More all-name teams: Valentine's Day | Christmas | Thanksgiving
Do we, your humble Eye on Baseball scribes, take requests? On occasion. Like now:
@EyeOnBaseball knowing you make holiday teams for certain holidays I was thinking WHY NOT make a ALL COLOR TEAM ???
— Matthew Tommasini (@Godforgivesu) March 3, 2014
He provided us with examples Shawn Green and Vida Blue. So, OK, sure. Let's do that.
Before I dive in, let us point out that this is most certainly not news and it's just for entertainment. If you didn't like the previous installments, you won't like this one. That doesn't mean we haven't posted on actual, serious, newsy baseball today. We have. It's just that, you see, on an Internet site -- unlike in a newspaper -- we don't have space constraints. Thus, we like to have fun. Got that, Fun Police? Good.
On this team, I wanted to make it a rule that we'd only use each color once -- lest we be saddled with a team full of Black, White and Brown. I also decided to use only names that contain just the color. That is, Black but not Blackmon or White but not (Mark) Whiten, for example.
Without further ado, here we go.
Catcher: Silver Flint
A catcher and outfielder for the Chicago White Stockings (eventually the Cubs) from 1879-89, he hit .236/.250/.325 in his career -- but the pickings were slim with the color silver and we needed the spot to be filled.
First base: Shawn Green
Mostly a right fielder, Green did play 142 games at first base and I needed him here more than in right. Fun fact: He's the only member of this team with a four-homer game in his career.
Second base: Frank White
The five-time All-Star and eight-time Gold Glover makes a great entry.
Third base: Pete Rose
Is rose a color? Seems a stretch, but I think we could find a crayon that says "rose" on the side -- hence our title being "All-Crayon" team -- so we're taking the hit king.
Shortstop: Red Schoendienst
The Hall of Famer was a second baseman, yes, I know. He did appear in 177 2/3 innings at shortstop, though, so we're going with him.
Left field: Darryl Strawberry
So I became desperate to find new colors and noticed there's a Wikipedia page with a list of colors that includes strawberry. Sweet (in more ways than one)! As for Straw being used in left instead of right, well, he logged 371 2/3 innings in left field in his career and I needed him here.
Center field: Chet Lemon
Yes, lemon was on the same Wikipedia page as strawberry. Could we find both in a huge set of crayons? Hopefully, lest this all-important list be rendered disqualified by the aforementioned Fun Police.
Right field: Tim Salmon
Dude, it's not pink, it's salmon.
Right-handed starting pitcher: Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown
I've posted about the story of the Hall of Famer before in this space. As a backup option here, how about Kevin Brown?
Left-handed starting pitcher: Vida Blue
Pretty easy choice on several fronts.
Closer: Jeff Gray
Very slim pickings here, as our closer saved 10 games for the Red Sox in 1990 and 1991 combined. He was pretty effective in '91, though, with a 2.34 ERA and 0.90 WHIP in 61 2/3 innings.
Manager: Bud Black
Easily one of the first people to come to mind.
Definitely feel free to make your own. Obviously there's no wrong answer here and my rules could be skirted, if one were so inclined.
