Even though only some 50 men born in the state of Utah have reached the majors, there is enough talent to field a mythical dream team comprised of those who were either born in Utah or went to high school there; college MLB products are another story.
So, with a nod to the MLB All-Star game in Philadelphia next week, here is one writer’s Utah dream team, with birthplace/Utah high school and years played in the majors:
Catcher: John Buck (Taylorsville High, 2004-14) — Born in Wyoming, Buck was drafted in the seventh round out of high school by the Houston Astros in 1998. He worked his way through the minors and made his MLB debut June 25, 2004, for the Kansas City Royals after being traded there the day before.
Buck also played for the Toronto Blue Jays, Miami Marlins, New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Angels. He was an All-Star in 2010 — his only season with the Blue Jays. Buck had 134 career homers with an average of .234.
First base: Chris Shelton (Salt Lake City, 2004-09) — A product of Cottonwood High, Salt Lake City Community College and the University of Utah, Shelton was drafted in the 33rd round by the Pittsburgh Pirates but still lasted several years in The Show.
Shelton had 14 hits in his first 20 at-bats and 24 in his first 51, with 13 homers. He also slugged nine homers in his first 13 games.
“I don’t regret anything. I had some moments and did some great things,” Shelton told the Society of American Baseball Research, or SABR. “It’s always exciting to be a part of people’s memories.”
He had 930 at-bats in The Show — third among Utah natives.
Second base: Glenn Hubbard (Ben Lomond High, 1978-89) — Born in Germany in a military family, Hubbard lived in California before the family moved to the Ogden area. He had 4,441 at-bats with the Atlanta Braves and Oakland A’s with a lifetime average of .244 with 70 homers.
He was an All-Star in 1983 when he hit a career-high 12 homers.
Third base: Vance Law (Provo High, 1980-91) — Born in Idaho, Law was drafted out of BYU by the Pirates — the same club that his father, Vern, pitched for in 1960, when they became World Series champs.
“Vance had a 14-year professional career, with 10 of those years in the major leagues, mostly as a second baseman and third baseman,” per SABR. “He was a regular on the 1983 White Sox who won the division, as well as the 1989 Chicago Cubs who also won a division title.”
Law was the BYU coach from 2000-12. He also coached at Provo High and was an assistant at Utah Valley State College. His son, Adam, played at Provo High and BYU, as well as in the minors for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Shortstop: Gordon Slade (Salt Lake City, 1930-35) — Slade’s 12 career steals, while not impressive, are the most of a player born in Utah. He is second in hits with 353 while playing with the Brooklyn Robins, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds.
Slade hit .257 with eight homers. He died in California in 1974. His 1,372 at-bats in the majors place him second among Utah natives.
Left field: Duke Sims (Salt Lake City, 1964-74) — Sims went to high school in Idaho. He has the most homers (100), hits (580) and RBI (310) of any player born in the state. He spent most of his time with the Cleveland Indians and had a career-best 23 homers in 1970.
“A solid defensive catcher whose career batting average of .239 was deceiving, Sims retired with a very respectable .340 OBP — better than many ‘higher-average’ lifetime hitters. He could also play the outfield. Sims is the only major leaguer born in Utah to get over 2,000 at-bats in the majors,” according to SABR.
He mainly played catcher, but is in the outfield for our dream team purposes. He hit the last homer at old Yankee Stadium and was the catcher that day.
Center field: Bobby Mitchell (Salt Lake City, 1980-83) — Mitchell, born in Salt Lake City, played high school and college baseball in California. In the majors, he played for the Dodgers and the Minnesota Twins.
Mitchell played in the Little League World Series in 1967 with Northridge, California, and in the College World Series with USC seven years later.
Right field: Chad Hermansen (Salt Lake City, 1999-2004) — Born in Salt Lake City, Hermansen was a high school product of Nevada, who played for the Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Dodgers and Blue Jays. He had a career-high eight homers in 2002 while with the Pirates and Cubs.
His first MLB homer came in 1999 for the Pirates against the Cubs and his last two games in the majors were for Toronto against the Baltimore Orioles.
