Who are some of your favorite Major League Baseball third basemen all-time?

[okfine]

Doug DeCinces was my favorite Angel. 3B is the best position in baseball IMHO.

 

[Winco]

I had, make that, my father had that book, Ball Four.
Wish I still had it.
Along with the program I had from 1969 for the one Pilot game I attended.
Mom and dad moved, don't know what happened to those two items.
But I had my cards, so I knew where they were.

 

[bluzman61]

I bet you have some REAL good ones in your collection. DON'T sell them, keep them! I sure wish I had been able to keep all of my good ones.

I had over 250,000 cards.
I got robbed, ransacked the entire house, and they got some of them.
I bet they resold the $20,000 worth of cards for $500. Idiots.

My favorite card that was stolen was a Gretzky Rookie, 9+ condition. Sweet card.
I wonder where that card is NOW?
View attachment 326830

Damn, sorry to hear that. A friend of mine, who lives in the Phoenix, Arizona area, had over $200,000 worth of valuable comic books stolen from his home years ago. They caught the thieves, but not until after they had sold much of what they had stolen, and it was unfortunately unrecoverable. And my friend was rewarded with a whopping $180.00 dollars a month to make up for it. And I don't think he got that for very long. Your dilemma is probably much like his. You'd LIKE to replace the stolen items, but you don't have enough money to do this because most of these have undoubtedly increased quite a bit in value. So, sorry again to hear about your house being robbed.

 

[Oldestyle]

Damn, this baseball-less Spring is REALLY starting to get to me. So, to alleviate my yearning for live baseball, ANY baseball, I thought I'd offer up another question ABOUT the sport. These would be players who either played their whole careers at third base, or at least most of their careers at that position. I WOULD'VE included A-Rod, but he played most of his career at shortstop before converting to third base. Anyway, here's some of my favorites - 1) Mike Schmidt, THE best power hitter to ever play third base, he was a fine defensive player, as well. 2) Brooks Robinson - THE best defensive third baseman I've seen. His play at that position was nothing less than stellar. And he was a pretty decent hitter, as well. 3) George Brett - great all-around hitter, he hit for power AND batting average. He was a decent defensive player, as well. 4) Wade Boggs, possibly a better natural hitter than Brett, he didn't have nearly the power George had. And Wade was a fine defensive player, as well. 5) Eddie Matthews - a VERY fine power hitter for many years for the Braves. He finished with over 500 career home runs, a HUGE feat in itself. He's also, I believe, possibly the only Braves player in franchise history to play for them when their home was Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. He was a fine defensive player, as well. Well, there's MY top five, who are some of yours?

Brooks Robinson was an unbelievable glove at third...some of the plays he made were spectacular!

 

[MarathonMike]

Alas my baseball card collection was also decimated by the dreaded Mom cleaning out my old closet. I have around 100 left mostly from the late 60s but some from the 50s.

You guys have this covered. I don't think I saw Ron Santo mentioned he had some great years with the Cubs. Of the current players I would say Nolan Arenado is close to being in the club of all time greats at 3rd.

 

[Winco]

Damn, sorry to hear that. A friend of mine, who lives in the Phoenix, Arizona area, had over $200,000 worth of valuable comic books stolen from his home years ago. They caught the thieves, but not until after they had sold much of what they had stolen, and it was unfortunately unrecoverable. And my friend was rewarded with a whopping $180.00 dollars a month to make up for it. And I don't think he got that for very long. Your dilemma is probably much like his. You'd LIKE to replace the stolen items, but you don't have enough money to do this because most of these have undoubtedly increased quite a bit in value. So, sorry again to hear about your house being robbed.

I fought with the Insurance company.
Obviously they covered our other losses, no problem, but they said they didn't know how to 'cover' the collection.
I said, "Listen, if this was art, you would cover it." "If I had the cards hung on the wall as art, you would cover it."
Ultimately I won, and they covered 'part of the loss.'
It will NEVER replace the "Gretzky Rookie"

 

[candycorn]

He made his bones at 1st base but Pete Rose used to be a 3rd Baseman. I always liked his grit and determination. They called him Charlie Hustler or something like that. Also, Bill Madlock was one of my favorites just because of the way he played...

