About Burgmeier–well, I did give him the nod. But, yeah, looking at his career, he was a lot more solid than I gave him credit for as a kid, when I just thought of him as a non-star with a funny name anda position that hadn’t been invented yet. He was the type of guy who made the All-Star team but didn’t get a foil sticker in the sticker book.

I’m saying this off the top of my head, but I think you might find yourself writing that sentence again if you compiled an all-time Red Sox roster and needed to fill in the “lefty relief specialist” slot (assuming you don’t cheat when compiling those rosters by using starters in the bullpen). Burgmeier had some excellent seasons in that role.

As a guy who grew up in Vermont, I have struggled for years over the Gardner-Fisk thing. To me, it hinges on self-identification. It’s similar to another issue I pondered at Cardboard Gods while compiling an all-time all-Jewish team: at catcher, I selected Steve Yeager, who converted to Judaism, over Mike Lieberthal, who unlike Yeager had at least on Jewish parent but has been failrly adamant about not being identified as a Jew. Similarly, Carlton Fisk has always adamantly identified himself as being from New Hampshire. Meanwhile, Larry Gardner was born in Vermont, played for UVM, and after winning three chamionships with Boston (and another with Cleveland) died in Vermont. For that reason, I gotta go with him over a guy who would probably glare at you if you said he was a Vermonter.

If you do an international list, Dave Roberts wins Japan!