Charlie Brown's All-Stars - major league equivalents

[DTF955]

Here's a new twist on the discussion of that great Peanuts team.

here's the truck: Making them realistic, to lose so often, by so much, I noted bfore that they could be playing kids a few years older (hence some being kind enough to turn around and bat lefty). So, let's pretend that's true, and they have some talent. And, they are transofmred into big leaguers.

Who would you imagine them morphing into? Oh, ifeel free and change the more invisible ones into big leaguers, too, though we don't see enough of some to really know. I'm adding a few others, too, just so we round out the Peanuts cast. Lastly, pick a ballpark you want to put them in.

My picks:
C - Schroeder - Carlton Fisk - Let's face it, the kid is *always* out on the mound. I don't recall that he ever hit in a strip, but he's got to have some talent.

1B - Shermy - Wally Pipp - Yeah, he's a more invisible Peanuts cast member, but what better guy for a Peanuts player to turn into than a guy best known for sitting down! And yet, he was a decent player himself. (It also gives them hope there might be a Lou Gehrig in their fiture.)

2B - Linus - Martin Dihigo - The great Negro League star performed most at 2nd, but was a solid pitcher, too; and LInus once replaced Charlie Brown, who had Little League Elbow, and won. Still, I could have gone with a lot of different guys here.

SS - Snoopy - Honus Wagner - He could do it all.

3B - Pigpen - Pete rose - When I think of both, I think of dirt, the latter because he was always sliding headfirst. Besides, a Peanuts player caught a poop fly Charlie Brown dropped to win a game once, just like Rose did in '80 near the end of the World Series. Okay, so it was Snoopy who caught it int he Peanuts panel, but still...

LF - Sally - Yogi Berra - First, when she gets a little older, she might be better than some of the regulars, especially patty, who is almost totally ignored. Second, Yogi played left late in his career, where it got late early. Third...I mean, all those malaprops...doesn't it just HAVE to be? (Okay, maybe Casey, or a few other guys who have talked funny)

CF - Frieda - Tough to say, any ideas? Who would have really curly hair? Would an afro do - since I'm legally blind, I don't know if those were made up of lots of curls or what they were, all I know is they were big.

RD - Lucy - Dave Kingman - Only becuase the original Dr. Strangeglove couldn't play right, I don't think, plus Kong's attitude wasnt' always the best. Still, we'll just make Lucy...well, on the bench, because we've got some others on the bench.

P - Charlie Brown - "Old Hoss Radbourn (sp?) - I was torn...for his timelessness, I'd almost say Jamie Moyer (who was pretty bad some years early), for longevity, maybe Mike Morgan (and he was finally on a winner, like Moyer), but for just going out and pitching *all* the time, there aren't many others. If he was good, Satchel Paige, but Radborne (I'll spell it right one day) didn't have the longevity that makes me think of a great pitcher. Of course, there's also "Losing Pitcher" Mulcahey.

The bench:

Patty - I don't know. (Abbott: No, he's on third. Costello: Stay outta the infield!)

Peppermint Patty - Hmm, decent fill-in pitcher...wait. I know. Since we have two Pattys, on the same team, let's do what the '62 Mets did. Presenting...

Peppermint Patty - Bob Miller - The one witht he career spanning 18 years, who appeared in and won World Series.

Patty - The other, less well known Bob Miller. Who just happens to become an outfielder here.

Marcie - This one's difficult. I don't recall her actually *playing*, unlike Peppermint Patty. Indeed, I hardly remember the other Patty playing.I'm open to suggestions here.

Franklin - Frank Robinson - first, we need a rightfielder yet, second, the only black (and one of few on Baltimore when he got traded there, and first ont he Reds, I think), yet someone with wisdom who seems like he'd be a good leader someday.

I've probably made the team a bit better than it should be, but this is fantasy, so why not. The lineup would thus be:

Rose
Wagner
F. Robinson
Berra
Dihigo
Fisk
Whoever Frieda is
Pipp
Pitcher

Obviously, we'd need some more bench players, and more pitchers, though the lack of them (other than Bob Miller...that is, the good one, well, the one that doens't have to become an outfielder...oh, never mind) is countered by CB becoming "Old Hoss."

Okay, who would you see them turning into as big leaguers? Again, mine's rather charitable, but that's the fun of fantasy. And, part of that is I want to see them win some.

[Shea Knight]

C: Mike Piazza (Always going to the mound AND Schroeder actually says once the reason he does that is... he doesn't want the other team to discover he can't throw, just like Big Mike, my favorite ever!)
1B: Marv Throneberry (Mistake-prone and overlooked, just like Shermy.)
2B: Edgardo Alfonzo (Linus' great blanket catches become Alfonzo's backhands, but both are tiny little guys and don't have a lot of clout.)
SS: Jose Reyes (Run run run! Hit hit hit! Hapy happy happy!)
3B: Ray Knight (Pig Pen's a messy guy, and Knight was a gritty, messy player)
LF: Gregg Jeffries (Can Frieda do hardly anything? Nope. Can Jeffries? ...)
CF: Mookie Wilson (With a name with Mookie and such a little guy, he seems like HE'D always be adressing the pticher and others as "Big Brother?")
RF: Daniel Murphy (There's the ball Lucy, catch it! There's the ball, Murphy... DROPPED! AGAIN!)
P: Jay Hook (Charlie Brown can't get a win, is blasted... so was poor Jay.)

And as the team is full of ineptitude, always with that little glimmer of hope before they blow it again and yet are STILL beloved... they're all Mets, the Loveable Losers (though 11-3 and its only Maine's 2nd start and he gets helled AGAIN? Oh... I? can't stand it- GOOD GRIEF!)

[Captain Cold Nose]

There was no greater afro than Oscar Gamble's. I don't know about the preening part just lots of curls, I would guess), but he'd be a natural to take Frieda's spot.

Roger Craig would be a good pitcher, after his bad losing streak with the '62 Mets. With wisdom enough to coach and manage.

What about Violet on the bench? With that mouth (no one rode Charlie Brown worse than her until Lucy was old enough to do it) she could be Eddie Stanky.

[westsidegrounds]

Lucy: John McGraw.

Violet - oh yeah, Violet was brutal. She'd have Leo Durocher in tears ....

[Buzzaldrin]

You gotta remember. Charlie Brown was a player-manager too, that should be remembered. And Lucy once brought those honey and jelly sandwiches out to right field in her glove, then caught a fly and threw the gopp ball back to CB- any major leaguers we know of brought food to the outfield? Joe Medwick got it thrown at him, which is close.

John McGraw is a good Lucy, though. There was one comic where Lucy was pitching and she got Snoopy to slurp on the ball so she could throw a spitter to Charlie Brown, so she could also aparrently pitch. They had quite a versatile team, didn't they?

[Michael Green]

If memory serves the pitcher was Don Sutton, but somebody once hit a shot back through the box and Jerry Doggett on the Dodger broadcast said, "Liner up the middle for a base hit ... You know, the only way to describe that hit is to say it looked like Charlie Brown being undressed."