ONEMOREINNING
THE
OUTFIELD
OF DREAMS
How
would
you have liked to
have had an outfield of Joe
DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and Stan Musial?
How about Mantle, Mays, and Aaron, or Kirby Puckett, Ken
Griffey Jr, and Jose
Canseco. Well that kind of dream outfield
never happens
..except that once it did.
In
1927 the Philadelphia Athletics had an outfield that consisted of 3 future
Hall of Famers all of whom are legendary names
in the history of
the
game.
Ty
Cobb,
Al
Simmons, and Zack Wheat at one
time or another all played
together in the outfield for
the Athletics that year. What a sight that must have been,
Al Simmons was approaching
his prime,
and
Cobb and Wheat were in
their forties but both were
still productive.
Simmoms
of course, at the age of 25, was the star. He hit .398 that year and was
in the process of consolidating his position as one of the pre-eminent players
of the game. He had been with
Its
interesting to note that in the supposed twilight of Cobbs career,
(he was 40 at the time) he had a wonderful season that year. He hit .357,
knocked in 84 RBIs, and managed to steal a number of bases as well. The next
year, which was to be his last, he still managed a .323 average. Al Simmons
hit .351 and had 15 homeruns. In 1929, with Cobb gone, Simmons had a banner
year. He hit .385, had 34 homeruns and knocked in 157
RBIs.
Zack
Wheat stayed one year
with
It
would have been wonderful to have seen all three men playing in that outfield
during their prime. Since that wasnt possible, its kind of nice
to have had them together for that one brief moment in
1927.