Favorite Baseball Player

Bronson Arroyo is definatley my fav baseball player.His pitvhing skills are brill!His leg kick is unique.He's no longer on the Boston Red Sox and making them the best team but he's on the Cincinnati Reds making them the best team in the National League.

Favorite active player is Albert Pujols; combines an awesome work ethic with tremendous natural tools and a modest personality and burning desire to win. I predict he will one day break whatever is the then career home runs record. Favorite player of any era is probably Stan Musial. And yes, I live in St. Louis, but I really think my choices would be the same no matter where I lived.

That's cool.I like Albert Pujols 2.I think they're an awesome team.I also like David Ekstein on that team.There was another pitcher but he went to the Seattle Mariners.

Pujols rocks, even if he's gotten off to a slow start (for him). On the Red Sox, I love David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, and Dustin Pedroia (whom my wife and I have nicknamed Little Guy, even though he's taller than both of us).

cool i luv dustin pedroia 2 and i dont really like david ortiz. :( but I do also like Kyle Snyder.I think J.D Drew is a good player 2.

Andy Pettitte, NY Yankees left -handed pitcher - no ego, just pure grace on the mound.

And Pettitte just won the AL pitcher of the month (August) - let's hope he is still pitching strong in October.

Roberto Clemente
Even better...a book link to Roberto Clemente

Favorite current: Papelbon of the Red Sox, mostly because he is friends with some of our friends and played at my alma mater.

I love the name, Papelbon, so close to a French butterfly, and lovely to say...but as for closers, it would have to be Mariano Riveria.

Agreed on Clemente, and have you read Clemente: the passion and grace of baseball's last hero by David Maraniss - it is quite good.

Pettitte is coming back to the Yankees. My christmas present, early.

Thanks, boys.

Cubs traded Will "Bad" Ohman to the Braves today.

Hooray!

Braves avoid 3 year contract with Mahay by acquiring Ohman.

lower case hooray.

It's silly but my Clemente autograph (shared with my brother) is worth more to me than any physical object in sight in my apartment. What an arm!

Not silly. Clemente was a great ball player and a good man.

Fave active player although this is his last year before he retires: Tom Glavine (wipes up drool).
Fave player of all time: David Justice (wiping up more drool).

One of my favorite players of recent years is someone who will never make an All-Star team or an MVP list, but who for me exemplifies what baseball is all about. If you're from the San Francisco Bay Area, you probably know him -- former Oakland A's bench infielder Marco Scutaro.

His story is almost an archetypal one in baseball. He is a Venezuelan who idolized Omar Vizquel and Ozzie Guillen. He was drafted as a shortstop by (I believe) the Indians but never got a shot and was traded to the Mets. The Mets never gave him much of a chance either. Then he was traded to the A's, where he got probably too much playing time when Bobby Crosby was injured (the first time).

During his time with the A's, he was frequently called on to play short and second base, and occasionally third and left field. He always did a decent job, but his claim to fame is as a late-inning clutch hitter. I personally saw him jack a ninth-inning walk-off homer off Bruce Chen of the Orioles, a feat which was only the start of his career of late-inning heroics. I believe he ended up with a collection of seven ninth-inning game-ending hits with the A's.

By 2007, when he came up to bat with two outs in the ninth and the game on the line, A's fans reacted as though Barry Bonds was in the box -- and Scutaro so often repaid that respect.

OK, he's not a great player. In most respects, he's no more than an adequate benchman. For me, though, he's representative of something fundamentally great about baseball -- the potential for an average player to get a chance to stick and make the most of it.

Thanks for indulging me. By the way, I would recommend a documentary that came out years ago called Player to Be Named Later that features Scutaro among other minor-league hopefuls.

>17 tom1066: nice post... players like that are so important to any team in any sport, but they seem to have added value in baseball, don't they? And they often end up as great coaches or managers...

Rickey Henderson is my favorite all-time player. Just love the way he played the game. My favorite current player is Derek Jeter.

Don Mattingly - the epitome of the Yankee system, sadly he never was able to win a World Series

In no particular order (except, roughly, chronological): ALL TIME* favorites

Ted Williams Jimmy Foxx Bob "Lefty" Grove

Sam Chapman Rudy York Dom DiMaggio

Phil Cavaretta Roy SIevers Hank Sauer

Ernie Lombardi Jackie Robinson "Preacher" Roe

Max West Jim Tobin Warren Spahn
Johnny Sain Bob Elliot

Jim Lonborg Carlton Fisk Curt Flood

Bob Gibson (to be continued for later decades

* "ALL time" means starting in 1941

Pettitte is perfect.

Jerry Hairston Jr, not so much.

Baseball is capricious.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/sports/baseball/01yankees.html

"After the game, Pettitte found a despondent Hairston in the clubhouse and made a joke. Pettitte, 37, has not thrown a complete game in more than three years. He told Hairston not to worry; he did not want to pitch nine innings, anyway."

Favorite of all time? Stan Musial. Favorite current? Albert Pujols

>23 burnit99:

Makes sense. Pujols is the Musial of this generation. But does he say "wunnerful"?

