Blog Bat Around: Who Do You Think Of First? MLB Edition

Night Owl came up with another great post idea.  Which player in a team's history do you think of first when that team is mentioned?  A few lists have already been created.  I keep looking at them and then trying to write my own.  But to do it right, you have to clear your mind and let the choices come naturally without influence.

It's hard to come up with genuine answers for Who I Think Of First.  To do it as properly as possible, I avoided reading anyone else's contributions for a couple days.  I spread out the logos above and printed out a sheet of them and then tried to fill in each team as quickly as possible. 

It occurred to me that when I would try to fill out quizzes on say, every player who posted a certain stat or something, I would eventually have to go through a list of all the teams to remember a lot more players.  Most of the time, the lists would be limited to either pitchers or hitters, not both.  So it might be fun to try this again with a choice limited to one of those categories.

The real struggle is when I think of a certain team, the immediate choice is very vanilla, so I refuse it and then go to my next choice, but then I've thought about it too much and I'm actively selecting who I like better at that point.  I've noted this in a few places.

OK, so here is the list I came up with (finally):

Chipper Jones.

Mostly because I hear his name in that announcer's voice.  Chipperrrrrr Jones.  No idea what that is from.

Ernie Banks.

I immediately think of Bryant and Rizzo, but that's too generic these days.  So I have to rewind and go with

Johnny Bench.

Gotta go old school on this one.  KG is probably a lot of people's first choice, but I default to the Big Red Machine.

Sam McDowell.

Always have to think about this one.  I didn't watch much ball on tv during their run with Manny, Thome & Co, so I have to go way back to Sudden Sam.

Todd Helton.

There are only two guys that come into my head when you say Rockies.  Helton and Larry Walker.  If I take a minute I can come up with Arenado, but that's way too late.

Mark Buerhle.

Didn't see that one coming, did you?  I remember watching him make this amazing fielding play one time.  Stuck with me.

Paul Goldschmidt.

There's only one guy on this list.  And now he's somewhere else and I couldn't tell you another D-Back without looking it up.

Miguel Cabrera.

Very vanilla answer, but Miggy has been the main guy in Motor City for a long time.  Might have said Willie Horton otherwise.

Craig Biggio.

Have to default to one of the killer B's.  And Craig is the best of them.


This one got muddy quickly.  I'd probably say Jeter by default, but that's boring though true.  The next guy that popped into my head was Pettitte of all people.  There are too many other better Yankees than him.  By now, I've thought too long and will end up with Ron Guidry or Sparky Lyle from my player collections.  So it's a mess.

Josh Hamilton.

Takes me a while to think of Rangers too.  Best I'd do otherwise is Toby Harrah or Jim Mason from the cards.

Rod Carew.

Had to go Carew here, otherwise, I'm down to Kent Hrbek and Roy Smalley.  Twins were last in my team sorting for a long time.  Puckett was during my non-viewing time too.

Jim Palmer.

He beat out Adam Jones and Rick Dempsey (who does a lot of their tv these days).  Their my favorite team, so it only takes a second to come up with a long list of favorite guys.

George Brett.

I almost let myself say Fred Patek, but that's too much influence from my PCs.  Brett is Mr. Royal.  I see him and Perry sitting in the dugout on that Fleer card.

Giancarlo Stanton.

Like the Diamondbacks, I can't name another Marlin off the top of my head.  Second choice was manager Ozzie Guillen.

Willie Stargell.

Pops showed up quicker than Clemente, Parker, or Cutch in my head.  My favorites are Sanguillen and Chad Kuhl.

Evan Longoria.

Yet again, another team I'd have to look up current stars.
Ho Hum....

Wil Myers.

This one's even weirder.  I always go to current-ish on the Padres even though there are quality guys like Gwynn, Garvey, Winfield and Tito Fuentes.  Must be because I used to get Myers cards all the time.

Cecil Cooper.

Yeah, I know.  I try not to think about the modern BoSox teams.  Papi is fun, but most of the rest of them are kinda fratboy annoying, esp. to an Orioles fan.

Nolan Ryan.

And I think of him as a little more of an Astro most of the time.

Prince Fielder.

Still love his #1 card from 2010 flagship.  He's a lot more fun than that Braun guy too.

Ken Griffey, Jr. (or both).

Came to me faster than Ichiro or any of the guys on the '81 Donruss team set - half of which makes up all the '81 Donruss dupes in my trade box.

Ryan Howard.

One of those guys I think of for the big hitter quizzes.  He goes with Jimmy Rollins automatically.  And to a lesser extent, Chase Utley.

Matt Cain.

Yeah, I don't know either.  I think I pulled a rare parallel of his a few years back and that's where my mind went first.  Plus he's probably nicer than Bonds and MadBum.

Stan Musial.

One of the oldest franchises, so one of it's oldest and best players.  Everybody else is a level down.

 Ron Cey.

I got stuck avoiding the obvious choices, and still connected the obvious blogger choice (Night Owl) and his favorite guy.  Next in line was Pedro Guerrero.  Or six or seven of my PC guys.

David Wright.

He's on a lot of my insert want lists for some reason.  A lot of players come and go to the Mets, but Wright stayed loyal.

Dave Stieb.

Did not want to say Bautista.  Read somewhere recently that Stieb is very underrated.

Joe Rudi.

Of the six or eight names that pop into my head on the '70s dynasty team, Rudi is the first.  Then Sal Bando.  Then my PC guys, Campy and Tenace.  Can't tell you many current A's.

Ryan Zimmerman.

Not the obvious choice, but the longest tenured Nat, and the face of the franchise without the wacky hair.




I'll probably try an NFL version, because I think I'll feel better about those choices.  I watch a lot more NFL than baseball, especially this year, so my football choices will probably be a lot more current.  Although, I have been looking at the 1970 and '71 Topps sets a lot in the last couple days.