The All Century Team - A Retrospective

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Posted By: Eric Brehm

Thanks to all who took a whack at this. I agree with those who indicated that the voting was a bit skewed towards more recent players. The early part of the century definitely seems to be under-represented. Wagner should be ranked higher, as should Mathewson and Grove, although all three were included on the team by the special panel who recognized the oversight.

Nolan Ryan's status as an all-time great is often questioned because of his modest winning percentage (324-292, or .526), as well as other things that folks here have pointed out. Still, his longevity was remarkable (second only to Cy Young in games started), and he does hold the all-time record for fewest hits allowed per nine innings (6.56). He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, with 98.8% of the vote.

Second basemen: Nap Lajoie, Eddie Collins, and Charlie Gehringer finished 5th, 6th, and 7th, respectively, in the voting. All received less than 100,000 votes.

The complete list of 100 candidates from which the team was selected can be seen here:

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/legendary/limc100.shtml

I remember well the ceremony before Game 2 of the 1999 World Series in Atlanta when all 18 of the living players selected for the All Century Team assembled on a stage to be honored. That would be Aaron, Banks, Bench, Berra, Clemens, Gibson, Griffey, Koufax, Mays, McGwire, Ripken, Brooks Robinson, Rose, Ryan, Schmidt, Spahn, and Ted Williams (81 years old). Seeing all those great players together was for me a very moving and memorable moment. And I must admit that seeing Pete Rose in a baseball stadium, 10 years after his banishment from the game, receiving a sustained standing ovation just about broke me up. Despite his personal indiscretions, his greatness as a baseball player cannot be denied.

Some interesting anecdotes about the All Century Team ceremony can be found here:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/1999/1024/132489.html