Tdoak has given me permission to lead season 3 of Two Man Band.

Who is REALLY the best player in the history of the game?

What if one man had to play all eight fielding positions? Would a team full of Babe Ruths dominate if Ruth had to catch and play shortstop? And what about one pitcher? Would you take 3000 innings of a deadballer, or a dozen seasons by a closer?

That's what we have asked  in the Two Man Band league. Twenty-four owners tried their hand, with spectacular and crazy results. Babe Ruth and Eddie Cicotte did not exactly dominate [they finished 54-108]. Ty Cobb had 3,020 hits ON THE SEASON, hitting .396 as a team, but his teammate Hoyt Wilhelm had an exhausting season to limp home at 58-104. Ted Williams hit well, but no amount of hitting could make up for committing 457 errors at SS and another 386 at 2B for good measure. And when someone drafted Billy Hamilton the immediate response was "He'll steal 1,000 bases!" -- but actually, he stole 2,122!!

In season 2, it came down to ThaneOfFifes Steve Carlton and Rickey Henderson (who stole about 1800 bases) and Sveumrules Robin Yount and Eddie Plank. It was never even a contest, with Yount and Plank winning the world series easily.

So we don't always try out the same players, there is a Blacklist Rule in effect for the league. No one who played in Season 2 is eligible in season 3; any player who got to the playoffs is out of the league for three seasons; and previous champions (Alex Rodriguez, Pete Alexander, Robin Yount, and Eddie Plank) are blacklisted for life. The full blacklist is posted below.

The roster rules for this league are absurdly simple ... You only get TWO players (one position player and one pitcher), and you will use 10-15 different seasons for each of them to make your team. The first round of the draft is first come, first served … but the second round is in inverse order, so if you take the first player chosen you'll get the 24th pitcher (or vice versa). Salary cap is set to the maximum possible.

If you want to choose two players who combine for less than 25 sim eligible seasons, you may. But you'll have to fill the roster with dead weight 200k players of my choosing ... iron gloves and poor control assured ... and set them all to rest to minimize the chance that Sparky will look for a bit of variety in a blowout.

I know we will have a bunch of returning owners, and a number of you sent Tdoak requests of who you wanted. He never sent me those requests, so i'm not entirely sure how to proceed. If it's okay with those owners, i'll keep it first come first serve.

There is no AA or waiver wire. Also, no clones. There is a DH. The salary cap will be set for 255 million, which is near impossible to actually hit in this league. Even the Babe Ruth team fell well short. As far as ballparks go, there is no ballpark restriction.

Season 3 blacklist:

Hitters: Dick Allen, Wade Boggs, Lou Boudreau*, George Brett, Dan Brouthers, Rod Carew*, Eddie Collins, George Davis*, Ed Delahanty, Frankie Frisch, Charlie Gehringer, Billy Hamilton, Harry Heilmann, Rickey Henderson*, Chipper Jones*, Al Kaline, Nap Lajoie, Barry Larkin, Joe Morgan*, Mel Ott, Albert Pujols, Tim Raines*, Cal Ripken Jr, Frank Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Alex Rodriguez***, Mike Schmidt, Red Schoendienst, Tris Speaker, Arky Vaughan, Honus Wagner, Robin Yount**

Pitchers: Pete Alexander***, Chief Bender, Kevin Brown*, Mordecai Brown, Steve Carlton*, Don Drysdale, Dennis Eckersley, Lefty Grove, Roy Halladay*, Carl Hubbell, Ferguson Jenkins, Randy Johnson, Walter Johnson, Addie Joss, Dolf Luque, Juan Marichal, Andy Messersmith, Ed Morris*, Mike Mussina, Kid Nichols, Eddie Plank**, Nolan Ryan, Johan Santana, Curt Schilling*, John Smoltz*, Don Sutton, Jesse Tannehill, Dazzy Vance, Rube Waddell, Joe Wood*, Wilbur Wood, Cy Young*

* indicates players ineligible for seasons 3 & 4
** indicates former champions permanently ineligible

I will pick my hitter first, which means I will be the last to pick my pitcher.

