Baseball Remembers: Sam Bankhead

Do you remember Rafael Furcal? He was the 2000 National League Rookie of the Year, a multi-time All-Star, shortstop on some really good Braves teams, then some really good Dodgers teams, and finally on a couple of really good Cardinals teams. Good defender, stole a lot of bases, had a little bit of pop in his bat. Solid player, right?

Players like that serve a critical role. Sure, the stars of the Braves in the early 2000s were Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. Hall of Famers, or guys who may soon be there. But there was that next level of guys who filled in behind those all-time greats who really made the team complete. Guys like Furcal, a good player who could sometimes also be the star.

Then he did the same thing with the Dodgers, where Russell Martin, Jeff Kent, and Matt Kemp got most of the attention, along with a young Clayton Kershaw and an older Manny Ramirez. Then Furcal did it again in St. Louis, tucked neatly behind Albert Pujols, Yadi Molina, Matt Holliday, and Adam Wainwright in the pecking order. It takes a certain type of player to be an All-Star in three different cities, making the playoffs in each place, fulfill his role reliably, sometimes even star when needed, knowing he was never going to get the most headlines. It’s easy to get lost while playing in the shadows of great players.

Sam Bankhead was exactly that kind of player. The kind that was really good, on really good teams, just not as good as some of his famous teammates and therefore sort of fallen between the cracks of baseball history.