Lazer_Wright

Welcome back and thank you all so very much for participating and contributing to my blog.  Our endeavor of putting together the greatest all time team took months and I'm very satisfied with the success and the outcome of the blog.  Some of you have wondered out loud what I would do next, and I'm not really sure, but I have one idea.   What do you all think about the idea of me putting together a series of blogs where we compile our own list of the 102 remaining names of the players who failed the "confidential" drug test in 2003?   We can put together the list 10 names per week and our series of blogs could last about 2 1/2 months.  If anyone has an idea for me that is baseball related, I'm willing to take suggestions.   If I like my idea best, I'll run with it, but if someone has a captivating idea, I'll try to figure something out to implement it into a blog.

First off, its time to announce the manager of the Greatest Team of All Time.   As I suspected there was no runaway here and it appears that many of you used the stats I compiled to make your determination.   The winner was Joe McCarthy.   McCarthy edged out Connie Mack by two votes and Casey Stengel and John McGraw tied for third.   Personally, I like that choice, but I was surprised that the more modern day skippers such as Sparky Anderson, Tony LaRussa and Bobby Cox didn't receive a little more love.   I think the job of managing has really became a bit more challenging since the age of free agency, as a manager can't rule as much with an iron fist and has to be more of a physcologist and an ego stroker. 

For the benefit for all of you that helped put this together, here is the team that Joe McCarthy gets to manage:

C - Johnny Bench
1B - Lou Gehrig
2B - Rogers Hornsby
3B - George Brett
SS - Honus Wagner
LF - Ted Williams
CF - Willie Mays
RF - Hank Aaron

SP - Walter Johnson
SP - Cy Young
SP - Sandy Koufax
SP - Christy Mathewson
SP - Bob Gibson
SP - Nolan Ryan
SP - Greg Maddux
RP - Dennis Eckersley
RP - Mariano Rivera
RP - Trevor Hoffman

Reserves:
C - Josh Gibson
IF - Albert Pujols, Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt and Ozzie Smith
OF - Stan Musual, Ty Cobb and Hank Aaron

As to the question of who would play against our all time team?   Probably no team on this planet or solar system.  We'ld have to look for intergalactical teams to play us!   Does anyone have any friends in Japan who can put together an all-time Japanese team?  I'm sure players such as Ichiro and Sadahuro Oh could make a good cornerstone for a Japanese team.    

Okay, I'll leave you all to comment on this team or to give me your ideas as to which direction I should go with my blog.   It would also be interesting to see anyone's ideas for a line-up and pitching rotation for this team.   Once again, THANK YOU ALL!!!!