Ohio's Baseball All-Time Dream Team
What would a dream team roster look like for major league players born in Ohio?
Issue #165
This is the 45th 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, Kansas, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Arizona.
Next up are two states that have their statehood anniversaries on March 1st. The first is Ohio, which has a bit of a historical wrinkle in this regard, as according to Wikipedia: “On February 19, 1803, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson signed an act of Congress that approved Ohio's boundaries and constitution. But Congress had not passed a formal resolution admitting Ohio as the 17th state. Although no formal resolution of admission was required, when the oversight was discovered in 1953, as Ohio began preparations for celebrating its sesquicentennial, Ohio congressman George H. Bender introduced a bill in Congress to admit Ohio to the Union retroactive to March 1, 1803, the date on which the Ohio General Assembly first convened.”
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 Ohio towards the end of this article (and vice-versa, those born elsewhere but who went to high school in Ohio.)
Here is the all-time dream team I came up with for players born in Ohio:
With cities such as Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, as well as many smaller municipalities, Ohio’s overall population as of 2021 ranked 7th amongst US states. As such, you’d expect its All-Time Dream Team to be pretty solid, and sure enough the above roster does not disappoint. For instance, there are 14 Hall of Famers, including Miller Huggins who admittedly made the HOF more as a manager but also had a fine 13-year playing career as a 2B for the Reds and Cardinals, scoring 100+ runs three times and leading the NL in walks four times. Other Hall of Famers include 1B George Sisler, SS Barry Larkin, 3B Mike Schmidt, LF/1B Ed Delahanty, RF Elmer Flick, C Buck Ewing, C Roger Bresnahan, SP Cy Young, SP Ray Brown, SP Phil Niekro, SP Rube Marquard, SP Jesse Haines, and RP Rollie Fingers.
Two others of course had outstanding playing careers, but ones marred by issues thus far keeping them from the Hall of Fame: SP Roger Clemens and Pete Rose, who I listed above as a utility player given he played in so many games at five different positions. Then there are other notable stars here too, such as C Thurman Munson, 3B Sal Bando, CF/RF Jim Wynn, CF/LF/1B Al Oliver, RF David Justice, RF Paul O’Neill, and others.
And even beyond all the great names included above, there were still more that I considered and that deserve at least honorable mention, such as LF Kip Selbach, 3B Bill Bradley, 3B Denny Lyons, 1B George Burns, SS/3B Kid Elberfeld, LF Gene Woodling, CF Billy Hoy, 1B/3B Kevin Youkilis, LF Topsy Hartsel, CF Lance Johnson, CF Benny Kauff, 1B Chris Chambliss, CF/LF Larry Hisle, RF Socks Seybold, C Chris Hoiles, 1B John Reilly, C John Roseboro, C Terry Kennedy, and RF/LF Wally Post.
Starting lineups for this all-time dream team could look like this:
Against RHP:
Barry Larkin SS (R)
Pete Rose 2B (S)
George Sisler 1B (L)
Ed Delahanty LF (R)
Mike Schmidt 3B (R)
Kyle Schwarber / David Justice DH (L)
Al Oliver CF (L)
Elmer Flick / Tommy Henrich / Paul O'Neill (L) RF
Buck Ewing / Thurman Munson C (R)
Against LHP:
Barry Larkin SS (R)
Pete Rose 2B (S)
Ed Delahanty LF (R)
Mike Schmidt 3B (R)
Frank Howard DH (R)
George Sisler 1B (L)
Jim Wynn RF (R)
Garry Maddox CF (R)
Buck Ewing / Thurman Munson C (R)
If there is a weak spot on this roster I’d say it is 2B, where the aforementioned Miller Huggins and 1980s Astros 2B Bill Doran were the best options. However, Pete Rose started his career for the Reds at 2B, before more often playing 1B, 3B, RF, and LF during his career. For this dream team’s lineups, it makes sense to play the switch-hitting Rose at 2B, and I like him batting second with another famous Reds star, Barry Larkin, playing across from him at SS and leading off.
There are lots of ways to arrange the 3-7 spots in these lineups, but I like high average hitters Sisler and Delahanty batting ahead of Schmidt against RHP, with Sisler dropping down a bit against LHP. All of the primary RF candidates are lefties, and so is slugger Kyle Schwarber, so I’ve listed them all in a mix for the DH and RF spots vs. RHP. Against LHP, I’d go with Frank Howard as the DH, and shift Jim Wynn over from CF, allowing Garry Maddox and his outstanding defense some playing time.
