All-Time Great Italian-American Baseball Team

Catcher
The list of good catchers is long: Mike Scioscia, Joe Girardi, Sal Bando, Joe Garagiola, Mike Napoli, Rick Cerone, and Gene Tenace for example, but there are just three great ones: Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, and Mike Piazza. I love Piazza and Campanella, but Yogi is my favorite player of all-time and in my opinion one of the five quintessential Yankees, right there beside Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle.

Yogi is my catcher, mio filosofo poco, my team captain.

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First Base
Joe Pepitone posed for Foxy Lady in 1975, making him the first baseball player to show his johnson to the world in the pages of a magazine. He also won three gold gloves and made three all-star teams. His career numbers lag behind Jason Giambi’s, but you have to admire Pepitone’s balls.

All that said, I don’t like either player as well as I like Joe Torre, who played over 700 games at first. I’m going with Joe here because he’s blocked at his other positions, catcher and third, by better players and he’s got to play somewhere.

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Second Base
People who like baseball statistics more than they like actual baseball, will no doubt ridicule my selecting Tony Lazzeri at second over Craig Biggio. Do you choose a Houston Astro who never played on a world championship team, or the guy who won five titles and was capable of hitting .354 (1929), of driving in 11 runs in one game, or hitting six homeruns in three games (both in 1936). For what it’s worth, Biggio has a lower career average, and drove in fewer runs even though he played six more years than Lazzeri.

Another reason to select Lazzeri? The huckleberries at Bleacher Report made a list of the 10 greatest second baseman of all-time and didn’t include Lazzeri (or Frank White), but did include the amazing Jeff Kent who plays second base on my all-time clubhouse-cancer team.

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Shortstop
Phil Rizzuto plays short and he is also my announcer, which is saying something considering I could have chose Harry Caray (born Carabina), or Joe Garagiola. Phil was great fielder and good hitter, but more than all of it – a great guy. He didn’t think he deserved to be in the hall of fame and said as much, which is a big reason why I think he deserves to be in the hall of fame. The hall isn’t about statistics, it’s about our heroes, our most loved ballplayers, the one’s we most wanted to watch and remember.

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Third Base
Joe Torre or Ron Santo? The came up the same year, 1960, but Joe played three more seasons retiring in 1977. Santo had much better hitting numbers. Santo also won five gold gloves at third and Torre’s best position was catcher. Ron Santo is the easy choice.

Ron was voted into the hall of fame in 2012, two years after he died. Great job hall voters, you wouldn’t have wanted to rush it for the heart and soul of one of America’s great baseball franchises.

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Outfield
One is tempted to run all three DiMaggio brothers in the outfield. All were good, with Dom being the best defensive player among them, at least according to Joe. I played with the notion of playing Yogi Berra in right, where he did play a little, so I could put Piazza or Campanella behind the plate, but in the end I figured Berra had to be the guy behind the plate, calling the game. He was just too smart. So, I was left with either Vince DiMaggio or Carl Furillo in right. Furillo had a great arm and was a natural right fielder who could really hit, winning the 1954 batting title with a .344 average. I have to go with Carl Furillo.

Dom DiMaggio is in center and Joe DiMaggio in left. It’s not optimal, defensively, and Mr. Coffee will no doubt sulk playing out of position, but it’s just the way it has to be.

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Starting Pitchers

Vic Raschi – Growing up playing Strat-O-Matic Baseball Vic always won for me. He’s my number one.

Barry Zito – Zito writes songs. An excellent talent to have on the team.

Andy Pettitte – Second most world series starts all-time.

Frank Viola- Career 3.73 ERA and he pitched in the Metrodome.

John Smoltz – Smolz is an idiot who actively worked for Ralph Reed for Lt. Gov. of Georgia. He was also a great pitcher. Nonetheless, he is NOT included in my rotation. I wouldn’t want the rest of guys to have to deal with this clown strike. So if my four man rotation throws their arms off, they can thank John Smoltz the asshole.

Maybe I should have added Larry Gura? He was better than most people realize.

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Bullpen
John Franco
Ralph Branca
Jason Grilli

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Coaches
Dugout – Tommy Lasorda
First Base – Tony La Russa
Third Base – Billy Martin

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Bench
C Mike Piazza
C Roy Campanella
1B Joe Pepitone
2B Craig Biggio
OF Rocky Calavito
OF Vince DiMaggio