Applications

I hate the doctoral application process. This process is worse than writing my thesis and dealing with all of the hoops at the Grad School at Wichita State. That doesn’t seem right to me.

Eight of the 11 apps I’m sending out just went out. They are:
Ohio State, Minnesota, Saint Louis University, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, University of Chicago

The other 3 are:
University of Toronto, both History and the Centre for Medieval Studies. These are waiting because I’m not sure I did the Centre’s reference letters correctly, so I need to double check on that.
Western Michigan University. This one is waiting because they have multiple sets of instructions on their website and forms and I do not know what to send. I’ll call them and figure that out.

But they’re basically ready to send, once I clear those up. I hope to have WMU sent out tomorrow and UT sent out before Christmas, though that’s depending upon profs if I have to get new letters. Worst case on the UT ones, I send them out without the right letter of reference forms.

I’m guessing I’ll know more in late February, early March. Maybe I’ll have everything by Gulf Wars and can start making plans. We’ll see. Anyway, the bread is on the water and here’s hoping something positive comes back, unlike last year.

The process sucks though. I pretty much had to write or enter everything multiple times for each entry. There is no need for this redundancy in this day and age. The online apps are better, but they aren’t fully utilized, I suspect, or it would work better.

Anyway, the process has driven me to drink, or at least given me an excuse to go the Field House.

All Time Team

This is going to be a long post. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it.

While I was driving to Wichita today, I decided to create my all-time baseball team. The rules are of course not simple. This isn’t the player who is the best at each position, rather, this is a team I would create of players in history. To qualify, a player has to have played not only the position, but also the role in mind for at least one year. In other words, I can’t choose Jeff Bagwell to back up Lou Gehrig because Bagwell wasn’t really a backup in the majors. I am also saying that players who are currently extremely young can be chosen for backup roles, catcher will provide the obvious example for this rule.

Anyway, here it is. I suspect there will be a lot of differences of opinion on this. This list was not created from any exhaustive search so I’m sure I’m going to miss someone, but here it is.

Catcher

I’m going to make an exception to my rule of each player fitting their role immediately at catcher, but I believe I can justify it. I’m picking Yogi Berra, but not just at catcher. I’m going to take advantage of his versatility and play him at C, 1B, LF and DH. In other words, he’s likely to be in the lineup most days, just not necessarily in the same position. This allows me to have another starting catcher in my mind because both will get enough playing time that they won’t complain. That other starting catcher is Pudge Rodriguez. I agree that Johnny Bench is probably better, but I chose IRod because I wanted to have one Texas Ranger on the team and because IRod has shown a wide variety of skills, including stealing bases.

All Time Team

This is going to be a long post. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it.

While I was driving to Wichita today, I decided to create my all-time baseball team. The rules are of course not simple. This isn’t the player who is the best at each position, rather, this is a team I would create of players in history. To qualify, a player has to have played not only the position, but also the role in mind for at least one year. In other words, I can’t choose Jeff Bagwell to back up Lou Gehrig because Bagwell wasn’t really a backup in the majors. I am also saying that players who are currently extremely young can be chosen for backup roles, catcher will provide the obvious example for this rule.

Anyway, here it is. I suspect there will be a lot of differences of opinion on this. This list was not created from any exhaustive search so I’m sure I’m going to miss someone, but here it is.

Catcher

I’m going to make an exception to my rule of each player fitting their role immediately at catcher, but I believe I can justify it. I’m picking Yogi Berra, but not just at catcher. I’m going to take advantage of his versatility and play him at C, 1B, LF and DH. In other words, he’s likely to be in the lineup most days, just not necessarily in the same position. This allows me to have another starting catcher in my mind because both will get enough playing time that they won’t complain. That other starting catcher is Pudge Rodriguez. I agree that Johnny Bench is probably better, but I chose IRod because I wanted to have one Texas Ranger on the team and because IRod has shown a wide variety of skills, including stealing bases. Since Berra provides so much versatility, I’m going to choose one more catcher. Since I like to load up and take advantage of platoon splits, I’d like a left-handed or switch-hitting catcher. While there are several choices, I’m going to take Joe Mauer who slides in because of the prospect exemption. Hey, my game, my rules, and I can futz with them if I want to.

First Base

We only need one first baseman, both because of his durability and because of Berra. This was one of the easier choices, and I’m going with Lou Gehrig.

Second Base

This too was an easy choice, with Joe Morgan starting. He may have no clue what made him a great player now that he’s an announcer, but he was a tremendous top of the lineup hitter. As a backup, we’re going to select uberutility guy Jose Oquendo. He played nearly every position on the field, played them well, got on base, and had a bit of speed. What more do you want from a utility guy?

Shortstop

This is where the harder decisions start. This one was hard because it affected who I was going to choose at third, because this shortstop played third for at least a season as well. No, not ARod, who won’t make any time I control because of his disdain for his fellow players, but rather Honus Wagner, the best shortstop ever and one of the best third sackers as well. I almost put him at third, but I went another route. The presence of Oquendo, by the way, allows me to not have a backup shortstop.

