Indiana's Baseball All-Time Dream Team
What would a dream team roster look like for major league players born in Indiana?
Issue #143
This is the 29th article in a series where I am creating all-time dream teams for players born in each of the fifty US states. I’m publishing each write-up on the anniversary date that the particular state joined the union. So far I’ve covered Maryland, Louisiana, Minnesota, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Virginia, Idaho, Wyoming, New York, Colorado, Missouri, Hawaii, California, Nevada, North and South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Illinois, Delaware, and Mississippi.
Next up is Indiana, which on December 11th, 1816, became the 19th state to join the union (according to Wikipedia.)
Important caveat to what follows: I’m creating these all-time dream teams based on the birthplace data available at baseball-reference.com. I realize this might mean some players will appear for a state’s all-time dream that seems odd, e.g., a player who was born in one state but lived there only briefly, while then spending most of his youth, or especially critical years playing baseball in high school in another state. So that is an important caveat to the below dream team roster—and I’ll discuss the players that I know went to high school in a state other than Indiana towards the end of this article (and vice-versa, those born elsewhere but who went to high school in Indiana.)
Here is the all-time dream team I came up with for players born in Indiana:
This roster is loaded with stars, and includes 11 Hall of Famers—including six in the OF alone. Out of all of the great names, one stands out as a truly all-time elite player: Oscar Charleston. He was a true superstar of the Negro Leagues, who won three batting titles, led his league in HR five times, runs five times, RBI four times, and even stolen bases twice. According to the numbers at baseball-reference.com, his career slash line was .365/.449/.615 and his career OPS+ was 184.
Charleston played mostly CF but spent some time at 1B. As it turns out, this roster is loaded with star players at both positions, so some great guys will be riding the pine more often than you’d like. At 1B we have two New York City greats in Gil Hodges and Don Mattingly. And in CF we have Kenny Lofton, Cy Williams, and Hall of Famers Max Carey and Edd Roush. Carey was an elite fielder during his time (1910-1929), and also had 738 career SB and led the NL an impressive ten times in that category. Since he played a fair amount of games in LF, I’ve listed him as the top option there.
Like CF, there is also a logjam of stars in RF with Hall of Famers Sam Rice (1915-1934), Chuck Klein (1928-1944), and Sam Thompson (1885-1898, 1906). In addition, Ted Strong, a Negro Leagues star in the 30s and 40s, had a slash line of .332/.433/.505 and an OPS+ of 170, according to the numbers available at baseball-reference.com.
Two more Hall of Famers are infield starters on this dream team: Scott Rolen at 3B and Billy Herman at 2B. And Donie Bush is a solid SS for this roster, as he had a 16-year career (1908-1923), mostly for the Tigers, scoring 100+ runs four times, stealing 406 bases, and leading the AL in walks five times.
The weakest spot is catcher with Eugene “Bubbles” Hargrave, Dick Dietz, and Milt May. Hargrave, who played 12 seasons between 1913-1930, was a capable hitter with a career .310/.372/.452 slash line, and even won the NL batting title in 1926 with a .353 average. Dietz only played eight seasons in the majors (1966-73), mostly with the Giants, but was an All-Star in 1970 when he hit 22 HR with 107 RBI with an impressive .300/.426/.515 slash line. May was less of a standout hitter than Hargrave or Dietz, but was a capable catcher for five teams over 15 years in the majors.
Starting lineups for this all-time dream team could look like this:
Against RHP:
Max Carey (S) LF
Kenny Lofton / Cy Williams / Edd Roush (L) DH
Sam Rice / Chuck Klein / Sam Thompson (L) RF
Oscar Charleston (L) CF
Don Mattingly (L) 1B
Scott Rolen (R) 3B
Billy Herman (R) 2B
Bubbles Hargrave (R) / Dick Dietz (R) / Milt May (L) C
Donie Bush (S) SS
Against LHP:
Max Carey (S) LF
Billy Herman (R) 2B
Gil Hodges (R) 1B
Oscar Charleston (L) CF
Scott Rolen (R) 3B
Sam Rice / Chuck Klein / Sam Thompson (L) RF
Ted Strong (S) / various lefty hitters DH
Bubbles Hargrave / Dick Dietz (R) C
Donie Bush (S) SS
I like the great defense, speed, and switch-hitting capability of Max Carey as the leadoff LF. But after that, there are plenty of ways you could go in constructing these lineups.
