I'll take the approach that the time limits are OJ subjects (1887-90 but inclusive of the minor leaguers in the set).. So no Cy Young, Jesse Burkett, A.G. Spalding, George Wright, or Jimmy Creighton..
1-A) Cap Anson (I'm just rating him as a player not based on my opinion about his role in excluding African-Americans from "organized baseball") For better or worse he was probably the definitive 19th Century ballplayer.
1-B) Kid Nichols - My pick for best pitcher. He was an 1890's guy which makes him different from the Keefe/Radbourn/Clarkson/Galvin crew who were pretty much done by 1894 when pitching changed.
3) Ed Delahanty -- also more of a 1890's guy, sad story.
4) Personal favorite: Sliding and Scoring Billy Hamilton -- perhaps the greatest leadoff man and run scorer who played until Rickey Henderson (Or Cool Papa Bell... I guess he hit leadoff. It seems logical -- sadly I can't back this up with much data).
5-8 I'm just dumping Clarkson/Radbourn/Keefe and Galvin here -- they played in another world and their stats are crazy. I want to point out Radbourn's 1884 as the best single season -- maybe ever. I'm not sure what the order for these guys is. The contemporaries would have put Hoss first I guess and Galvin last.
9-11 ) Dan Brouthers - Roger Connor, and Sam Thompson -- likely in that order. Great hitters -- power hitters I guess. At peak they were probably better than Anson but they did not run up the career numbers like Cap -- not even close.
12) Buck Ewing -- Those who saw him play and played with and against him regarded him as simply the best. He was known as the best catcher. His numbers don't impress like some of the others. Of course, being a Catcher in the 19th Century was brutal (there's a book about it I read at some point).
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Some others to round out a "team" positionally etc.
2B - Bid McPhee
3B - Deacon White
SS - Jack Glasscock
Utility - $10,000 Mike (King) Kelly (Basically everything but Pitcher) & Bobby Caruthers (Pitcher Outfield)... Both had short careers and they were big winners.
Last edited by Misunderestimated; 05-26-2022 at 10:02 PM.
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