My Top Five Baseball Families
March 2, 2013 by Matt Nadel · 3 Comments
Hey baseball fans!Matt Nadel here with another dose of baseball history. In today’s post, I will be telling you all who I think are the top five families in baseball history. (Note that I originally posted this for Big Leagues Magazine , a really great online magazine that I write for. Hope you check it out.)
Number Five-The Ripkens: Why? Cal Ripken Sr. and Cal Ripken Jr. basically represent the Orioles in the ’80s. You may think that Cal Jr. was the only Ripken great, but Cal Sr. was involved in the O’s organization for 36 years and managed Baltimore in the 1987 season. In that season, Cal Jr. and Billy Ripken played in Baltimore. Billy Ripken wasn’t a superstar like is brother, but I think we can all agree that Cal Ripken Jr. deserves to be in the Hall.
Number Four-The DiMaggios: Why? Vince wasn’t really the best baseball player, but Dom and Joe both were consistently good ballplayers for the Red Sox and Yankees, respectively. Dom went to seven All Star games, while Joe went to 13. Joe is in the Baseball Hall of Fame but, sadly, Dom isn’t. However, he is in the Red Sox Hall of Fame. All in all, the DiMaggio parents should be proud of how successful their three sons were at playing the game they loved, baseball.
Number Three-The Bondses: Why? Bobby was a great ballplayer in the sixties and seventies, while his son, Barry, dominated the nineties and two thousands. They have a combined 1,094 homers, the most homers between a father and son. The only reason they aren’t number one is because Barry took steroids. Steroid use is not tolerated with me, and it is definitely not tolerated with the BBWAA.
Number Two-The Griffeys: Why? Ken Griffey Jr. and Ken Griffey Sr. were both big helpers in some teams’ successes. Griffey Sr. helped the Reds to two consecutive World Series titles, while his son helped the Mariners become an AL powerhouse in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Also, the Griffeys are the only father-son combo to hit back-to-back home runs. Now, that is what I call “like father, like son”.
NUMBER ONE-THE WANERS: Why? Little Poison and Big Poison, Lloyd and Paul, are both in the Hall of Fame. They both contributed to the Pirates of the ’20s and ’30s and they were both hitting machines. It’s funny how they played together on the Pirates and not the Phillies. Why do I say that? I say that because the Phillies play in the “City of Brotherly Love.”
Well, that’s my top five families in baseball history. There are some honorable mentions, though. The Alous, Felipe, Jesus, and Matty, were once the family dynasty in San Francisco, while the Delahantys, Ed, Frank, Jim, Joe and Tom, were great ballplayers during the Dead Ball Era. Anyway, do you agree with my list? Leave me a comment and tell me your list of top five baseball families of all time. Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoyed this post about “all the buzz on what wuzz”.
Hi Matt, nice work. Being a big Cards fan I’ll throw a couple of others out there. First, the Boyers. Three brothers all got a tasted of the bigs led by Ken Boyer, most notably the 3B of the Cards during the mid 50’s to the mid 60’s. Ken is a borderline HOF worth player, career WAR of 58.7. He’s also on the fringe of several HOF measuring points. 11 different All-Star seasons, some of those had the 2 games/year so he actually played in more. 1964 NL MVP and a winner of 5 gold gloves. Also led the Cards to the WS title in ’64, over your beloved Yankees!
So about those Yankees, their 3B in 1964 and for much of the same time frame was Ken’s brother Clete. Clete was never the same level of hitter and Ken, but was probably better with the glove. He only won one gold glove, but he did have to go against Brooks Robinson for most of his career. Clete was a solid player earning 25.5 WAR for his career.
They also had a brother, Cloyd, who was a pitcher. He pitched mainly for the Cards, totaling just under 400 career IP. 1950 was his best season. I think injuries did him in.
My other brothers failed to have a long career due to injuries to both, but they did fantastic in their short careers. The Dean brothers of Dizzy and Paul. Dizzy of course made the HOF. He pitched in 4 All-Star games, with the 1937 game being his demise. Took a line drive off his big toe off the bat of Earl Averill. Dizzy altered his pitching motion and wound up hurting his arm. He was never the same. His brother Paul was believed by some of the old Card’s scouts to have even more potential than Dizzy. Paul won 19 games in each of his 1st two seasons, then suffered throw various arm issues. After throwing about 500 IP in those two seasons, he only pitched about 300 more for the rest of his career.
Aaron – I’ve gotten so many comments that I may need to do like a top 20 families countdown
Put the Perrys in your top 20, please.