Ladies and gentleman, welcome to Leesburg, Virginia for tonight's game.
Currently being driven to the mound in the world-famous 1969 Dodge Charger from "The Dukes of Hazzard" The General Lee, to perform tonight's national anthem is the love-lee star of stage and screen, actress LeeLee Sobieski. She will be accompanied by noted musicians Tommy Lee and David Lee Roth followed by a special rendition of "God Bless the U.S.A." by Lee Greenwood.
Throwing out tonight's ceremonial first pitch is Lee Chaden, executive vice president of the Sara Lee Corporation.
You get the idea?
"Lee" is just the 24th most-common surname in the United States, birthplace of baseball, and the most famous man to bear the name was a general who led the Confederacy in its attempt to secede from the union. So it's a dicey proposition to build an all-Lee team.
A total of 30 men with the surname "Lee" have played in the major leagues, and six of them have been All-Stars -- two for the very first time in 2005, Carlos and Derrek. Compare that to the fact that there have been 37 All-Stars with the middle name Lee (not including Hall of Fame manager George Lee "Sparky" Anderson).
There have also been six All-Stars with the first (given) name Lee, including matinee idol Lee Mazzilli, slugging 1B Lee May and the all-time saves leader (regardless of name), Big Lee Smith. And that doesn't take into account the five All-Stars and three Hall of Famers who had the first or middle name "Leroy" -- unfortunately, there were no Bad, Bad Leroy Browns, but Leroy "Satchel" Paige, James Leroy Bottomley and Frank Leroy Chance have found their way into the Hall of Fame. Oh, and there is the one first-name Lee who is a Hall of Famer, Lee-gendary General Manager Lee MacPhail.
We're not going to extend our Lee-search to include Leighs, Leos, Leons and Leonards, or we'd be expanding too, um, wide-lee -- though it would be nice to have Hall of Famers like 2B Joe Leonard Morgan, DH Paul Leo Molitor, OF Leon "Goose" Goslin and RHSP Leon Day as roster options.
What we will do is match up every single one of the 37 All-Stars with the middle name Lee against the 30 men with that surname who have reached the big leagues. Sure, that's not fair; but anyone who shares a name with General Robert E. Lee should understand the allure of fighting the establishment against insurmountable odds. With that said, then, let's move on to meet our challengers.
As always:
** indicates Hall of Famer
* indicates All-Star
| The Middling Lees | The Lasting Lees | |
| MGR: Sparky Lee Anderson** | MGR: Jim Leyland (close as we get!) | |
|
Starting Lineup: C Johnny Lee Bench** 1B Willie Lee McCovey** 2B Don Lee Blasingame* SS David Lee Chalk* 3B Eddie Lee Matthews** LF Robert Lee "Indian Bob" Johnson* CF Bobby Lee Bonds* RF Jesse Lee Barfield* DH Mickey Lee Tettleton*
Bench:
Rotation:
Bullpen: |
Starting Lineup: C Cliff W. Lee (UTIL/1B/3B/OF) 1B Derrek L. Lee* 2B Manuel Lee SS Dud Lee 3B Tom Lee (mostly a RP) LF Carlos Lee* CF Hal Lee RF Leron Lee DH Travis Lee
Bench:
Rotation:
Bullpen: |
Well, that about does it ... the All-Lee Surname team doesn't run really deep and we don't even really have a proper catcher. But we are able to (bare-lee) fill out a starting lineup, and as long as everyone stays healthy, the lack of a bench won't hurt TOO much (knock wood).
We're already filling the hot corner for the Last-Lee team with a guy who did more pitching in the bigs than anything else; that hardly matches up with Hall of Famer Eddie Matthews and former MVP Terry Pendleton, two former Braves sharing the -- here in Texas we have to call them the "Midland Lees" -- playing time over in the other dugout.
In fact, the Bench comparison is compounded when you realize that the Midland Lee gang not only has a bench stuffed with former All-Stars, it has a Hall of Fame Bench behind the plate.
Odd-lee enough, the Surname Lee Gang, in its rotation, swings way to the left (leeft?) with four starters being southpaws, while the middle-name Lees can come up with just one portsider for their rotation.
Clear-lee, at least one of these squads could use some help. Suggestions sure-lee are welcome!
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050814194428998