Growing up, I always thought there was a certain aura around third base. I played every position on the diamond at one point or another as I grew with baseball, but besides catching, I probably spent less time at 3rd base than any other position. I wasn't a big guy, and therefore, I told myself that it just wasn't for me.
Third base always seemed like a place for the boldest of men. If there was a center of hell on the baseball field, that was it. It was the hot corner, and only the bravest of mitts patroled the cutout around its grass and dirt. It was the one position on the diamond that drew you toward the hitter more than any other, toward harm's way, toward screaming seeds belted by sweet spots. It was where reaction wasn't a weapon, but more appropriately, a defense.
I remember the legends of third base growing up, guys my pop would spout off about. Guys like Eddie Matthews and Brooks Robinson stole the shows he went to see. He told me about Pie Traynor from his pop's day, but said that it wasn't a position that spawned too many legends and I should pay attention to Mike Schmidt and George Brett, because I might not ever see anything like them again.
He was right.
Third base is a dead art. Its inhabitants nowadays seem to be there for lack of anywhere else to put them. Growing up, legends seemed to grow out of the dirt there, but now, a third sacker seems to come out of the ash. Looking around the league, there is only one third baseman who through any longevity, deserves the notation of "natural" at that position, and that's Scott Rolen. The rest of the position's elite seem more like a hodge podge of the disenfranchised. They travel from team to team to play out one or two year contracts. Of course, that's the age of baseball we live in.
Baseball's most popular third baseman is Alex Rodriguez, who is a shortstop! He, along with the similarly displaced Melvin Mora, are currently the best bats in the American League. They're joined in the Junior Circuit by the inconsistent Mike Lowell and Adrian Beltre, and the slightly underachieving Eric Chavez as the core of the league's hot boxers.
Andy Marte and Joe Crede are the up and coming in the AL, but there aren't any pitchers with the fear of God in them because of their arrival.
In the National League, there's Rolen, and then a long fall off before anything to write home about. David Wright is the "next one" at third. He's the kind of 5-tool player that the new game of baseball drools over. He can run, hit, throw, has power, and seems to have the baseball acumen to become a machine in this league over the next few seasons. And, most importantly, he's a natural 3rd baseman. Morgan Ensberg is another young gun who showed some hot corner power last season. Chipper Jones is back at third, but his days of being an MVP-type player are long gone -- not because he can't produce, but because I doubt he will stay healthy for a full season the rest of his career. The rest of the National League, new transplant Bill Mueller not withstanding, is awful.
So, check out the names I've typed in as the elite at the hot corner in this blog: Alex Rodriguez, Scott Rolen, David Wright, Morgan Ensberg, Chipper Jones, Eric Chavez, Bill Mueller, Melvin Mora, Mike Lowell, and Adrian Beltre. Now let's harken back to 1980, just 26 years ago, and compare them with these 10: Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Bill Madlock, Ray Knight, Craig Nettles, Doug Decinces, Carney Lansford, Ron Cey, Bob Horner and Darrell Evans.
Why are the second group of names just as familiar to me 26 years later when I watch baseball more now than I did all that time ago?
