Your all-anniversary Bay Area teams
It’s been 60 years in San Francisco for the Giants, 50 in Oakland for the A’s. So, from Opening Day through Friday, readers picked their all-anniversary teams through an online poll done by The Chronicle. The results would make the ’27 Yankees cringe. A total of 6,178 lineups were submitted.
The greatest player ever and the home run champ on one team. The stolen base king and perhaps the greatest designated hitter on the other.
You have 12 MVPs and 3,250 home runs on one side. Plenty of punch and panache on the other.
Congrats. That’s a darned fine couple of all-anniversary lineups you’ve created.
From Opening Day through Friday, readers had the opportunity to choose their all-anniversary teams for the Giants and A’s through an online poll done by The Chronicle.
The results are staggering. That is, if you’re into making the ’27 Yankees cringe.
A total of 6,178 lineups were submitted as readers took the time to fill out their dream teams. So let us dream. First, the genesis. As we toast the anniversaries for both teams — 60 years in San Francisco for the Giants, 50 in Oakland for the A’s — I was asked to provide three names at every position to put on the interactive ballot, including a designated hitter for the A’s. The ballot also included righthanded and left-handed starting pitchers, closers and managers.
A grueling process. Imagine three finalists excluding Josh Donaldson, Yoenis Céspedes, Bob Welch and Dave Parker. As well as J.T. Snow, Omar Vizquel, Jason Schmidt and Jim Ray Hart.
That’s how deep the talent level was.
Some of the readers’ choices were simple. Brett Butler and Chili Davis got little to no love because they were on the Giants’ center-field ballot with Willie Mays. Likewise, Joe Rudi and Khris Davis didn’t have much of a chance against Rickey Henderson.
(Full disclosure: I included Davis on the ballot over Céspedes because not only did I want a current A’s player — the Giants had three total — but an argument could be made for Davis, who had 85 homers and 212 RBIs his first two years and Céspedes had 66 and 229 in his two years and four months, though Céspedes was a major influence on those dynamic A’s teams. Not that it mattered. Rickey was going to win in a landslide regardless.)
The competition was stiff among Giants’ closers, Robb Nen edging Brian Wilson and Rod Beck. On the A’s side, fewer than 100 votes separated Catfish Hunter from Dave Stewart as the right-handed starter, as well as Eric Chavez from Carney Lansford at third.
In the A’s closer’s race, Dennis Eckersley had an easier time than expected against Rollie Fingers.
So let’s announce the teams you’ve selected and imagine an interleague game for the ages, with a few stipulations. No walkup music. No mascots unless we’re talking Crazy Crab and Charlie O the
mule. The site? We’re flexible: the ’Stick before it was enclosed or the Coliseum pre-Mount Davis. Why not make it a sevengame series and play Game 7 into eternity?
From the teams you’ve selected, I’ve drawn up batting orders.
First, the Giants: LF Barry Bonds RF Bobby Bonds CF Willie Mays 1B Willie McCovey C Buster Posey 2B Jeff Kent SS Brandon Crawford 3B Matt Williams LH Madison Bumgarner
Tough to beat a 1-2 punch of Bonds-Bonds. I’m seeing Bonds the younger drawing a walk and Bonds the elder, with his sprinter’s speed, chasing him down after lining the ball into the left-center gap. With Mays, you’ve probably got the three best power-speed guys in history. Mays, McCovey, Posey, a colossal 3-4-5. But Williams eighth? He’d have taken down Maris’ record in ’94 if not for the strike. We stuck Crawford between Kent and Williams to break the string of right-handed batters. We’re starting Bumgarner over Juan Marichal, picked as the right-handed starter, because there’s no DH in this lineup. Bumgarner’s the next best thing.
Now the A’s: LF Rickey Henderson CF Dave Henderson RF Reggie Jackson 1B Mark McGwire DH Frank Thomas 3B Eric Chavez SS Miguel Tejada C Terry Steinbach 2B Tony Phillips
Think Rickey and Reggie might make a few headlines? Not that Hendu and the Big Hurt are secondtier personalities. With Reggie, McGwire and Thomas at 3-4-5, it’s not whether they’re going deep but how far they’re clearing the fences. This BP session is epic. Rounding it out with Chavez, Tejada, Steinbach, three absolute pros who play the game right. Phillips is the ultimate No. 9 hitter, not that he would have been keen on the role. Which reminds me of the time I asked him for an interview about his role as a utility man, and he fired back, “Don’t you cuss at me.”
The pitching matchup is Catfish vs. Bumgarner (with Eckersley and Nen the closers), but it just as easily could have been the other two starters to make the team, Vida Blue vs. Marichal. Perhaps that’s Game 2. We’d need full rosters, though, which is fine. We could add Jose Canseco, Orlando Cepeda, Jason Giambi, both Clarks (Will and Jack), Céspedes, Lansford, Sal Bando, Felipe Alou, Dwayne Murphy, Tim Lincecum, Tim Hudson, Gaylord Perry, Stewart, Beck, Fingers and plenty more pitchers.
The managers you chose: Bruce Bochy and Tony La Russa.
My choices differed a bit from the readers’, especially on the A’s side. I had Mark Ellis over Phillips, Bando over Chavez, Murphy over Dave Henderson and Dave Kingman over Thomas, if only because Kingman had three productive years as a DH compared with one for Thomas. Not complaining. I’d rather have Thomas in a game I’d need to win. Perhaps the toughest call was Catfish and Stewart, but I settled on the Hall of Famer over the four-time 20-game winner.
Just one difference I had on the Giants’ side. Beck over Nen. Will never forget how Beck pitched eight of nine games down the stretch in ’93 and earned 48 saves on perhaps the best team in San Francisco history, a nonplayoff team despite 103 wins.
Thanks for participating, and we’ll do it again in 10 years.