Third Base

Here’s a controversial choice. I’m picking Chipper Jones. I could have picked Mike Schmidt, who was a better player. I could also have picked George Brett, or ARod at short and moved Wagner here. I, however, picked Chipper because he’s a switch hitter who hits both sides well, has stolen some bases, and can play short in a pinch, not to mention left. Again, Oquendo frees me from the need to have a backup here, and Berra even played a game here once, so I should be covered.

Left Field

Barry Bonds. Easy choice. I’m taking Ted Williams too, but I’m allowing myself a DH, and Williams is the ultimate DH.

Center Field

Here is where I’m going to get controversial again. Mays is out there. Cobb, too. Rickey played some in center as well. No, I’m going with the guy who I want to lead this team off, and that’s Tim Raines. I believe that Cobb, Henderson and Raines all played enough in center to justify them playing there, so I could pick any of them. As hitters, Raines is certainly the worst of the three, but in my mind I want a switch hitting leadoff guy, and that’s Raines. It’s not like he’s chopped liver, either. My backup in center is Mike Cameron, who one year for the White Sox hammered lefties, played great defense in both center and right, and who can pinch-run.

Right Field

I’m going to stretch a bit here and put Mickey Mantle here. I know I’m forgetting the Babe, but I like switch hitters and players who can run as well as hit. I also know I could easily put Mantle in center and instead of stretching a bit at two positions, be legit at center and stretch in right with Raines. Doesn’t matter really, an outfield of Bonds, Raines, and Mantle ought to get to most things. I am, however, going to completely stretch a bit by picking the Babe as the backup in right field. I figure he can pitch, pinch hit, rest Mantle’s knees, and do a bunch of things. In 1918, with the Red Sox, this was sort of his role, so I don’t think it’s a stretch.

Starting Pitchers

Since I’m not really looking for versatility at starting pitching, I think I’ll just pick my top four, and then go with a couple of combo pitchers to provide the fifth starter and long relief. Anyway, there are a lot of great pitchers out there so I’ll go with my personal preferences. Kansas boy Walter Johnson is the ace, Lefty Grove gives me a lefty if you’ll pardon the redundancy, Greg Maddux is number three, and Pedro Martinez is number four. Pedro probably can make a case for three, but I’m thinking that if there is any advantage to starting different kinds of pitchers on consecutive days, then putting Maddux between the heat of Grove and Pedro should be good.

Utility Pitchers

Basically, these are pitchers that can start and relieve. They’ll provide me choices at the fifth starter role, along with the Babe, so I’ll be able to mix and match. I’m a huge Johan Santana fan, and he’s a dominant lefty. He’ll actually do short work for me a lot, with the occasional start. To make sure I always have enough pitching, I’m picking the ultimate in workhorses, the kind of pitcher every team needs, a knuckleballer. I’m picking Charlie Hough because of his Rangers ties, though I know there’s probably a better choice out there.

Relievers

First, I’m picking Eric Gagne. Who else would be the closer than a French-Canadian, eh? But I like having a second closer, and I’m picking Rich Gossage. The Goose could pitch 1 inning, 2 innings, 3 innings, and pitch at any point in the game. He may not like having been paired with Sparky Lyle, but he has been in this role. I’m going to use Santana primarily as the left-handed setup guy to finish a three headed monster closing games out. I’m also picking Mike Marshall as the other reliever, again, as a guy who did whatever was needed in the bullpen. Here I’m going to apologize to Ted and say that I’ve changed my mind. Originally I was going to have Jesse Orosco, but with the presence of the Babe I can have both 11 pitchers and 15 position players.

So, I have one position open. I think I need one more utility infielder. I’m going to stretch here a bit as well, because he was always a starter, but I want one more Ranger. This guy played over 1000 games at third, 800 games at short, and 200 games at second. He had a career OPS+ of 114. He was nearly a 30-30 guy when it was very unusual (1977). He wasn’t great at any one skill, but he was good at basically everything. Toby Harrah fills out my roster, which is:

c: Berra, IRod, Mauer
1b: Gehrig
2b: Morgan, Oquendo
3b: Jones, Harrah
ss: Wagner
lf: Bonds, Williams
cf: Raines, Cameron
rf: Mantle, Ruth
sp: Johnson, Grove, Maddux, Pedro
utp: Hough, Santana, Ruth
rel: Marshall, Santana, Gossage
cl: Gagne

And here’s the lineup:
cf Raines (s)
2b Morgan (l)
ss Wagner (r)
lf Bonds (l)
dh Williams (l)
rf Mantle (s)
1b Gehrig (l)
c Berra (r)
3b Jones (s)

Yeah, I’d live with that lineup. Anyway, hope you liked my little flight of fantasy. I’m curious what players you all would choose. I know that there are a lot of players that I chose because of my heart and then found a way to justify them, but hey, it’s my team 🙂