hiester.com

(Note: Mike Missanelli, if you don’t know, is the afternoon “drive time” host on the 950 ESPN sports radio station in Philadelphia)

Hey Mike,

I was listening to your show today on the way home from work and I was intrigued by your simulated baseball competition that pits an all-white team vs. an all-black team vs. an all-latino team. It’s an interesting exercise to be sure, but I  do have some questions about your methodology.

Why pick teams based on the U. S. Census classification system? And if you’re going to use that system, why is there no all-Asian team? After all, Japan has won two consecutive World Baseball Classics (playing vs. Korea in this year’s final).

I would also like to know if you put Negro League players on your all-black team? It seems unfair to put Walter “Big Train” Johnson on the all-white team since he played in a segregated league. Was “Double Duty” Radcliffe on the all-black team? (I looked on the 950 ESPN web site, but couldn’t find it-why do sports radio stations have such crappy web sites? You guys couldn’t just put your stuff on the excellent ESPN.com site?)

Even so, there are so many rich possibilities for this kind of fantasy baseball system. Here are a few:

• All guys named Joe (I’m off to a good start here with DiMaggio and Morgan) vs. All guys named Bob (this team could claim variations, such as Roberto Clemente). There are a few other names you could probably build good teams around, such as Mike, Steve, John, George (Babe Ruth and George Brett is a good start) and Bill/Willie; these would, of course accept players with these same names in other languages.

• An all-Domincan team (All-Puerto Rican? All-Cuban? The all Japanese team has already won it twice in real life so no need to simulate with them)
• An all MLB brothers team (Molina, Cruz, Niekro, Giambi, Forsch, Drew, etc.) vs. all others
• An intra-USA competition based on the state in which the player was born
• Chewing Tobacco vs. Sunflower Seeds
• Time-based (e.g. All pre-1950 vs. all post-1950)
• Yankees vs. the best of the non-Yankees
• Best players who have won a World Series vs. Best Players who have never won a World Series (e.g. Alex Rodriguez)
• Clean-shaven vs. Facial Hair
• Best players of one year vs. another (e.g 1927 vs. 1975)

I’m sure the Elias Sports Bureau could supply you with about 8000 other matchups.  Now you have some good time-fillers for a couple of years of dog days.

Sincerely,

–Chris Hiester

P. S. Check out my article on “Chooch” vs. “Chucha”