The Greatest of Them All

[sweaver]

OK, the grand finale of the series. In a poll with the winners of each position poll, vote for the player you think is the greatest baseball player ever.

[SmedIndy]

I'm voting for Honus, but I bet it's like voting for Mondale or McGovern....

I vote for Ruth. He was born to play the game.

Almost half of those guys shouldn't even be considered the best at their position, and Ruth and Johnson are the only players in my top 5 on the list. It's hard to pick between the greatest hitter and the greatest pitcher, but Ruth is the obvious choice because he was also a hall of fame caliber pitcher. Johnson was a heck of a hitter...among the best ever for pitchers, but it's not really comparable.

[moose]

Ruth. even without the pitching. there are some other all-timers up there, but ruth did some things in this game at another order of magnitude . I really don't think anyone else can say that for the major stats - maybe Nolan Ryan, but nearly in the same way.

Rounding out my top 3 are Honus, and the Iron Horse (my favorite player of all time).

PS - I consider pitchers separately, and Train is my guy anyway.

[Slippery Pedro]

I voted for Mike Schmidt - - just be different. Here's the thought:

Look at this list - OPS above league average, min 10,000 PA:

OPS                           DIFF  PLAYER LEAGUE
1    Babe Ruth                .403   1.164   .760 
2    Ty Cobb                  .242    .945   .704 
3    Stan Musial              .236    .976   .739 
4    Tris Speaker             .215    .928   .714 
5    Willie Mays              .210    .941   .731 
6    Mel Ott                  .207    .947   .740 
7    Frank Robinson           .206    .926   .720 
8    Hank Aaron               .202    .928   .727 
9    Mike Schmidt             .187    .908   .720 
10   Honus Wagner             .177    .857   .680 

Now, factor in two more conditions:

1. Ruth, Cobb, Speaker, etc. only played against white players.
2. It's harder to play the INF than it is the OF.

When you apply all this, you can sorta make a case for Schmidt - but, nobody ever does.

[Skip]

I was about to leap through my computer screen seeing Bench, Gossage etc. on the list with no Cobb or others. Then the lights went on and I realized these were the winners of the individual position polls. Duh.

[sweaver]

I thought very seriously about Wagner before going for the Babe. It's hard to argue with the way Ruth completely changed the game.

[SmedIndy]

Originally posted by Throwback
Almost half of those guys shouldn't even be considered the best at their position, and Ruth and Johnson are the only players in my top 5 on the list. It's hard to pick between the greatest hitter and the greatest pitcher, but Ruth is the obvious choice because he was also a hall of fame caliber pitcher. Johnson was a heck of a hitter...among the best ever for pitchers, but it's not really comparable.

Not Honus? Why not? Only the best SS ever, and could play other positions, hit and run and throw. If that's not a top 5 guy....

[gyb13]

R...U...T...H

[moose]

Originally posted by Slippery Pedro

OPS                           DIFF  PLAYER LEAGUE
1    Babe Ruth                .403   1.164   .760 
2    Ty Cobb                  .242    .945   .704 
3    Stan Musial              .236    .976   .739 
4    Tris Speaker             .215    .928   .714 
5    Willie Mays              .210    .941   .731 
6    Mel Ott                  .207    .947   .740 
7    Frank Robinson           .206    .926   .720 
8    Hank Aaron               .202    .928   .727 
9    Mike Schmidt             .187    .908   .720 
10   Honus Wagner             .177    .857   .680 

Now, factor in two more conditions:

1. Ruth, Cobb, Speaker, etc. only played against white players.
2. It's harder to play the INF than it is the OF.

When you apply all this, you can sorta make a case for Schmidt - but, nobody ever does.

Steve-
1. I agree that the list (and further thought) suggests that we might not hold schmidt in as high regard as we should (even if we already consider him the top 3B of all time).
2. To me, the list just underlines Ruth's dominance, regardless of whom he played against!

Cool list though - would never have put schmidt that high against the league

[poorme]

Is it ethical to vote for someone you believe to be an inferior player? I vote Salome Barojas because he is underrated.

[pwdennis]

I am posting this from a remote site so I do not have access to my usual materials but I think the posted OPS list omitted Ted Williams, who would rate ( I think) above Musial on the table.

Since the conditions under which Ruth and Williams played were so different , it is difficult to assess which is the greater. I went with the Splinter to be contrary, but certainly it is either Williams or Ruth

[SmedIndy]

Steve -

You are missing Ted on there. He had a 1.115 OPS vs. .746 league.

[Slippery Pedro]

Originally posted by SmedIndy
You are missing Ted on there. He had a 1.115 OPS vs. .746 league.

Geez - nobody reads anymore? I said MIN 10,000 PA. Ted had 9,789.