Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises
If you’re looking for an argument, this is a good place to start.
Stone has done diligence, not only in compiling the figures but by fine-tuning his picks with keen observations that may or may not hold water, depending, first of all, if you go along with his choice in using WAR as the decision-rendering stat.
There are a number of books that pick the “best player”; Derek Gentile’s Baseball’s Best 1,000: Rankings of the Greatest Players of All Time
- Sport Magazine, 1958
- Sporting News fan poll, 1969
- Roger Kahn in Sport, 1980
- 1990 Baseball Research Journal from SABR
- 1991 Louisville Slugger Presents
- Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Lineups, 2003
- Few And Chosen: Defining Dodgers Greatness Across the Eras, by Duke Snider and Phil Pepe
The list goes on.
I’m not going to get into specifics. If you’re going by just a single point of reference, it’s difficult to argue. Readers might balk at some of the choices, however, and wonder why their beloved Joe Shalbotnik missed the cut.
It’s interesting to see how newer players supplant older ones, although some, like Sandy Koufax, maintain their presence in their team’s royalty.
Of course, the pickings get a bit slimmer for teams that haven’t been around all that long, relatively speaking. In fact, I was a bit hard-pressed to recognize some players from the most recent expansion clubs.
Nevertheless, Taking the Field is a nice leisurely volume to sift through. No need to go in order, just skip around to find your favorites and some probable surprises.
is available on Amazon.com,
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