San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Vogt wonders, ‘What am I doing on this list?’
Longtime fan glad to be on North roster for I5 Series
Stephen Vogt is among legends. He’s in a clubhouse with Tom Seaver, Frank Robinson, Joe Morgan, Willie Stargell, Rickey Henderson and a couple of Leftys, O’Doul and Gomez.
Oh, and there’s Barry Bonds taking up three lockers. And Joe DiMaggio taking up four.
Randy Johnson is huddling with Ernie Lombardi to go over the opponent’s lineup, which is stacked: Jackie Robinson and Ted Williams are the 12 hitters, and Tony Gwynn is hitting … eighth?
“The first thing I’m thinking is, what am I doing on this list?” Vogt said. “It’s an honor to be recognized with these guys.”
Thanks to an upcoming bestofseven series between players through the generations from Northern California and Southern California, Vogt will compete with and against the greatest players in the state’s history.
Virtually speaking, that is.
The Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times are hosting the “Golden Greats: The I5 Series,” a baseballsimulation extravaganza through the old cardanddice game APBA, and the opener
is Tuesday.
Vogt is one of three catchers on the 34man Northern California roster, as selected by fans — more than 100,000 votes were cast through sfchronicle.com/sports and latimes.com/sports — and he’s sure to get some time during the series. (He and Joe Ferguson of the 1979 Dodgers back up Lombardi.)
Which means Vogt might step into the box against Walter Johnson or Don Drysdale — unless it’s late in the game and Rollie Fingers is staring him down — and notice an upthemiddle defense of Jackie Robinson and Ozzie Smith on the infield and Duke Snider in center.
“Obviously, it’s fun right at a time when we don’t have a whole lot to watch or talk about,” said Vogt, who was popular during his time with the A’s and Giants, and now is with the Diamondbacks. “Look at the names on this list. I was just talking to my wife that this is really cool people voted me on this team.”
Coming from a baseball family, loving baseball history and anticipating baseball remains in his future past his playing days, Vogt might dig this event more than most.
Vogt’s grandfather and several of his grandfather’s brothers played ball and were New York Giants fans while growing up in Oklahoma. Vogt’s family roots in California are traced to 1956 (two years before the Giants and Dodgers came West) when his grandfather, father and uncle moved to the Central Valley.
Randy Vogt, Stephen’s dad, played college ball and coached his sons Stephen and Danny in Little League, Babe Ruth League and high school. With the family’s history with the Giants, the kids grew up Giants fans even though they lived equidistant from Dodger
Stadium and Candlestick Park.
“We have a baseball family through and through, with an appreciation of people who played before us and wanting to be like them,” Vogt said. “Willie Mays is all my father and grandfather talked about. That’s what I love the most about the game, the history and seeing the names and numbers.”
Lombardi, for instance. The managers for the Giants and
Dodgers, Gabe Kapler and Dave Roberts, agreed to set the Game 1 lineups, and Lombardi is catching Johnson. Each player’s best season is used for the series, and for Lombardi, that’s 1938 when he batted a leagueleading .342 for the Cincinnati Reds.
“You look back and, holy cow, a batting title and MVP for a catcher?” Vogt said. “We just haven’t seen that except for Buster (Posey) and Joe Mauer. That’s absolutely unbelievable.”
Vogt’s best season came with the 2015 A’s when he posted career highs in homers (18), RBIs (71) and onbase percentage (.341), the first of his two AllStar seasons.
In this APBA fantasy world, Vogt is asked which players he’d like to watch or hang out with, and he quickly mentioned Williams.
“One of the best hitters of all time,” Vogt said, “and you can’t wait to watch what he’s going to do, and I felt that way as a Giants fan with Barry Bonds. You’d scoot to the end of your seat or stand up, and I could imagine doing that while watching Ted chase .400.
“Also, it would be really neat to see how hard Walter Johnson threw. We’re so spoiled with everyone throwing 100 (mph) now, and he was the only one throwing that hard that we knew about. How much harder was he throwing than the rest of the league?
“It’s crazy when you see all these people are from California.”
Vogt is one of seven active players among the 68 voted to the rosters, the others being Aaron Judge and Dustin Pedroia for the North and Nolan Arenado, Christian Yelich, Stephen Strasburg and Gerrit Cole for the South.