Twitter's Best All-time MLB Lineup

Babe Ruth vs Pedro Martinez in this second round matchup. Hopefully we’ll see if Grant’s decision to use Ruth is inspired since Ruth didn’t make it out of the 4th last round. And Ruth didn’t disappoint as a pitcher, staying in the game long enough this time to get more than one PA. Ruth strikes out in his first AB against Pedro to lead off the 3rd, but Bonds follows a Mays single with a HR to give Evan the early lead.

Marc gets one back in the 4th on an RBI triple from Wagner, and then takes the lead in the 5th when his team strings together three singles around a base on balls. In the bottom of the inning Evan’s team ties it back up at three a piece as Wagner and Mays book end doubles around Ruth & Hornsby Ks.

Both teams fail to get a runner past 2nd until the 9th, when they both do. Marc starts off the top of the inning with a Ruth HR, and a string of singles to plate 3 and Evan’s squad sees Gehrig leadoff with a walk, and then a Wagner single moves Lou to 3rd following two shallow fly outs and the pitcher comes to the plate as the tying run.

Unfortunately, Ruth is out of the game, so we see a PH, who gives us the 3rd shallow fly out of the inning and ends the game. Marc moves on to round three and thus far has seen his team hold the line against two tough challengers.

Nathalie came out strong in round one and started this one much the same. With Vlad starting the scoring with a HR in the 1st and then batting around in the 2nd punctuated by a Pudge Rodriguez 3-run blast to take an early 6-0 lead.

Alex slowly chipped away, picking up a PH HR when Verlander got pulled in the 3rd, another in the 7th on Jackie Robinson double, again in the 8th on an ARod HR, but Mariano River sealed the deal in the 9th to preserve the 6-5 win for Nathalie’s squad. This results in her All-Latino team facing Marc Carig’s in round three.

Our second player vs player matchup features two pitchers not on any other lineup in Cliff Lee and Nolan Ryan. Lee threw a gem in round one and Ryan did just well enough for the win. As great as Ryan was, he had a propensity to walk guys, and these lineups are full of guys good at taking their pitches.

Sure enough, in the first Harper’s Griffey and Mantle each take their base before Schmidt makes it a quick 3-run game. In the 2nd, Yelich’s Hammerin Hank gets one back. The walks took their toll on Ryan again in the 3rd when Mantle, Trout, & Foxx all walk to load the bases for Josh Gibson, who, with two outs, cleared them with a double down the line.

Bench gets a couple more back in the 4th & 6th with HRs of his own. Bryce’s lineup doesn’t slow down though as Griffey Jr and Jimmie Foxx both hit 2-run shots in the 7th. Bench hits his third home run of the game in the 9th, but despite his valiant efforts, Ryan’s six walks allowed proved to be too many for a lineup this formidable.

Lin was party to our tourney’s first blowout and features again in the second blowout. Ben’s Walter Johnson turned in arguably the most dominant appearance in round one, but Lin’s lineup took him to task in the first inning, plating four on five hits, including a triple by Gehrig and a double by Honus Wagner.

Ben gets a HR from Bonds to lead off his half of the inning and Musial follows with a 2-run blast before the half is over, setting the stage for what is to become a high scoring affair. Gehrig drove in another in the 2nd for Lin to give him a 5-3 lead, only to see Ben’s team bat around in the bottom half and put up a 5-spot highlighted by a bases-loaded double, a triple, and a ground-rule double.

Lin doesn’t score again as Johnson settles down starting by striking out the side in the 4th. Meanwhile, Ben continues to add runs with a HR from Mays, two from Bonds, and another batting-around in the 6th centered around six walks and two doubles. Lin goes from being the biggest winner in round one, to potentially the biggest loser in round two.

If ever there was a game that deserved to have the whole game unfold slowly, this one is it. If you don’t want to be spoiled, stop reading this and read the play-by-play before continuing.

If you’ve already read through or don’t care to watch art emerge, then here goes: In our most dramatic game yet, Jack & Chris play a low-scoring nail biter with Jack taking an early lead and adding an 5th inning insurance run on a HR by The Kid. Chris stakes his comeback in the 5th highlighted by a George Brett triple to take a 3-2 lead. Rickey Henderson makes it a 4-2 lead in the 7th.

Both teams plate one in the 8th to leave Chris up 5-3 entering the 9th. Gagne comes in to close out the W, only to have Jeter get a leadoff single and Griffey Jr. hitting a game-tying HR for his second of the game. Bonds and Aaron add dramatics by both getting on base and putting the leading run in scoring position with only 1-out, but Gagne escapes the jam and we end up going to extras.

In the 10th, Griffey Jr. comes up with 2-on and 1-out, but grounds into a double-play to end the threat and Chris’s guys sit down 1-2-3 with 2 Ks. The 11th starts off similarly, 2-on and 1-out for Chipper Jones and he flies out to CF. However, it might just be deep enough to tag and Bonds is going for it. Griffey’s throw ends up just up the first base line and Bonds is safe. In the bottom half of the 11th, Brett singles, and that’s it. The next two guys leave him stranded and Jack’s lineup lives to see round three.

Minus a single-half inning of mistakes, this might have been the best game in the whole tournament. All four runs scored in that single-half inning, the bottom of the 3rd.

It starts with a single by Josh Gibson (as Foxx), a fly out by Jeter, Greg Maddux reaching on a throwing error from Johnny Bench that leaves Maddux on 2nd and Gibson on 3rd. Clemens then throws a wild pitch allowing Gibson to score while Maddux moves to 3rd base. Trout takes advantage of the pressure on Clemens and hits a towering double down the line and Aaron follows up with a HR to clear the bases. Griffey Jr. takes a walk before Clemens settles down and strikes out Frank Thomas and gets Chipper Jones to fly out.

An eventful and either hilarious or frustrating inning depending on who you were rooting for, but that one batch of slip ups and a HR sent Blake Silver’s squad on to round three.

Last round, Blake’s team gave up back-to-back HRs to start the game before mounting a slow comeback to win 8-7. Just like last time, he gives up a HR in the 1st as Schmidt caps a 4-run inning with a 2-run shot.

Once again, Blake’s team mounted a slow comeback, first by letting Kevin’s team hit two more HRs in a 3-run 4th. In the 5th Blake gets his first run on a fielder's choice. In the 6th he picked up three more on a sac fly and 2-run HR. In the 8th he gets HRs from each Trout and Gehrig to bring his total to 7 runs.

Unfortunately for Blake, in the top half of that same inning, Kevin’s Ruth took his 2nd bases-loaded walk of the game to bring his score to 8. Blake's team fell just shy of an epic 7-run comeback to allow Kevin to hang on for the win.

This was the matchup I feared. My team got the scoring started with 2 runs in the 2nd, but Voros’ Ruth hit a grand slam in the 3rd and added solo shots in both the 6th and the 8th. The second of those HRs tied things back up at five apiece.

In the bottom half of the 6th Hornsby answered Ruth’s slam with one of his own, which thankfully made that third HR by Ruth meaningless as my team had already eclipsed the total Ruth would provide for Voros.

I’m glad these are one-and-done matchups because that was a formidable lineup that, outside of Ruth, just didn’t show up for this game allowing my lineup a shot at round three.