Who is your favorite childhood baseball player?
 

As a kid in the 80's reading baseball books my favorite historical player was Ted Williams. Dude was the last to hit 0.400 in a season and lost a good chunk of his prime career to the war and still hit 521 homers.

My favorite modern player I watched (as you may have guessed from username) was Jeff Bagwell. I loved imitating his goofy squat stance while me and my brothers played back yard baseball with a tennis ball and rake stick. The guy hit for power, average, took walks, stole bases and body slammed opponents during brawls! He broke my heart in postseason play much of the time but still holds a special place in my heart regardless.

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Senators late 60s, Frank Howard was about all there was to root for.

My favorites were Jim Rice and Fred Lynn. Oh, if Freddie had stayed with the Sox...

Darryl Strawberry

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Why Darryl? Just curious to know what about his game made you adore him?

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The KC Royals are my team. I have followed the team from the beginning, and as a 6 year old (at the time growing up in a small Kansas town 1970) with a name of Lou, my player was Lou Piniella. My next door neighbor, a teenager named Mike Bartlow called me sweet Lou.

Nolan Ryan in the last few years of his awesome career. I couldn't believe that a guy that old was that good (while playing for pretty crappy teams most of his career). And that fight with Ventura was like watching a collision between baseball generations and the older generation kicked butt. I still laugh when I see a pic of that moment, with Ryan holding Ventura in a headlock.

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I had 2:

Tom Seaver and Johnny Briggs, who was from my hometown of Paterson, NJ

The handle should pretty much give it away. The story? If I can brush the cobwebs off an old book in the back of my memory it was 1962 (could have been '63 I guess) and at 13 years old I'd gotten the first ok (with a few be carefuls) from my parents to venture from New Jersey into New York City without an adult. The Cincinnati Redlegs were in to play the Mets at the old Polo Grounds for a day game. As a Yankee hater who's greatest baseball thrill so far had been Mazeroski's World Series home run I was ecstatic that National League baseball had returned to New York. My friend (a Yankee fan) and I got there super early. Our tickets were on the Cincy side and the ushers didn't object to us walking down to the unoccupied field seats and getting a close up view of the Red players warming up and such. Out of the clear blue Vada Pinson comes strolling over to us and chats us up for what was probably a minute or two - it seemed like a half an hour to us. It was a larger than life experience and made an instant lifelong fan out of me. Even many years later I was saddened when he passed at such a young age. He and Frank Robby are chucking the ball around again somewhere.

Donnie Baseball for me. I grew up loving the Yankees when they were horrible: the Melido Perez and Scott Kamieniecki days. Mattingly was the only reason to go to the game. Always a class act, always had the upmost respect of baseball. When he became a manager I gained even more respect for him. He talked to everyone at spring training and was more than happy to sign for his fans, including for me and my rookie card:

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Duke Snider. Followed closely by Stan Musial.

Ken Griffey Jr was my favorite growing up. 89 was when I first remember getting into baseball and card collecting. He was so exciting to watch. Both at bat and the catches he would make in center field.

Brooks Robinson

Mattingly for me.

Nolan Ryan and Fred Lynn
 

Being an Angels fan

Stan Musial. I even tried to mimic his batting stance until a coach convinced me that it was not a good stance for me. In college it was Bob Gibson as he was from Omaha and played for Creighton.

Like most kids who discovered baseball in the late 50s and had no hometown team (Norfolk, VA), the Mick.

Pete Rose is my favorite since the late 1960's

Still my favorite player, Harmon Killebrew.

Until October 2, 1963, it was Mantle...after that, it was Koufax.

Frank Thomas


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“The Catch” gave me the Willies, simply aMaysing.

Born in '56 and grew up in Victoria, B.C. Became a die-hard Yankees fan thanks to KVOS-TV in Bellingham, Washington, and loved to watch Mantle and Maris as a kid. In the early '70s briefly switched to the Swingin' A's because of Catfish and Reggie, but returned to the Evil Empire when Hunter went to New York in '74.

Will Clark. Growing up in the late 80's early 90's, I loved his intensity.

