All time great team of players-Career w/ one team?

OK, now here's my pitching staff. First team is four starters, plus a closer. Closers are ranked by total Saves, not WAR.

1st Team-Pitchers
Postition-Player -WAR (Team) Awards
SP W. Johnson 144.7 (Senators) 2 MVP
SP B. Gibson 77.5 (Cardinals) 1 MVP, 2 CY
SP Hubbell 65.3 (Giants) 2 MVP
SP Palmer Jim 63.2 (Orioles) 3 CY
CL Rivera 608 SVs (Yankees) 0 CY

Now, I think there are a couple of things worthy of note. One is the enormous drop in WAR from Walter Johnson to Bob Gibson. Most of the other super-great starters besides the Big Train pitched for muliple teams: Alexander, Matthewson, Grove, Spahn, Cy Young, Clemens, etc., etc. Also, I felt virtually forced to commit an obvious no-no, which is to include Mo Rivera, an active player as Closer. Clearly, Mo is going to retire a Yankee, but the main reason I felt I had to include him on the first team will be obvious when I post my second team.

2nd Team-Pitchers
SP Ted Lyons 60.7 (White Sox) 0 CY
SP Bob Feller 59.9 (Indians) 0 CY
SP Don Drysdale 57.4 (Dodgers) 1 CY
SP Whitey Ford 50.6 (Yankees) 1 CY
CL Bob Stanley 132 SVs (Red Sox) 0 CY

As you can see, Bob Stanley—loathed by many of the Fenway faithful, and tied for 89th overall in saves—comes out as the top single-team closer who is no longer active. And, with all due respect, Stanley just doesn't belong on same team with Johnson, Gibson, Hubbell, and Palmer. So it had to be Mo.

The most interesting discoveries I got from this single-team-allstar making process are that: 1) all time great single-team SP's are a lot rarer than single-team position players, and 2) great closers move around a whole lot. Rivera is truly unique in sticking with one team throughout his entire career.

Post-FA era (1980-present)-- off the top o' me noggin - minimum 10 years....

2nd Team
Closer - Bob Stanley (the only other "closer" I can think of w/10 yrs on one club)

Looking back over the thread, I see that Palanion picked up the same thing I did about Stanley being pretty much the only decent closer behind Mo with a single-team resume. Also, nobody seems to have any qualms about putting Rivera at closer, even though he's active, so I withdraw my apology. Jeter's current WAR is 69.3, so he's really pressing Yount for the 2nd team and is likely to surpass him on the WAR front before he retires, which will almost certainly be as a Yankee, and Jeter's strong record in post-season play should also count in his favor. But one can never know for sure if Jeter will actually retire as a Yankee, and I would resist putting an active player on any all-time single-team all stars except for an obvious emergency as with Mo in the closer role.

Cobb played for more than one team.

You can't include Cobb on Hackra's Old School team. either. He finished his career playing for Connie Mack in Philadelphia. Incidentally, on the same team were five other future Hall of Famers: Grove, Cochrane, Simmons, Foxx and an ageless Eddie Collins. I can't think of any other team that had six Hall of Famers at the same time.

Seven. You forgot Mack himself.

Sometimes HOFers are lurking in the wings, too. Aging stars, or rookies who didn't play much, or future HOF managers. For example the 1923 Giants had: Frisch, Bancroft, Ross Youngs, Travis Jackson, Stengel, Hack Wilson, Bill Terry, and John McGraw. That's 8 HOFers, though only the first 3 mentioned were true starters, and several, such as Bancroft and Jackson, might be considered borderline HOF picks at best. And Stengel got in as a manager.

More impressive are the 1928 Yankees, which build on the 7 HOFers of 1927 (all starters plus the manager)—that is Ruth, Gehrig, Lazzeri, Combs, Hoyt, Pennock, and Huggins—by adding rookies Leo Durocher and Bill Dickey. So that's 9 HOFers. By 1929, you've got the same 9 guys, and moreover, youngsters Durocher and Dickey had become starters. The downers were that Huggins died in mid-season and the Yanks finished second as the A's came on and the Yanks pitching staff fell apart.

