Do You Know Your Replacement Players?

Many astute readers may remember the replacement players who were called upon during the strike in the mid-nineties just in case the players never reached an agreement with the owners on coming back to work.

Perhaps not surprisingly, some of those players who were given the opportunity to try out ended up making a big league roster.

Our friends at a blog called More Hard Ball have done some research and put together a list of the all time best fill in players from this time in baseball history. The link can be found here: http://morehardball.blogspot.com/2009/01/replacements.html.

The roster lists some very well known players in today’s game who probably would not have made it, perhaps even into any level of professional baseball, if it weren’t for the strike.

One can only wonder about the other talent from this time period who were never given a chance to make their mark on a large audience.

A good number of the players played for the Red Sox at some point in their career, making one wonder if they had a penchant for a good story line. Of course most of them came to the Sox before the “curse” had been lifted, so they really didn’t have anything to lose at that point.

Overall, fans have believed over time that those players who stuck with teams from the replacement tryouts are the ones who truly love the game of baseball and are not in it simply for the fame and fortune.

Bill Jordan is a contributor to BaseballReflections.com. He can be reached by e-mail at BillJordaniv@yahoo.com.