Friday, April 29, 2022

Mount Rushmore - Jays Unsung Heroes

 I saw this on Chronicles of Fuji today. A Mount Rushmore of Unsung Heroes from your favourite team.

Obviously, me being me I start to overthink it. Because my team is the Jays, do I limit to those not in Cooperstown? Meaning no Alomar, Halladay, Molitor, or Winfield.

Or, because there's the Canadian Baseball Hall, do I include players there as being off limits? If I do it that way, luminaries like Stieb, Olerud, Carter, Fernandez, Henke, and I'm sure I'm forgetting others would be excluded. 

I think if I do it that way, it would definitely bring out names  people might have forgotten. Or I could stretch it to two posts and do one sans Cooperstown, and one sans Cooperstown and St. Mary's.

You know what? It might be the most fun to do it excluding both Halls..

Probably not a name anyone would expect. He was a solid catcher for the Jays as a part of the platoon with Whitt.. Whitt is a member of the Canadian Hall, so he was disqualified. Only other option would be Pat Borders.

Willie Upshaw was a big part of the early growing pains Jays right up to their first AL division championship. With guys like McGriff and Olerud coming behind him though, he was expendable. McGriff did more elsewhere. Olerud and Deglado are both CDN BBHOFers.

He's really here for one moment. His time in Toronto was only a few seasons, but the first ever game, he hit two homers to help the team win their first ever game. He also managed a lot in the system and with the Thunder Bay Whiskey Jacks.

Jim Clancy did as much as Stieb to bring the team to legitimacy, mind you with less drama and slightly less raw talent. He's 3rd all time for wins on the team with 128. Stieb and Halladay both have more, and both are members of at least one HOF. Clancy started the second most games for the team and actually leads the team in career losses. Of course, he was with the team for the lean years, 1977-1988. 

So there it is.. 
I think without the Canadian BBHOF restriction, it would look much different.

Stieb
Delgado
Carter
Fernandez

So dear reader, if you had the same restrictions I put on myself, who would you choose for the Jays?



8 comments:

  1. If this turns into a blog bat around, I can almost guarantee that you'll have made the most unique list.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think it will be a unique list lol. Just by adding the second HOF wrinkle took a lot of the would be guys out of the running.

      Delete
  2. Danny Ainge, Devon White, Jesse Barfield, Alfredo Griffin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also noticed two posts the same but different order.

      Delete
  3. Ainge is an interesting pick. I see him more for basketball though.
    Devo and Jesse were considerations. Jesse is the only one of the 80s outfielders not in the CDN HOF. I was thinking Griffin but not really..

    ReplyDelete
  4. Didn't even consider think about excluding guys in the Bay Area HOF, but after seeing your additional restriction... I looked my four guys up. Looks like I'd have to replace Stewart and Campaneris from my Mount Rushmore. It's too early for me to even think about that, so for the Blue Jays... I'm not going to remove the Canadian HOF guys either. Here's my Mount Rushmore for them:

    Dave Stieb
    Juan Guzman
    Tony Fernandez
    John Olerud

    I went through a phase at some point where I actively chased cards of each of these guys.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's definitely a good list. I see we agree on Stieb and Fernandez. Olerud was a close 5th..
      I honestly forgot about Guzman.

      Delete
    2. I was really into Guzman back into the early 90's. It didn't really have anything to do with me seeing him play. I just thought he was going to be a hobby stud, so I chased his cards.

      Delete