 

[Pogo]

He made his bones at 1st base but Pete Rose used to be a 3rd Baseman. I always liked his grit and determination. They called him Charlie Hustler or something like that. Also, Bill Madlock was one of my favorites just because of the way he played...

IIRC Rose started at 2B originally, played about everywhere except the battery. He only went to 1B late in his career.

"Charlie Hustler"

 

[bluzman61]

He made his bones at 1st base but Pete Rose used to be a 3rd Baseman. I always liked his grit and determination. They called him Charlie Hustler or something like that. Also, Bill Madlock was one of my favorites just because of the way he played...

IIRC Rose started at 2B originally, played about everywhere except the battery. He only went to 1B late in his career.

"Charlie Hustler"

That guy played all over the place. I think he should've attempted to play all nine positions in the same game. I believe he could've easily done it. I'm pretty sure only two players have done this in MLB history. I'll look it up.

 

[Pogo]

He made his bones at 1st base but Pete Rose used to be a 3rd Baseman. I always liked his grit and determination. They called him Charlie Hustler or something like that. Also, Bill Madlock was one of my favorites just because of the way he played...

IIRC Rose started at 2B originally, played about everywhere except the battery. He only went to 1B late in his career.

"Charlie Hustler"

That guy played all over the place. I think he should've attempted to play all nine positions in the same game. I believe he could've easily done it. I'm pretty sure only two players have done this in MLB history. I'll look it up.

I know one of them already.

Cookie Rojas. Number 16.

 

[bluzman61]

He made his bones at 1st base but Pete Rose used to be a 3rd Baseman. I always liked his grit and determination. They called him Charlie Hustler or something like that. Also, Bill Madlock was one of my favorites just because of the way he played...

IIRC Rose started at 2B originally, played about everywhere except the battery. He only went to 1B late in his career.

"Charlie Hustler"

Scott
That guy played all over the place. I think he should've attempted to play all nine positions in the same game. I believe he could've easily done it. I'm pretty sure only two players have done this in MLB history. I'll look it up.

FIVE players have done this. Bert Campaneris in 1965, Cesar Tovar in 1968, I remember those two, Scott Sheldon in 2000, Shane Halter in 2000, and Andrew Romine in 2017. Impressive!

 

[bluzman61]

He made his bones at 1st base but Pete Rose used to be a 3rd Baseman. I always liked his grit and determination. They called him Charlie Hustler or something like that. Also, Bill Madlock was one of my favorites just because of the way he played...

IIRC Rose started at 2B originally, played about everywhere except the battery. He only went to 1B late in his career.

"Charlie Hustler"

Scott
That guy played all over the place. I think he should've attempted to play all nine positions in the same game. I believe he could've easily done it. I'm pretty sure only two players have done this in MLB history. I'll look it up.

FIVE players have done this. Bert Campaneris in 1965, Cesar Tovar in 1968, I remember those two, Scott Sheldon in 2000, Shane Halter in 2000, and Andrew Romine in 2017. Impressive!

Only two of the five were decent players, Tovar, who was a pretty good hitter, and Campaneris, who was great defensively, and a great base stealer. He finished with 649 career stolen bases.

 

[bluzman61]

He made his bones at 1st base but Pete Rose used to be a 3rd Baseman. I always liked his grit and determination. They called him Charlie Hustler or something like that. Also, Bill Madlock was one of my favorites just because of the way he played...

IIRC Rose started at 2B originally, played about everywhere except the battery. He only went to 1B late in his career.

"Charlie Hustler"

Scott
That guy played all over the place. I think he should've attempted to play all nine positions in the same game. I believe he could've easily done it. I'm pretty sure only two players have done this in MLB history. I'll look it up.

FIVE players have done this. Bert Campaneris in 1965, Cesar Tovar in 1968, I remember those two, Scott Sheldon in 2000, Shane Halter in 2000, and Andrew Romine in 2017. Impressive!

Only two of the five were decent players, Tovar, who was a pretty good hitter, and Campaneris, who was great defensively, and a great base stealer. He finished with 649 career stolen bases.

And Campaneris is 14th all-time, with those 649 stolen bases.

 

[JoeMoma]

Bluz, you have at least 7 more threads to go with favorite baseball players (by position). More if you go into managers, and DHs and such.

