Who Gets Left Off All-Century Team?

When major league baseball and its marketing partners began their Team of the Century promotion, it seemed like a dandy idea.

Then the ballot arrived, crammed with 100 of the greatest players in history, all of whom are or should be in the Hall of Fame.

The challenge: Pick a 25-man roster.

The question: Who gets left out?

As if pennant races and wild card chases aren’t tough enough, now baseball wants fans to separate Cochrane from Bench, Cobb from Mays, Ruth from Aaron.

This is like picking between a Model-T Ford and a Lexus LS 400. Each is special in its own time.

A better idea, certainly a more equitable one, might be to divide the century in half, to let players compete against those of their own era.

“I totally agree with that,” said Ernie Banks, a candidate at shortstop. “They’re different times, different eras. We shouldn’t all be lumped together. It’s different generations of the game.”

Banks’ situation is typical. He is sandwiched at shortstop between old-timers Joe Cronin and Honus Wagner and moderns Ozzie Smith and Cal Ripken Jr. In his time, Banks was the best in the business with 512 home runs. But his time was not the same as that of those other players.

“The game has changed so much,” he said. “It’s different technology, different balls. It’s a different world. It’s not that one generation is better than the other. It’s just that one is different from the other.”

Then there is the issue of the voters. Most people casting ballots on the Internet never saw Wagner or Cronin play and might not have seen Banks.

“That’s why I wear a cap with my name on it,” Mr. Cub said.

The half-century solution wouldn’t help much at third base where the ballot lists six candidates, old-timer Pie Traynor and moderns George Brett, Paul Molitor, Eddie Mathews, Mike Schmidt and Brooks Robinson.

Put Traynor in the early era team. Now whom do you vote for? Like a 3,000-hit guy? Which one, Brett or Molitor? Prefer 500 home runs? Which one, Schmidt or Mathews? Defense? Robinson won 16 Gold Gloves.

What do you do?

“You tell me,” Brett said. “It’s a dilemma. It’s like the All-Star balloting every year. Is there a right way? I doubt it.”

What Brett knows is the moderns have an edge.

“I heard about Pie Traynor but I never saw him,” he said. “You remember what you see more than what you hear.”

The All-Century promotion allows voters to pick six pitchers--a slim staff in view of the current five-man rotation. Start with Cy Young and his 511 victories and Nolan Ryan with his seven no-hitters and 5,714 strikeouts. Then supplement them with, oh, perhaps Christy Mathewson, who won 20 or more games 13 times, and Walter Johnson, a 416-game winner.

Careful, now. That’s four of six and no left-handers, yet. Voters are asked to pick at least one southpaw. So, which one? Warren Spahn with 363 victories or Sandy Koufax with three no-hitters and an 0.95 earned run average in 57 World Series innings? Carl Hubbell with five straight 20-win seasons or Lefty Grove, a 300-game winner.

Want all four? No good. That would make eight pitchers, two over the limit. And it doesn’t even account for worthy candidates like Tom Seaver and Dizzy Dean--and in case you’re looking for a relief pitcher--Rollie Fingers or Dennis Eckersley.

Outfielders might be the toughest department. They allow nine. Twice that might not be enough.

If you start with Aaron and his 755 home runs in right field, does that mean leaving out Ruth and his 714? If you want Cobb and his 4,191 hits in center field, what about Mays and his 660 homers? Prefer Ted Williams, the last .400 hitter in left? Then what about Lou Brock and his 3,023 hits and 938 stolen bases?

Take all six and there are just three places left to pick between the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Hack Wilson and Joe Medwick and Carl Yastrzemski.

You get just three of them and look who’s still left out.

No room for Clemente?

What about Musial and Speaker and Junior Griffey?

And by the way, there is this fellow named Rose, who had more hits than any of them.

So, it’s clear this task is impossible. There is a simple solution, though. The dividing line should be uniforms -- flannels vs. flannels and double knits vs. double knits. Pick a pair of teams, one from then, one from now.

“And then,” Banks said, “let’s play two.”