Growing up in Montreal in the early 70's my favorite player was Mack Jones.

Robin Yount and Roberto Clemente. I liked Paul Molitor a lot, too, and Jim Gantner.

Yount, Molitor and Gantner played like a million games together.

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I remember dude running as hard as he could and slamming into center field wall and breaking his wrist to catch a fly ball. Pure talent and hustle. Started certain seasons with home runs in 7 or 8 consecutive games. Simply one of the best to ever do it, and from both sides offensively and defensively.

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Johnny Bench. I was fortunate to meet him to be able to tell him so. I was hoping I'd be able to get a picture with him. Ends up I did not even need to ask. As he was approaching from a distance he yelled over to me "Hey you, with a classy outfit like that get over here and take a picture with me." The classy outfit was my Reds #5 jersey. We spoke for several minutes, and each time I thanked him, he thanked me for being a fan. Great life memories!

1)Rose,2) Lynn,3) Brett,4) Cedeno

Frickin' loved Kong...

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My Favorite
 

Al Kaline — the gentleman superstar!

Johnny Bench.....I was 10 when the Reds won the World Series in 1975 and followed that up with another in 1976....Bench was the 1976 WS MVP...rest is history....

Jim Rice. Saw him in Double A in Bristol CT and was hooked.. In '75 my buddy across the street followed Lynn and I followed Rice. What a great year and Summer of Baseball..

Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens, which basically reveals where and when I grew up. :p

Ernie Banks. I wasn't around for his prime years but I'm old enough to have seen him play his last several years, maybe 5-6 games. WGN, the Cubs & Ernie, it was a great childhood.

Bobby Murcer was my hero as a young boy. Adored him and still do. My mother sewed me a custom Murcer Yankees #2 pinstripe uni to wear when I was 4 years old. (God Bless her!)

The victim of unreal expectations, he still had an awesome career. A .277 hitter with over 250 HRs and over 1,000 RBIs. 5 time All-Star and a heck of a broadcaster and an even better human being.

My mother-in-law recently passed from a brain tumor - the same type that claimed Murcer's life. I never appreciated how awful he had it near the end until I saw a loved one go through it.

Growing up it was always watching the "Murph" as Americas team on TBS

Pete Rose was my favorite player in the 1970's.

Rickey Henderson was my favorite player in the 1980's.

Ken Henderson then Jim Spencer. Both as White Sox. Apparently I didn't expect much from my childhood heroes! :)

Player I watched--darryl strawberry
Player I read about (there was no youtube)-- Ted williams

Growing up an O's fan in the late 90s and 2000s (a lot of bad O's teams), I always liked Melvin Mora, Cal Ripken, Miguel Tejada, Brady Anderson. Later on my favorite player was Nick Markakis.

This photo was taken at the AC 2003 National. What year did you meet Johnny Bench?

Hi Jerry,

11/1/08 to be exact, at an appearance in Wilmington, MA. To this day, I cannot believe how cool he was.

BTW, great picture, and I'm glad you too met Johnny!

Best always,
John

Did you get Blue Emu all over your hand?? :D

Steve Garvey and Joe Morgan. As a Dodger fan I have no idea why I was drawn to an arch enemy Cincinnati Red, but I always loved Morgan (until he hit the broadcast booth)

Don Lock
 

My first MLB game I ever went to back in the 1965 or so era was at old DC stadium with the Washington Senators..... Don Lock hit 2 home runs that day and I grew up thinking the guy was the next coming of Babe Ruth! LOL

My first year in Little League 1968 my team was called the Senators, so Frank Howard was it for me. I just loved the Nestle Quick commercial starring "Hondo", couldn't wait to see it Saturday mornings watching cartoons.

In 69-70 I became a Dodgers fan and Don Sutton then Steve Garvey were absolutely my favorite players till they were traded.

That's an easy one:

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I was almost nine years old when Hank Aaron broke the record and deep in the throes of a boyhood infatuation with the game, so Hank Aaron was a god.

the reds’ Big Klu for me!