Montana's Baseball All-Time Dream Team

What would a dream team roster look like for major league players born in Montana?

Issue #133

This is the 22nd 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, and North and South Dakota.

Next up is Montana, which became the 41st state to join the union, November 8, 1889, six days after North and South Dakota had been admitted (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 Montana towards the end of this article (and vice-versa, those born elsewhere but who went to high school in Montana.)

Here is the all-time dream team I came up with for players born in Montana:

Montana is the fourth largest state geographically, smaller than only Alaska, Texas, and California. However, in terms of population it is the 8th smallest, and has only one city, Billings, with a population of 100,000 or more. These factors, in addition to not being a southern state with warm weather where baseball can be played for many months out of the year, means not very many players from Montana have reached the Major Leagues.

As you can see above, there were barely enough players to put together a roster. Indeed there are even fewer than it might initially appear, as John Lowenstein was very versatile and so is listed at six positions in the above depth chart! Lowenstein played 16 years in the majors, from 1970-85, mostly with the Indians and Orioles. He hit 10+ HR four times, with a high of 24 coming in 1982. He was frequently a platoon player, splitting time with a teammate at various positions, as he slashed .260/.346/.418 against RHP, but in limited at-bats only managed .197/.255/.271 against LHP. He had some ability to steal bases, especially early in his career, with a high of 36 SB in 1974.

The only other notable hitter on this roster is Ed Bouchee, who played 1B from 1956-62, mostly for the Phillies and then briefly for the Cubs and Mets. His best season came early, as he was runner-up for the NL Rookie of the Year award in 1963 after hitting 35 doubles, 8 triples, and 17 HR, with a .293/.394/.470 slash line and 135 OPS+. (Bouchee’s Phillies teammate, pitcher Jack Sanford, won the NL ROY that year after posting a 19-8 record, 3.08 ERA, and a league-leading 188 strikeouts.)

The best player on this dream team roster is on the pitching side, where the ace of the staff is three-time All-Star Dave McNally. Pitching all but his final season for the Baltimore Orioles, McNally retired with an impressive 184-119 record (.607), a 3.24 ERA, and 106 ERA+. He was a key member of a strong run of Orioles teams, including four straight in which he won 20+ games, including in 1970 when he went 24-9.

After McNally you could debate how to rank the other starting pitchers who were born in Montana, and the same goes for relievers listed. I included Rees “Steamboat” Williams as both a starter and reliever on this roster, because in his two seasons (1914 and 1916) he started 9 games but came out of the pen in 32 outings. According to his bio at the SABR Bio Project, Williams was the first major league player who was born and raised in Montana.

What about players who went to High School in Montana?

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 Montana to players who grew up—which we’ll define as going to high school—in the state of Montana?

Unfortunately, in my research I couldn’t find any major league players born elsewhere but who attended high school in Montana. I did however determine that many of the players on the roster above who were born in Montana but went to high school elsewhere, including:

• John Lowenstein – California

• Ed Bouchee – Washington

• John Gibbons – Texas

• Jim Tyack – California

• Rob Ryan – Washington

• Jeff Doyle – Oregon

• Dave Meier – California

• Johnny Couch – California

• Taylor Tankersley – Mississippi

• Codi Heuer – Colorado

• Gary Neibauer – Nebraska

• Scott Brow – Oregon

Obviously using this alternative criteria would, for the time being at least, make a Montana baseball dream team impossible to construct.

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.

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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.