Grains are the foundation of the earth's bounty. That may be stretching it a bit, but it sounds like something you'd hear on a beer commercial, so we're sticking with it.

Inspired by grains and the foods in which they are found, we present the All-Grain Team:

AP PhotoCedric "Cornbread" Maxwell makes our Page 2 All-Grain team.

George Barley: According to BaseballOutlaws.com, Barley was just that. He signed a four-year professional contract with the Yankees while still a high-school junior, but as was common practice in those days, everybody kept it quiet and Barley went as planned to Duke University. He played for the Blue Devils while collecting on his deal, which paid him the princely sum of $200 a year with the presumption that Barley would join the Yankee farm system upon graduation, which he did.

Ed Grain: He played with Rex Grossman and the New York Yankees. Not the Rex Grossman or those Yankees, but give Grain some credit. He participated in two of the four seasons of the All-American Football Conference, which ran from 1946-49 as a direct competitor to the NFL. He started with the Yanks and wound up with the Baltimore Colts, for whom Grossman was the kicker.

"Cornbread" Maxwell: Cedric Bryan Maxwell led UNC Charlotte, then in its 14th year of existence as a four-year institution, to the Final Four in 1977. Cornbread then joined a far more established basketball entity, the Boston Celtics, whom he helped to their 15th and 16th NBA titles in 1981 and '84. Cornbread averaged 12.5 points a game in an 11-year NBA career.

Craig "Noodles" Neal: The string-bean of a point guard (6-foot-5, 160 pounds) for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets occasionally looked like he'd never make it through a game much less a season, but he persevered. In 1987-88, he dished out 303 assists.

Ray "Cracker" Schalk: You may not have heard of Cracker, but he's in the Baseball Hall of Fame against considerable odds. He was a catcher, and the only group in Cooperstown with less representation than catcher (16 members) is umpire (nine). Moreover, he stood only 5-9 and weighed 165 pounds.

"Buck" Wheat: Curtis Wheat hit .262 in 1,609 at-bats in a nine-year minor league career that took him to teams in Michigan, Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma and Illinois. Curiously, only one of those states, Texas, is among the top 10 wheat-producing states in the land.