Your All-Time Team

The rules: Pick your all-time 25-man roster for your favorite MLB team. You can only use players you actually saw/heard play. No picking Mickey Mantle unless you saw him on the field or in a live-broadcast game. Also, we'll assume you're getting the player at his peak while wearing your team's uniform, but not if he achieved greatness for another team and your club picked him up after he joined the MLB Seniors Tour. Since I'm doing the Cubs I could put Nomar Garciaparra on the team, but I'm getting the injury-riddled Nomar who played about six games over two seasons in Cubbie blue, not the All-Star Red Sox version.

As a long-suffering Chicago Cubs fan, I submit for your inspection my all-time Cubs roster. My earliest Cubs memory is listening to some bad teams in the late '70s and going to a game at Wrigley in '78 or '79 where Bill Buckner homered and Dave Kingman struck out. Neither of them made my squad.

Andy's All-Time Cubs Roster 1978-present:

Starting Pitchers: (5)

1. Greg Maddux (Could there be anyone else in the No. 1 starter slot?)

2. Ferguson Jenkins (Saw him on his second tour of duty in 1982-83, which is kind of a loophole here, as the earlier Jenkins is the one I picture starting.)

3. Rick Sutcliffe (The 1984 version, preferably.)

4. Carlos Zambrano (On his meds.)

5. Rick Reuschel (Look up the stats - he pitched well for a lot of bad teams.)

Relief pitchers (6)

6. Lee Smith - Closer. (The venerable Lee Arthur narrowly edges the next guy...)

7. Bruce Sutter - Setup. (He went on to great things in St. Louis after Mr. Wrigley refused to pay him, but still put up some great years at Wrigley.)

8. Carlos Marmol (Still a work in progress.)

9. Terry Mulholland (Did whatever the team needed. I think he also drove the bus.)

10. Paul Assenmacher (A solid lefty out of the 'pen.)

11. Les Lancaster (If you can come up with anyone better, let me know.)

Catchers (2)

12. Jody Davis (Jodeee.....Jodeee Davissss. Had a gun for an arm and could hit for power.)

13. Michael Barrett (This is not one of the stronger positions on this roster.)

Infielders (6)

14. 1B - Mark Grace (Not-so-narrowly edging out Leon Durham.)

15. 2B - Ryne Sandberg (Who else?)

16. SS - Shawon Dunston (The Shawon-o-Meter says...)

17. 3B- Aramis Ramirez (Either him or Ron Cey, and Aramis has played better for longer.)

18. UT-Manny Trillo (Another two-tour player.)

19. UT-Jose Hernandez (You try selecting the best utility player!)

Outfielders (6)

20. Andre Dawson (Who else?)

21. Sammy Sosa (He sends Brett Favre a fruit basket each month for making people forget his ugly departure from the Cubs.)

22. Moises Alou (Don't shake hands.)

23. Juan Pierre (One season's worth, but it was a good one. Besides, the Cubs have had a LOT of mediocre CFs since the late '70s.)

24. Keith Moreland (Playing the utility card here, as Moreland could also catch, play first, and stand near third base.)

25. Henry Rodriguez (Best I could do for number 6 outfielder.)

So there you have it. Some distinguished names, some not. Some good memories, more depressing ones.