Schmidt Called Greatest Player on Baseball Team of Decade

Who were the best baseball players of the ‘80s? Tom Verducci of Newsday offers his Team of the Decade (the numbers after each player’s name denote his average season in the ‘80s):

C: Gary Carter (.264, 21 home runs, 80 runs batted in). Lance Parrish might have hit 18 more homers, but no one handled pitchers better or blocked the pitch in the dirt better than Carter.

1B: Eddie Murray (.293, 27, 100). He has the best numbers across the board of any player in the decade. Yet Murray never won the MVP award and never led his league in any offensive category other than in the strike season.

2B: Ryne Sandberg (.285, 14, 55). Despite only eight full seasons in the decade, Sandberg had 69 more hits than Willie Randolph, 94 more RBIs than Steve Sax and a glove that nobody matched, not even the slick Frank White.

3B: Mike Schmidt (.277, 31, 93). He might be the best third baseman of all time, not just this decade.

SS: Robin Yount (.305, 17, 82). OK, nobody played the position like Ozzie Smith. But Yount, who played the first five years of the decade at shortstop and the last five in the outfield, cannot be left off this team.

LF: Rickey Henderson (.291, 14, 54). Nobody comes close to Henderson in runs scored, stolen bases or pitchers distracted.

CF: Dale Murphy (.273, 31, 93). He won five Gold Gloves and two MVP awards, hit more homers than everybody but Schmidt, drove in more runs than everybody but Murray and missed only 23 games the entire decade.

RF: Dwight Evans (.280, 26, 90). Nobody played right field like Evans for the first six years of the decade. Dave Winfield, because of his back injury, and Andre Dawson, because of two off years, just missed this spot.

DH: Harold Baines (.288, 19, 84). Without much speed, Baines ranks fifth in hits over the decade.

Right-handed starting pitcher: Jack Morris (16-12, 3.66 earned-run average). Even with his 6-14 disaster this year, Morris won 22 more games and threw 114 more innings than any other pitcher in the decade.

Left-handed starting pitcher: Fernando Valenzuela (13-10, 3.19). Valenzuela, despite a 29-35 record in the past three years, gets the nod for his run from 1981 to 1986 in which he was 97-68 and made the All-Star team every year.

Right-handed reliever: Jeff Reardon (6-6, 2.75, 26 saves). He saved 25 more games than anyone else in the decade and yet was traded twice.

Left-handed reliever: Dave Righetti (7-6, 2.91, 31 saves). Righetti set the major league save record (46) and saved more games in the ‘80s than any other left-hander.

Manager: Whitey Herzog (87-75). No manager gets more respect from opposing players than Herzog.

Player of the decade: Schmidt.

Trivia time: Pete Holohan of the Rams and Eric Sievers of the New England Patriots lead NFL tight ends in receptions. Whom did they play behind in 1983?

A sock in the buckeye: The state of Ohio wore the collar against the state of Michigan this week. The Cleveland Browns were beaten by the Detroit Lions, 13-10, on Thursday, the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Detroit Pistons, 101-82, Friday night, and Michigan beat Ohio State, 28-18, Saturday.

Trivia answer: Kellen Winslow, when the three played for the Chargers.

Quotebook: Promoter Dan Duva on the $2-million payday George Foreman will have for fighting Gerry Cooney: “The only guy who George Foreman should be talking about fighting is Hulk Hogan.”