MLB's All-Time Small-College All-Star Team

Tasked with projecting the athletic success of high school seniors, it's no wonder that major league scouts and college recruiters make their share of mistakes.

It's tough to make sense of a man when he's just become one (at least in the law's eyes).

What the scouts miss, the nation's small colleges and regional universities gladly accept. A growth spurt here or a new pitch there and some of that runoff eventually lands in the Hall of Fame.

Others simply end up on this pretty awesome fictional baseball team.

Ground Rules

• Players must have attended a four-year college. Junior colleges do not count. Too many big leaguers attended a junior college at some point in their amateur career.
• The four-year college must have an undergraduate enrollment under 8,000. It's an arbitrary cutoff but it does a nice job separating big from small.
• The player can't have attended a college in one of the so-called "Power Six" conferences. This helps root out smaller schools like Duke and Stanford that have small enrollments, but don't really deserve classification as a small school.

The Starting Rotation

Bob Gibson, Creighton University

Christy Matthewson, Bucknell University

Jim Bunning, Xavier University

Jim Kaat, Hope College

Chuck Finley, University of Louisiana at Monroe

Wow. What a starting five. I wouldn't quibble with putting Matthewson above Gibson in the rotation, but I'll let my modern-leaning bias show here in favor of "Hoot."

Kaat and Finley provide nice balance from the left side and a change of pace from the pure power of Gibson at the top.

Catcher: Sherm Lollar (Pittsburgh State University)

Chicago White Sox great Sherm Lollar gets the distinct pleasure of catching this elite staff.

One of the top catchers during the 1950s, Lollar complemented a stout defensive game with a better-than-average bat that matured well with age. Lollar had his best overall seasons at ages 33 and 34, bunking the widely held theory that catchers deteriorate faster than other position players.

If your wondering how the Arkansas native ended up attending college in Western Pennsylvania, don't strain yourself. Pittsburgh State University is actually in Pittsburgh, Kansas, just up the road from Lollar's hometown of Fayetteville.

First Base: Lou Gehrig (Columbia University)

Sherm Lollar was a nice surprise, but this...this is huge.

Lou Gehrig gives this lineup all sorts of muscle in the middle along with the kind of calming clubhouse presence every fictional team gathered across time and space needs.

Known for his complete humility and grace during his professional career, Gehrig's college career at Columbia University stirred up a surprising level of controversy. Because he played for a semi-professional team over the summer after his freshman year, the college ruled him ineligible for school athletics.

For reasons unknown (he was really good) the Ivy Leaguers eventually relented and allowed Gehrig to join the football and baseball teams. Where were the NCAA investigators on that one?

After Gehrig dominated the college ranks, the nearby Yankees quickly signed the Manhattanite to a professional contract. Two decades later his statistical feats would rate him among the best hitters who ever lived, a title he could still arguably lay claim to.

His personal feats would rate him even higher.

Second Base: Eddie Collins (Columbia University)

What the heck is going on in Harlem?

Not only is the neighborhood one of America's great cultural endowments, local geek factory Columbia University seems to have a way with baseball greatness.

At a time when few Americans and even fewer baseball players attended college, Eddie Collins found his way to the prestigious school in Upper Manhattan. His time there would launch an incredible career that ranks among the best in the game's history by most any statistical measure.

Collins stole 744 bases, notched 3,315 hits and hit an even .333 for his career.

By the win shares statistic developed by legendary baseball historian Bill James, Collins is the greatest second baseman ever. According to the WAR measure kept by baseballreference.com Collins is second by a sliver to Rogers Hornsby.

Either way, the squad is happy to have him.

Third Base: Gary Gaetti (Northwest Missouri State)

Powerful at the plate and a defensive wizard in the field, Gary Gaetti's impressive 20-year career was the longest of long shots in the late 1970s.

Then Gaetti was a freshman from Centralia, Illinois making his way in the baseball backwater known as Northwest Missouri State. Only the toughest creatures make it out of the muck, and "the Rat," as Gaetti was affectionately known, emerged from a stellar college career as the Minnesota Twins' first-round pick in the 1979 supplemental draft.

Gaetti quickly scuttled his way through the Minnesota farm system and would win the starting job at third base by 1982.

Shortstop: Luke Appling (Oglethorpe University)

I can feel the team gelling.