Just now found this group on LT and it looks like it has been a while since this thread has been tapped, maybe this will getting the discussion started again. My favorite player has been kind of an obscure cardinal, Julian Javier. He was a all star second baseman for the Cardinals when I was a second baseman in little league. He even wore the dark rimmeds glasses as I did haha. But I guess as a today plaayer no one can beat Albert P in my book. I think it is funny how something can make a favorite player for someone!!!

I just read what I posted about Marco Scutaro a couple of years ago. It seems I underestimated the little guy. Good for you, Marco!

The Red Sox must have had 9 or ten "regular" shorstops in the 7 s easons beginning with 2004. I just read today that one of their not-very-long term shortstops, Jed Lowrie was on the DL -illness, not injury. He was perhaps considered their "future" regular ss.

Until Pedroia arrived, several different 2nd basemen, too.

I had not heard of Scutaro before this season, but it seems heʻs in his 30s. His last team was the Bluejays.

I agree that Scutaro is an 'old time' ballplayer. Plays when he's hurting, gets the crucial single to tie the game, and has filled in for Lowrie admirably. Looks like now the Red Sox ss of the future is the hot shot Iglesias boy currently playing at AAA Pawtucket.
Favorite all time player? Several: the Brooklyn Dodgers of late 1940's and early 1950's. All of them. What a great, great team! Jackie, Pee Wee, the Duke, Campy, Gil and the rest. Also Stan the Man Musial who was greatly admired by the faithful at Ebbets Field.
Now it has to be Pedroia - a scrappy little guy with a big mouth and a fierce love of the game.

Either Albert Pujols or Alex Rodriquez

Carleton "Pudge" Fisk. Great Red/White Sox catcher and from my hometown.

Dave Winfield.

I first followed baseball in 1941, the year of Ted Williams's .406 BA, Joe DiMaggio's 56 straight games, and Lefty Grove's
300th win.
From the following names you can probably guess of what team I have been a fan. Despite their reputation as perennial contenders/losers they did win a pennant in 5 of these 7 decades.
In this millennium, under recently departed manager
Terry Francona, they are undefeated (8-0) in World Series games. I'm so old I can remember the last time the Chicago Cubs were in the World Series.

1940s: Ted Williams, Jimmy Foxx

1950s: Ted Williams, Warren Spahn

1960s: Reggie Smith Jim Lonborg

1970s: Carlton Fisk

1980s: Dwight Evans

1990s Wade Boggs

2000s David Ortiz

Derek Jeter. He plays the game hard all the time doesn't care about individual stats and always turns it up for the playoffs he also gives back to he community through his foundation which is a good thing

Currently my favorite baseball player is David Price. I also really like Torii Hunter. Scott Hatteberg is a class act, though he doesn't play anymore. All-time favorite is Roger Maris.

Growing up, it was Lou Brock. Current day I have to say Mike Trout.

Just finished reading "The Ballplayer" by Clay Snellgrove. Not a bad book. It's about a small town kid who lives his dream of making it to the Major Leagues, but not before encountering tragedy, playing with steroids and finding romance along the way.

Right now, I'm reading "A Pitch for Justice." It mixes courtroom drama and baseball. Written by a former attorney who provides some interesting insight into the legal profession. Interesting characters and an easy read.

Of course, my favorite baseball book remains, "A False Spring" by Pat Jordan. Other favorites include: "Joe You Could Have Made Us Proud" and "Glory Days with the Dodgers and other Days with Others."

#36-38> Just as an fyi, there's a thread set up for talking about the baseball books we're reading, rather than our favorite ballplayer: http://www.librarything.com/topic/29744

Cheers!

Thanks.

Just read my childhood favorite, Steve Garvey, is battling cancer issues. To be cliche, knock it out of the park, Garv!

My favorite player growing up was Chipper Jones. Currently playing, I like Matt Kemp, and an up and coming star, Mike Trout, I like how he plays the game.

Greatest players I had the priviledge of seeing live: Warren Spahn, Eddie Matthews, Ernie Banks, Mike Schmidt, Ryne Sandberg, Greg Maddux, Minnie Minoso, Nellie Fox. Current fave: Justin Verlander, and until yesterday, Roy Halliday (slimy prevaricating SOB: he should either have 'fessed-up or shut-up, but not waffled about that "purpose pitch").

In 72 years of following baseball, the only player on your list that I've seen are Warren Spahn and the two White Sockers Fox and Minoso. I remember Fox began in the majors as a Philadelphia (!) Athletic.
I just missed seeing Matthews (and Hank Aaron). Eddie was a rookie Boston Brave in the about-to-defect team of 1952, which I didn't see any games of. By the time Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's lifetime HR record, I think Matthews was the manager.
He is said to be the only Braves player that played for the franchise in all 3 of its cities.: Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta.

I've watched baseball for 35 years and it kills me to admit that the best all around ballplayer I've seen is Barry Bonds. He cheated himself in my opinion. The best pitcher I ever saw was Steve Carlton when he had that slider working, with Greg Maddux and his cut fastball a close second.

45, I remember when Mike Vail was a Mets rookie. He was *not* the greatest player I've seen. :)

Raleigh Fingers. Coolest relief pitcher ever.