Boston Red sox:
- Ted Williams
- Jimmy Foxx
- Pedro Martinez
- Cy Young
- Carl Yastrzemski
- Tris Speaker
- Manny Ramirez
- Jim Rice
- Bobby Doerr
- Roger Clemens
- Wade Boggs
Red Wings( in sort of chronological order by not really)
- Howe
- Abel
- Sawchuk
- Lindsay
- Delvecchio
- Kelly
- Yzerman
- Lidstrom
- Konstantinov
- Redmond
9.(grudgingly) Fedorov
The New York Yankees - in no particular order
[ol]
[li]Babe Ruth[/li][li]Lou Gehrig[/li][li]Derek Jeter[/li][li]Mariano Rivera[/li][li]Whitey Ford[/li][li]Joe DiMaggio[/li][li]Mickey Mantle[/li][li]Don Mattingly[/li][li]Bernie Williams*[/li][li]Alex Rodriguez**[/li][/ol]
-
- Although I think Bernie was fantastic, this is mostly a sentimental vote because he was the first Yankee I ever got an autograph from
** - My lust requires me to mention him, but he will be one of the greatest Yankees ever before his time in New York is done. The man can play.
Oakland/Kansas City/Philadelphia Athletics:
Rickey Henderson
Jimmie Foxx
Lefty Grove
Reggie Jackson
Catfish Hunter
Frank Baker
Mickey Cochrane
Eddie Collins
Dennis Eckersley
Eddie Plank
I excluded players who were only with the team for a short time (like Joe Morgan, whose last season was with the A’s).
I didn’t include McGwire because he had some pretty poor seasons mixed in with his good ones with the A’s. His single-season home run record was with another team. Add in the steroid question and he drops off the list.
I could have included Rollie Fingers and Rube Waddell. Rube was easier for me to omit than Rollie - I can’t imagine Waddell being in Major League Baseball today. Fingers was tougher to leave off. I suppose one could argue that the skills of Eddie Plank and Eddie Collins were more suited to the dead ball era, and that Fingers could have been a great pitcher in any era.
I’d take Rickey and Reggie off the list, just because they spent such a short time in pinstripes. Bernie Williams is an easy choice to replace one of the two. The other - it’s tough. Mariano Rivera, Don Mattingly, Red Ruffing, Charlie Keller… I guess I’d go with Mariano, although I don’t know that I feel right having three Yankees of this generation on the list.
Zamboniracer and Moidalize, I’ve read your arguments and substitute one of my own. I’m happy with Doby; somebody’s coming off my list to make room for Eddie Murray, and it just might be Manny. I also want very much to find a place for Sandy Alomar, so my list might go to 11.
Not shockingly, nobody has done the Kansas City Royals yet. I’ll give them a shot.
Kansas City Royals:
- George Brett
- George Brett
- George Brett
- George Brett
- George Brett
- George Brett
- George Brett
- George Brett
- George Brett
- George Brett
Sorry, I couldn’t help it. Sometimes it hurts to be Royals fans.
For real this time.
Kansas City Royals:
- George Brett
- Frank White
- Dan Quisenberry
- Bret Saberhagen
- Jeff Montgomery
- Bo Jackson
- Hal McRae
- Dennis Leonard
- Kevin Appier
- Johnny Damon
A fair number of good players played for the Royals in the 90s and 2000s, but as soon as they had a good season and wanted more money the Royals traded or released them. Not long after they had a good season and left the Royals they went on to have good and even great careers with other teams. I probably missed somebody. Any other Royals fans out there that want to correct me?
The Walking Dude, I am not a Royals fan, but I would have thought Mike Sweeney would get some love. He spent parts of 12 seasons with KC and was clearly the best player for them from '99-'05.
University of Wisconsin Football:
- Ron Dayne
- Alan Ameche
- Mike Webster
- Paul Gruber
- Joe Thomas
- Al Toon
- Ron Vanderkelen
- Chris Chambers
- Nate Odoms
- Pat Richter
Manchester City FC
In no particular order.
