Including the Catcher What Is the Best Infield of All-Time

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Posted By: peter chao

Guys,

It could be all Hall of Famers or an entire infield that should be in the Hall of Fame, what is the greatest infield of all-time, including the catcher. Which years did they play together? The number of years they played together and a card set which had all four members of the infield?

Peter

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

And what is your pick, Peter?

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Posted By: barrysloate

Bench
Perez
Morgan
Concepcion
Rose

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Posted By: sean

I know its cliched to say but:
chance - evers - tinker - steinfeldt - kling
Why Johnny Kling isnt in the hall of fame is beyond me. Presumably its his not very high lifetime BA. However, his catching was s uperb and his ability to throw out stealers in unparalleld. The infield was super tight and to have someone liek evers who was able to outsmart even john mcgraw with the merkle error is quite impressive.

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Posted By: Joe Drouillard

Neat question. If you choose an infield that all played together on the same team at the same time there is always a weak link at one position. I quess, it would be tough to top the Brooklyn Dodger infield of Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Billy Cox and Roy Campanella who played together in the early 50s. Of course Cox is not a Hall-of-Famer, but he could hit pretty well, especially in the World Series.

They are all featured on the 1952 Topps set.

Best wishes,

Joe

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Posted By: jay wolt

Bill Dickey's rookie season (1928) pared him w/
fellow Hall Of Famer's Lou Gehrig & Tony Lazzeri
as well as Mark Koenig & Joe Dugan

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Posted By: David

Thinking along vintage lines the first to pop into my head is the $100,000 infield of the 1910's Athletics.

Baker
Collins
McInnes
Barry
Thomas


edited to add catcher

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Posted By: sean

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Posted By: Jay

Late 1880's New York Giants

C-Buck Ewing
1B-Roger Connor
2B-Danny Richardson
SS-John Ward
3B-Jim O'Rourke

Not bad--4 of the 5 are HOFers. The 1894 Baltimore Orioles also had 4 of the 5 infielders who became HOFers.

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Posted By: peter chao

I suppose I'm fudging:

'64 Yankees and '64 Topps:

1b- Mickey Mantle
2b- Bobby Richardson
SS- Tony Kubek
3b- Clete Boyer
C- Elston Howard

Since Mantle didn't start playing 1b until later, it is definitely fudging. Only the Mick is in the Hall.

Peter

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Posted By: David

Thanks Sean for the picture of the $100,000 infield. Who is that on the right? Is it Thomas? He sure looks like he feels left out. A good closeup of that picture on a card and he would be in the running for the ugliest pix on card thread.

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Posted By: peter chao

Barry,

That Reds infield was pretty potent. I suppose Concepcion was the weak link because of his weak bat. But with the team the Reds had they could afford to have a weak bat at shortstop. There's a chance that Dave Concepcion will get in the Hall through the Veteran's Committee. His bat couldn't have been that weak.

Peter

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Posted By: sean

Thats eddie collins. Ironically, his t205 (open mouth) IS possibly the ugliest picture of a player on a card ever. Certainly in the top 10
Perhaps eddie knew he was gonna be on the crookedest (spell check) team ever in 7 years.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Peter- Concepcion wasn't really that bad a hitter. I think he even hit .300 one year. Bench is the greatest catcher ever, Perez and Morgan were superb, and of course Rose had no equal.

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Posted By: Bob

Billy Cox possibly the greatest defensive 3rd baseman of the late 40's, early 50's. Brooks Robinson without Robinson's bat.
Pee Wee Reese HOF
Jackie Robinson HOF
Gil Hodges Should be in the HOF
Roy Campanella HOF

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Posted By: P Spaeth

Obviously the Reds. Two top tier HOFers (Bench and Morgan, each arguably among the top three ever at his position). All time great should be top tier HOFer at third. Borderline HOFer at first, and very solid star at shortstop. How the hell do you top that?