The best example I've found so far is the 1932 Yankees, both in terms of numbers and in terms of quality of performance of the HOFers involved. The 1932 Yanks had 6 starting HOFers in their everyday lineup: Dickey, Gehrig, Lazzeri, Sewell, Combs, and Ruth, and all played well. Plus HOFers Gomez and Ruffing were their top pitchers, going a combined 42-14, and the aging Pennock hung on to go 9-5. When you add manager Joe McCarthy, you get 10 HOFers, all of whom made a real contribution to victory, and this team won 107 games and the World Series in four games.

There may be a team with more HOFer's than that, but I'll let somebody else dig them out. I doubt there are any which have more HOFers making a real contribution to the team.

You can't include Cobb on Hackra's Old School team. either. He finished his career playing for Connie Mack in Philadelphia. Incidentally, on the same team were five other future Hall of Famers: Grove, Cochrane, Simmons, Foxx and an ageless Eddie Collins. I can't think of any other team that had six Hall of Famers at the same time.



Seven. You forgot Mack himself.

Make that 8. Zack Wheat also finished up there on Mack's bench.

Still, Outta Leftfield I think has identified THE team with the most HOFers.

WN

You probably alienated half of Red Sox nation by implying Ted Williams should be a DH instead of starting LF.
And while the numbers may be smaller Detroit fans are not going to think taking Kaline from the field to DH is right.

I have no emotional ties to either team so will consider this a spectator sport and just watch the carnage as you receive their wrath.

You probably alienated half of Red Sox nation by implying Ted Williams should be a DH instead of starting LF.
And while the numbers may be smaller Detroit fans are not going to think taking Kaline from the field to DH is right.

I have no emotional ties to either team so will consider this a spectator sport and just watch the carnage as you receive their wrath.

Well, no insult was intended to the reputation of Teddy Ballgame or the honor of Red Sox Nation by the proposal of this first team OF.

LF - Musial - 123.4 (Cardinals) 3 MVP
CF - Mantle - 105.5 (Yankees) 3 MVP
RF - Mel Ott - 104.0 (Giants) 0 MVP
DH - Ted Williams - 119.8 (Red Sox) 2 MVP

If the DH was removed, Ted would go into LF, Musial would slide into RF, and Ott would have to wait for the second team. But I think most of the Fenway faithful themselves would agree that while Ted was second to none as a hitter among the single-team all-stars, he has to take a back seat as a gloveman to Mantle, Musial and Ott.

OTOH, Tiger fans might really be upset about my placing Kaline at DH on the second team, since he had a great defensive reputation. Trouble is that here's the second team OF:

LF - Yastrzemski - 90.1 (Red Sox) 1 MVP
CF - Dimaggio - 75.1 (Yankees) 3 MVP
RF - Clemente - 89.8 (Pirates) 1 MVP
DH - Kaline - 87.4 (Tigers) 0 MVP

They were ALL great fielders. But should Kaline really displace Clemente in RF? He's generally considered the greatest defensive RF of all time. But I felt Kaline very much belonged on the team. It's interesting to note that these days Clemente's reputation towers over Kaline's, but WAR sees them as almost identical overall, with Clemente just a hairsbreadth ahead. Significant, Bill James made the case years ago in his Historical Abstract that Clemente and Kaline, despite their widely different current reputations, were almost identical in terms of player-value. And WAR seems to bear that out.

Post Free agent era 1980-2012
C - Jorge Pasada
1b - Jeff Bagwell
2b- Craig Biggio
SS - Cal Ripken
3b- Chipper Jones
Lf- Jim Rice
Cf-Bernie Williams
Rf-Tony Gwynn
Dh-Edgar Martinez