Best character baseball player?

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ralph Houk, who played for the Yankees for eight years and batted ... 158 times (he was Yogi's back-up).

http://www.baseball-reference.com/h/houkra01.shtml

He must have been the greatest guy-in-the-clubhouse in the history of guys-in-the-clubhouse ...

 

Trot Nixon doesn't work for me. Perenially overrated -- got more than enough hype and fanfare in Boston for being a dirt dog. Treated like a star while being a slightly above-average player (they wouldn't give him up for Sosa in 2000).

I would give you Kirk Gibson if not for the World Series heroics. Never made an all-star team.

Other character players (definite Tiger bias here):

Tom Brookens -- viewed as a utility IF. But always had the starting 3B job nailed down by June. Could play anywhere. Even caught a game against the White Sox in '85 after Sparky's maneuvers painted him into a corner. Tom Boswell unfairly labeled him "the worst everyday player in the major leagues." Couldn't be further from the truth.

Milt Wilcox -- always solid, never spectacular. Core member of the '84 rotation.

More who I won't annotate, but were pretty good players for a long time with very little recognition of any sort:
Lee Lacy
Juan Beniquez
Gary Ward
Tim Teufel
Cliff Johnson
Hubie Brooks
Keith Moreland
Jim Gantner
Dan Driessen