Colorado Rockies All-Time 25-Man Roster

The Colorado Rockies were born when the city of Denver was granted an expansion franchise by Major League Baseball in 1991. The club then began play in the National League West Division in the 1993 season.

Over the ensuing quarter century the franchise has not experienced very much on-field success. They have yet to capture a division crown, and there have been just three trips to the MLB postseason.

Early in their history, from 1995-97, the Rox treated their fans to three consecutive winning seasons. This has been the only time they have produced that long a stretch of winning baseball.

THE BLAKE STREET BOMBERS

The 1995 team was an offensive juggernaut that finished in second place, just a game short of a division title. But those Rockies captured the NL Wildcard to become the first Colorado team into the playoffs.

Nicknamed the “Blake Street Bombers”, they were led by four men who each cranked more than 30 home runs. The Rockies would lose in that 1995 NLDS by 3-1 to the eventual World Series champion Atlanta Braves.

After that brief run of success it would be a long decade before Colorado would contend once again.

Cincinnati Reds All-Time 25-Man Roster

The Cincinnati Red Stockings were one of the eight charter members of the original National League when it first formed in February of 1876.

That first Reds involvement in the NL would not last long. The team was expelled after five seasons for violating two early league rules.

Cincinnati opened their park on Sundays, and marketed beer. The final Reds club finished in last place with a 21-59-3 mark in the 1880 season.

Instead of disbanding, Reds ownership kept the club organized. They would eventually help to form the new American Association in 1881. The AA would last as a challenger to the NL for a full decade from 1882-91. The Reds would capture the very first AA pennant in the 1882 campaign.

Following the 1889 season, Cincinnati re-joined the National League. The club won 92 games by the 1898 season, good enough for a 3rd place finish.

Texas Rangers / Washington Senators All-Time 25-Man Roster

The Texas Rangers were formed from a failed attempt by Major League Baseball to forcibly keep a big league team in the Nation’s Capital.

The original Washington Senators had been one of the American League’s eight charter franchises. That club traced its existence back to the 1901 founding of the junior circuit.

Those first Senators relocated to Minnesota in 1961, where they became the current Twins. Wanting to keep baseball in D.C., an expansion club was created by MLB as a replacement.

The new expansion Washington Senators thus began play in that 1961 season. The team would remain there through the 1971 season.

The Senators had a losing record through each of their first eight seasons. With the nearby Baltimore Orioles as a consistent contender, attendance became a serious issue.

In 1969, baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams was brought in as the skipper with no prior managerial experience. “The Splendid Splinter” would guide the club to its only winning campaign. Williams’ 1969 Senators team finished 86-76 in the first year of MLB divisional play.

Philadelphia Phillies All-Time 25-Man Roster

The Philadelphia Phillies  owe their birth in 1883 to the death of the old Worcester club. Worcester in Massachusetts had been deemed too small to support a major league team. 

After three seasons in the National League, the club was disbanded and the franchise rights sold.

Needing a team to balance out their schedule, the NL awarded an expansion team to Philadelphia to begin play in the 1883 season.

Originally nicknamed the “Quakers”, the team was frequently referred to that season as the “Philadelphias”, which was shortened to “Phillies” on a regular basis.

Known as the “Phillies” and the “Quakers” through 1889, the former was embraced much more by fans and sportswriters, and so “Phillies” became the official nickname in the 1890 season. It is the oldest continuous same city, same name professional sports team in American history.

Nationals / Expos All-Time 25-Man Roster

The Washington Nationals emerged for the 2005 season after the relocation of the original Montreal Expos franchise.

Major League Baseball expanded by four teams and split into a divisional format beginning in 1969. 

The Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots (now the Milwaukee Brewers) went to the American League. The Expos and San Diego Padres were  assigned to the National League.

The Montreal team was named after the successful World’s Fair “Expo 67” held there in 1967 during the Canadian Centennial celebration.

After a decade of losing, a young core of players emerged in the late 1970’s to turn the team into a contender for the first time. Then from 1979-94 the Expos were consistent winners.

There were 11 winning Expos campaigns and another two .500 seasons during that 16 year stretch. However, Montreal reached the MLB postseason only one time in its history.

Miami Marlins All-Time 25-Man Roster

The Miami Marlins joined the National League as a 1993 expansion team, and the "Magic City" has seen a number of great players don their colorful uniform.

The origins of the now Miami Marlins can be traced back to a man who built a financial empire on the VCR home entertainment boom of the 1980's.

Everyone remembers "Blockbuster", the video rental giant from those days? Well it was the CEO of Blockbuster Entertainment who finally brought Major League Baseball permanently to the Sunshine State.

Wayne Huizenga, that Blockbuster CEO, had become involved in ownership of both the Miami Dolphins of the NFL as well as the team's home at Joe Robbie Stadium during the early 1990's.

Huizenga was subsequently awarded both an MLB expansion team, which he named the Florida Marlins, as well as an NHL team, the Florida Panthers, for the 1993 season.

The Marlins were big losers in their expansion season, but soon built up their roster of talent to the point of becoming a near-.500 level team over each of the next three seasons.

In 1997, the club splurged in the free agent market, made some astute deals at the MLB trade deadline, and reached the postseason for the first time as the National League Wildcard team.

Getting hot at the right time, those Marlins would win the World Series in just the fifth year of the franchise' existence.

In that 1997 Fall Classic, the Fish defeated a powerful Cleveland Indians with a dramatic walkoff in the bottom of the 11th inning of Game 7.

Seattle Mariners: All-Time 25-Man Roster

I will be doing a handful of MLB organizational "All-Time 25-Man Roster" pieces for the "Call to the Pen" site with Fansided this off-season. This is part of that series.

The Seattle Mariners arrived in the Pacific Northwest for the 1977 season as an MLB expansion team.

The franchise joined the American League that year along with the Toronto Blue Jays, with Seattle assigned to the AL West Division.

It took the M’s until the 1991 season to experience their first winning campaign, and then until 1995 to win their first American League West Division crown.

Featuring players such as future Baseball Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr and Randy Johnson, and possible future Hall of Famers Alex Rodriguez and Edgar Martinez, they became regular contenders for the first time in those mid-1990’s.

The best team in franchise history, which won an American League record 116 games in 2001, developed a few years later when another future Hall of Famer, Ichiro Suzuki, arrived from Japan to begin the 21st century.

Putting together an all-time roster in a 25-man format for the Mariners was not as difficult as it might be for some big league clubs with a longer history. My toughest choice turned out to be deciding upon a 10th pitcher.

However, there certainly were some decisions that I made where other fans may have gone in a different direction. 

I would love to read your comments as to any players who I might have missed, all-time great Mariners players who you feel should be recognized here.

The following are my choices for the Mariners all-time 25-man roster, along with a brief explanation of the reasoning based on the statistics.

NEXT: The Roster