With their Hometown Heroes promotion, Major League Baseball is asking the fans to vote for the greatest player in the history of each current franchise. I'm going to take a crack at this, a few at a time.

Arizona Diamondbacks: Not much of a history here...Luis Gonzalez is in his 8th year with the club, and is the franchise leader in most significant offensive categories, including Runs (687), Hits (1178), HR (209), RBI (701), and Batting Average (.302). However, Randy Johnson won 4 Cy Young Awards in 5 seasons, and leads all-time in the following categories: ERA (2.65), Wins (103), Innings (1390), Strikeouts (1832), Complete Games (36), Shutouts (14), and Won-Loss % (103-49, .678). He is clearly the choice.

Baltimore Orioles: You could make a pretty strong case for Brooks Robinson or Eddie Murray (who played less than 2/3 of his career for the O's), but to me it comes down to Cal Ripken or Jim Palmer. While Palmer had a tremendous career, with 268 Wins, 3948 Innings, 2212 Strikeouts, 211 Complete Games, 53 Shutouts (all franchise records), Ripken edges him out with the "Face of the Franchise" tag. Oh, and he also leads the club all-time in Games, of course (3001), Runs (1647), Hits (3184), HR (431), and RBI (1695).