The thing about guys like Ryne Sandberg, Dennis Eckersley, Robin Yount and Paul Molitor, is that they were gamers. They brought an air of excitement just about every time they walked out on the field. There will always be arguments about who gets into the Hall and who is the greatest of all time. However, when you look at these guys and their era of baseball, you see guys with whom you could relate. When you watch a game you want to see guys bring a level of play that these guys brought to their teams. It might be that my opinion of these guys, and guys like Rickey Henderson, are biased due to the fact they were stars while my love for baseball was being developed as a kid. But, these days those types of players who have a knowledge of the game and who busted their butts every game are starting to disappear. As with all sports, players get stronger and specialized in new aspects of their respective sports. As that happens I look back, as previous generations of sports fans have, and wonder if holdovers from the aforementioned era, like Edgar Martinez and Tony Gwynn , will surface in the new generation of athletes. Hall of Famers or not, I will always have respect for the working man's pride that these guys brought to the game. They where ballplayers.