Greatest infield ever?

September 21, 2009 by Jason@IIATMS

One of two things happen when we discuss “best ever” topics:

  1. We over-estimate the past (no one could be better than the “good old days”)
  2. We’re amazed at what we’re seeing now and overvalue our eyes in favor of players we never saw

Frankly, it makes my head hurt sometimes. But, I still love the debate (and a good cartoon, to the right).

The infield of Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira is one of the vital cogs in the Yankees‘ great season so far, but their impact may be much deeper, in terms of baseball history. Some believe, with apologies to the immortal Tinker to Evers to Chance, or to Connie Mack and his “$100,000 Infield” of the 1910s, that the Yankees’ “$78 Million Infield” - their combined salaries – could one day be the finest all-around group ever.

“I think arguably you could say they are the best,” says Palmer. “When you consider their offense, there can’t be a better infield. They are playing outstanding defense and when you couple that and the best offense, that’s pretty special.“

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Now, I’ve been pre-conditioned to automatically point to the 1976 Big Red Machine with Tony Perez, Joe Morgan, Dave Concepcion, Pete Rose, but the truth is that I was too young to really see these guys in action. Heck, aside from remembering the 1981 Dodgers from afar, I never saw any of these guys really play. We can read their stat lines but that doesn’t tell me enough about their defense.

I wonder if they added the catcher to the infield if that would impact the vote (Posada to the Yanks; Bench to the BRM)…

Here are the choices that The Daily News offers; please let me know who YOU think is the best infield ever:

2009 Yankees – Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez

 
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