Then, in 1994, my beloved and long suffering Chicago White Sox has the best team in baseball and looked like a serious World Series contender for just the second time in my life - the first being the "Winning Ugly" 1983 squad led by Carlton Fisk and a very young Tony LaRussa. Then baseball cancelled the playoffs and the World Series that year. I was never the same with the game after that.
I cared deeply about stats, eras, comparing players across time, arguing all-time teams. I was consumed by it. As a child I played baseball from the time the snow melted in March until it returned in November. I played the old Strat-o-Matic card based game incessantly. And after that strike/lock-out/cancellation I was gutted. Not once since then have I watched another baseball game with that same childlike love and adoration.
The modern game and salaries and lack of competitiveness across the game makes it uninteresting to me still.
I will say though that I would take any Team of the Century from any interval of the 20th century 1900-1925, 1926-1950, 1950-1975 or 1975-2000 over these modern day players. Outside of Ohtani, I don't think much of the players from 2001-2025, mainly because I have followed them infinitely less engaged than before.
I like much of your list though, with one notable omission - Tony Gwynn is ALWAYS short thrifted for as good as he was, he gets forgotten too easily. Same with Joe Morgan, George Foster and Ken Griffey from the Big Red Machine - they may not be quite all-time level, but that team was incredible and in the mid-70's they were amazing!
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