 

[bluzman61]

Bluz, you have at least 7 more threads to go with favorite baseball players (by position). More if you go into managers, and DHs and such.

Thanks. I'll probably ask about second and first basemen, but most likely not outfielders. There were/are far too many of them, and three separate positions, of course, IN the outfield. DH is definitely a possibility, thanks for bringing that "position" up.

 

[JoeMoma]

Bluz, you have at least 7 more threads to go with favorite baseball players (by position). More if you go into managers, and DHs and such.

Thanks. I'll probably ask about second and first basemen, but most likely not outfielders. There were/are far too many of them, and three separate positions, of course, IN the outfield. DH is definitely a possibility, thanks for bringing that "position" up.

I suppose you could cluster the outfielders together in one thread. Are the outfield positions different enough to need a thread on each position? Probably not.

 

[Meathead]

Damn, this baseball-less Spring is REALLY starting to get to me. So, to alleviate my yearning for live baseball, ANY baseball, I thought I'd offer up another question ABOUT the sport. These would be players who either played their whole careers at third base, or at least most of their careers at that position. I WOULD'VE included A-Rod, but he played most of his career at shortstop before converting to third base. Anyway, here's some of my favorites - 1) Mike Schmidt, THE best power hitter to ever play third base, he was a fine defensive player, as well. 2) Brooks Robinson - THE best defensive third baseman I've seen. His play at that position was nothing less than stellar. And he was a pretty decent hitter, as well. 3) George Brett - great all-around hitter, he hit for power AND batting average. He was a decent defensive player, as well. 4) Wade Boggs, possibly a better natural hitter than Brett, he didn't have nearly the power George had. And Wade was a fine defensive player, as well. 5) Eddie Matthews - a VERY fine power hitter for many years for the Braves. He finished with over 500 career home runs, a HUGE feat in itself. He's also, I believe, possibly the only Braves player in franchise history to play for them when their home was Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. He was a fine defensive player, as well. Well, there's MY top five, who are some of yours?

Schmidt #1

 

[bluzman61]

Damn, this baseball-less Spring is REALLY starting to get to me. So, to alleviate my yearning for live baseball, ANY baseball, I thought I'd offer up another question ABOUT the sport. These would be players who either played their whole careers at third base, or at least most of their careers at that position. I WOULD'VE included A-Rod, but he played most of his career at shortstop before converting to third base. Anyway, here's some of my favorites - 1) Mike Schmidt, THE best power hitter to ever play third base, he was a fine defensive player, as well. 2) Brooks Robinson - THE best defensive third baseman I've seen. His play at that position was nothing less than stellar. And he was a pretty decent hitter, as well. 3) George Brett - great all-around hitter, he hit for power AND batting average. He was a decent defensive player, as well. 4) Wade Boggs, possibly a better natural hitter than Brett, he didn't have nearly the power George had. And Wade was a fine defensive player, as well. 5) Eddie Matthews - a VERY fine power hitter for many years for the Braves. He finished with over 500 career home runs, a HUGE feat in itself. He's also, I believe, possibly the only Braves player in franchise history to play for them when their home was Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. He was a fine defensive player, as well. Well, there's MY top five, who are some of yours?

Schmidt #1

He's my #1 as well. He had just a great combination of tremendous power at the plate and very fine defensive skills in the field. We'll most likely never see anyone as good as he was at the position again.

 

[Pogo]

Bluz, you have at least 7 more threads to go with favorite baseball players (by position). More if you go into managers, and DHs and such.

Thanks. I'll probably ask about second and first basemen, but most likely not outfielders. There were/are far too many of them, and three separate positions, of course, IN the outfield. DH is definitely a possibility, thanks for bringing that "position" up.

DH is not baseball so no, it's not.

As far as outfielders (which is all the way to the wall) I think far too much hairsplitting goes on between "right", "left"and "center". Outfield is outfield, just make it generic. It's a position that demands running, fielding and throwing, so it's absolutely worthy and there were and are absolutely those who can own the position and those who can't, plus there's a bottomless well of outstanding plays made from, or in, the outfield.

I submit that if you're going to include the nothing-position of first basemen, you can't exclude the outfield.

 

[rightwinger]

Lot of good ones

Best Defensively
Brooks Robinson
Greg Nettles

Best Offensively
Mike Schmitt
Wade Boggs