As noted, there are a lot of CF, RF, and 1B candidates to choose from. Unfortunately, most of them hit left-handed, so there aren’t many obvious platoons—except at 1B where Hodges and Mattingly can split time. Charleston was so dominant, I feel like he needs to be an everyday player here—so that means the RF and DH spots need to be shared between lefties Sam Rice, Chuck Klein, Sam Thompson, Kenny Lofton, Cy Williams, and Edd Roush, as well as the switch-hitting Ted Strong.
Rolen, Herman, and Bush are solid starters in the infield, and could hit in various spots in these lineups. At catcher, I’d mostly split up the time between Hargrave and Dietz, with lefty-hitting May getting some playing time against RHP.
As for the pitching staff, I selected Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown as the ace. I remember as a kid looking at Brown’s stats in amazement, particularly his string of six out of seven consecutive seasons (1904-1910) with an ERA below 2.00. Of course many pitchers had relatively low ERAs during that period, but a career 2.06 ERA and 138 ERA+ over 14 seasons remains impressive.
The other Hall-of-Fame pitcher on this roster is old-timer Amos Rusie, who pitched 10 seasons between 1889-1901. He retired with a 246-174 (.586) record, 3.07 ERA, and 129 ERA+. He was a top strikeout pitcher of his era, leading his league five times—but was also wild, leading his league in walks five times.
After those two, I considered five other candidates for the other three spots in this dream team’s five-man rotation. I went with Dizzy Trout, Babe Adams, and Tommy John, but you could certainly make a case for Bob Friend and Freddie Fitzsimmons too. And there were several other notable starting pitchers born in Indiana, and I included four of them in Hooks Dauss, Art Nehf, Andy Benes, and the still active Lance Lynn.
The bullpen on this dream team includes several relievers who were closers for parts of their careers, such as Dan Plesac, LaTroy Hawkins, Drew Storen, and Tim Stoddard. There are also several that split their careers in starter and relief roles, such as Ron Reed, Kent Mercker, and yes, Don Larsen of World Series perfect game fame. How you rank all of the relievers I included on this roster could certainly be argued.
What about players who went to High School in Indiana?
As noted at the outset of this article, and as I’ve done for my other US State dream team write-ups, what if you change the criteria from players who were born in the state of Indiana to players who grew up—which we’ll define as going to high school—in the state of Indiana?
First off, some of the players on the roster above were born in Indiana but went to high school elsewhere, including:
C Dick Dietz – South Carolina
C Milt May – Florida
SS Dickie Thon – Puerto Rico
2B/3B/SS Craig Counsell – Wisconsin
3B/1B Jeff King – Colorado
LF Phil Bradley – Illinois
SP Babe Adams – Missouri
RP/SP Kent Mercker – Ohio
RP/SP Don Larsen – California
If we eliminate those players from the above roster, the biggest loss would be felt at this dream team’s weakest position: catcher. Without Dietz and May on the team, I’d need to dig deeper and include defense-first, 16-year veteran Lou Criger as Hargraves’ backup.
I only found three guys who were born elsewhere but went to high school in the state of Indiana and might conceivably be deserving of consideration for this dream team:
LF Bob Bescher – Ohio
RP Doug Jones – California
RP Steve Hamilton – Kentucky
Bob Bescher played for four teams from 1908-1918. Like many from that era he didn’t have much power and only hit a modest .258. But he walked a lot so had a .353 OBP, and also stole a lot of bases, leading the NL in four consecutive seasons and swiping 428 over his career.
Doug Jones would become the top reliever on this dream team as he had five seasons with 30+ saves, and 303 total saves for his career, along with a 3.30 ERA and 129 ERA+. And Steve Hamilton would join the bullpen too, as he had a 12-year career, mostly with the Yankees in the 1960s, posting a 3.05 ERA and 115 ERA+.
All data is from Baseball-Reference.com, and also their subscription service Stathead.com. If you are a big sports fan, be sure to check out the latest features at Stathead and the Sports Reference family of sites. The state map, flag, flower, and bird images are from Wikipedia.
Did you know? I wrote a book with the same title as this Substack newsletter / blog: Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. It was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports, the publisher of the annual Bill James Handbook and other popular titles. You can learn more about it at www.NowTakingTheField.com, or buy directly at Amazon and other booksellers.
