Best LF Ever - Bonds, Williams, or another?

[NetShrine]

Barry should be 500-500 once he's done - - - Ted, well, we all know............latest debate in the news "Who's the best LF of all-time?"

Who's number three? Rickey? What's your call?

[BuzzBuzzard]

Not being much of a baseball historian, I can't offer a suitable #3 for you, but throw out some suggestions and I'll be happy to offer my biased opinion.

I can tell you it ain't Rickey. I just can't get beyond the way he disgraces the game. The numbers are there, sure, but they are besmirched by all the other things he has done along the way.

[NetShrine]

Originally posted by BuzzBuzzard
I can tell you it ain't Rickey. I just can't get beyond the way he disgraces the game. The numbers are there, sure, but they are besmirched by all the other things he has done along the way.

Funny, go back a few decades, replace "Rickey" with the word "Cobb" in the above and that's likely what most were saying then............

.........after time, all people remember are the numbers.

[nyy26wc]

You also don't have to go back too far to find Ted Williams on the biggest jerks of the game list.

His current image, being the personable grandfather of the game, is only a recent phenomena.

[NetShrine]

Originally posted by nyy26wc
You also don't have to go back too far to find Ted Williams on the biggest jerks of the game list.

Which leads us back to Bonds - - - in the last 7-9 years, I've seen countless interviews, from batboys (fact!) to players to the media - - - and they all say the biggest "jerk" in the game is Barry Bonds.

[BuzzBuzzard]

OK - so maybe personality traits are not to be considered. I still don't think I can give Rickey the #3 all time slot (regardless of how much I still grizzle over the poker incident.)

Speaking of the infamous poker incident, anyone take notice of Bonilla's pitching debut the other day when the Cards got schlacked by the D'back

[nyy26wc]

Originally posted by NetShrine


Which leads us back to Bonds - - - in the last 7-9 years, I've seen countless interviews, from batboys (fact!) to players to the media - - - and they all say the biggest "jerk" in the game is Barry Bonds.

When the Pirates were winning their division titles, both Bonds and Bonilla's personalities enjoyed excellent reputations.

Bonilla's change corresponded to when he went to the Mets.

Bonds's change seemed to correspond to his spring training altercation with Leyland in his last year in Pittsburgh.

[mainsr]

Bill James went with The Man over Splinter in his Historical Baseball Abstract. This, of course, was before the ascendance of Bonds and Henderson.

Of the four, Musial certainly had the best personality.

Tough call - I suspect that by the time he's done, Bonds will be the man. Barry is now 36. When Rickey was 36, he hadn't played more than 140 games in a season for 6 years; Bonds has for 5 of the past 6. Williams was pretty fragile; after his Korean War hitch, he played over 135 games only once. Musial was durable. If Bonds can stay healthy, his numbers should eclipse them all, and he's by far the best fielder.

[NetShrine]

The thing with Musial is that he jumped around:

1941-44 OF
1946-47 1B
1948-49 OF
1950-51 1B & OF
1952-54 OF
1955-59 1B
1960-63 OF

In all, he played 1016 @ 1B and 1890 in the OF. Toomany games @ 1B for me to think of him as a pure OFer.