All Decade Team 1950s AL
As we move through the decades, we are beginning to find putting the team together far more difficult. A couple of reasons might exist to explain why this is happening. First, the 50s (and 60s) introduced a huge crop of future hall of famers, so the talent pool increased significantly. Also, with this decade, we're starting to get more into players we know more about, or perhaps have even seen (...cough...Hersh...cough...). At the very least, more stories were handed down from the previous generation that we heard first-hand from relatives. There were definitely more disagreements for this all decade team, and they're only going to get tougher as we progress. Here's the team of the 50s for the American League.
C - Yogi Berra
1B - Mickey Vernon
2B - Nellie Fox
3B - Al Rosen
SS - Harvey Kuenn
IF - Ray Boone
OF - Ted Williams
OF - Mickey Mantle
OF - Minnie Minoso
OF - Jackie Jensen
SP - Bob Lemon
SP - Early Wynn
SP - Whitey Ford
SP - Billy Pearce
CL - Ellis Kinder
The Indians back then were the 1950s equivalent of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Cole Hamels. Two Indians made the team, Bob Lemon and Early Wynn, and a third, Mike Garcia, was up for consideration. Oh yeah, they had a guy named Bob Feller too, but he began to tail off towards the middle of the decade. Still, three Hall of Famers for part of the decade makes for a pretty good pitching staff. Jackie Jensen also made the cut over Hall of Famer Al Kaline. Jensen had a really good decade, and we think Kaline is better suited to the 60s team.
C - Yogi Berra
1B - Mickey Vernon
2B - Nellie Fox
3B - Al Rosen
SS - Harvey Kuenn
IF - Ray Boone
OF - Ted Williams
OF - Mickey Mantle
OF - Minnie Minoso
OF - Jackie Jensen
SP - Bob Lemon
SP - Early Wynn
SP - Whitey Ford
SP - Billy Pearce
CL - Ellis Kinder
The Indians back then were the 1950s equivalent of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Cole Hamels. Two Indians made the team, Bob Lemon and Early Wynn, and a third, Mike Garcia, was up for consideration. Oh yeah, they had a guy named Bob Feller too, but he began to tail off towards the middle of the decade. Still, three Hall of Famers for part of the decade makes for a pretty good pitching staff. Jackie Jensen also made the cut over Hall of Famer Al Kaline. Jensen had a really good decade, and we think Kaline is better suited to the 60s team.
The arguments will become more heated I think. Good team, how could you go wrong with Williams and Mantle on the same team?
ReplyDeleteKaline won the batting crown in the 50s. Definite pick over Minoso.
ReplyDeleteIn the comments, we explained our Kaline choice a bit... in most cases, we limited a player to one particular decade. There were rare exceptions to that rule (see Mays, Willie) but those exceptions were reserved for the bona fide all-time greats. Kaline is probably about as close as it gets to deserving an exception but we went with Minoso and Jensen. We like the variety and by limiting the duplicates, we can point to players like Mays and Frank Robinson and say that they made multiple all-decade/franchise teams and it really means something ... thanks for commenting!
Delete