Ty Cobb

Hitters taken: Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Luke Appling, Craig Biggio, Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Hugh Duffy, Pete Rose, Mickey Mantle, Ichiro, Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio, Jeff Bagwell, Stan Musial, Lave Cross, Cap Anson, Hank Aaron, Roger Connor, Ted Williams, Ken Griffey Jr, Joe Cronin, Paul Molitor

Pitchers taken: Sandy Koufax, Pedro Martinez, Ed Walsh, Christy Mathewson, Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Silver King, Babe Adams, Babe Ruth, Tom Seaver, George McQuillian, Bob Gibson, Gaylord Perry, Deacon Phillippe, Carl Mays, Lefty Gomez, Eddie Cicotte, Robin Roberts, Doc White, Bob Feller, Hippo Vaughn, Orval Overall

Round 2 draft order

1. Spoonfed - Jeff Bagwell and George McQuillian
2. teveritt - Joe Dimaggio and Bob Gibson
3. clk0619 - Lou Gehrig and Tim Keefe
4. dodgebob - Tom Seaver and Stan Musial
5. Calhoop - Babe Adams and Lave Cross
6. mnfnkdstny - Ichiro and Gaylord Perry
7. sakensei - Silver King and Cap Anson
8. gyroball - Mickey Mantle and Deacon Phillippe
9. Gardenald - Barry Lamar Bonds and Carl Mays
10. Bottomlee - Willie Mays and Lefty Gomez
11. crazyjoe02- Pete Rose and Eddie Cicotte
12. scallywag - Roger Clemens and Hank Aaron
13. fatboydad54 - Hugh Duffy and Robin Roberts
14. nasboat - Greg Maddux and Roger Connor
15. tjefferson - Ed Walsh and Ted Williams
16. Disco Dogs - Jimmie Foxx and Doc White
17. The_weave - Christy Mathewson and Ken Griffey Jr
18. Trenchfoot - Babe Ruth and Bob Feller
19. Evilbeard - Craig Biggio and Hippo Vaughn
20. Pecota_Redux - Pedro Martinez and Joe Cronin
21. Toadee - Luke Appling and Orval Overall
22. Fervus - Sandy Koufax and Paul Molitor
23. RMDriskill - Rogers Hornsby
24. ThaneOfFife - Ty Cobb

I'll have a go with Rogers Hornsby if there's a spot.

You will have to draft players out of position for this league. Here are the instructions from last thread.

First I searched for the ARod I wanted. Then, I rightclicked on his name (Not the green arrow). Then I selected "Properties". Then I copied the unique player number. This is the first number after the parentheses, and was something like 2244050 for the 2009 ARod. Then I went to catcher, or whatever other position I needed to fill, and selected a player - any player, it doesn't matter which one. Now, once selected, on the draft page in the URL box is a bunch of numbers, but the last number is the unique player number for the guy I just drafted. So I went to the URL box, highlighted that number, and pasted ARod's number in its place (2244050, or whatever one I needed). Press Enter and voila.

I am in and will take Sandy Koufax.

I will join with Luke Appling

I'm in with a crippled offensive choice, but Pedro Martinez constantly on the mound.

I'm in. Craig Biggio.

Babe Ruth

I can use him as a pitcher too, right?

I don't remember what the rules were for that last season, but if it gets back to you and Babe hasn't been chosen as a pitcher yet, then he is yours.

Posted by trenchfoot on 5/11/2011 4:10:00 PM (view original):
Babe Ruth

I can use him as a pitcher too, right?

no clones (duplicate years), and I don't think Babe has 25 seasons. You'd be playing with fire!

Last year tjeff was able to use Joe Wood as both hitter and pitcher in addition to Raines as his hitter. I don't think we came to a conclusion on what to do for the future, so if people don't want me to use Pitcher Ruth I'm fine with that.

I'll put it up for vote after a few more people join up. If it were me, i'd just leave it as one or the other.

In, first choice TBD