Amid all of the controversy surrounding the selection of the All-Star team, I meant to get around to putting together my own version of the squads. But I've been to two ballgames in the past three days and thus unable to set this down for posterity's sake. Better late than never, here it is, with a few caveats:
• I didn't consider injured (Pedro) or "injured" players for selection
• Even with that in mind, I kept to the requirement of representing every team no matter how putrid (that is, I had to choose replacements for Tampa Bay and the Mets)
• I stuck to true position for my starting outfielders
• I kicked Cal Ripken upstairs to Honorary Captain/Pinch Hitter to match Tony Gwynn for the sentimental folks out there.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Honorary Captain: Cal Ripken
STARTERS: C Ivan Rodriguez; 1B Jason Giambi; 2B Brett Boone; 3B Troy Glaus; SS Alex Rodriguez; LF Manny Ramirez; CF Bernie Williams; RF Ichiro Suzuki; DH Edgar Martinez; SP Roger Clemens
BULLPEN: Freddy Garcia, Tim Hudson, Andy Pettitte, Brad Radke, Keith Foulke, Jeff Nelson, Troy Percival, Kazuhiro Sasaki, Mike Stanton
BENCH: C Jorge Posada, Robert Fick (need somebody from Detroit, and he beats out Clark & Higginson); 1B Jim Thome, Mike Sweeney, Fred McGriff; 2B Roberto Alomar; 3B Jose Valentin (gotta put him somewhere); SS Christian Guzman; OF Shannon Stewart, Juan Gonzalez, Matt Lawton.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Honorary Captain: Tony Gwynn
STARTERS: C Paul LoDuca; 1B Ryan Klesko (1094 OPS Away more impressive than Helton's 1239 OPS at Coors); 2B Jeff Kent; 3B Larry Jones; SS Rich Aurilia; LF Barry Bonds; CF Jim Edmonds; RF Sammy Sosa; DH Luis Gonzalez; SP Randy Johnson
BULLPEN: Jon Lieber, Greg Maddux, Wade Miller, Matt Morris, Chan Ho Park, Ben Sheets, Antonio Alfonseca, Robb Nen, Billy Wagner, David Weathers.
BENCH: C Mike Piazza; 1B Todd Helton, Sean Casey; 2B Craig Biggio; 3B Albert Pujols; SS Jimmy Rollins; OF Lance Berkman, Cliff Floyd, Brian Giles, Vladimir Guerrero.
