All-Decade Team: 1960's NL

Today, we're taking a look at the 1960's NL Squad. In my opinion, this team rivals any other team that we have put together. The pitching rotation is probably the best of any all-time or all-decade team and for that reason alone, it is tough to argue otherwise. The four pitchers on this team rank among the most dominant in baseball history and we had to pass on a lot of worthy representatives because of that. Consider this, the four players that we picked to represent this team accounted for 650 wins in the 1960's alone, 6 career Cy Young Awards, 2 MVP trophies and all of them boast a career ERA below 3.00. The outfield is also one of the most decorated outfields you will find, boasting four "no doubt about it" Hall of Famers. The infield might lack some star power at the corner infield positions but all four infielders on this team were very good defensively and overall there is not one player on this team that didn't receive a 10% vote for Cooperstown (20% if you don't count our relief pitcher, Roy Face). Ron Santo, Maury Wills and Joe Torre are guys that many will say belong in Cooperstown and the rest of the squad is already enshrined (except Face... sorry Roy, don't mean to single you out).

So here's our 1960's NL squad. Enjoy!

C - Joe Torre
1B - Orlando Cepeda
2B - Bill Mazeroski
SS - Maury Wills
3B - Ron Santo
IF - Willie McCovey
OF - Willie Mays
OF - Hank Aaron
OF - Roberto Clemente
OF - Frank Robinson
SP - Bob Gibson
SP - Sandy Koufax
SP - Juan Marichal
SP - Don Drysdale
RP - Roy Face

4 comments:

  1. That starting rotation give you goosebumps, doesn't it. I would have included Curt Flood over Frank Robinson for two reasons - he was one of the best defensive players of his era and Robinson spent half of the decade over in the AL. There is no question that Robinson was one of the greatest players of his era, but he is just as much an AL outfielder as NL.

    You could also make a strong case for Tim McCarver over Torre for catcher. McCarver was a huge part of two of the Cardinals trips to the World Series, probably should have been the '64 WS MVP.

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  2. Awesome comments, netherton. When we were finished selecting this team, we were very excited; goosebumps would be appropriate. You could have Juan Marichal starting game three!!

    As for Torre/McCarver... Torre was so much better offensively in the 70's that it's hard to argue with our choice. McCarver is underrated, slightly (aside from how he feels about himself) but I think that Torre is borderline a Hall of Famer and McCarver is not.

    Thanks so much for stopping in.

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  3. Ron Perranoski deserves consideration for RP.

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