MLB's 10 best father/son teams based on WAR

They say that baseball is the language of fathers and sons. That was certainly more true in some households than in others and nothing is more indicative of that than the scores of fathers who passed their MLB genes on to their offspring. 

In an effort to celebrate fatherhood, we scoured the recordbooks (or at least an Excel spreadsheet) to find out which families would have faired the best if Field of Dreams were real and all of baseball's fathers and sons were able to play the game they loved together.

10. Tim Raines and Tim Raines Jr.

Combined WAR: 69.3

On October 1, 2001, Tim Raines Jr. was called up to the Baltimore Orioles. A few days later, the O's acquired another Tim Raines and the father-son duo closed out the regular season with the team. Father and son got to play four games togther, though they never notched a hit in the same contest.

9. Jose Cruz and Jose Cruz Jr.

Combined WAR: 73.7

The elder Cruz played in 19 seasons, most of them for the Houston Astros. He called it a career in 1988 when his son Jose Cruz Jr. was still a teenager. Twenty years after his father retired, Cruz Jr. played his last Major League season, appearing in 38 games of his own for the Astros.

8. Tony Gwynn and Tony Gwynn Jr.

Combined WAR: 74.7

Over 20 seasons, Tony Gwynn earned a lifetime average of .338 and amassed 3,141 hits for the San Diego Padres. His son followed in his footsteps, breaking into the MLB in 2006 and later playing two of his own seasons with the Padres. This year he's batting .268 for the Phillies.

7. Felipe Alou and Moises Alou

Combined WAR: 78.9

Felipe Alou and his son Moises both played 17 MLB seasons. They both bounced around between a handful of franchises, but they both played for the Expos and they both spent time with the Giants (Felipe was on the first team to play its home games in San Francisco). The combined WAR figure is more evenly split between father and son than with most of the other tandems (or groups) on this list, as Felipe contributed 42.2 and Moises added 39.7 WAR.

6. Ray Boone, Bob Boone, Aaron Boone and Bret Boone

Combined WAR: 89.1

Ray Boone broke into the bigs in 1948 and was later followed by his son Bob and Bob's sons Aaron and Bret. The Boones were the first family to send three generations to an All-Star Game, so they've got that feather in their caps, too.

5. Sandy Alomar, Sandy Alomar Jr. and Roberto Alomar

Combined WAR: 91

In the late '80s, Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar and his brother, Sandy Alomar Jr., were both on the San Diego Padres where they played for their dad, Sandy Alomar Sr. All told, the Alomars combined for 19 All-Star appearances, 11 Gold Gloves, a Rookie of the Year Award and a Hall of Fame placque.

4. Gus Bell, Buddy Bell, David Bell and Mike Bell

Combined WAR: 96.8

Gus Bell was the first New York Met to reach base safely, thanks to a hit in their inaugural contest back in 1962. His son "Buddy" Bell played for 18 years and is now the vice president and assistant general manager of the White Sox. Buddy's sons David and Mike both played in the bigs, with David playing 12 seasons Cleveland, St. Louis, Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Milwaukee.

3. Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr.

Combined WAR: 118

In 1990, Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr. found themselves on the same roster and, occasionally, next to each other in the batting order. On September 14th in a game agains the Angels, the father-son duo created one of the coolest moments in modern baseball history when they hit back-to-back home runs. 

2. Eddie Collins and Eddie Collins Jr.

Combined WAR: 122.9

Dad all of the heavy lifting here as his 123.9 career WAR were brought down by his son's -1 mark, but we're pretty sure the older Collins and his .333 lifetime average had a little bit of breathing room. For what it's worth, Eddie Collins Sr. still holds the Major League record for sacrifice hits with 512.

1. Bobby Bonds and Barry Bonds

Combined WAR: 220.1

They also combined for 14 All-Star appearances, 11 Gold Gloves and 1,094 home runs. We could trot out a slew of other numbers, but that's hardly necessary when it's so obvious that this father-son duo was the most statistically dominant in the history of the sport.