The fifteenth most-common North American surname is "Harris." Honestly, it's not a sexy baseball name. Now, if we were talking gridiron, as in the NFL, we'd have a running back named Franco and a defensive back named Cliff in our Hall of Fame and All-Pro coffers, with one of the first black quarterbacks, James, also a Pro Bowler, along for the ride.
But for baseball? Well, the biggest name is that of a Hall of Famer, sure, but a manager -- Bucky. Actually, like his (Sparky) Anderson predecessor, Bucky Harris was also a starting 2B in the big leagues, but where the Andersons had Garrett and Brady and a few other guys to populate the lineup, the case can be made that Bucky, at .274 over parts of 12 seasons, is actually the best hitter -- even the best player -- on an All-Harris team.
Now, to be fair, there have only been 32 Harrises to play big league ball -- four are active, with only ancient utilityguy Lenny even within remote shouting distance of Bucky's "best Harris" designation.
Not only aren't there very many options in the way of lefty hurlers, a common problem with these Hall of Names teams, but did you notice that in our short list of NFL Harrises above, we named a running back, a quarterback and a defensive back -- but no receivers? Well, the same "lack of Harris receivers" problem applies in baseball, so unfortunately our catcher's box will stand empty. Prepare for a lot of passed balls, but anyway, meet ...
THE HARRIS POLLSTERS
** indicates Hall of Famer
* indicates All-Star
Player/Manager Bucky Harris** (2157-2218, three pennants, two titles)
Player/Coach Lum Harris (466-488, 1969 NL West champs)
Lineup
C VACANT
1B Joe "Moon" Harris (.317, 1914-28)
2B Bucky Harris** (HOF as MGR; .274, 1919-31)
SS Vic Harris (.217, 1972-80; 35 games at SS)
3B Charlie Harris (.279 in 30 games for 1899 Baltimore Orioles
LF Ned Harris (.251, 1941-46)
CF Dave "Sherrif" Harris (.281, 1925-34)
RF Spencer Harris (.249, 1925-30)
DH Gail Harris (1B hit .240, 1955-60)
Bench
C VACANT
1B/OF John Harris (.258, 1979-81)
2B/3B J. Billy Harris (218 for 1968 CLE and 1969 KCR)
2B/OF Willie Harris (.240, 2001-04 BAL, CHW)
OF Donald Harris (.205 for 1991-93 TEX)
UTIL Lenny Harris (.268 in 17 years; all but C)
Rotation
RHSP Greg W. Harris (45-64, 1988-95)
LHSP Mickey Harris (59-71, 1940-52)
RHSP Bob Harris (30-52, 1938-42; 23-29 in 1940-41)
RHSP Bill M. Harris (24-22, 1923-24; '31-'38)
RHSP Ben Franklin Harris (7-7 for 1914-15 KC Packers)
Bullpen
CL-RH Greg A. Harris (74-90, 54 saves; 20 saves for '86 TEX)
RH-SET Gene Harris (12-18, 26 saves; 23 saves for 1993 SDP)
RH-SET Bubba Harris (6-3, 8 saves, 1948-51)
RH-LONG Pep Harris (10-5, 1996-98)
RH-LONG Lum Harris (35-63, three saves, 1941-47)
Poll Results ... The only Harris-named position players not to make the roster are 2B/3B current Washington National Brendan Harris, a .191-hitting 2B/3B who has, to date, actually been outperformed by the .218-hitting J. Billy Harris, who played the same positions; 1B/OF Frank Harris, who hit .263 in 24 games with 1884 Altoona, then a major league franchise -- we have a lot of options in the 1B/OF-type department; and Candy Harris, who was hitless in six pinch-hit at-bats at the age of 19 for the 1967 Astros ...
Third among all-time saves among Harrises is the rotation's top winner, LHSP Mickey Harris, whose 22 trails only Greg A. Harris and Gene Harris; Mickey also trails only Greg A. in Harris victories, 74-59 ... Greg A. Harris, you might recall, is the ultimate LOOGY/closer in that he is the only man in big league history to pitch with both hands in games that counted ... Sure, he had just one inning as a lefty in his final year in the bigs, and it was just a stunt, but did we mention how short this team is on left-handed pitching? ...
In fact, there are exactly zero true lefties in the bullpen, with the only option even being LHRP Herb Harris, who managed a 10.29 in four games for the 1936 Phillies ... Another guy not making the team is poor RHP Joe W. Harris, who was 2-21 for the 1906 Red Sox and finished with a career mark of -- brace youselves -- 3-30 ... Another RHRP, Reggie Harris, was 2-3 in sporadic appearances throughout the 1990s while current SEA RHP Jeff Harris was 2-5 in 2005 (there's nice symmetry to that) mostly in a starting role ...
So that's about it, Bauxites ... I don't expect anyone out there to get this particular obligatory end-of-column pun, but given where I work, I have to ask ... any suggestions on how good (or not) our Harris Method is?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20051004212209685