But instead, let's look to build a team of players who are literally All-Star names -- though it turns out this might be harder than we originally planned, so be prepared to help ...
What we're looking for, especially after last night's game in Pittsburgh, home to none other than the greatness of Wilver "Pops" Stargell, is players who have the character string s-t-a-r in their names, first, middle or last (though it turns out there are none of the first type). That means while we will of course look to the guys named. "Starr," we will also look elsewhere.
When you do a seach for "Star" on the greatness of BaseballReference.com, just 15 names appear and one is a nickname, while ironically, just three of the 15 (including Stargell) ever made an All-Star team.
And as it turns out, four of those 15 were catchers, so even if we
DH one of them, we're bound to run a bit short in this particular
universe of players before we fill out a complete team, much less a
complete roster. So what do we do?
Well, as we have learned in the Hall of Names previously, desperate times can call for desperate measures, and we might turn to foreign language equivalents for "star," such as the Spanish "estrella" and the German "stern" -- but each of those provides just one more candidate for the team, and even if we stretch and cajole to include the largest star in our system and players whose names include the character string s-u-n, we're only getting another half-dozen options, the best of whom -- and the only All-Star, natch -- is another catcher, Jim Sundberg, who doesn't make the team anyway since that spot is already filled, obviously.
So we can't legitimately put an All-Star lineup together, even with
foreign language additions, unless we really stretch our German
spelling quite a ways to fill the gaping hole at 3B. But if we do so,
here's our lineup and a short list of hurlers who can take the hill in
our very own Hall of Names All-Star game:
Player/Manager Joe Start (18-7, 1873 New York Mutuals)
C Bill Starr (.208, 1935 WSH; 1 G 0 AB, 1936)
1B Joe Start (.299, 1871-86)
2B Charlie Starr (.211, 1905, '08-09)
SS Dolly Stark (.238, 1909-12)
3B Snuffy Stirnweiss* (.268 in 10 years; AS 2B played 117 G at 3B)
LF Willie Stargell** (.282, 475 homers)
CF Billy Sunday (.248, 246 SB, 1883-90)
RF Art Sunday (.265, 1890 Brooklyn Ward's Wonders)
DH Matt Stark (.179, 1987 TOR, 1990 CHW)
RHSP Ray Starr* (37-35, 1932-33, '41-45)
LHSP Thornton Starr Lee* (117-124)
RHSP Dennis Stark (15-13, 1999-2004)
RHRP Herman Starrette (1-1, 1963-65 BAL)
RHRP Dick Starr (12-24, 1947-51)
RHRP Conrad Starkel (1 G, 3 IP; 18.00, 1903 WSH)
RHRP Leo Estrella (7-3 for 2003 MIL; 0-0, '00 TOR, '04 SFG)
BENCH OPTIONS
C George Starnagle (0-for-3 in 1 G for 1903 CLE)
C John Star "Dick" Gossett (.159, 1913-14 NYY)
OF Adam Stern (.133 for 2005 BOS)
Okay, so we really stretch with Stirnweiss, not only glossing over
proper spelling, but playing him out of his primary position. And while
we managed to put together a full lineup (sort of) we are definitely
short of pitchers and bench options. So get creative Bauxites ... how
can this team be even more star-studded?
