On September 10th, 1963, Roberto Clemente provided a 420-foot footnote to a Sandy Koufax masterpiece. Roberto’s fourth career home run off Sandy is a typical Clemente clout off an atypical Koufax offering. “Koufax threw 133 pitches,” notes columnist Jim Murray. “3 were sliders, a pitch the Pirates didn’t know Sandy had picked up in the last ten days. Roberto Clemente hit one of them into Schenley Park and that moth-balled the slider for the night. But, as one of the Pirates observed, giving Koufax a new pitch is like giving Rockefeller a dime. Neither of them really needs it.”

As I “research” baseball history to write about it here at ClimbingSky, there are a number of history items that will always catch my eye. Today’s item is one of them. Any time I can highlight and take some time to talk about two players like Sandy Koufax and Roberto Clemente, I will.

Let me make a list of my personal baseball icons. Players and pitchers that I would love to see play in person via a Time Machine. (NOTE: I have posted about some of the pitchers here before.)

• Brooks Robinson
• Roberto Clemente
• Rickey Henderson
• Bo Jackson
• Willie Mays
• Reggie Jackson
• Carl Yastrzemski
• Kirby Puckett
• Darryl Strawberry
• Don Mattingly
• George Brett
• Ozzie Smith
• Lou Whitaker
• Dale Murphy
• Ryne Sandberg
• Barry Bonds
• Mark McGwire
• Sammy Sosa
• Kenny Lofton
• Joe Mauer
• Sandy Koufax (SP)
• Bob Gibson (SP)
• Vida Blue (SP)
• Mark Fidrych (SP)
• Roger Clemens (SP)
• Dwight Gooden (SP)
• Dave Stewart (SP)
• TIm Lincecum (SP)
• Nolan Ryan (SP)
• Rollie Fingers (RP)
• Dennis Eckersley (RP)
• Dan Quisenberry (RP)

The list is not exhaustive. There are many more I could add to the list.

What would your list be?