if you've been paying attention to Baseball's Hall of Names since it started up back in March of 2003, it shouldn't surprise you to learn that we have teams entirely made up of players named Willie, Mickey and Duke -- and the latter team would be much stronger now that Pirate lefty Zach Duke [caution: hyperbole alert] has started down the path to Cooperstown to be with those other three guys mentioned earlier.
Of course, Willie (Mays), Mickey (Mantle) and Duke (Snider) are inextricably linked by their time together in the 1950s patrolling CF in New York for, respectively, the Giants, Yankees and Dodgers. The trio of Hall-of-Famers were further immortalized in the refrain to the catchiest of bubblegum baseball songs ever written, "Talkin' Baseball (Willie, Mickey and the Duke)" by Terry Cashman.
The following table contains in the left column a list of the lyrics to the Cashman song (also available here, courtesy of Baseball-Almanac.com), and in the right column, the name of the player or players mentioned in each line of the song. Then we'll come back with a standard Hall of Names team consisting entirely of players immortalized in Cashman's lyrics; keep in mind that the song, released in 1981, is missing the last quarter-century of stars -- in fact, it mentions Bobby Bonds.
Still, this team will be pretty good.
|
LYRIC LINE |
PLAYERS MENTIONED |
|
The whiz kids had won it |
|
|
Bobby Thomson had done it, |
All-Star NYG OF |
|
And Yogi read the comics all the while. |
Yankee C Berra |
|
Rock 'n roll was being born, |
|
|
Marijuana, we would scorn, |
|
|
So down on the corner, |
|
|
The national pastime went on trial. |
|
|
We're talkin' baseball |
|
|
Kluszewski, Campanella. |
CIN 1B Ted and BRK C Roy |
|
Talkin' baseball |
|
|
The Man and Bobby Feller. |
STL HOF OF Stan Musial; CLE HOF RHSP |
|
The Scooter, the Barber, and the Newk |
NYY SS Phil Rizzuto, NYG RHSP Sal Maglie and BRK RHSP Don Newcombe |
|
They knew ‘em all from Boston to Dubuque. |
|
|
Especially Willie, Mickey, and the Duke. |
Mays, Mantle, Snider |
|
Well, Casey was winning, |
Yankee skipper Stengel |
|
Hank Aaron was beginning, |
All-time homer champ |
|
One Robbie going out, one coming in. |
Jackie; Frank |
|
Kiner and Midget Gaedel, |
Ralph; sideshow SLB PH Eddie |
|
The Thumper and Mel Parnell, |
Ted Williams; Boston RHSP |
|
And Ike was the only one winning down in Washington. |
Dwight Eisenhower |
|
We're talkin' baseball |
|
|
Kluszewski, Campanella. |
CIN 1B Ted and BRK C Roy |
|
Talkin' baseball |
|
|
The Man and Bobby Feller. |
STL HOF OF Stan Musial; CLE HOF RHSP |
|
The Scooter, the Barber, and the Newk |
NYY SS Phil Rizzuto, NYG RHSP Sal Maglie and BRK RHSP Don Newcombe |
|
They knew ‘em all from Boston to Dubuque. |
|
|
Especially Willie, Mickey, and the Duke. |
Mays, Mantle, Snider |
|
Now my old friend, The Bachelor, |
Not a reference to a player |
|
Well, he swore he was the Oklahoma Kid. |
Mantle |
|
And Cookie played hooky, |
Not a reference to a player |
|
To go and see the Duke. |
Snider |
|
And me, I always loved Willie Mays, |
Mays |
|
Man, those were the days! |
|
|
We're talkin' baseball |
|
|
Kluszewski, Campanella. |
CIN 1B Ted and BRK C Roy |
|
Talkin' baseball |
|
|
The Man and Bobby Feller. |
STL HOF OF Stan Musial; CLE HOF RHSP |
|
The Scooter, the Barber, and the Newk |
NYY SS Phil Rizzuto, NYG RHSP Sal Maglie and BRK RHSP Don Newcombe |
|
They knew ‘em all from Boston to Dubuque. |
|
|
Especially Willie, Mickey, and the Duke. |
Mays, Mantle, Snider |
|
Well, now it's the 80's, |
|
|
And Brett is the greatest, |
KC 3B George |
|