All three catchers hit right handed, so I’ve listed Ewing and Munson as splitting the bulk of the playing time, though Bresnahan would deserve some games here and there too. These lineups leave out some solid position players entirely, most notably 3B Sal Bando—but it is hard to get him included given the great Mike Schmidt is on this roster and there are so many other strong hitters for the DH role.
As for the pitching staff, you could argue over who the ace should be: the guy who has won the most Cy Young Awards, or Cy Young himself? I gave the nod to Young, in part because, as I’ll note below, Clemens was born in Ohio but is more associated with Texas where he played in high school.
After those two, you could again debate who should be the #3 and #4 guys in this dream team’s rotation. I listed Negro Leagues star Ray Brown next, as according to the numbers available at baseball-reference.com he led his league in wins six times, ERA twice, strikeouts three times, and after 14 seasons in major leagues retired with a 119-46 (.721) record, 3.12 ERA, and 147 ERA+.
The other top candidate for the 3rd spot is knuckleballer Phil Niekro, who pitched 24 years in the majors and was an All-Star five times. He won five Gold Glove Awards, led the NL in CG and IP four times, and retired with 318 wins, 3,342 strikeouts, a 3.35 ERA, and a 115 ERA+.
You could again debate who should be the fifth starter to round out the rotation, with Urban Shocker (1916-1928), Sam Leever (1898-1910), Dean Chance (1961-1971), George Uhle (1919-1934, 1936), Georg Mullin (1902-1915), and Hall of Famers Rube Marquard (1908-1925), and Jesse Haines (1918, 1920-1937) all as candidates. I gave the honor to Shocker, who won 20+ games four times, including in 1921 when he led the AL with 27 wins against only 12 losses. He retired with a 187-117 (.615) record, 3.17 ERA, and 124 ERA+.
There were many more starting pitchers that I considered, and they deserve at least honorable mention, including Sad Sam Jones, George Cuppy, Ned Garver, Charlie Root, Dutch Leonard, Slim Sallee, Brickyard Kennedy, Jack Taylor, Earl Moore, Harvey Haddix, Bob Ewing, Red Ames, Joe Niekro, and Joe Nuxhall.
The bullpen I put together above is also very deep, starting as mentioned with Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers. Kent Tekulve was a favorite of mine growing up, as I was both a Pirates fan and a sidearm/submarine pitcher like Tekulve was. After those two there are three more closers, all named Jeff, in Jeff Montgomery, Jeff Shaw, and Jeff Russell.
How you rank those three (and Tekulve too), could be debated, and the same goes for the other five relievers that I included to fill out this dream team’s bullpen. And again, there were many more that I considered and that deserve honorable mention, including Jim Brosnan, Paul Shuey, Andrew Chafin, Doug Bair, Jack Baldschun, Dick Drago, Dustin Hermanson, and Hal Reniff.
What about players who went to High School in Ohio?
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 Ohio to players who grew up—which we’ll define as going to high school—in the state of Ohio?
First off, there were a few players on the above roster who were born in Ohio but went to high school elsewhere:
RF/LF David Justice – Kentucky
CF Garry Maddox – California
SP Roger Clemens – Texas
RP Rollie Fingers – California
RP Tom Hume – Florida
Justice and Maddox were great players, but losing them from this dream team would be barely felt given the depth of great outfielders available. Losing Clemens and Fingers as a top starter and top reliever, respectively, is more significant.
On the other hand, I found numerous players who were born elsewhere but went to high school in the state of Ohio:
1B Bill White – Florida
2B Bill Mazeroski – West Virginia
3B Buddy Bell – Pennsylvania
3B/SS/2B Toby Harrah – West Virginia
CF Ken Griffey Jr. – Pennsylvania
RF Dave Parker – Mississippi
C/1B Gene Tenace – Pennsylvania
SP Jim Bunning – Kentucky
SP Claude Osteen – Tennessee
Using this alternate dream team criterion, all of these players would at least deserve consideration, and some of them would clearly be included. For instance, Ken Griffey Jr. would take Garry Maddox’ roster spot, and become the starter in CF. Jim Bunning would take Roger Clemens’ roster spot, and would be in the mix with many others for the 4th and 5th rotation spots. And Dave Parker would similarly take David Justice’s roster spot, and be yet another left-handed hitter fighting for playing time in RF and DH. Parker also brings a strong arm and three Gold Gloves in RF, but even more gold comes from the potential infield additions, as Buddy Bell won six Gold Gloves at 3B, Bill White won seven at 1B, and Bill Mazeroski took home eight at 2B.
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.
