During my childhood in Brooklyn, my friends and I spent many a day on one of the stoops on East 39th Street arguing about whose favorite players were better. I know to the present day’s more sophisticated fanbase, this may seem trite, but armed with our newspapers or our memories from the previous night’s games, we made pretty good cases for our respective guys.
In the dark days following the inexplicable trade of Tom Seaver, those of us who were Mets fans could no longer claim the superiority of having the best pitcher in town. Maybe it’s because the post Seaver trade Mets were so awful is the reason I became so enamored with baseball history, particularly with NY baseball history. Oh, I still climbed into my dad’s 1974 Dodge Dart and went to Shea to root for Steve Henderson and my main man Lee Mazzilli, but wishing for the likes of players like Carl Furillo and Christy Mathewson also occupied my young mind.
Years later, while working at Associated Press, I came up with the idea (after reading a book about Jack Chesbro), that I wanted to create a destination for any baseball fan to read about the history of New York baseball, from the Mtuuals to the Ccylones, from the Babe to the Beltran, from Jackie to Jeter. So, Gotham Baseball was born.
This ballot is part of a long ongoing project that will be revealed later, but suffice it to say, it’s important we build the best team we can, so vote wisely!
Here is the complete ballot, from First Base to the ballpark. Please share with your baseball-loving friends.
GREAT Idea & Poll, Mark. Can’t wait to see the final line-up!! It’s going to be a powerhouse. That’s for sure. The best of any town in history.
Being a fan of all the great New York clubs, I feel compelled to suggest that Joltin’ Joe – arguably the greatest all-round centerfielder in
Baseball history – lost significant votes due to the omission of his name from the CF ballot.
(A similar argument foulness be made for Jake Ruppert, the most successful owner of all time – though one certainly has to love wonderful Joan Payson for all she was and all she did for New York!)
Just my two cents, Mark. It’s a GREAT poll. Thanks for letting us be part of it!
Tim Reid
I’d take DiMaggio and put him left field.
[...] Link: Vote for the All-Time Gotham Baseball Team Gotham Nation [...]
Wow. Left field is terrible. Lol
DiMaggio can play left field.
Really cool idea, just a couple omissions. Piazza should have been the Mets Representative over Gary Carter at Catcher and Managers if you use Casey it has to be for the Mets, Joe Torre must be for the Yankees though. No Question.
Um Mike Piazza
I know. I keep saying how ridiculous it is not to include Piazza, who had more great years in NY than Carter, and is only the most dominant hitter of all time at his position.
I think a lot of folks agree – I bet most of the write-in votes are for Piazza, and write-ins are winning.
Nice to see a balance between teams too in the results so far (Met and Yankee fans not voting for their own all the time
) Looking forward to seeing the end results.!
where is sandy koufax among lefty starters????
in LA
[...] Gotham Nation Source: MetsBlog [...]
I spent more time on this ballot than on my voting ballot.
It’s been said already but Piazza absolutely has to be included at catcher otherwise I thought this was really cool!