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GM Chris Young of the Rangers has had a fascinating career, highlighted by getting the win in the 3-inning scoreless relief stint in extra innings in KC's win in Game 1 of the 2015 WS.

Wikipedia article about him is fun, with 2 tidbits worth mentioning: his only HR was the first by a Princeton alum since Moe Berg in 1939; and,his father in law is president of the NHL Capitals. Must make for interesting sports-executive level family conversations.

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Best players from each Ivy League school:

Brown: Fred Tenney

Columbia: Lou Gehrig or Eddie Collins or Sandy Koufax

Cornell: Harry Taylor or Joe Birmingham - no one good

Dartmouth: Brad Ausmus

Harvard: Eddie Grant

Penn: timeline puts the similar Doug Glanville as better than 1800s Roy Thomas

Princeton: Will Veneble*

Yale: Gentleman Jim O'Rourke from the 1800s or Ron Darling from Roger Angell's Web of the Game

*Big honorable mention for the late Bob Tufts. Not for his pitching for the Royals, but for his frequent posts at Baseball Think Factory. Gotta love an internet dweeb.

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Koufax attended Columbia, sure - but he actually pitched for the University of Cincinnati.

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Venable might be a better player than Moe Berg, but was Venable a spy? What matters more, WAR or conduct during war?

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Well Venable will probably never be played by Ant Man in a feature film. But then again, I'm hoping that Venable treats his family and friends better than Berg. The book version of Catcher Was a Spy paints a pretty ugly picture of his late life as a paranoid, habitual liar, living off the kindness of his mistreated sister. And it also notes how incredibly inflated Berg made his spying actions seem. I'm sure that dressing in a ceremonial robe while on tours of Japan with ball teams pre-war allowed him to sneak around and take vitally important photos, right?

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I had the sense that he might have played a real role during the war, but you do right some good points.

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He did serve in the OSS (the predecessor to the CIA) during WWII and was stationed in Europe. But as I remember from my reading several years ago, his service wasn't notable or significant. Volunteering for quasi military service in wartime and assigned to war zone areas is, itself, otherwise honorable, but AFAICT, the tasks assigned were either routine or did not achieve the desired results (e.g. tasked with identifying German scientists who could be induced to defect, he didn't actually find any.)

I'm not explaining well. Both Rod Carew and Al Bumbry served in the U.S. Army during Vietnam. Carew was a reservist who never left the continental U.S., Bumbry lead a platoon and earned a Bronze Star. Their service isn't the same. Jimmy Stewart and Ronald Reagan both were officers in the USA during WWII; the former was a pilot on combat bombing runs, the latter filmed ads to sell bonds. Their service isn't the same.

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I love ya, ya know that.

how can I put this?

Lou Gehrig. period.

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Well ... Collins had more bWAR and the bWAA are fully interchangeable.

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hold on, I'ma look up Collins' retirement speech.

(full disclosure, my youngest son's middle name: Gehrig)

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If you are Curt Schilling, I’m going to be surprised!

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as will everyone on the daily thread, including Craig. (you had me laughing tho!)

Happily! I am NOT!

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Did Koufax attend Columbia? Googling tells me he enrolled in their General Studies program but it's unclear he ever attended. When would he have? He went to University of Cincinnati after high school and then never finished college.

Never mind. He took night classes at Columbia for a few months. I suppose that counts.

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that's how I recall it as well, from books about him

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