Starting pitcher: Bruce Hurst (St. George, 1980-94) — The lefty is the only MLB player born in Utah named to an MLB All-Star game, according to Baseball Reference.
His 145 wins are the most of a Utah native and Hurst was the only pitcher to win at least 10 games every season from 1983 through 1992. The lefty made two key starts in the 1986 World Series for the Red Sox against the Mets, then started Game 7 on short rest.
He’s from “a small Mojave Desert town of about 4,000 people in the southwest corner of the state, 120 miles from Las Vegas,” SABR wrote of St. George. “Called Dixie by the locals, St. George was founded by Mormon missionaries in the 19th century to develop a cotton-farming industry.”
Hurst was mentored by Kent Garrett, a former player at BYU who started American Legion baseball in St. George in the 1970s, according to Prep Baseball Report.
“For some reason Garrett saw something in me,” Hurst told SABR. “He was a stickler for fundamentals and detail. We’d get baseball magazines and cut out pictures of pitchers … and look at the positions they were in. I’d get in front of the three-way mirror and practice my windup. He gave me confidence.”
Closer: Brandon Lyon (Salt Lake City, 2001-13) — Lyon, a Taylorsville High product, had 79 saves in the majors — the most of a player born in the state — and 42 wins while pitching for several clubs. His best season may have been 2007 with the Arizona Diamondbacks, when he had an ERA of 2.68 in 73 games.
His son, Isaac, was drafted out of Grand Canyon in 2025 by the Seattle Mariners and has pitched in the Washington Nationals’ minor league system for three clubs this year, as he was promoted to Double-A Harrisburg on May 26 from Single-A Wilmington.
Other pitchers: Kelly Downs (Ogden, 1986-93); Ed Heusser (Salt Lake County, 1935-48); Brandon Duckworth (Salt Lake City, 2001-08); Fred Sanford (Garfield, 1943-51).
Downs of Viewmont High won 57 games, Heusser won 56 and Sanford recorded 37 victories.
Heusser died in Colorado in 1956 at the age of 46. He led the NL in ERA in 1944. Sanford died in 2011 in Salt Lake City. He played for the St. Louis Browns, New York Yankees and Washington Senators, and was part of two World Series winners with the Yankees.
Manager: Herman Franks (Price): A catcher in the majors, Franks is the only Utah native to manage in the majors. He guided the San Francisco Giants from 1965-68 and the Chicago Cubs from 1977-79.
Franks was a third base coach on the 1954 New York Giants squad that won the World Series over the Cleveland Indians.
He may have also aided the 1951 Giants in a unique way. Published stories report that he relayed signs to hitters from center field late in the season and he was there when Bobby Thomson hit his famous homer to beat the Dodgers for the pennant in the best-of-three playoff series.
Franks died in Utah in 2009.
Pitching coach: Hurst was the pitching coach of the Chinese national team from 2003-2007. He was also involved in the MLB academies in Europe after his playing career, and he worked in the front offices of the Boston Red Sox and Dodgers.
Coach: Mitchell coached in the minors in the systems of MLB clubs.
General manager: Franks was the general manager of Salt Lake City in the Pacific Coast League and worked in the front office of MLB clubs.
Utah notes
The only natives of Utah to make their MLB debuts in 2025 were Jack Dreyer (Salt Lake City), who grew up in Iowa and is with the Dodgers; Paxton Schultz (Orem, Utah Valley), who is in the Nationals’ farm system after breaking in with Toronto; and Jayden Murray (Vernal, Dixie State), who is with the Cubs after his 2025 debut with the Astros.
No native of Utah has made their MLB debut this season, as of the time of writing.
The first player born in Utah to make the majors was Lee Thompson (Smithfield), who pitched in four games with the White Sox in 1921. He died in California — the same day as his brother — in 1963 after holding several jobs in that state after his minor-league career.
David Driver is the co-author of “From Tidewater to the Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s Rich Baseball Legacy.” He covered the Nationals from 2013-22 for several outlets. He has interviewed Buck, Lyons and Duckworth as well as former BYU standouts Jeremy Guthrie and Jackson Cluff, who began this season at Triple-A in the Mets’ farm system. Driver is the former sports editor of papers in Baltimore and his native Harrisonburg, Virginia.