The 1980’s cannot be thirty years in the past already, can they?
Surely there’s been some mistake; say it ain’t so, Peter Ueberroth. Please tell me Cheers and The Cosby Show are still atop the ratings, Bruce Springsteen is still The Boss, and Major League Baseball still has 26 teams, four divisions, no interleague play and no wild card. Or if you can’t say all that, at least pretend for the sake of argument.
Have you got it yet? That’s right, all you have to do is forget steroids, imagine Roger Maris and Hank Aaron still reign supreme atop the home run charts, and mentally switch the Brewers back to the American League. There you go. See how much better that is?
Well, your mileage may vary as to better or worse, but the 80’s were definitely a different time in baseball. Whiteyball and Billyball led to record-setting stolen base seasons, teams carried nine or ten pitchers… and the players you’re about to see dominated the diamond.
I’ve spent the last week sifting stats to determine the roster for the ultimate 1980’s team. I ranked the top 100 players per year, then added those rankings together to find players who excelled consistently throughout the decade. Remember: We’re looking for the players who performed the best overall, not necessarily the best players to step on the field. In other words, Roger Clemens might have remained dominant through the 90’s and Tom Seaver might have starred in the 70’s, but that doesn’t matter for our purposes. All that counts is what happened between 1980 and 1989.
Ready? Then it’s time to meet the starting lineup…