Your Favorite Players over the Years

[gcstomp]

Ozzie Smith. Bo Jackson. Kirk Gibson. Griffey Jr. For awhile I was nuts for Dwight Gooden when he was freakin Frazetta's Death Dealer in 84 and 85.

[The Dane]

Historical favorite: Jackie Robinson, because he's the most important baseball player ever.
Living favorite: Willie Mays, because he's the best player ever. Barry Bonds, because no other player was ever the center of more interesting conversations/
Fantasy favorites: Jose Lima, Richard Hidalgo, Lance Berkman, Albert Pujols, because I saw them coming when no one else in my leagues did and they led me to my first titles.
Current favorites: Jose Altuve, because I root for the fellow little guy. Madison Bumgarner, because I figure I should have at least one pitcher, and he is the absolute MAN.

[DMT]

Ryne Sandberg
Roberto Alomar
Mike Mussina
Frank Thomas
Derrek Lee
Bryzzo (I know how endearing they have become to non-Cubs fans) and pretty much all of the 2016 Cubs

[Sharky]

Was a big Mookie Wilson and Keith Hernandez fan (until I got to know Keith better). Lenny Dykstra as well from that era.

Fantasy baseball led me to love players like Reggie Sanders and Ray Durham.

Now my favorite player is Bartolo Colon. I really enjoy players who clearly have fun. Asdrubal Cabrera comes to mind. Anyone else I should keep an eye out for?

[madducks]

Yeah, Bumgarner is another current personal fave of mine too. How can you not like a guy who can shut down the opposing team when he's pitching and then hit a moonshot when he comes up to bat?

[rhd]

Being a lifelong O's fan, I loved Brooks Robinson and later Frank Robinson. Brooks was always a class guy on the field and off. Of course I liked Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray. Now, I dont have quite the same feelings about any current O's, altho Adam Jones is a very likable guy and I've always liked Machado all the way back to his 1st minor league season. He always had a 'take charge' persona even when he was in the minors.

Among lesser known O's, I always had fond memories of Steve Barber. Barber had some of the best stuff of any pitcher, but he had 2 career-long problems: he had fits of wildness and he was always getting hurt. He would sometimes walk 5 or 6 in a row in the first inning and get taken out. He was the O's first 20-game winner and I think that season (1963) must have been the only one where he was healthy all year. In 1966, he was having his best season. At the end of June or so, he had a 10-1 record and led the AL w a sub-2.00 ERA, He was selected to be the starter in the AS game. As if on cue, he got hurt again and missed the AS game. He tried returning later in the year but was ineffective and went back on the DL for good. His early season performance was one of the big reasons why the O's won their 1st-ever pennant that year and they won the WS in record fashion, sweeping the Dodgers while giving up only 2 runs the entire series, and he never even got to pitch in it. His career went quickly downhill after that. He died quite a few years ago. I never knew anything about him as a person.

[Hammer]

As a kid my favorites were Thurman Munson and Lou Pinella from the Yanks. Also loved Concepcion and Tony Pena from the Machine.