Rockies v. Sox

A squad that not even Mr. Henry and the Sox could buy. (Lifted from ESPn and Rob Neyer)


The World Series is upon us, which got us to wondering: If you were going to put together an all-World Series team, who would you choose? Are the best World Series players always the best players? Not necessarily ... but usually they are (especially if we pay little attention to one-Series wonders like Bucky Dent, Pat Borders, and David Eckstein).
Below are our choices, based purely on actual World Series performance:

Designated hitter: Reggie Jackson
If Reggie Jackson's World Series heroics had come 10 years later than they did, he wouldn't be "Mr. October." That nickname suggests Jackson thrived throughout the month -- League Championship Series included. But Jackson struggled terribly in those games. He played 45 games in 11 ALCSes, and batted just .227 with 20 RBIs. Jackson made his reputation in the 1970s, though, when the LCS was still considered little more than a sideshow. So nobody held Jackson's struggles against him. And of course, there's never been anybody better in World Series. In five Fall Classics, Jackson batted .357 with 10 homers and 24 RBIs in 27 games. The performance that created the legend came in the sixth game of the '77 Series, when Jackson personally vaporized the Dodgers with three home runs on three straight pitches from three different Los Angeles hurlers. Jackson's five homers in the Series still stand as the record, and Jackson joined Babe Ruth as the only players to homer three times in one World Series game.

Catcher: Johnny Bench
You might choose Yogi Berra, and you'd have a pretty good case. Berra holds many World Series records that probably will never be broken -- including most World Series played in (14), most games (75) and most hits (71). So he wins on quantity, and his quality's pretty good, too: .359 on-base percentage, .452 slugging percentage, both numbers fairly close to his career marks. Solid enough. But there's nothing special about those numbers, nor is there any particular defining moment in Berra's World Series experience.
Meanwhile, Johnny Bench's .340 on-base percentage and .523 slugging percentage compare favorably with Berra's numbers, and Bench has some bling. In the '76 World Series against the Yankees, Bench helped seal the Reds' sweep with two homers and five RBIs in Game 4; he was named MVP of that Series. And here's one of my all-time favorite bits of trivia: In the four World Series that he played in, Bench stole two bases (both in '72) ... exactly as many as all the opposing baserunners stole against him.

First baseman: Lou Gehrig
Just going by Gehrig's regular-season statistics, he's obviously the greatest first baseman in major league history, and it's hard to imagine his doing better against the stiffer competition one meets in the World Series. Yet that's exactly what he did. In 1928, Gehrig hit four homers in four games to beat the Cardinals almost single-handed. In the '32 Series, famous for Babe Ruth's "Called Shot," Gehrig actually bettered Ruth in almost every category, including hits, runs, RBIs and even home runs. Gehrig played brilliantly in every World Series except his last one, in 1938, and by then, he was already ill with the disease that would soon kill him. But the Yankees did win that Series -- they won six of the seven in which he played -- and he's one of only three players with at least 50 at-bats to finish with a slugging percentage better than .700 (we'll meet the other two below).

Second baseman: Billy Martin
In 1952, Billy Martin's first Series as more than a bench player, he played in all seven games and batted just .217. But he hit a three-run homer in the Yankees' 7-1 win in Game 2, and in Game 7, he figured in the most famous moment of the Series. In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Yankees led 4-2 with two outs, but the Dodgers had the bases loaded. Jackie Robinson hoisted a soft popup between the mound and first base, and it looked like the ball would drop when first baseman Joe Collins lost the ball in the sun. Martin, though, dashed over to make the catch, and the Dodgers never threatened again.
In '53, Martin was the big star of the Series. He doubled twice, homered twice, and batted .500. In the ninth inning of Game 6, his 12th hit of the Series -- which tied the record -- drove in Hank Bauer with the game- and Series-winning run. In '55, of course, the Dodgers finally broke their long jinx against the Yankees. Martin batted. 320. And in '56, Martin batted .296 with two homers.

Shortstop: Alan Trammell
Surprised? What's amazing is that if you make a list of shortstops with a lot of World Series experience -- guys who played in more than two or three -- you simply won't find anybody who put up big numbers. This is to some extent a function of the position; until fairly recently, shortstops simply weren't expected to hit much. Nevertheless, it's still a bit odd that nobody stands out among (for example) all the Yankee shortstops through the years. So what about Derek Jeter? Well, sure, he's been good. But his World Series stats aren't nearly as good as his regular-season stats, and defensively ... well, let's not go there today.
Instead, let's save our love for Alan Trammell, who should be in the Hall of Fame but will have to settle for this humble honor. Trammell's only Series was the 1984 Classic. He batted .450 in Detroit's five-game pasting of San Diego, with a couple of homers and six RBIs. And defensively? Trammell won his fourth Gold Glove that year.

