We have reached the final frontier of the U.S. teams – Alaska and Hawai’i. The nickname 59ers comes from the year, half a century ago, when the two became the last states to join the union.
They’re combining for obvious reasons – small populations and not a whole lot of history. Alaska has just 11 players, the fewest of any state, but has sent one to the big leagues in back-to-back years for the first time in its history. Last year it was the A’s Aaron Cunningham; this year it was Diamondbacks pitcher Daniel Schlereth, the son of NFL lineman Mark.
Hawai’i has produced 35, so together there is still a smaller talent base than the entire First State of Delaware (remember them, a long long time ago?) and any other standalone state. The pitching here is going to make things a little bit interesting, however. Alaskan Curt Schilling and Hawai’ians Charlie Hough, Sid Fernandez and Ron Darling should mean the 59ers will have a chance to stay close. And Scott Feldman, a 17-game winner with Texas last season, could become the fifth member of that rotation someday.
They’ll have to rely heavily on that pitching staff because there’s not a lot of offense here. There aren’t a lot of non-pitchers, period. Benny Agbayani, Mike Lum, Josh Phelps, Shane Victorino … those are your big hitters. So look for a lot of 3-2 type games. Maybe they can steal a few.
There are no managers from either the 49th or 50th states. I’ll tap Tony Rego, a catcher with the 1924-25 St. Louis Browns. He did manage in the minor leagues, and he’s going to be on the team as a catcher. He was 5-foot-4, so I’d guess he was more like a John McGraw-type manager.
Almost there. Three more to go – all outside the U.S. Who’s the best American team? There are a handful of candidates for that designation. I’ll make some guesses at it in a few more posts.
ALASKA/HAWAI’I 59ERS
OF Benny Agbayani
LH Doug Capilla
LH Steve Cooke
OF Aaron Cunningham
RH Ron Darling
LH Carlos Diaz
RH Scott Feldman
LH Sid Fernandez
RH Charlie Hough
OF Michael Huff
UT Randy Kutcher
OF Scott Loucks
OF Mike Lum
1B Joey Meyer
OF Prince Oana
1B Josh Phelps
CA Tony Rego (mgr)
UT Lenn Sakata
OF Bronson Sardinha
CA Dane Sardinha
RH Curt Schilling
2B Steve Staggs
CA Kurt Suzuki
OF Shane Victorino
RH Milt Wilcox
RH Dave Williams
RH Jerome Williams
RH Tyler Yates
Next: Across the Pacific.
Base instincts 