Blog bat-around/thinking exercise: MLB edition

So apparently there's a new blog bat-around that's sweeping the interwebs. I didn't even know this one was a thing until I read RAZ's post the other day, from what I've gathered it was started by the Night Owl, but the inspiration came from Fuji - so I guess you could say that this is a Fuji-Night Owl joint production. Since I don't want anyone else's list to influence mine, I'll have to go back read them all after my humble contribution is completed.

The premise seems to be pretty simple, just name the first player that comes to mind when you think of a particular team. I'm sure everybody ended up with a few unexpected choices, I know I certainly did:

Arizona Diamondbacks - Randy Johnson: It's funny, I watched pretty much all of his career with the Mariners, yet at this point in time I only associate him with the Dbacks.

Atlanta Braves - David Justice: David is one of those guys that I will always associate with my early card collecting years, even though most of those memories are just a blur at this point. His rookie cards were hot amongst my age group at the time, and I only ever had about a dozen SLU figures, but DJ was one of them.

Baltimore Orioles - Cal Ripken Jr.: This was just one of those instant associations, a fairly obvious one though.

Boston Red Sox - Oil Can Boyd: How's that for coming out of left field (baseball pun!)? This is definitely another card related association, thanks 1988 and 1989 Topps! Find me a person anywhere who doesn't like his nickname, and I'll tell you that that person is lying.

Chicago Cubs - Ernie Banks: He's Mr. Cub... nuff said!

Chicago White Sox - Frank Thomas: Yet another guy with hot rookie cards when I was a kid, that Topps no-name was such a big deal, I can just vaguely remember going into a card shop where a guy had just purchased like a dozen boxes just to try and find that card... I sure hope he found one!

Cincinnati Reds - Eric Davis: I knew a pair of brothers who were absolutely obsessed with baseball when I was in my early teens, part of this obsession manifested itself with their trying to identify who everyone in the neighborhood's swing reminded them of, mine was Eric Davis.

Cleveland Indians - Bob Feller: I immediately thought of Bob Feller, followed by Satchel Paige, it then took me a minute or two to come up with another name, Jim Thome.

Colorado Rockies - Todd Helton: This pick was no doubt inspired by all of the recent HOF ballot posts that I've read. For the record, I think he should be voted in.

Detroit Tigers - Ty Cobb: One could easily argue that Ty was the best baseball player ever, personally I'd rank him as #2, number one will be further down on this list. Fun fact: Ty Cobb passed away on my birthday (different year though).

Florida Marlins - Giancarlo Stanton: He was literally the only Marlin that I could think of.

Houston Astros - Craig Biggio: No offense to any other former Astro, but in my mind, Craig Biggio is Mr. Astro(s).

Kansas City Royals - Bo Jackson: When it comes to baseball, Bo's hype, and popularity, was second only to Junior when I was a youngster, every kid wanted to be one or the other. And of course he's always going to be one of the great sports "What if's...".

Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) - Jim Fregosi: Jim was before my time, but every time someone mentions the Angels, I immediately think of his 1972 Topps Boyhood Photos card, you know, the one with him and his giant accordion... that's my favorite card in that set btw.

Los Angeles Dodgers (of Los Angeles) - Johnny Podres: Normally I wouldn't think of Johnny first, but I recently decided to try and collect all of his cards, so his name has been on my mind as of late.

Milwaukee Brewers - Robin Yount: When I think of the Brewers, I think of mustaches, specifically those of Robin Yount and Rollie Fingers, Yount's stache comes to mind first though, so he gets the nod.

Minnesota Twins - Frank Viola: I know that this one is most certainly not the obvious choice, but he's who I thought of first. I can remember opening up cheap boxes of '87 and '88 Topps from Kmart ($5 a box) and still getting excited when I pulled Frank's cards, I say "still" because these cheap boxes were being opened as late as the mid 90's... that's some high regard!

New York Mets - Doc Gooden: Growing up on the opposite coast, the Mets were one of those teams that I rarely got to see play, and knew almost nothing about. What little I did know, was gleamed from cards, and the cards told me that Doc was pretty darn good there for awhile, so I just kind of assumed that he was their best player.

New York Yankees - Lou Gehrig: My choice for the greatest baseball player of all time.

Oakland Athletics - Jose Canseco: I already mentioned that Griffey and Bo were 1 and 2 respectively when it came to popularity amongst the kids I knew at the time, well, if there was a #3, it would've been Jose. I think in general though, he was more popular with kids that would've been a few years older than me, I could be wrong about that, but I don't think that I am.

Philadelphia Phillies - Darren Daulton: The Phillies were another team that I didn't know a lot about when I was young, but they had Darren, a former Portland Beaver, so I could never hate on them too much.

Pittsburgh Pirates - Bob Walk: Thanks for screwing up my thought processes, Matt!

St. Louis Cardinals - Bob Gibson: I don't recall the title at this point, but one of the first baseball related books that I ever read had a whole chapter devoted to Bob's 1968 season, so even though I never saw him play, that chapter left enough of an impression on young me that I have just sort of always identified the team's name with him ever since. [side note: I sure wish I could figure out which book that was, something by Scholastic maybe?]

San Diego Padres - Tony Gwynn: Has there ever even been another Padre of note?

San Francisco Giants - Kevin Mitchell: Other than getting to watch Junior on a regular basis, growing up a Mariners fan kind of sucked. For as long as I can remember, guys that had been having success elsewhere were always being brought in, and almost always ended up being a disappointment. There was an awful lot of hype when Kevin came over from the Giants back in '92(?), and big surprise... he didn't live up to that hype (my memory tells me that it was actually one of his worst seasons).

Seattle Mariners - Ken Griffey Jr.: I don't know how it was in other parts of the country, but if you were a kid living in the Pacific Northwest during the late 80's/early 90's, Junior was your guy.

Tampa Bay Rays - Uhhhhh?: No Rays player came to mind when I tried to think of one, so I moved on to the next team. After a couple of minutes I thought of Wade Boggs, and then Evan Longoria, but since none came to mind immediately, I will be leaving this selection sort of blank... hopefully this doesn't upset Tampa's one fan :)

Texas Rangers - Nolan Ryan: When I was growing up it seemed like the Rangers had exactly two players, Nolan, and Juan Gonzalez. Nolan came to mind first though, probably only because of that Cursed Texas Express that Pacific apparently printed in numbers that would make Michio Kaku's head spin.

Toronto Blue Jays - Joe Carter: I know it's not true, but part of my brain tells me that Joe's walk-off home run during the '93 World Series was the last truly great World Series moment.

Washington Nationals - Bryce Harper: I really hate that his is the first one that I thought of, but the Nationals are just too new for me, I don't have any memories to associate the team, or any of it's players, with.

Wow, that took a lot longer to do than I thought it would, totally worth it though. Because of the fun I had while writing it up, I think I'll do an NBA and NFL version as well, which I will try to sprinkle in between regular posts over the next couple of days.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.