MSG Network Panel of Experts to Determine Greatest Players in New York History

From an e-mail I recently received:

“The Lineup: New York’s All-Time Best Baseball Players,” a new original series and interactive fantasy game that will determine the best baseball players in the history of New York, premiered March 23 on MSG Network with “Catchers,” the first of ten weekly episodes. Each 30-minute episode of “The Lineup” will present a number of nominees for consideration at each position, from the Yankees, Mets, New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, with one episode dedicated to the best New York manager of all-time. MSG’s Fran Healy will host a panel, consisting of Hall of Fame Mets catcher Gary Carter, former Yankee bullpen ace Sparky Lyle, New York Magazine contributing editor and baseball aficionado Will Leitch, and executive vice president of the Elias Sports Bureau Steve Hirdt. The panel will whittle down a larger list of players from each position and determine the top five from each spot on the diamond. By the end of each episode, they will crown the top player at each position and name him to the official “Lineup” card.

With an interactive fantasy game launched in conjunction with the on-air program and hosted on http://msg.com/lineup/, viewers can see how they stack up against The Lineup’s experts. Fans will try to predict the five players who will be nominated each week and ultimately who will be selected as the starter in the final “Lineup.” Participants will receive points for each correct pick and will be eligible for weekly prizes such as signed memorabilia from baseball greats like Don Mattingly, Joe Torre, Reggie Jackson and Derek Jeter. At the end of the series, the participant with the most points will win a Grand Prize. The site will also feature chats for fans to interact and debate each position, quizzes about the nominated players, photo and video galleries, and player statistics for fans to comb through before making their picks.

The first episode featured five of the greatest catchers in the history of New York baseball—Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Gary Carter, Mike Piazza, and Jorge Posada, who somehow snuck into the mix ahead of Bill Dickey.  Not surprisingly, Berra topped the list.

Bill James ranked Berra #1 all time among catchers in his New Historical Baseball Abstract in 2001 (Campanella was #3, Piazza #5, Dickey #7, Carter #8, and Posada wasn’t ranked only because he didn’t have enough playing time when the book came out).  Our own Dr. Michael Hoban has Berra ranked first in career value [CV (sum of win shares for 10 best seasons) + .25 (Career Win Shares-CV)] just ahead of Johnny Bench (Piazza is third, Carter fourth, Dickey ninth, Posada 13th, and Campy 16th).

Yogi is widely considered either first or second among all catchers, typically interchanging places with Bench at the top of the list, but a recent ranking methodology designed by Chuck Rosciam has Berra ranked only 10th, behind former New York backstops Thurman Munson (#8), Carter (#5), Campanella (#4), and the guy I thought should have made it instead of Posada, Dickey (#2).  Piazza ranks 15th and Posada ranks 20th.

It’s hard to argue with the panel’s choice, though, and you could do much worse behind the plate than Yogi Berra.

The second episode featured first basemen and this one was a no-brainer.  Who else could be considered number one among first sackers but “The Iron Horse?”  Gehrig ranks first by just about everyone’s measure—James has him ranked #1; Rob Neyer called him “Not just the best first baseman in Yankee history, but the best first baseman in baseball history…”; Hoban has him ranked well ahead of everyone else (his career value of 410 is 57 ahead of Jimmie Foxx); hell, my mail man, the dude who pumps my gas, the woman who lives two houses down, et al. know that Gehrig is the greatest ever.

As for the rest of the group, James has Mize ranked sixth, Mattingly 12th, Hernandez 16th, and Terry 26th, calling him “one of the more over-rated players in baseball history.”  Hoban has Mize seventh, Hernandez 16th, Terry 19th, and Mattingly 24th.

The next episode is airing on Tuesday, April sixth at 10:30 PM (Eastern) and will feature the best second basemen in New York history.  Among the players vying for the top five spots are Tony Lazzeri, Joe Gordon, Jackie Robinson, Bobby Richardson, Frankie Frisch, Willie Randolph, Billy Martin, Jeff Kent, Felix Millan (no, I’m not kidding), and Billy Herman.

Click here for a complete list of television dates and times.

Mike Lynch is the author of Harry Frazee, Ban Johnson and the Feud That Nearly Destroyed the American League and It Ain’t So: A Might-Have-Been History of the White Sox in 1919 and Beyond, and the founder of Seamheads.com.