‘Face of the Franchise’:Who would it be???(Baseball to Football/High School to Pros)

*****This is the BIG ONE….You will get a good load here!!!*****
I started working on this topic the other night during one of our baseball game rain delays and it really got me to thinking and it is one of those subjects/topics that will/can really get you thinking and it is fun to recollect the names from the past, some distant and some not all that far back….

Here is how the baseball part worked for me…You throw out the first name that comes to your mind when you think of certain professional baseball team and name becomes, the ‘Face of the Franchise’….

MLB/Professional Baseball:
Baltimore Orioles-Cal Ripken Jr.
San Diego Padres-Tony Gwynn….My darkhorse was Nate Colbert
Chicago Cubs-Ernie Banks
New York Yankees-Babe Ruth and I like Billy Martin too…
Boston Red Sox-Ted Williams
Detroit Tigers-Al Kaline and I also dropped in Denny McClain and Mickey Lolich too….(Some of my past Favs)…..
Cincinnati Reds-No doubter don’t you think in Pete Rose…
Pittsburgh Pirates-Willie Stargell and you might get a few votes for Roberto Clemente too, but I like Stargell….
St.Louis Cardinals-Bob Gibson or maybe Ozzie Smith….
Los Angeles Dodgers-Tommy Lasorda and with the Dodgers Jackie Robinson’s name comes up too…
Seattle Mariners-Randy Johnson and for some Ken Griffey Jr.
Toronto Blue Jays-Joe Carter
Cleveland Indians-Larry Doby and not Brooks Jacoby
Kansas City Royals-No doubter in George Brett
Oakland Athletics-Guys like Jim ‘Catfish’ Hunter and Reggie Jackson, but I will take manager Dick Williams…
Montreal Expos-Gary Carter
New York Mets-Tom Seaver
Minnesota Twins-Rod Carew, but some may argue for Harmon Killebrew or Kirby Puckett
San Francisco Giants-Willie Mays and I did like Willie McCovey
Atlanta Braves-No doubter Henry ‘Hank’ Aaron
Philadelphia Phillies-Steve Carlton or Mike Schmidt?
Miami/Florida Marlins-Maybe we stick local and go with Jack McKeon or push Jim Leyland
Tampa Bay Rays-Here is a local kick, we go with Wil Myers….
Washington Nationals-Bryce Harper
Texas Rangers-Nolan Ryan and if you go back to the Washington Senators, Frank Howard…
California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels…..I will go back all the way to the days of Bill Singer a very fine pitcher and you could throw out a case for Nolan Ryan here too….
Houston Astros-Craig Biggio and Nolan Ryan could jump in here too and he could also give you time with the Mets…Nolan Ryan is a name that covered some tracks and avoided some warning tracks…
Milwaukee Brewers-Robin Yount and Bob Ueker too….
Chicago White Sox-Frank Thomas and maybe Wilbur Wood…

All MLB teams were laid out here in random fashion as you can tell and did we leave out any teams and are there some names that we need to add???

Guilford County high school football teams:
(‘Face of the Franchise’)
Eastern Guilford-Torry Holt
Southern Guilford-Dino Hackett
Northwest Guilford-Rusty Larue
Northern Guilford-T.J Logan edges out Keenan Allen
Page-James Summers or Todd Ellis or maybe even Haywood Jeffries or Tripp Welborn
Grimsley-Rueben Davis or Ethan Albright
Smith-Jeff Bostic or Eric Ebron
Dudley-David Amerson or Ricky Lewis Jr.
Ragdale-Toney Baker
High Point Andrews-Ted Brown and a nod to Johnny Evans
High Point Central-James ‘Boom Boom’ Betterson, didn’t he come from HP Central?
Western Guilford-Anthony Saunders, Glenn Morris or Scott McAllister….McAllister made it to the pros as a punter…
Northeast Guilford-Most still say that Jimmy Womack is one of the top players from here and he ran the franchise back in the day..
Southwest Guilford-Brian Williams was a great RB, become a super DB in college, but boy Eddie Pope was a kicker at SWG for football and soccer and he has the name and I liked their LB from days gone by, Scott O’Kelly….
Southeast Guilford-The name that keeps on ringing the bells, Ernie Woods….

A few NFL Teams with their ‘Face of the Franchise’:
Carolina Panthers-Sam Mills, some would say Steve Smith or John Kasey
Chicago Bears-Walter Payton
Pittsburgh Steelers-Terry Bradshaw
Dallas Cowboys-Tony Dorsett, plus possibly Tom Landry or Jerry Jones
Washington Redskins-Darrell Green or from way back, Sonny Jurgenson, or even Joe Gibbs
Baltimore Colts-Johnny Unitas
San Francisco 49ers-Joe Montana
New York Jets-Joe Namath
Buffalo Bills-O.J. Simpson
Miami Dolphins-Dan Marino
New York Giants-Michael Strahan or Phil Simms
Philadelphia Eagles-Dick Vermeil
San Diego Chargers-Dan Fouts
Kansas City Chief-Len Dawson
Oakland Raiders-Al Davis
Baltimore Ravens-Ray Lewis
New England Patriots-Tom Brady or Bill Belichick
Atlanta Falcons-Tommy Nobis or Steve Bartkowski
Green Bay Packers-Vince Lombardi or Brett Farve
Minnesota Vikings-Adrien Peterson, Fran Tarkenton
Detroit Lions-Alex Karas
St. Louis Rams-Kurt Warner or Torry Holt
Los Angeles Rams-Roman Gabriel, Jerome Bettis or maybe George Allen
Seattle Seahawks-Jim Zorn, Steve Largent or Russell Wilson
Houston Oilers-Earl Campbell, Ken Stabler
Tennessee Titans-Steve McNair and Eddie George
……Could go on all day, but better stop here and let somebody else take over….

5 thoughts on “‘Face of the Franchise’:Who would it be???(Baseball to Football/High School to Pros)

  1. Only have one problem being from St.Louis the Cardinals you have to put Stan The Man as the most identify with them and for the Rams it’s Marshall Faulk and Jack Youngblood

  2. Orioles-Earl Weaver
    Reds-Sparky Anderson
    Cowboys-Roger Staubach
    Steelers-Jack Lambert

  3. Pawlowski over Larue at Northwest. Pawlowski won more games than Larue and you have to go with the winners.
    Allen over Logan at Northern. Allen is in the pros. No guarantees for Logan to get there. He will have to prove it. On the pros I will also take Johnny Bench to be the Franchise player for the Reds and Barry Bonds to be the same with San Francisco.

    Pawlowski over Larue, Allen over Logan, Bench over Rose and Bonds over Mays. That is the way I see them and the rest of the names look OK to me.

  4. Smith-Vince Evans and Joe Bostic
    Dudley-Emmanuel Moseley and Chris Register
    Oakland A’s-Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi
    I will have more later.

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