MLB Father's Day Dream Team

Issue #99

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! Thousands of major league players throughout history have been fathers—but relatively few have had sons that went on to play in the majors. According to Baseball-Almanac.com that number is 257*.

The earliest major league father-son combo it seems was the Doschers, Herm and Jack. Herm was born in 1852 and played at the major league level, mostly as a 3B, in parts of five seasons spread from 1872 to 1882. His son John Henry “Jack” Doscher was born in 1880 and was a pitcher who saw limited action from 1903-08.

Far better players—and far more well known—major league father-and-son pairs include guys with names like Bonds, Boone, Alomar, Alou, Bell, Griffey, Guerrero, and Fielder. In doing the research for this article, however, I learned of some major-league father and son combos that I wasn’t previously aware of.

Here is my all-time dream team roster of players who were fathers of players who also made it to the major leagues:

I included three at each position, so there are lots of Hall of Famers and other star players here. Even so, these are just the best of the best, with many others, especially outfielders but across all positions really, deserving honorable mention including: LF Dante Bichette, LF Gary Matthews, RF Raul Mondesi, RF Gus Bell, RF Jeff Burroughs, CF Andy Van Slyke, CF Tony Armas, 3B Ray Boone, 2B Sandy Alomar, 1B Hal Trosky, 1B John Mayberry, C Tony Peña, SP Charlie Leibrandt, SP Floyd Bannister, SP Jim Bagby Sr., SP Max Lanier, SP Thornton Lee, SP Vern Law, SP Doug Drabek, RP Pedro Borbon, and RP David Weathers.

Here is what starting lineups might look like for this dream team of major league dads:

vs. RHP

1. Tim Raines LF (S)

2. Eddie Collins 2B (L)

3. Tony Gwynn RF (L)

4. Vladimir Guerrero DH (R)

5. Earl Averill CF (L)

6. George Sisler 1B (L)

7. Yogi Berra C (L)

8. Maury Wills SS (S)

9. Pete Rose 3B (S)

vs. LHP

1. Tim Raines LF (S)

2. Eddie Collins 2B (L)

3. Tony Gwynn RF (L)

4. Vladimir Guerrero DH (R)

5. Tony Pérez 1B (R)

6. Earl Averill CF (L)

7. Iván Rodríguez C (R)

8. Buddy Bell 3B (R)

9. Maury Wills SS (S)

Either way, those are some potent lineups! The top three would get on base often—and then steal more. And there other possible top-of-the-order types too, like Rose, Wills, and Biggio.

I included Averill in both lineups, though you could use righties Alou, Cameron, or Bonds in CF against the toughest LHPs. Ditto for Hall of Famer Craig Biggio with Eddie Collins at 2B. Sisler and Perez form a natural platoon at 1B, as do the two all-time great catchers, Berra and Rodríguez.

Some might complain about my not including Rose in both lineups—he is a switch-hitter after all. But Buddy Bell is one of those underrated players from the 1970s, and won five consecutive Gold Glove Awards at the hot corner. Also, he hit LHPs well, so I found it interesting to compare the slash lines of Bell and Rose vs. lefties:

• Bell vs. LHP: .295/.366/.433

• Rose vs. LHP: .293/.351/.384

Regarding the pitchers**, the order of the first three starters seemed obvious, but you could debate how to rank the others depending on whether you prefer peak performance, career longevity, or a balance of the two. For the bullpen I went with the peak performance of Bryan Harvey at the top—but again, how you rank him and guys like Gordon, Shaw, Russell, and Bedrosian could be debated.

All-Time MLB Sons Dream Team

Naturally after doing the above analysis, this question arose: what would an all-time dream team of players whose fathers also played in the major leagues look like? Interestingly, a few of the same players make this roster as well, since there have been several three-generation MLB families. Here is the roster I came up with:

There are of course some different names here, as not all of the best sons had fathers who were stellar major league players, and vice-versa. But there are also many sons of the fathers on the earlier roster, and as noted, two players who appeared on both: Buddy Bell and Bob Boone (odd that they also have double-Bs for their names!) In their cases, their sons—David Bell and Bret Boone—were also good enough to be included as third-stringers on this Sons Dream Team.

As I did with the Fathers Dream Team I included some players as “utility” guys, in this case Dee Strange-Gordon and Tom Tresh. And as there were many good 1B candidates, I cheated a little by listing Prince Fielder as a DH, even though he played more at 1B than DH during his career.

As with the Fathers Dream Team, there were many others that at least deserve honorable mention. Three are still early in the careers—Bobby Witt Jr., Jeremy Pena, and Ke'Bryan Hayes. I included some other young stars in Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Fernando Tatis Jr., but I don’t think Witt, Pena, and Hayes have done quite enough yet. Others who I considered and deserve honorable mention include: CF Jose Cruz Jr., CF Brian McRae, 1B David Segui, C Terry Kennedy, C Todd Hundley, SP Tony Armas Jr., SP Omar Olivares, SP Jaret Wright, RP Mark Leiter Jr.

Again, what would starting lineups look like for this all-time dream team?

vs. RHP

1. Roberto Alomar 2B (S)

2. Bo Bichette SS (R)

3. Barry Bonds LF (L)

4. Ken Griffey Jr. CF (L)

5. Prince Fielder DH (L)

6. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 1B (R)

7. Dixie Walker RF (L)

8. Buddy Bell 3B (R)

9. Bob Boone / Sandy Alomar / Jason Kendall C (R)

vs. LHP

1. Roberto Alomar 2B (S)

2. Bo Bichette SS (R)

3. Barry Bonds LF (L)

4. Ken Griffey Jr. CF (L)

5. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 1B (R)

6. Fernando Tatis Jr. DH (R)

7. Danny Tartabull RF (R)

8. Buddy Bell 3B (R)

9. Bob Boone / Sandy Alomar / Jason Kendall C (R)

Here we have Alomar and Bichette at the top, two good table-setters for the several power guys that follow. Against LHP you could move Guerrero and Tatis up in the order and the lefties Bonds and Griffey down—but my mind just didn’t like the idea of Bonds batting fifth and Griffey batting sixth (!). Walker and Tartabull are a potent platoon in right-field, and all three catchers were right-handed hitters so I figure they should just split the time as needed.

Overall the pitching candidates for this dream team were not as strong as those for the Fathers Dream Team. Luis Tiant is the headliner, and is included because his father, also named Luis Tiant, pitched 10 years, from 1930-47, in Negro Leagues that today are considered to be Major League level.

After Tiant, how you rank the other five starting pitchers that I’ve included could certainly be debated. Similarly for the bullpen, Robb Nen was clearly the best of the relief candidates, but how you order the others could be argued.

*The players considered for this article are those listed at Baseball-Almanac’s page for MLB Fathers and Sons, plus as noted Luis Tiant whose father played in the Negro Leagues. If you know of other players whose fathers or sons played in the Negro Leagues and perhaps should have been included in the above rosters, please let me know.

**The original version of this article included 19th Century pitching star Silver King as the sixth starting pitcher on the roster. However, a reader raised a question as to whether King was actually a father of another major league pitcher. While the list at Baseball Almanac includes him as father of Lee King, who played in 1916 and 1919, neither Baseball Reference nor the SABR Bio of Silver King indicate that relationship. So pending further evidence, I’ve removed him from the roster.

Did you know? I wrote a book with the same title as this Substack newsletter / blog: Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. It was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports, the publisher of the annual Bill James Handbook and other popular titles. You can learn more about it at www.NowTakingTheField.com, or buy directly at Amazon and other booksellers.