Massachusetts' Baseball All-Time Dream Team
What would a dream team roster look like for major league players born in Massachusetts?
Issue #161
This is the 42nd 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, Mississippi, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Alabama, New Jersey, Iowa, Texas, Georgia, Alaska, Utah, New Mexico, Connecticut, Michigan, and Kansas.
Next up is Massachusetts, which of course was one of the original 13 colonies, becoming a state on February 6th, 1788 when it was the sixth to ratify the constitution (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 Massachusetts towards the end of this article (and vice-versa, those born elsewhere but who went to high school in Massachusetts.)
Here is the all-time dream team I came up with for players born in Massachusetts:
This all-time dream team has stars at just about every position, and is particularly well-stocked with old-timers from the 1800s and early 1900s. Overall there are ten Hall of Famers, four pitchers and six position players, though only two—SP Tom Glavine and 1B Jeff Bagwell—played after 1950.
If I had to pick a captain for this team I’d probably go with catcher Mickey Cochrane, as he regularly received MVP votes and won the AL MVP twice, with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1928, and then again with the Detroit Tigers in 1934, when he led the team as player/manager to a World Series Championship. He retired after 13 seasons with an impressive .320/.419/.478 slash line and 129 OPS+.
In addition to superstar Jeff Bagwell, 1B was the position with the most depth with Fred Tenney (1894-1909, 1911), Elbie Fletcher (1934-35, 37-43, 46-47, 49), and Stuffy McInnis (1909-1927) also meriting inclusion. The rest of the infield includes Hall of Famers 3B Pie Traynor and SS Rabbit Maranville, plus 2B Jerry Remy, SS Mark Belanger, and 3B/1B Richie Hebner.
The OF is mostly old-timers, including Hall of Famers LF/1B Joe Kelley (1891-1906, 1908), CF Jimmy Ryan (1885-1900, 02-03), and RF Tommy McCarthy (1884-1896). Even with seven consecutive 100+ run seasons, McCarthy is one of the weakest Cooperstown honorees, so you could make a case for Boston fan-favorite Tony Conigliaro as the starter in RF. Though several injuries interrupted and ultimately ended his career early, Conigliaro had a career 119 OPS+, hitting 20+ HR in six seasons, including a modest AL-league leading total of 32 in 1965 and then a career high 36 HR and 116 RBI in 1970.
Starting lineups for this all-time dream team could look like this:
Against RHP:
Jimmy Ryan (R) CF
Pie Traynor (R) 3B
Mickey Cochrane (L) C
Jeff Bagwell (R) 1B
Joe Kelley (R) LF
Richie Hebner / Fred Tenney (L) DH
Tommy McCarthy / Tony Conigliaro (R) RF
Jerry Remy (L) 2B
Rabbit Maranville (R) SS
Against LHP:
Jimmy Ryan (R) CF
Pie Traynor (R) 3B
Joe Kelley (R) LF
Jeff Bagwell (R) 1B
Tony Conigliaro (R) DH
Mickey Cochrane (L) C
Tommy McCarthy (R) RF
Rabbit Maranville (R) 2B
Mark Belanger (R) SS
There are a few high-average, good-speed guys on this roster who could sensibly hit leadoff, but I went with CF Jimmy Ryan as some of the others were also good RBI men. You could arrange the 2-6 spots in each lineup in a variety of ways, but I like Traynor batting second and Bagwell fourth, and then a mix of guys around them.
The DH spot is one where you can work in a few hitters, such as lefties Richie Hebner and Fred Tenney against RHP, and Tony Conigliaro against LHP—with Conigliaro also splitting time with Tommy McCarthy in RF against RHP. The other platoon option arose at 2B, where Jerry Remy should play against RHP, but then Rabbit Maranville could shift from SS to 2B against LHP, allowing Mark Belanger's outstanding defense some playing time at SS as well.
As for the pitching staff, you could certainly argue about which of the several Hall of Famers should be listed as the ace of this dream team’s rotation. I went with modern era Braves’ and Mets’ star Tom Glavine (1987-2008) over two old-timers in Tim Keefe (1880-1893) and John Clarkson (1882, 84-94). A 10-time All-Star, Glavine led the NL in victories in all five seasons in which he won 20 or more, and took home the NL Cy Young Award in both 1991 and 1998. He retired with a 305-203 record, 3.54 ERA, and 118 ERA+.
