Favortie and best baseball players

In My Humble Opinion
1

Inspired by this BBQ Pit thread, I thought I’d start a friendly IMHO thread about who people think is:

  1. The best baseball player of all time
  2. The best player you have seen play
  3. Hi Opal!
  4. Favorite player, regardless of how good he was

No point in ruining a Pit thread rant with friendly discussions, is there?

Now, I know many people take their baseball rather seriously (like me, for one) so let’s stay civil. If someone wants to say that Manny Aybar is the greatest pitcher of all time, that’s his/her opinion. Let’s not let this devolve into a debate/argument over one player being better than another.

So here’s my choices:
Greatest player - Willie Mays. His lifetime numbers are 3283 hits, 660 homeruns, .302 batting average, 1903 runs batted in. National League Rookie of the Year in 1951 and a two-time MVP. 12 Gold Gloves, 4 World Series, and a record-tying 24 All-Star Games (Stan Musial is the other player to be in 24 All-Star games). Mays could hit for average, hit for power, run, play defense, and had a cannon for an arm in the outfield. What else can you possibly ask a player to do?

The best player I have seen play - Ozzie Smith. Hey, I’m a Cardinals fan. I grew up watching The Wizard of Ahs pull spectular fielding moves at Busch Stadium year after year.

Favorite Player - Stan Musial. Surprise, surprise, another Cardinal. Musial never struck out more than 46 times in a season, and averaged about 33 Ks per season over 21 full seasons. He finished his career with 475 HRs, but could have possibly made the 500 HR club if he hadn’t missed the 1945 season due to the war. A career average of .331, Musial hit .310 or better for 16 straight seasons. a finished with 3630 hits. When Musial retired, he held 17 Major League record, 29 (IIRC) National League records, and 9 All-Star records.
In 1953 Ty Cobb said, “No man has ever been a perfect ballplayer. Stan Musial, however, is the closest thing to perfection in the game today. He’s certainly one of the greatest hitters of all time.”
Musial is quite simply the greatest Cardinal to ever play.

2

Crunchy, really though. If someone says Manny Aybar…can’t we say SOMETHING pittish? A li’l bit? tiny? wee?

You listed some greats, so I dont want to do a ‘me too’. But I will vote, only on different grounds.

Putting aside my Cub affiliation, I’m going to have to go with:

Cal Ripken Jr., not necessarily because he’s “the greatest fundamental baseball player” but because he just stands for everything that the sport represents. He’s dedicated to his team, he’s a hard worker…he’s CONSISTENT (not STELLAR, just CONSISTENT) and fans like him, media likes him, players like him. He’s the good part of baseball.

And come on Pedro Martinez is so good it’s like…David Blaine-ian, I’m amazed whenever I see him on the field.
jarbaby

3

I was wondering if anyone else would pick up on the Manny Aybar thing. The Cards had the unfortunate experience to have him as a pitcher in '98. In 1998, the number 62 meant two things:

  1. The number of homeruns McGwire needed to break Maris’s record
  2. The number of pitches Manny Aybar needed to throw to get out of the first inning.

So is Ripken your choice for greatest of all time, or greatest you’ve seen play?
And is Martinez your favorite, or your nomination for the best you’ve seen play? (And I will agree, he’s arguably the best pitcher in the Major Leagues today.)

4

sigh

Of course the thread title should say “Favorite” not “Favortie”

Mods, could we get a clean up on Aisle 5?

5

Best I have ever seen is Ozzie Smith, also my favorite who never wore pinstripes. One year when I was living in St. Louis I went to a game Labor Day weekend and saw Ozzie hit a home run down the left field line. I never saw a McGwire home run somehow, but I wouldn’t trade 600 for seeing Ozzie’s. For some reason hitting 70 in one year makes each one a little less special, but when a guy only hits about one each year nothing can match it.

6

For favorite, I would go with Gaylord Perry. Now, in most cases, cheating is wrong, but he cheated with such incredible flair. He never met an illegal substance he didn’t want to smear on a baseball. Heck, he titled his autobiography, “Me and the Spitter.”

