Plenty is written about baseball’s jerks. I’ve met and interviewed plenty of them.
But rarely do people talk about how nice some players are. They may not have been the best players, but if personality counts (which it doesn’t), they’d be in the Hall of Fame.
To compile a list of the all-time nicest Brewers, I spoke with a smattering of fans, media types and former front office people, all who wished to remain nameless – my former colleague Drew Olson broke a lot of ties. Here’s what we came up with. And imagine this as a September roster, with 40 men on the team crowding the dugout. I venture to guess this friendly squad would win a bunch of games, too.
Please add, edit and boo politely using the Talkbacks below.
C Bill Schroeder / David Nilsson / Mike Matheny
1B Lyle Overbay
2B Jim Gantner / Fernando Vina
SS Robin Yount / Jose Valentin / JJ Hardy
3B Casey McGehee / Kevin Seitzer / Jeff Cirillo
LF Geoff Jenkins
CF Mike Cameron, Darryl Hamilton
RF Jeromy Burnitz
DH Paul Molitor
Bench: Jack Voight, Brady Clark, Matt Stairs, Mark Loretta, Pat Listach, Henry Blanco, Damian Miller, Sean Berry, Mike Coolbaugh, Eddie Zosky
SP Don Sutton
SP Ricky Bones
SP Seth McClung
SP Randy Wolf
SP Steve Sparks
SP Cal Eldred
SP Chris Capuano
RP Curtis Leskanic
RP John Axford
RP Ray King
RP Mike Fetters
RP Matt Wise
RP Trevor Hoffmann
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