And Bobby Bonds can play for everyone. |
OF, Barry’s dad, eight teams |
|
Rose is at the Vet, |
CIN’s 2B/LF/3B/1B Pete |
|
Rusty again is a Met, |
OF Staub |
|
And the great Alexander is pitchin' again in Washington. |
Ronald Reagan (you knew that, right?) |
|
I'm talkin' baseball! |
|
|
Like Reggie, Quisenberry. |
OF Jackson; RHRP Dan |
|
Talkin' baseball! |
|
|
Carew and Gaylord Perry, |
2B/1B Rod; spitballing RHSP |
|
Seaver, Garvey, Schmidt and Vida Blue, |
Tom, Steve, Mike and A’s/Giants LHSP |
|
If Cooperstown is calling, it's no fluke. |
|
|
They'll be with Willie, Mickey, and the Duke. |
|
|
Willie, Mickey, and the Duke. (Say hey, say hey, say hey) |
|
|
It was Willie, Mickey and the Duke (Say hey, say hey, say hey) |
|
|
I'm talkin' Willie, Mickey and the Duke (Say hey, say hey, say hey) |
|
QUARTER NOTES ... Bobby Thomson doesn't beat out Ralph Kiner for the final reserve OF spot, even though he was clearly a superior defensive outfielder ... Every single position player on the roster who is eligible is in the Hall of Fame; we're looking at you, Pete Rose ... Though the title of the song makes it tempting to just plug in a Mays/Mantle/Snider starting OF, Mantle's knees settle him into the DH slot, while Snider, though a Hall of Famer himself, is clearly going to sit behind Hank Aaron and Ted Williams ... The battle behind the plate also comes down to New York legends, the Yankees' Yogi Berra and Dodgers' Roy Campanella -- the Giants' Wes Wstrum didn't make the song (though "Yogi, Campy and Ol' Wes" could be a whole other verse) ...
George Brett starting over Mike Schmidt? Toss a coin ... Bobby Bonds and Rusty Staub were both fine players for a long time, but neither comes close to cracking this roster ... Thomson is the first guy mentioned in the song, but like Bonds and Staub, doesn't really come close to making this squad ... Steve Garvey and Ted Kluszewski are the only true 1B mentioned (other than Carew, who played nearly as many games at 2B) but Musial played more than 1,000 games there and The Man had 3,630 hits ...
We want a lefty down in the bullpen, so we'll go right-heavy in the rotation and move Don Newcombe into the fourth starter's role that otherwise would have gone to lefty Mel Parnell, even though this breaks the Hall of Names standard of two lefties in the rotation ... We are left with Newcombe and lefty Vida Blue as the only two non-Hall of Famers on this team's starting staff ... Actually, the only players mentioned in the song who don't make the team in some role are Bonds, Staub, Thomson, Garvey, Kluszewski, Reggie Jackson, and as tempting as it is to sign a guy with a career OBP of 1.000, Eddie Gaedel ...
Phil Rizzuto is a fine broadcaster and is one of the most dubious of HOF inductees -- couldn't Cashman find a rhyme for "Aparicio" or at least "Wills"? ...
So let's take a look at our musical lineup ...
SING ALONG WITH TERRY
** indicates Hall of Famer
* indicates All-Star
GM: Brian "Terry" Cashman
MGR: Casey Stengel**
LINEUP
C Yogi Berra**
1B Stan Musial**
2B Rod Carew**
SS Phil Rizzuto**
3B George Brett**
LF Ted Williams**
CF Willie Mays**
RF Hank Aaron**
DH Mickey Mantle**
BENCH
C Roy Campanella**
IF Jackie Robinson**
COR IF Mike Schmidt**
OF Duke Snider**
OF Ralph Kiner**
OF/DH Frank Robinson**
UTIL Pete Rose*
ROTATION
RHSP Bob Feller**
LHSP Vida Blue*
RHSP Tom Seaver**
RHSP Gaylord Perry**
5SP-R Don Newcombe*
BULLPEN
CL-R Dan Quisenberry*
LHP Mel Parnell*
RHP Sal Maglie*
So Bauxites ... does this team hit any sour notes, or is it just a solid knock off the wall?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050627103418872