon, but his stats are suspect. His best year was in 1942, when MLB talent was a bit watered down by the war. His lifetime fielding average of .970 is respectable. The Bombers, it seems, have had few great secondbaseman.

SS - Either Jeter or the Scooter.

3B - Well, Craig Nettles was a favorite of mine; damn, did he have a good glove. It's tempting to cheat and go with 1920s Yanks' Long Bob Meusel with his career BA at .309 at third, but he only played a total of 74 games at the hot corner.

DH - Reggie, maybe...?

P - A fantastic squad can be built for the mound and, interestingly enough, with no one before the 1950s (unless you want to cheat again and put in Babe). Jack Chesbro went a crushing 41-12 in the reliever-less days of 1904, but "Happy Jack" didn't have too many good years in New York. Whitey Ford makes the team and the bullpen is awesome: Joe Page (whom John Halberstam claims in his Summer of '49 made the difference between pinstripes and BoSox in that year and in the 50s), Sparky/Goose and El Duque.

Can anyone help fill in the blanks?

Cheers.

Joe Pepitone at 1st base?...just kidding...what about Richardson at 2B?...Tom Tresh at SS? (yeah so he had like one good year and it was all down hill )...the outfield is too crowded so I will go with the lesser picks of Rickey Henderson, Dave Winfield, and Roger Maris just to make it under the 1 billion dollar salary cap of having Ruth, Mantle and Joltin Joe...

[legend]

You are forgetting Tony Lazzeri at second. Hall of Famer with over 1100 RBI and a .292 lifetime average. And after him, give me Willie Randolph. He was simply a winner.
And you need to put Ron Guidry on the mound! 170-91
And maybe Mel Stottlemyre too. 164-139 for the worst Yankee teams ever, with 40 shutouts! And a 2.97 ERA

[MVB]

The Yankees have had SO MANY great players...it is hard to choose the best.

My choices:

1B- Lou Gehrig

2B- Willie Randolph

SS- guess who? ( DJ )

3B- Craig Nettles

OF- Babe Ruth

Bernie Williams

Paul O'Neil

C- Yogi Berra

Yankees.com is actually having a vote on this very subject-
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/NASAp...nniversary.jsp

Just click on "Vote for the all-time Yankee team"

[Wizard of Os]

Originally Posted by legend

You are forgetting Tony Lazzeri at second. Hall of Famer with over 1100 RBI and a .292 lifetime average. And after him, give me Willie Randolph. He was simply a winner.
And you need to put Ron Guidry on the mound! 170-91
And maybe Mel Stottlemyre too. 164-139 for the worst Yankee teams ever, with 40 shutouts! And a 2.97 ERA

Ah, Legend. I'm busted again; of course it's Tony Lazzeri. I totally spaced the man...

Gator may make the team, but wow what a short career. In what was essentially ten full seasons for the Yanks (and i'm including the unfortunate 1981 season), Louisiana Lightning posted two losing seasons and two 20-win seasons. Close call. I'd consider Mel Stottlemyre, too, because of the time he did as a member of the coaching staff as well.

So, let's see, the pitching staff is Ford, let's say Stottlemyre, El Duque, Sparky, Goose and Joe Page. Gid is on the bubble...anybody think Andy Pettite should make the team?

O, and what about manager? Miller Huggins, Casey Stengel or maybe Billy Martin?

Cheers, all.

[Wizard of Os]

Originally Posted by MVB

Yankees.com is actually having a vote on this very subject-
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/NASAp...nniversary.jsp

Just click on "Vote for the all-time Yankee team"

Thanks for the heads up, MVB. I went there and voted (you can choose only two relievers? Argh.) and found it quite interesting.

I guess i'm going to put Waite Hoyt on the all-time pitching staff...the Yankees just don't have a great tradition of starting pitchers, though they were among the first to discover the power of the closer, i.e. Joe Page.

Imagine choosing Wally Pipp at first base...

And wow, check out Jeter's stats! Scooter who?

Cheers!

[legend]

How about Vic Raschi, the Springfield Rifle? 132-66 with 26 shutouts in 10 years
Allie Reynolds, with a 182-107 mark and 33 shutouts, and 49 saves
Lefty Gomez, who was 189-102
Red Ruffing, 273-225 and a Hall of Famer
Spud Chandler 109-43 .717 winning percentage, 26 shutouts in only 184 careeer starts
Although I think Billy Martin is the greatest strategical manager of all time, he couldn't handle all these egos
Joe McCarthy could, the best winning percentage of any Yankee skipper at .627

[ThePundit]

I'm going to pick the team from the 70's and on. Guys that I actually saw play:

1) Ron Guidry
2) Mel Stottlemeyer
3) David Wells
4) Ed Figueroa
5) Andy Pettite

Bullpen: Right Hand Set up: Goose Gossage
Left hand set up: Sparky Lyle
Closer: Mariano Rivera

Lineup:

Mickey Rivers cf
Rickey Henderson lf
Don Mattingly 1b
Reggie Jackson dh
Thurman Munson c
Graig Nettles 3b
Bobby Murcer lf
Derek Jeter ss
Willie Randolph 2b

Manager: Bob Lemon ( I'm goanna get slammed for this one but I loved Lemon. He was the perfect guy to bring in 78. His calming influence fueled the Yankees historic comeback.

[Wizard of Os]

Pundit, you had me all the way (including Lemon) until you threw in Bobby Murcer. This is one lean mean Yankee dream machine, but...

Bobby Murcer? Really? And not Dave Winfield? I realize Winfield is a shoo-in for the all-time Padres squad as well, but you've got the amazing Rickey in there, too, and he'd have to do double duty on the all-A's squad.

Incidentally, is Winfield the last player to play the entire all-star game?

Cheers, all.

[ThePundit]

Wizard: As a little kid, Murcer was my idol on those terrible Yankee teams of the early 70's so I threw him in there. But you're right, Winfield was much better. You could also probably find other outfielders that were better than Murcer.

[legend]

But Murcer was , and still is, a true Yankee. He was devastated the day they traded him. He is a genuinely nice guy, and one could not help but root for him.