According to the good folks over at BaseballAlmanac.com (second only to the incomparable BaseballReference.com as a resource for these Hall of Names expeditions), "There are more than three-hundred fifty sets of brothers who have made it to the Major Leagues. Twenty-five members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame had a brother who also played in the big leagues. Other interesting combos include World Series Appearances, All-Star Games and pitcher vs catcher match-ups."
So it would be hard to limit ourselves to just one team of all-brothers (and we're not even talking about Hall of Fame 1B Dan and one-season cuppajoe Art who were both Brouthers, but were not brothers) when, in point of fact, you could pretty much put an All-Star lineup together using just Alous, Waners, Niekros and Alomars -- the latter of which without even including dad Sandy Sr.
So let's make the rules just a bit more stringent ...
... and build a Hall of Names team comprised solely of players who had more than one brother in the majors. That is, at least three brothers in the family landed in big league uniforms. That leaves us with the following options:
** indicates Hall of Famer
* indicates All-Star
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SIDEBAR: NOT OF THE MINNESOTA VARIETY
There is one other characteristic that might set brothers apart from the norm, other than there being more than two, as the main story goes. That, of course, is in the case of twins (identical or fraternal, not Minnesota). We could never get a complete roster made up of twins, though, as only nine sets -- that's 19 players total -- have ever, er, conjointly made it to the bigs. Alphabetically, the best-known come first, in Jose and Ozzie Canseco, who combined to hit 462 big league homers -- oh, okay, Jose hit all of them, but as far as we know, at least Ozzie can write. Then come the Cliburn boys, Stan and Stew, a pitcher and catcher respectively, who missed being a battery of Angels by about four seasons. The Edwards twins, along with younger brother Dave, are the only set of brothers to earn mention in both the main story and in this sidebar. Ray and Roy Grimes both had briefer big league careers than dad Oscar, even though Ray left baseball with a career .329 average in parts of six seasons. The Hunter boys had cups of coffeed, with George pitching 112 innings and getting 123 AB as a P/OF for the 1909-10 Brooklyn Superbas and Bill hit .164 in 21 games for the 1912 Cleveland Naps. Claude and Clarence Jonnard each spent parts of six seasons in the bigs, but never a full one by either, the former a pitcher and the latter a catcher who went by "Bubber." Over in the "Minor" leagues, Damon showed occasional flashes of power as a 1B for the 2000-04 Giants, while across the diamond at 3B, Ryan stepped in for Cal Ripken Jr. and proved he was a fine basketball player, as infielders go. The O'Brien twins each played from 1953-58, with both starting out as middle infielders with the Pirates and both trying late-career shifts to the mound; I guess what they say about twins following similar career paths can be true. Finally, we have the Shannon twins, who broke in together with the 1915 Boston Braves at the tender age of 18. His 10 at-bats as a 2B/)F that year was Joe's only taste of big league action, while SS Maurice ("Red") hit .259 over parts of seven seasons. |
And oh, thank goodness for the Perez boys and the Clarkson clan or this multi-brother team's pitching staff would be in some serious trouble! As it is, we go with a short four-man bullpen because there don't appear to be many options after the five-man all-Perez-and-Clarkson rotation. The Baseball Almanac site mentioned above identifies Gabe Molina as one of the Flying Molina brothers, of whom everyone else is a catcher, but given all the backstops were born in Puerto Rico and Gabe was born in Denver, I kind of doubt that's accurate -- too bad, he'd probably be this team's closer, even without a save recorded in his career through 2004.
Of the 55 players in our multi-brother pool, we have six Hall of Famers and nine others who have been named All-Stars in the seven decades that honor has been available. Only game pioneers George and Harry Wright are multiple Hall of Famers from the same family on this list, while only the DiMaggio clan managed to place every one -- true, just three, but still -- of its clan on at least one All-Star team each.
While there has been the occasional two-brother pairings of managers (the Lachemanns come to mind), no related pair of our 55 multi-brother candidates ever took the helm of a big league squad; in fact, just a few have been managers at all. Those include Steve O'Neill, Felipe Alou, Ken Boyer and Luke Sewell -- and of course, those "other" Ohioan Wright brothers, George and Harry, who skippered teams to seven pennants, all in the pre-World Series era.
Lave Cross also took a turn managing, but was just 8-30 in part of one season with the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, so he can focus on playing. The rest, led by Harry Wright, then, will serve as player-coaches for ...
The Brothers in Arms
Manager: Harry Wright (1225-885, six pennants)
Coach: Steve O'Neill (1040-821, 1945 World Series champ)
Coach: Felipe Alou (882-849, two division titles through 2004)
Coach: Ken Boyer (166-190)
Coach: Luke Sewell (606-644, one AL pennant)
Coach: George Wright (59-25, 1870 NL pennant in only season)
LINEUP
C Luke Sewell** (.259 over 20 seasons)
1B Tom Paciorek (.282, 1970-87, 1981 SEA All-Star)
2B George Wright** (mostly a SS, .302 over 12 seasons)
SS Joe Sewell** (.312 JUST 114 K in 14 seasons)
3B Ken Boyer* (.282, 289 homers, five Gold Gloves, seven-time All-Star)
LF Dom DiMaggio* (.28, 100 SB over 11 seasons)
CF Joe DiMaggio** (361 homers, just 369 K)
RF Ed Delahanty** (.346, 101 homers before 1903; did all but P, C)
DH Lave Cross (.292, 2645 hits, 1887-1907; mostly 3B did all but P)
BENCH
C Steve O'Neill (.263, 1911-28)
IF Mike Edwards (.273, 27 SB as 1978 OAK 2B/SS; career OPS+ of 65)
IF Clete Boyer (.242 over 16 years; no Gold Gloves thanks to Brooksie)
OF Jose Cruz Sr.* (.284, 165 homers, 136 SB)
OF Vince DiMaggio* (two-time All-Star led NL in K six times)
OF Matty Alou * (.307, 1777 hits; just beats out brother Felipe)
UTIL Jim Delahanty (.283, 1901-15, did all but C)
ROTATION
RHSP John Clarkson** (328-178 in just 12 years)
LHSP Carlos Perez* (40-53 career, All-Star as 1995 rookie)
RHSP Pascual Perez* (67-68, 1983 All-Star)
RHSP Melido Perez (78-85; winningest Perez brother only non-All-Star)
RHSP Art "Dad" Clarkson (39-39, 1891-96)
BULLPEN
RHRP Cloyd Boyer (20-23, 2 saves in 5 seasons)
RHRP Walter Clarkson (tied for 2nd in AL in 1904 saves -- with 1)
RHRP Bob Sadowski (20-27, 8 saves, 1963-66)
LONG-R Mike O'Neill (32-44, 1901-04)
Now, Bauxites, can you spare some feedback?
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