Note that Lou Gehrig's floating head, accompanied by the teaser line "Lou Gehrig says...", appears on the bottom of this Luke Appling baseball card.

I'm no psychic, but I assume this leads to a kind sentence or two about Luke Appling provided by fellow Small-College All-Star Lou Gehrig. It's all smiles and pats on the back and butt slaps on this squad. Good vibes, folks, good vibes.

Besides being a close personal friend of Lou Gehrig, Appling was a dang good baseball player. The Hall of Famer hit .310 for his career and would have eclipsed 3,000 hits had World War II not interrupted his career.

Left Field: Lou Brock (Southern University)

It's little surprise that Lou Brock played his college baseball at cozy Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Brock only began playing organized baseball in 11th grade. The major league scouts didn't have a whole lot to evaluate.

Once Brock broke out during his sophomore year at Southern, the crowd around him grew quite a bit larger. The Chicago Cubs eventually signed the speedster in 1960 and promoted him to the big club just a year later in 1961.

Then the Cubs pulled a Cubs by trading Brock to the St. Louis Cardinals for Ernie Broglio and a sack of marbles whereupon Brock would break Ty Cobb's all-time record for stolen bases in a career.

Whoops.

Center Field: Tris Speaker (Texas Wesleyan University)

Tris Speaker might be the greatest hitter of the dead ball era not named Ty Cobb.

The swift center fielder hit .345 for his career with an eye-popping .428 on-base percentage. His 3,514 career hits still ranks fifth all-time.

Speaker gets a spot on this team due to the one year he spent at Fort Worth Polytechnic Institute, now called Texas Wesleyan University. A solid season there drew the interest of local scouts, and soon Speaker was off to the Texas League and eventually the Boston Red Sox.

Twenty-two years spent largely between the Red Sox and Cleveland Indians would cement Speaker as one of the greatest ever to patrol the outfield.

Right Field: Paul Waner (East Central University)

First awesome fact about Paul Waner: His nickname was "Big Poison."

Second awesome fact about Paul Waner: He attended college at East Central University, which is improbably an actual school. No word on whether Geography is a course of study there.

Third awesome fact about Paul Waner: His name can be rearranged to make the phrase "A pure lawn."

Sobering fact about Paul Waner: He routinely played games hungover and definitely had a drinking problem.

Through it all, Waner managed over 3,000 career hits and, like teammate Eddie Collins, hit exactly .333 lifetime.

The Bullpen

Closer:Billy Wagner, Ferrum College

Setup Man: Dan Quisenberry, University of La Verne

Middle Relief: Kent Tekulve, Marietta College; Keith Foulke, Lewis-Clark State College; Mike Timlin, Southwestern University

Long Man: Jamie Moyer, St. Joseph's University

Pitchers are weird and relief pitchers are even weirder, so it's no surprise that some of the best late-game hurlers come from some out-of-the-way places.

Wagner and Quisenberry make for a ferocious end-game duo, though they'd probably have to fistfight Bob Gibson for a spot on the mound.

The Bench

OF/1B Lance Berkman, Rice University

OF/1B Gil Hodges, St. Jospeh’s College (Indiana)

1B Jeff Bagwell, University of Hartford

2B Davey Lopes, Washburn University of Topeka

3B Scott Brosius, Linfield College

CF Kirby Puckett, Bradley University

This isn't the most balanced bench ever, but I couldn't resist squeezing both Berkman and Bagwell onto the squad. Between the Killer B's and Kirby Puckett this team has plenty of late-game options. We'll just have to hope Sherm Lollar doesn't get hit by a cement truck.

Note: If we're playing with a designated hitter I nominate Bagwell for the duties.

Manager: John McGraw (St. Bonaventure)

Hailed on his Hall of Fame plaque as "the greatest assessor of baseball talent," John McGraw gives this squad all the managing prowess one could hope for.

In addition to managing the Baltimore Orioles and New York Giants to a combined 11 pennants and three World Series Championships, "Little Napoleon" also played for the St. Bonaventure University baseball team in the late 19th century.

I imagine the small-college experience will help him relate to the guys, maybe give 'em a little confidence when they're up against the faceless state school bullies.

The Lineup

1. Lou Brock

2. Eddie Collins

3. Tris Speaker

4. Lou Gehrig

5. Paul Waner

6. Luke Appling

7. Gary Gaetti

8. Sherm Lollar

9. Bob Gibson

Now that group could win some ballgames.