AVG. PRODUCTION BY POSITION
LAST 10 WORLD SERIES WINNERS
BA HR RBI OBP SLG SB
C .260 18.3 79.6 .333 .416 3.0
1B .276 27.2 105.4 .363 .477 5.8
2B .278 12.5 66.1 .351 .404 17.6
SS .290 13.0 70.4 .350 .416 18.8
3B .269 23.4 96.5 .341 .448 5.7
LF .279 26.2 91.8 .355 .473 13.0
CF .289 18.3 93.0 .360 .444 22.6
RF .282 25.0 104.6 .352 .470 12.2
DH* .291 23.8 110.3 .354 .474 11.0
*Six teams instead of 10
Courtesy of Elias Sports Bureau

Third baseman: Frank Baker
When you think World Series third basemen, you probably think of Brooks Robinson and Graig Nettles. Rightly so: In 1970, Robinson batted .429 and made a number of brilliant defensive plays; in 1978, Nettles made four brilliant defensive plays in Game 3 to get his Yankees back into the Series. But neither Robinson nor Nettles hit particularly well in their World Series action; Nettles batted just .225 and hit zero home runs in 24 games, while Robinson hit .263 in 21 games.
No, for our third baseman, we'll go all the way back to the Dead Ball Era and choose Philadelphia Athletics slugger Frank Baker. In the 1910 Series, Baker batted .409 and scored six runs in five games; four of his nine hits went for extra bases (three doubles and a triple). In 1911, Baker gained his famous nickname: "Home Run." In the second game, Baker's two-run homer off Giants pitcher Rube Marquard -- who'd won 24 games during the regular season, including 19 straight decisions -- was the difference in the Athletics' 3-1 triumph. In Game 3, Baker's ninth-inning homer came with the A's trailing 1-0; they eventually won in the 11th inning. In Game 4, Baker doubled twice against Giants ace Christy Mathewson and the A's won again. After a Game 5 loss in which Baker went hitless, the A's roared back to clinch the Series with a 13-2 blowout in Game 6, and Baker contributed a couple of hits. In 1913, facing the Giants again, the A's took another World Series, this time in only five games. Baker batted .450 and knocked in seven runs, two of them coming against Mathewson in Game 5.

Left fielder: Lou Brock
Brock, not exactly known for his power, hit four homers and slugged .655 in his three World Series. What's more, he batted .391 and scored 16 runs in 21 games. Granted, other left fielders have fared as well, or nearly as well, in Series play. But Brock's feats are all the more impressive because they came during the middle and later 1960s, when the pitchers had the upper hand.

Center fielder: Duke Snider
What, you were expecting Willie Mays? He batted .239 in four World Series and didn't homer in 20 games. Mickey Mantle? He holds the Series records for runs, home runs and runs batted in. But then again, he should; he was a great player and saw action in a dozen Fall Classics. So instead, we'll go with Brooklyn's Duke Snider. The Duke batted just .286 in six World Series, but he hit 11 homers and drove in 26 runs in 36 games. In 1952, he hit four homers in a losing effort, and he hit four homers again in '55 when his Dodgers finally beat the Yankees.

Right fielder: Babe Ruth
You know about his "Called Shot" against the Cubs in 1932. That was one of Ruth's two homers in that game. In 1926 and again in '28, Ruth hit three homers in one World Series game; he was the only player to do that even once for half a century. He batted "only" .326 in his 10 career World Series, but his .744 slugging percentage ranks second all-time among players with at least 50 Series at-bats. Oh, and another great thing about having Ruth in the lineup? If you need an extra pitcher, the Babe's your man: In three World Series starts, he gave up only three runs in 31 innings.

Starting pitcher: Bob Gibson
Gibson started nine World Series games, and he wasn't quite perfect. He didn't complete all of them; in 1964, he was lifted for a pinch hitter after eight innings. He didn't win all of them; he lost that game to the Yankees, and in 1968, he lost Game 7 to the Tigers, thanks in part to a line drive misjudged by center fielder Curt Flood. But in Gibson's nine starts, he averaged nine innings and went 7-2 with a 1.89 ERA. He was the Game 7 winner against the Yankees in '64 and the Red Sox in '67. In his Game 1 shutout of the Tigers in '68, he set a still-standing record with 17 strikeouts, and his 35 strikeouts in that Fall Classic also remain the Series record.

Relief pitcher: Rollie Fingers
It's not easy to choose anyone but Mariano Rivera, who has a 1.16 ERA in his 20 World Series outings. But Rivera's done his best work earlier in October -- his ERAs are even lower in League Championship and Division Series play -- and he did lose Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. Meanwhile, Rollie Fingers brings both performance and durability to the table. In 1972, Fingers' Oakland A's beat the Reds in seven games; Fingers pitched in six of them, including a two-inning save in a close Game 7. In '73, the A's beat the Mets in seven games; Fingers pitched in six of them again, and in four of those, he pitched at least two innings. Finally, in 1974, the A's won their third straight World Series and, once again, Fingers was a key man. He won Game 1 with 4 1/3 innings of one-run relief, then saved Games 3, 4 and 5. With significant contributions to each of Oakland's wins, Fingers was named MVP of the '74 Series.
Fingers never pitched in another World Series. But to this day, there are fans in Milwaukee who will swear to the certainty that if Fingers hadn't been injured late in the 1982 season, the Brewers would have beaten the Cardinals in the World Series that fall.

Utility: Jackie Robinson
Considering that we'll not likely be pinch hitting for any of our All-Stars, what we're looking for in a bench player isn't necessarily a great hitter, but rather someone who can hit a little and can do anything else that might come up, from playing multiple positions to stealing the occasional base. And nobody fits the bill better than Jackie Robinson, who struggled at the plate in his many World Series with the Dodgers, but could play just about every position on the field and was considered the most dangerous baserunner of his time.
Yes, the Rockies are on a roll this year. But they wouldn't stand a chance against these guys.