Here we take a look at the all-time Auburn baseball lineup, which includes both Auburn legends and former MVPs.
The start of the Auburn baseball season this coming weekend against George Washington University, as well as pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training this week, signals that spring is right around the corner.
Fifty Auburn baseball players have made an appearance in the major leagues, from a cup of coffee to Most Valuable Players and one Hall of Famer. There have been World Series wins, and All-Star game appearances, and one Rookie of the Year.
Filling out a major league starting lineup card of Auburn baseball players — one for each position, plus a starting pitcher and a closer — produces a team with plenty of power but little speed and some slick fielders as well as some liabilities in the field.
Here’s our Auburn starting nine, listed in the order in which they would bat.
Leadoff hitter: “Red” Smith, left field
We’re going way back to fill our roster with some speed at the top of the lineup. “Red” Smith played for the baseball team at Alabama Polytechnic Institute in 1908 and 1909, and he made his major league debut in 1911 with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Smith started out as a third baseman, but he was a horrible fielder and ended his career as an outfielder, so we’re putting him in left field and hoping no one hits the ball his way. Smith led the National League in doubles with 40 in 1913, and he won a World Series with the “Miracle” Boston Braves in 1914, though a broken leg on the last day of the season meant he didn’t get to play in the postseason. That team was in last place on July 4 but won the National League.
Smith ended his nine-year career with a .353 on-base percentage and 117 steals, the most of any former Tiger to make the show.