7
  1. Best player of all times
    Tie between Willie Mays ,Mickey Mantle and Pete Rose.
  2. Best hitters I’ve PERSONALLY seen play
    Mcgwire and Piazza
    Best pitchers I’ve PERSONALLY seen play
    Roger (fuckin’) Clemmens and Pedro Martinez
    ((Although,as a Met fan, I’m very partial to Rick Ankiel ))
  3. Favorite player no matter how bad
    As a kid I looked up to Bud Harrellson.Why? Who the hell knows,he was a mediocre fielder and a horrible hitter.Go figure.
8

Second that. Notwithstanding my well-known fondness for Brady Anderson, Cal is just a hell of a guy all around. I went to Fenway to see the O’s play the BoSox, and Cal got a standing ovation when his name was announced. I really liked that even the opposing fans recognized him as a class act.

9

I was considering Mantle, but Mays beat him out by having two good knees.
**

Ironically enough, as a St Louis resident and baseball fanatic, I’ve yet to actually see McGwire play at the park. Only on TV. I would’ve seen hiim last year, but he was on the DL. I did get to see Jim Edmonds and Will Clark hit homeruns, though.
**

As a Cardinals fan, I just have to say blow me. :wink:
And can you believe Ankiel is the same kid who broke Dizzy Dean’s Cardinal rookie record for strikeouts? He needs to sit and have a long talk with Bob Gibson - another Cardinal great who had control problems eary in his career.

10

>>>>As a Cardinals fan, I just have to say blow me.
And can you believe Ankiel is the same kid who broke Dizzy Dean’s Cardinal rookie record for strikeouts? He needs to sit and have a long talk with Bob Gibson - another Cardinal great who had control problems eary in his career.<<<
Ankiel has a lot of talent.He’s young,he’ll settle down.Please tell me you aren’t putting him in the same league as Gibson.

11

Greatest player…Babe Ruth In 1920, Ruth established a still-standing mark with his .847 slugging average. He followed that with the second-highest mark ever (.846) in 1921.

From 1915-17, Ruth won 65 games, more than any other southpaw in the majors.

714 career homeruns and a .348 lifetime batting avg.

Best player I’ve seen…Mickey Mantle

Favorite player…Roberto Clemente He was class all the way. Musial was high on the list too.

12

drool Geo, can you believe my husband dropped Brady from his fantasy league? I was frankly appalled. I’m thinking of witholding sex as punishment.

Crunchy, I’ve never seen Cal or Pedro play PERSONALLY. Pedro, really is the best active pitcher around TODAY in my opinion (sorry Kerry, you know I love you)

Players I’ve SEEN? hmmm…I’m usually so into the CUBS or TIGERS side that I miss everything else. When I saw the Tigers play the Orioles, Cal had the day off and I was just staring at Brady.

I don’t know! Rod Beck :smiley:

jarbaby

13

jarbabyj - seeing them play games on TV, still counts as seeing them play in my book. I’d still pick Ozzie Smith over McGwire though. McGwire may be a great slugger, but as for just watching and marvelling at defensive play on the field, Ozzie was amazing. (I was wasn’t very shoddy defensively myself at 2nd base, so I admit to some bias here favoring defense over offense.)

And CBEscapee - Ruth is a good choice, especially when you factor in he was a great pitcher as well as a great slugger. Just imagine for a second though: Ruth had those years as a pitcher to be an everyday player and he got to play using the same kind of ball Ted Williams and Hank Aaron hit (Ruth pitched in the Dead Ball era). Imagine how many homeruns Ruth could have hit in his career then.

Gibson - in 1968, he started 34 games, won 22, pitched 28 complete games with 13 shutouts, and finished the season with a 1.12 ERA.

Ankiel - in 2000, he started 30 games, won 11, struck out 194 (setting the Cardinal rookie record), and finished with a 3.50 ERA.

No, not the same league in my book. When I said “another Cardinal great” I wasn’t referring to Ankiel being in Gibson’s league, but Gibson being another Cardinal great as Musial, Rogers Hornsby, Dizzy Dean, and Lou Brock.

