Which player from the RBI era that is not featured in the game would have been a nasty pinch hitter if he were included?
My vote: Ron Kittle
Dude, that's a toughie. I think most of us are too obsessed with RBI or too young to know.
He's a little new (his heyday was the early 90's), but I gotta say Rob Deer. He holds the major league record for worst batting average by a guy with 20 homers (.179) and was slower than dirt, so he's a perfect "all or nothing" guy.
As beefmaster has alluded to, fknmclane is the last person that should be speaking for me... my answer to the question is Bob Horner. (Rob Deer would have been my first choice) but Horner was fat, looked horrible in baby blue, had a blonde mullet and hit bombs.
Good topic... First of all, you would have to be a pinch hitter or DH during the 1986 & 1987 seasons, the two seasons from RBI. Hitters like Horner, while great, would definietly be in their respective teams starting lineups. Rob Deer was an OF in both 86 & 87, so he doesn't count...
A quick look at the 86 & 87 DH's gives me the following top guys:
Andre Thornton, Cleveland - righty, .229, 17 dingers. Very rupperto or Lindeman like. Definitely would be a scary hitter.
Larry Sheets, Baltimore - lefty, .272 17 dingers in 338 ABs. He has Rupperto written all over him.
Larry Parrish, Texas - right, .276 24 dingers. Stud, though problably a poor mans Armas
Dave Kingman, Oakland - Righty, .210 35 dingers. My search is over, I'm not going to look anymore. There's no doubt Kingman would be the top guy, fucker would hit a dinger ever other AB.
Feel free to research the rest on baseball reference, good links:
http://baseballreference.com/leagues/AL_1986.shtml (http://baseballreference.com/leagues/AL_1986.shtml)
http://baseballreference.com/leagues/AL_1987.shtml (http://baseballreference.com/leagues/AL_1987.shtml)