Barry Zito has an 'All-Dreamy Team' and Bryce Harper and Jake Arrieta have been on it for years
On Saturday night, baseball's best and brightest braved a blizzard in New York City. Bryce Harper, Josh Donaldson, Jake Arrieta, Dallas Keuchel, Kris Bryant, Carlos Correa and a host of other MLB superstars got all dolled up and headed to the New York Hilton for the Baseball Writers' Association of America's annual awards dinner.
.@MLB¡¯s biggest stars braved the elements to take home their @officialBBWAA Awards: https://t.co/D3YKN5KHNH pic.twitter.com/4MkGgjkNpg
— MLB (@MLB) January 24, 2016
Harper teared up as he thanked his "Pops" for all the inspiration and help while accepting his National League MVP Award, but he was all smiles while acknowledging a different sort of honor from longtime MLB pitcher Barry Zito.
Zito took the podium and revealed that he's been privately compiling baseball's "All-Dreamy Team," and that Harper and Arrieta have been on it for years. Basically, Zito appointed himself the chairman of the board that determines who the most attractive Major League player at each position. Think of the award as like a Silver Slugger, but for people with really symmetrical faces.
Years ago -- back when Arrieta was still on the Orioles -- he was named to the Dreamy Team. And when Zito's former teammate Dan Haren was pitching for the Nationals in 2013, Zito named Harper as the Dreamy Team's starting right fielder and asked Haren to procure an autograph from the up-and-coming slugger.
Harper apparently signed the ball, "Starting right fielder, All-Dreamy Team."
In addition to Zito's wonderful revelation, Keuchel gave Tommy John a hard time about the pronunciation of "Keuchel," Correa acknowledged Roberto Clemente as an inspiration and Sandy Alderson showed up armed with opt-out jokes. You can watch the full BBWAA awards dinner on MLB Network at 10 p.m. ET on Friday.
