Kuzul

Once upon a time, before CNN was born, Larry King hosted an all-night radio talk show. The show originated in Washington, D.C., and was syndicated across the USA. As far as over-night radio on the AM dial, Larry was the king of the airwaves.

The Larry King back then was not the kind and gentle, heart-healthy Larry King who we see on television today. The radio version of Larry was a curmudgeonly, sarcastic man who ate lots of pastrami and corned beef at Duke’s Deli (a D.C. legend) daily, while seemingly divorcing wives annually. 

Larry did not hesitate to blow off a caller who tried to get cute on the air. For that matter, he would diss callers whose agenda was too slow-paced for his liking. King was also known to take an occasional catnap on the air. This was not the show for lonely people with who loved kittens.

One early morn, I was searching for the light switch while my alarm radio was broadcasting the Larry King show. A caller announced that he had the greatest baseball trivia question of all time. Larry grunted and told the called to let it rip.

One area that Larry did not trifle was his appreciation of America’s pastime. Larry is a true-blue Dodger fan. 

I heard the question and not trusting my foggy head, I scrambled to find a pencil so I could record this when the rest of the world was up and about.

NOTE: This question to follow was posed in 1991. Three players have accomplished this feat since this question was broadcast. For the sake of this story, I will acknowledge the three newest members of this story on the next slide.  The trivia question is …

Nine baseball players have won consecutive MVP awards in Major League Baseball. Consequently, each of these ballplayers played a different defensive position. Name these players.

(Your hint is that each consecutive MVP’er played one of the nine infield/outfield positions in their award winning seasons.)

1)  Pitcher:  ____________________

2)  Catcher:  _____________________

3)  1st base:  _____________________

4)  2nd base:  ____________________

5)  3rd base:  ____________________

6)  Shortstop:  ______________________

7)  OF:  ____________________

8)  OF:  ____________________

9)  OF:  ____________________

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The title of the article says it all, Red Sox Nation.  Let’s do this.  But first, a few quick ground rules:

Some of the players on this list played part of their careers for other teams, but only accomplishments in a Red Sox uniform will be considered.

The era a player played in will be factored in when considering all statistics.  Players’ numbers will be compared to their contemporaries, not just to players from other eras who played the same position.

Longevity counts, but the biggest factor will be how much a player stood out from the pack during the years they played in Boston.

A player must have played the majority of their career at a position (more games there than anywhere else) to be considered the best player at that position.

This list is meant to depict the best overall player at each position, not to build a functional baseball team.  There will be no attempt made to balance power and speed in the lineup, etc.

That should just about cover it.  It’s time to put together the Boston Red Sox All-Time Team.

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With one of the most exciting times of the baseball season, the trading deadline, behind us, the contenders should begin to take shape within the next month as we move closer to October baseball.

With so much talk of trades the past several weeks, I decided to look back and name what I feel is the best trade, be it deadline, off-season, or otherwise, in the history of each MLB team.

Some decisions were certainly easier than others, with moves like the Lou Brock and Jeff Bagwell trades a no-brainer. However, for other team’s it was much harder to settle on a best trade. And I will allow you to start thinking now, but a great Dodgers trade is nowhere to be found.

So with that, here are what I feel are the best trades in the history of each MLB team. I hope that this will spark some lively debate, and I encourage you to chime in with any great trade I may have excluded.

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I think we all know that Babe Ruth was probably the greatest offensive player in the history of baseball. Ted Williams was probably second, and Ty Cobb, Barry Bonds, and Lou Gehrig round out my own personal top five. The numbers these guys put up during their careers were astounding, but are sometimes difficult to fully appreciate out of context.

What’s not difficult to appreciate is a truly great season. Last year, Albert Pujols led baseball with 47 homers. Joe Mauer led baseball with a .365 average, and Ryan Howard led baseball with 145 RBI. What if I told you a player had hit over .380, with 40 homers, and 170 RBI, and still missed this list? It happened. That was Chuck Klein in 1930. Of course, that was the year of the hitter. The league average BA was over .300, and he didn’t lead the league in any of the three categories. Someone else was better (and that someone made the list). But even so, Klein hit .386, with 40 and 170, and didn’t make this list. These seasons are really, really good.

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