Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Wild Side of MLB

Jared Diamond's article, "Birds, Mammals, Mike Trout: Who Would Win?" in yesterday's WSJ was right up the alley of this blog's readers:

On Tuesday, 20-year-old Angels phenom Mike Trout will play in his first All-Star Game. But Trout, who leads the American League with a .341 batting average, is already a prominent member of a far more exclusive club: the All-Star team of fish.

Of the thousands of players in Major League Baseball history, only a select few had names (or overwhelmingly used nicknames) that were the same as a type of fish. Trout joins ex-Angel Tim Salmon and former All-Star Kevin Bass in the aquatic outfield. Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter—arguably the top fish ever—is on the mound.

The Fish do have some competition from around the animal kingdom. Hall of Famers Robin Yount and Goose Goslin highlight a powerful lineup of Birds. But their pitching takes a hit with Craig Swan taking the mound in place of Goose Gossage. (Our selections barred teams from having duplicate creatures.)

And then there are the Mammals, a solid squad led by Nellie Fox and Rabbit Maranville. Rob Deer provides power in the middle of the lineup, while Randy Wolf and Robert Person round out the pitching staff.

Left out of the animal-kingdom All-Stars was outfielder Marlon Byrd, who could have had dual citizenship if only he spelled his name differently.

Looks like former Dodgers are well represented on Team Mammalia!

1 comments:

Franklin Stubbs said...

So, who gets Joey Bats, Team Airborne or Team Mammalia?