As I wrote yesterday in this space, I’m more than a bit skeptical of MLB’s new project of having fans elect a “Latino Legends Team” to be announced during the World Series. Whatever its flaws, though, the election will help bring recognition to players like Luis Tiant and Minnie Minoso, which is inarguably a good thing.

In filling out my ballot, I haven’t simply picked out the best player at each position, which would essentially make it a current All-Star team, but have instead given weight to pioneering achievement and impact on the game. If this project is really supposed to honor the contributions of Hispanic players, it should go beyond the numbers in the Baseball Encyclopedia.

Catcher: Ivan Rodriguez (1991-Present)

Manny Sanguillen deserves more respect than he gets; he was a good-hitting catcher for a Pirates team that won six division titles and two World Series championships in the 1970s, and if he hadn’t totally fallen apart once he turned 33, he might have had a reasonable case for the Hall of Fame. There’s a case to be made for Pudge Rodriguez as the best catcher to ever play, though, so he gets my vote easily.

First base: Tony Perez (1964-1986)

This certainly is a stocked position. Tony Perez, Orlando Cepeda, and Rafael Palmeiro are all Hall of Famers, and Albert Pujols has had the best start to a career since Joe DiMaggio. Given the controversy surrounding Cepeda and Palmeiro for off-field chicanery, my vote goes to Perez. Pujols is an extraordinary player, but he’s played in fewer seasons than the “Big Dog” made All-Star teams. Perez was a consistently excellent and sometimes great player for the Big Red Machine in the mid-70s, one of the best teams of all time.

Second base: Roberto Alomar (1988-2004)

This would be a tougher choice if Rod Carew hadn’t played more games at first than he did at the keystone during his great career. The memories of Alomar’s early decline are already fading; his legacy is secure. He was one of the most intelligent and graceful players I’ve ever seen, and at his best his game was without weakness. He also does this team proud as a second-generation player who was notably outspoken about the issues faced by Hispanic players having to deal with coaches and a press who too often confuse monolinguism for sullenness or ignorance.

Shortstop: Luis Aparicio (1956-1973)

Alex Rodriguez and Miguel Tejada are greater players. Tony Fernandez and Dave Concepcion were at least as good. Aparicio, though, may have had more of an impact than any of them. He came up with the Chicago White Sox in 1956, took the job of fellow Venezuelan Chico Carrasquel (the game’s first Latin American All-Star), and went on to play more games at shortstop than anyone else had in history. A brilliant defender and baserunner, he made nine All-Star teams, won nine Gold Gloves, led the league in steals nine straight years, and became the prototype for what a shortstop was supposed to be. Not incidentally, he was also the first in a long line of brilliant Hispanic shortstops. Better players have come along since, but none deserves to be honored more.

Third base: Edgar Martinez (1987-2004)

Granted, he played only a quarter of his career games at the position, but Martinez was one of the truly great hitters of his time, and if the Mariners hadn’t unaccountably refused to give him a job before he turned 27, he would have put up staggering career numbers. Seemingly every year he hit .320 with 70 extra-base hits and 100 walks, and at the plate he was the picture of discipline and restraint.

Outfield: Roberto Clemente (1955-1972), Minnie Minoso (1949-1964, 1976, 1980), Bernie Williams (1991-Present)

These might be the most difficult selections of all. Among the players who don’t make the cut are Jose Cruz, who may well have won a couple of batting titles if he hadn’t played in the Astrodome; Tony Oliva, who made eight straight All-Star games, won three batting titles, and was kept out of the Hall of Fame only by bad knees; and modern stars like Manny Ramirez and Vladimir Guerrero.

Clemente is a no-brainer pick for this team, not only because he was a great hitter – quite comparable to Guerrero – and one of the great defensive outfielders of all time, but because of who he was: the first truly and indisputably great Latin American player in the major leagues, one who carried himself with enormous grace and changed people’s ideas about what Hispanics could do on the field.

Had Minoso been born a few years later, he’d have a plaque in Cooperstown. As is, his numbers are of Hall of Fame caliber – a .298 hitter and seven-time All Star, he led the league in steals three times, finished in the top 10 in OPS eight times, and won three Gold Gloves. What’s unfortunate is that he didn’t get a job in the majors until he was 28, simply because he was too dark-skinned; for years before that, he starred in the Negro Leagues.

For my last pick, I chose Bernie Williams simply because his all-around excellence has made him, to my mind, a better player than Ramirez or Guerrero or Sammy Sosa, and also because, like so many of the other players I picked, he was a winner, a key player on championship teams who thrived in the spotlight. I don’t expect him to win out over his flashier peers, but he deserves to.

Starting Pitcher: Pedro Martinez (1992-Present)

If this wasn’t a difficult pick, that has more to do with Martinez’s unfathomable greatness than anything else. Juan Marichal, Luis Tiant, and Lefty Gomez, among others, deserve all the odes they’ve ever received. Martinez, though, is a genuine legend, in some ways the best pitcher in baseball history. He will be spoken of in 40 years the way people speak of Sandy Koufax now.

Relief Pitcher: Mariano Rivera (1995-Present)

This was the easiest selection on the ballot. Rivera is a transcendentally great player who represents the best of everything about baseball.

This team features four Puerto Ricans, two Cubans, one Dominican, one Venezuelan, one Panamanian, and one New Yorker. Some were simply great players; some were as renowned for what they did off the field as on. There are criticisms to be made of MLB’s project, but the sight of any such assemblage as this on one field would be an incredible sight, indeed.