Tim Keefe also racked up over 300 wins, but did so during a very different time as he had five seasons with 50 or more starts and seven with 400+ IP. He led his league in wins twice, strikeouts twice, and ERA three times, and retired with a 342-225 record, 2.63 ERA, and 126 ERA+. Keefe’s contemporary, John Clarkson, similarly started 50 or more games and had 400+ IP in six seasons. He led his league in wins three times, strikeouts three times, and ERA once. He retired with a very impressive 328-178 record, along with a 2.81 ERA and 133 ERA+.
After those three, the final Hall of Famer on this roster, Jack Chesbro (1899-1909), is I think deserving of the fourth spot in the rotation. Pitching for the Pirates in 1902 he led the NL in wins with a 28-6 record, and then in 1904 he pitched for the New York Highlanders (Yankees) of the AL and became the last pitcher to win 40 or more games, posting a 41-12 record along with a tidy 1.82 ERA.
I went with three-time All-Star Wilbur Wood for the fifth spot in the rotation, as the southpaw knuckleballer won 20+ games four times, including leading the AL with 24 wins in both 1972 and 1973. This was after first having several fine seasons as a reliever for the White Sox, so I listed him at the end of that list on the roster above as well.
How you rank the other SP that I included could be argued, and there were several additional old-timers that I considered but in the end just didn’t have room for. Beyond Keefe and Clarkson, I included one more 19th century hurler in Charlie Buffinton (1882-1892), but honorable mention is also deserved by Frank Dwyer (1888-1899), Adonis Terry (1884-1897), and Candy Cummings (1872-1877).
One other SP who was born in Massachusetts arguably deserves mention, because if the roster were created based on best single seasons, he’d likely make it easily. Mark “The Bird” Fidrych was born in Worcester, MA and of course had a sensational and entertaining rookie season in 1976 for the Tigers. Starting the year at only age 21, he ended the season with the AL Rookie of the Year Award, and was second in the AL Cy Young vote, after posting a 19-9 record, a league-leading 2.34 ERA, and a league-leading 24 complete games in 29 games started.
The bullpen here is full of quality relievers, starting with Jeff Reardon who had 20+ saves in 11 consecutive seasons from 1982-1992 pitching for the Expos, Twins, and Red Sox. He retired with 367 saves, a 3.16 ERA, and 122 ERA+. Stu Miller (1952-54, 56-68) started his major league career as a mixed starter/reliever, and even took home an NL ERA title with a 2.47 mark in 1958. Soon after though he became exclusively a reliever, recording 17-27 saves each year from 1961-1966, before retiring with a 3.24 ERA and 115 ERA+.
After those two, how you rank the rest of the relievers I included on this dream team roster could again be debated, with a few highlights being:
Steve Bedrosian had a career 3.38 ERA and 115 ERA+, with his best season coming in his one All-Star campaign of 1987 when he posted a 2.83 ERA with an NL-leading 40 saves, taking home Cy Young Award honors in a close vote after a strong-offense season.
Steve Cishek had 25+ saves three times, including a career high 39 for the Marlins in 2014. He retired after 13 seasons with an impressive 2.98 ERA and 137 ERA+.
Wayne Granger pitched from 1968-1976, including several good seasons for the Reds just before the Big Red Machine era began. He had 27 saves for Cincinnati in 1969, and then led the NL with 35 saves in 1970.
Turk Farrell was a starting pitcher in the minors, but began his major league career as a reliever for the Phillies, including representing them as an All-Star in 1958. He later converted back into a starter, and was an All-Star in three seasons for the expansion Houston Colt .45s and Astros in the early 1960s.
What about players who went to High School in Massachusetts?
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 Massachusetts to players who grew up—which we’ll define as going to high school—in the state of Massachusetts?
First off, I’m only aware of one player on the above roster who was born in Massachusetts but went to high school elsewhere:
1B Jeff Bagwell – Connecticut
Losing him as the cleanup hitter in the lineup would be painful, though as noted 1B is the position with the most depth on this roster.
On the other hand, I found several players who were born elsewhere but went to high school in the state of Massachusetts:
C Gabby Hartnett – Rhode Island
SP Ron Darling – Hawaii
SP John Tudor – New York
RP Mike Remlinger – New York
Using this alternate dream team criterion, this roster would have one of the best combos behind in the plate with two Hall of Fame catchers in Cochrane and Hartnett. And the already strong pitching staff would have more competition now with SP Ron Darling and John Tudor in the mix, and RP Mike Remlinger added to the bullpen.
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.
