When Willie Mays died recently, I was reminded of how fortunate I was to grow up in a National League city. From when I started going to games at the Astrodome in the late sixties or early seventies, I saw all of the great NL position players of that era and most of the top pitchers. And it really didn’t matter that interleague play was unheard of; in the post-Mantle era, the only American League players even close to my personal NL pantheon would have been Rod Carew, Reggie Jackson, and the Robinsons of Baltimore.
In college, I expanded to the AL through annual trips to Arlington. I loved the outdoor baseball, and by then the leagues seemed more balanced in terms of premium players. In addition, I went on two baseball vacations after graduating, seeing most of the stadiums in the Northeast and Midwest, and occasionally went to stadiums during later vacation trips (mostly catching the digs of West Coast teams I’d only seen as visitors).
So here’s a list of my favorite players I’ve seen in person, along with a lineup of the greats I’m most sorry I missed. The Buck Weaver inclusion is strictly due to John Cusack’s marvelous portrayal in Eight Men Out (and my related fascination with that late tens White Sox team). I put Greenberg as a DH because I’d slightly prefer to see Gehrig; for those put off by the anachronism, my interest in seeing Greenberg is to the point that I’d put him ahead of the great Stan Musial in left field (which Greenberg played for a few years late in his career). As you can guess, this is by no means an all-time ranking, in which case I’d have Ted Williams in left (I’ve seen enough footage of Williams that I’m simply more curious about Musial). Most of those listed are all-time greats or at least all-stars in their era, but in this context they’re simply players I enjoyed watching and ones I would have loved to have the chance to see. My top honorable mentions are both right fielders: my favorite who didn’t make the list is Roberto Clemente, who I was fortunate to see at the ‘dome the year of his World Series championship. Another great from that era, Frank Robinson—who I did see on TV– tops the runner-up list of players I didn’t have a chance to catch at the stadium. I originally left the old-school reliever slot open, until one of the commentators from this year’s World Series mentioned that Walter Johnson pitched in relief during at least one of the Senators’ Fall Classic appearances, which got me wondering about others before my time who occasionally came out of the bullpen. I thought that would lead me to a rabbit hole; instead, cursory research proved it the easiest choice on the list.
Players I saw live, in roughly descending order of preference:
CF: Willie Mays
RF: Henry Aaron
P: Pedro Martinez
C: Ivan Rodriguez
3B: Adrian Beltre
2B: Mookie Betts
SS: Ozzie Smith
1B: Tony Perez
RP: Kenley Jansen
DH: Nelson Cruz
LF: Jose Cruz
Players I missed:
2B: Jackie Robinson
P: Sandy Koufax
CF: Mickey Mantle
RP: Satchel Paige
C: Josh Gibson
1B: Lou Gehrig
DH: Hank Greenberg
SS: Ernie Banks
RF: Babe Ruth
LF: Stan Musial
3B: Buck Weaver