In the bottom of the 7th of the Royals/Twins game today, the score started getting way too close for comfort. Jim Thome was brought in as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded. Admittedly, I didn’t like Josh Rupe’s chances of getting through Thome unharmed, but Rupe struck him out to end the Minnesota threat.
During that AB, I wondered aloud on Twitter how many players, like Thome, had played in 3 teams in the same division. I don’t have the answer – it wasn’t a trivia question. I was just musing, and my Twitter followers came up with quite a list.
Jim Thome – AL Central – Indians/White Sox/Twins
Wade Boggs – AL East – Red Sox/Yankees/Devil Rays
Jose Canseco – AL East – Red Sox/Blue Jays/Devil Rays/Yankees
Canseco almost did this in the AL West as well, but didn’t make it out of ST with the Angels in 2001 (the A’s and Rangers were his other two West teams).
Roger Clemens – AL East – Red Sox/Blue Jays/Yankees (suggested by Rovitz)
David Wells – AL East – Blue Jays/Orioles/Yankees/Red Sox (suggested by 310toJoba)
Russ Ortiz – NL West – Giants/Diamondbacks/Dodgers (also suggested by 310toJoba)
Bruce Chen – NL East – Braves/Phillies/Mets/Expos (!) (suggested by bhimdepmo)
Juan Gonzalez – AL Central – Tigers/Indians/Royals (also suggested by bhindepmo)
Reggie Sanders – NL Central – St. Louis/Pittsburgh/Cincinnati (suggested by JoeInBugaha)
Jose Guillen – AL West – A’s/Angels/Mariners (suggested by Brian McGannon of Royals Kingdom)
Wes Helms – NL East – Braves/Marlins/Phillies (suggested by Grimey of LOLJocks)
***here are yet more. People are kicking asses at this – except the people who commented on my Twitter’ed link and the Facebook link without actually reading the post, and suggested players who have been on the list all along. Those people kind of suck.***
Bobby Bonilla – NL East – Mets/Marlins/Braves (Rovitz called this one)
Otis Nixon – AL East – Yankees/Red Sox/Blue Jays (and also this one)
Mike Morgan – THREE TIMES. AL West – A’s/Mariners/Rangers. AL East – Yankees/Jays/Orioles. NL Central – Cubs/Cardinals/Reds (really good find by Darin Watson of Tangled up in (Royal) Blue)
Jim Edmonds – NL Central – Cardinals/Cubs/Brewers (via Josh Koebert)
Paul Bako – NL Central – Astros/Brewers/Cubs/Reds AND NL East – Marlins/Braves Phillies
Dennys Reyes – NL West – Dodgers/Rockies/DBacks/Padres AND NL Central – Reds/Pirates/Cardinals (the last two floozies well-traveled guys found by bhindepmo.)
Steve Finley – the entire NL West. (via Keith Blackburn of The Royal Tower)
Rondell White – AL Central – Royals/Twins/Tigers
Milton Bradley – AL West – A’s/Rangers/Mariners
Yorvit Torrealba – NL West – Giants/Rockies/Padres
Billy Wagner – NL East – Phillies/Mets/Braves
Ben Dawson suggested Ruben Sierra did it twice – but only if you count the way the divisions were aligned when Sierra’s career started. But, as it turns out, under the current alignment, Sierra DID play for 3 teams in the AL West – the Rangers/A’s/Mariners – AND 3 teams in the AL Central – Tigers/White Sox/Twins. He also played for the Reds and Blue Jays.
Livan Hernandez has also played for 3 teams in two different divisions: the Marlins/Expos/Nationals/Mets in the NL East, and the Giants/Diamondbacks/Rockies in the NL West.
Credit to my brother Ryan for coming up with Boggs, Canseco and Hernandez. He also pointed out that Matt Stairs has played on two teams in every division but the NL West – and he played on one team there. Stairs also played for three teams in three years in the NL Central.
There may be more, but this is quite a list. Surely there were none prior to free agency, right? Any other suggestions? Leave ’em in the comments!
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