Outfield complete; next up we head closer to the plate. Actually, we head right to the plate and select our All-Time catcher.
Jody, Jody Davis, king of the wild frontier… One of the first catchers that I fell in love with was the guy behind the dish for that magical 1984 year for the Cubs. Carlton Fisk was another guy I liked early on. I tried to bat like him, with that front shoulder raised up high. I remember a couple times when he was with the White Sox that he knocked a home run right after getting knocked down at the plate; that was pretty cool. Although when he wouldn’t sign an autograph for my younger sister at the park, and when he came into the restaurant I was working at, he didn’t seem like too nice of a guy to put it nicely. Yes, those are the first guys I remember in Chicago. Damon Berryhill comes to mind. Michael Barrett who will always have a place in my heart for punching that other Chicago catcher. Will always love Willson, but no, not adding anyone from Chicago at this position.
A couple other guys I liked growing up were Tony Pena and Benito Santiago. I loved Pena’s catching style, with the one leg kicked out; of course he had a cannon too. Santiago was similar, I believe, with the unorthodox catching style. Of course one guy that I did see play that would be in this conversation is Ivan Rodriguez, except I can’t get his 2003 playoff run out of my head… wonder why. Sandy Alomar Jr, Mike Piazza, Gary Carter… some other guys that come to mind when I think about catchers. Of course, for this position on my all time team, there’s really no reason to get cute.
Johnny Bench is my guy. I know, I know… the obvious pick. Sorry, but there is a reason, actually plenty of reasons why he is most folks’ selection for greatest catcher of all time. Before looking at all of his impressive stats at Baseball Reference and Wikipedia, I know he was one of the key cogs in that Big Red Machine that won a whole bunch of games in the 70s. He won NL MVP twice and was a 14 time all star. I have my 2nd World Series MVP on the team as well; he was part of 2 championship teams, just like Clemente. Rookie of the year, and yeah, he just didn’t hit; 10x gold glove winner. I’m not messing around here.
Johnny be good… real good, and that’s why he’ll be calling the game for my all time team. Let’s take a quick break from building this team and check back into today’s game. There was the trade deadline that brought some pretty big news…
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