Consider the members of what I will call the all "Foo" team. There have been about 600 Foo players in Major League history. About as many again are excluded from consideration as overqualified; every other player in Major League history is excluded as underqualified.
The best of the underqualified (i.e. not good enough to be Foo) is arguably Roberto Clemente, though Juan Marichal, Hoyt Wilhelm, and Phil Rizzuto are also worth mention.
The best player on Foo proper is almost certainly Lefty Grove; others worth mentioning here include Carl Yastrzemski, Tom Seaver, Rogers Hornsby, Reggie Jackson, Mark McGwire, and Brooks Robinson.
Your question, of course: What, specifically, do the members of the all-Foo team have in common?
(Bonus points if you can argue convincingly that one of the players mentioned above was miscategorized.)
Extra bonus points: Name any active player who belongs on the all-Foo team. It seems as though the only unambiguous choice is Tom Glavine (if he's still active). There are a couple other arguable candidates, whose identity I'll leave for you to ferret out.
Posted by Matt Bruce at January 16, 2006 05:17 PMOh Matt, I *do* care. So much so that, in all honesty, during one of my inter-snooze periods this morning, I was mulling this one over. Not that it takes much for me to exhibit bizarre behavior between 7:30-7:38 or 7:38-7:46 or...
Can we get something more to go on here? Right now I'm thinking it's some clever word- or letter-play, and am half-tempted to say that Lefty Grove doesn't belong since Lefty isn't (?) his name. Or I suppose Mr. Roberto Clemente Walker, for that matter.
Posted by: ZD at January 18, 2006 09:07 PMAt least one active player other than Glavine almost certainly belongs on the all-Foo team, and it's either Mariano Rivera or Manny Ramirez. (The other one is overqualified.)
Posted by: me at January 19, 2006 01:48 PM