Bert Trautmann
Colin Bell
Francis Lee
Frank Swift
Mike Doyle
Fred Tilson
Shaun Wright-Philips
Georgi Kinkladzi
Mike Summerbee
Joe Corrigan
- George Brett
- Frank White
- Carlos Beltran
- Bret Saberhagen
- Mike Sweeney
- Dan Quisenberry
- Danny Tartabull
- Hal McRae
- Kevin Appier
- Jeff Montgomery
IMO, you can’t leave out Betran, Sweeney or Tartabull. Damon was good, but not as good as those guys. Bo was great, but didn’t have the longevity - but man do I miss him. I have a hard time putting Montgomery behind Quisenberry - Monty was better, but Quiz was more important. There are a number of pitchers that were important to the team over the years (Leonard, Gubicza, Splitoff, Leibrandt, Black), but don’t make the cut. Gubicza probably should…
Michigan State Spartans
Basketball
Magic
Mateen Cleaves
Jumpin Johnny Green
Shawn Respert
Greg Kelser
Scott Skiles
Morris Peterson
Drew Neitzel
Steve Smith
Jay Vincent
Honorable mention to Paul Davis, Sam Vincent, Terry Furlow, Charlie Bell, Shannon Brown and Antonio Smith
See you soon - Kalin Lucas, Delvon Roe
Football
Bubba Smith
George Washington
Lorenzo White
TJ Duckett
Carl Banks
Kirk Gibson
Charles Rogers
Andre Rison
Plaxico Burress
Percy Snow
Honorable mention to Julian Peterson, Robaire Smith, Drew Stanton, Chuck Bullough
I’m sure I missed many greats here, this was just off the top of my head.
Nice to see some proper football here…
My top ten Hammers:-
Bobby Moore
Geoff Hurst
Martin Peters
Trevor Brooking
Billy Bonds
Syd Puddefoot (never saw him play, but met him)
Paulo Di Canio
Tony Cottee
Malcolm Allinson
Harry Redknapp
And as manager, Ron Greenwood
Seattle Mariners
Ken Griffey, Jr.
Alex Rodriguez
Randy Johnson
Edgar Martinez
Ichiro
Alvin Davis
Jay Buhner
Mark Langston
Jamie Moyer
Raul Ibanez
Houston Astros:
- Craig Biggio
- Jeff Bagwell
- Lance Berkman
- Jim Wynn
- Cesar Cedeno
- Nolan Ryan
- Roy Oswalt
- J. R. Richard
- Larry Dierker
- Mike Scott
The 5 position players were easy. Biggio is a sure Hall of Famer, Bagwell should be, and Berkman has been one of the best power hitters in the league since his second season. Wynn and Cedeno are both just-barely-not-in-the-HOF players. Pitchers were tougher, because so many of the Astros best pitchers have either had short careers or pitched a large number of their seasons elsewhere: Ryan only had nine years in Houston, but two of them were Cy Young caliber. I left off Joe Niekro, whose time in Houston was pretty similar to Dierker’s career, and Mike Hampton, whose six years in Houston were very, very good. I might have given the #10 spot to Jose Cruz, but Scott gets it for 1986.
I was going to make that same joke with the Cavaliers and LeBron James, but you went through with the joke and I didn’t. My hat is off to you. 
The Royals are starting to get some face time here! You guys are missing a couple big ones though.
Amos Otis! 4 seasons finished top 10 for mvp, 2000+ hits, 1000+rbi, and 350 stolen bases.
Willie Wilson! Mr. Triple, 2200 hits, almost 700 stolen bases, multiple all star and gold glover.
Wilson was a big name for the '80 and '85 WS teams, but he was not that great of a player. He made far too many outs to rank about McRae as a hitter on my team. Definitely an above-average fielder, though. Otis was way before my time, so I can’t really properly put him in perspective. (3 HRs in the 1980 World Series, though!)
I’m not a Royals fan, but I can see an argument for Amos Otis over Danny Tartabull. Tartabull was only in KC for five years - although it was a hell of a five years. Otis doesn’t have as high a peak (but his 1978 was a great year considering the offensive environment) but he played in KC for 14 years and was an integral part of the great 70s era teams. Plus he was a far better defensive player than Tartabull.
Guess it all depends if you want to emphasize career value or a high peak.
Orlando Magic
Shaquille O’Neal
Tracy McGrady
Penny Hardaway
Dwight Howard
Rashard Lewis
Hedo Turkoglu
Jameer Nelson
Scott Skiles
Nick Anderson
Darrell Armstrong
The only hard part of this list was choosing between Darrell Armstrong or Dennis Scott. Dennis Scott might have been the better overall player in terms of skill but even when we had better players Darrell Armstrong was always the heart of our team and that led me to putting him in this list over Scott.