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Posted By: Max Weder

c-Ron Brand
1b-Ron Fairly
2b-Gary Sutherland
ss-Bobby Wine
3b-Coco Laboy

... oh wait, that's when I was 10.

The Reds infield was superb. Concepcion was a solid hitter and was certainly not a weak link in the line-up. They get my vote.

[edited to add image of Coco for Barry]

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Posted By: barrysloate

Coco Laboy- how can you forget a name like that. He sounds like a fan dancer!

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Posted By: Ken W.

The Famous Stonewall Infield:

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Posted By: MVSNYC

i'm at my aunt's having a BBQ today...my dad and uncle are with me, and here are their opinions...

yankees (1962?)

boyer 3b
kubek ss
richards 2b
pepitone 1b
howard c

honorable mention:

dodgers 48-49


i'm partial to recent yankees teams (jeter, a-rod, cano, soriano, giambi, posada)...

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Posted By: Anonymous

The reason Kling isn't in the hall is that his career was really short and he didn't play for Giants, so he was long forgotten by the time the HOF was formed. But he does have my favorite nickname of all time: 'Noisy" because he was actually very quiet.

I am a Wally Schang guy myself. He should be in the hall.

I like the 1934 Tigers infield of
1B Hank Greenberg
2B Charlie Gehringer
SS Billy Rogell
3B Marv Owen
C Mickey Cochrane.

Also the 2000 Indians with:
1B Jim Thome
2B Roberto Alomar
SS Omar Vizquel
3B Travis Fryman
C Sandy Alomar Jr

Each has 3 HOF calibre guys and two other very good guys.

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Posted By: sean

he actually played more than long enough to be considered - 10 1/2 full seasons. Also, the only early deadball cather in the hall of fame is roger bresnahan and they have very comparable records.
My guess is it has something to do with him sitting out the 1909 season. It says something when the cubs made it to the series every year between 1906-1910 EXCEPT 1909. THAT's how much Kling contributed to the great cubs dynasty.

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Posted By: Mark Lutz

These guys could hit and catch.


C-Frank Snyder/ Oil Smith
1b_George Kelly
2b_Frank Frisch
3b-Heine Groh
ss-Dave Bancroft

or a couple years later

C-Frank Snyder
1b-George Kelly
2b-Frank Frisch
3b-Freddie Lindstrom
ss-Travis Jackson

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Posted By: Bill Stone

1919 Chicago White Sox:
c-Ray Schalk
1st-C. Gandil
2nd-E.Collins
3rd-Buck Weaver
ss S. Risberg

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Posted By: barrysloate

Bill- that's a lot of cheaters in one infield!

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Posted By: Paul S

Peter, with exceptions, Concepcion came up in an era when shortstops still weren't really expected to be killer with a bat -- if one was an execellent fielder than just being adequate with a bat was often overlooked. (think Mark Belanger.) It wasn't really until the final few years of Concepcion's career that the "Ripken model" took hold. Again with exceptions, used to be a time when the infield clout came from lefties at 1st and righties at 3rd.

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Posted By: Bill Stone

Greatest infield --not the most honest --although Eddie Collins was devoutly religious and Ray Schalk was always an upright kind of guy who was well respected in later years. He was a founder of an organization to help indigent ballplayers.

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Posted By: JimB

Maybe they weren't the all-time greatest, but they were pretty darn good and the ones I grew up with. And they were all cultivated in the Dodgers' farm system! What team can make that claim today?
JimB

1B Steve Garvey
2B Davey Lopes
SS Bill Russel
3B Ron Cey
C Steve Yeager

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Posted By: barrysloate

Jim- wasn't that the longest that any group of infielders ever played together? I think they hold the record.

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Posted By: Bob

Harkens back to the 87 WS champion Twins with all home grown players in their infield:
Kent Hrbek
Steve Lombardozi
Greg Gagne
Gary Gaetti
Tim Laudner
Not the greatest I've ever seen but all went through the minor leagues together along with Kirby Puckett, Tom Brunansky, Frank Viola SP, Bert Blyleven SP, Les Straker SP, and the rest. A truly home grown team with a couple of exceptions (Don Baylor DH and Jeff Reardon RP)...

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Posted By: Joe Drouillard

If your looking for power out of your infield the 1936 Yankees socked 110 homeruns and as a group hit well over .300.

1b Gerhrig 49 homers .354
2b Lazzeri 14 homers .287
ss Crosetti 15 homers .288
3b Rolfe 10 homers .319
c Dickey 22 homers .362

and they still had Dimaggio in the outfield.

Best wishes,

Joe

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Posted By: Andrew

1B Steve Garvey
2B Davey Lopes
SS Bill Russel
3B Ron Cey
C Steve Yeager

Throw in Reggie Smith (RF), Dusty Baker (CF), Rick Monday (LF), Manny Mota (PH) and Don Sutton (SP) and that was an incredible lineup.

"Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame." -- Erica Jong

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Posted By: peter chao

Andrew,

A Dodger infield with Roy Campanella catching has a big edge over a Dodger's infield with Steve Yeager catching.

Peter

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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

I'm a big fan of those who voted Big Red Machine or Brooklyn Bums - two great infields. Also like the 1930s Tigers.

One I may have glossed over, but don't recall seeing mentioned:

Davis/Delancey, Collins, Frisch, Durocher, Martin - the Gas House Gang.

Another one that's not too shabby: Dickey, Gehrig, Gordon, Crosetti, Rolfe - 1938 Yankees.

Berra, Henrich, Coleman, Rizzuto, Brown - 1949 Yankees - was also pretty nice.

I'd be willing to build a franchise with any of the above.

-Al

Edit for spelling out of respect for Frankie Cro.

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Posted By: CN

On 9/6/99 Sports Ilustrated ran a cover with the Title The Best Infield of All Time? it featured John Olerud, Edgardo Alfonzo, Ray Ordonez and Robin Ventura. If you add in Mike Piazza's stats for one year they would give any infield a run for there money. The Mets erred in not resigning Olerud and Ordonez got hurt in 2000 or else they might have strung several seasons together CN

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Posted By: Joe_G.

How about the 1886/87 Detroit Wolverines . . .

C - Charlie Bennett
1b - Dan Brouthers
2b - Hardy Richardson
SS - Jack Rowe
3b - Deacon White

All but Charlie put up solid offensive numbers, many times 3 of them taking posession of top 5 in the League for hits, runs, etc. Charlie was sufficient batter but absolutely excelled defensively. In fact as a team, Detroit posted best fielding percentage in 1886 & 1887. So they are my obvious choice

Best Regards,
Joe Gonsowski

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Posted By: Andrew

Andrew,

A Dodger infield with Roy Campanella catching has a big edge over a Dodger's infield with Steve Yeager catching.

Peter

_____________

That's profound Peter, but I thought we were listing lineups that played together, and I don't remember Campanella on the '76-'79 Dodger team. Now if you prefer a Dodger lineup from '48-'57 over the ones from the late '70s, then I see your point.

"Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame." -- Erica Jong

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Posted By: boxingcardman

Chambliss-Randolph-Dent-Nettles-Munson. No HOFers there (maybe one marginally) but damn, that was a great team. 1977-1978 were great years.

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Posted By: peter chao

I was making a general comment about the Dodger infields from different eras. But people have listed some pretty potent infields.

From what I have seen, I have a couple of observations. Since we are discussing the best of all-time it will be difficult for an infield with any weak links to make the list.

Most of the infields listed were part of great overall teams.

Peter

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Posted By: Bill Stone

Keith Hernandez
George Costanza
Bette Midler
Paul O'Neill
Jerry Seinfeld
Oh sorry --I was posting in the wrong place --I thought I was at the All-time TV softball dream team.