I just meant Ankiel has lots of talent and promise and could learn a lot from Gibson, and maybe Gibson can pass on some wisdom about overcoming the control problems. Of course he’s only 21 years old, there’s plenty of time for Ankiel to develop. (Let’s just hope he doesn’t develop as a Cardinal, then go to another team as a free agent as kick Cardinal ass.)

BTW - you know I was just teasing about the blow me thing, right? I blame LaRussa for bad management of the pitching staff in that series, which looked like a pretty even math-up of teams (until the pitching started). Why was he working Kile so hard? Sure Kile was the ace, but dammit, he needed rest. In the meantime, we had former Cy Young Award winner Pat Hentgen sitting in the bullpen, not pitching in the NLCS and Matt Morris feeling healthy again and perfectly capable of giving the Cardinals 3 or 4 good innings of pitching. Instead, LaRussa keeps starting a tired Kile and a wild Ankiel. The one game the Cards won in that series? The one Andy Benes pitched.

14

I agree crunchy. Tony La Russa Made some moves that baffled me. The Cards pitching staff was pretty tired and beat up by the end of the season. Stephenson was hurt,Kile was overused.Wasn’t Morris hurt too?
Edmunds (who scares the hell outta me) was fairly quiet and La Russa used McGwire ineffectively as a Pinch Hitter.Matheny was hurt too if I recall.

15

Stephenson’s elbow was shot. He’s still recovering from it. Morris wasn’t hurt, in fact he was making the recovery from surgery the year before. He was pitching out of the bullpen last year to get his arm strength back. By the end of the season, I think he coul’ve gone a good 4 innings or so, but maybe LaRussa didn’t want to risk it, since Morris is one of our starters this year (and that was always the plan, for Morris to go back to the starting rotation).

**

I agree about Edmonds. I’m surprised he and Will Clark (who had a hell of a second half of the season with us) were such non-factors in that series. As for McGwire, his knee was so sore, he couldn’t do much else - he’s stil on the DL for it, hopefully he’ll be healthy for the second half of the season this year. Matheny had sliced a tendon in his finger with a hunting knife he got on his birthday. Matheny’s not a big threat at the plate, but I’d have like to see what he could have done to calm Ankiel down. The pitching staff gave Matheny a lot of credit for the way he handled then that year - in fact Darryl Kile bought Matheny a gold Rolex to thank him after winning his 20th game.

16

Best player ever: Babe Ruth. He was the Sultan of Swat, the Colossus of Clout, a great pitcher, and of course, having a stadium (House that Ruth Built) and a curse (way to make a trade BoSox!) named after you say a lot.

Best player I’ve ever seen: Pedro Martinez in Yankee Stadium. It was wild, the Dominicans came out in droves and were absolutely nuts. I’ve also seen Junior Griffey (w/ Mariners), Sosa in 1998, McGwire (w/ the A’s), and Barry Bonds. They’re all pretty good too.

Favorite player: Ryne Sandberg. I’m a Cubs fan and I liked playing second base. Ryno was the man!

17

I think you should. Dear God, is the man MAD? Rich, dear, you still have Brady on your team, don’t you? I mean, not that you were going to get any sex from me in the first place (sorry, but y’know, the whole married thing and all), but I really have to stand up for my man here.

18

Nope Geo…I ditched him.I was able to pick up Moises Alou.Brady was sent back to triple A.

Damn! You single people have ALL the sex!

19

I’m going to jump in here and say that I don’t think that’s punishment enough. You should have sex with me.
Repeatedly.
For hours on end.
That’ll teach 'im!

20

Best player ever

Ty Cobb. Alright, he was a racist bastard with a vicious temper, but on the field . . . no one is ever going to touch his lifetime batting average, and his ability to trick his opponents was amazing. The only knock is that he didn’t hit for power. Part of that, of course, was that he played in the dead ball era, but the other part – and what makes him so fascinating – is that he didn’t hit home runs because he refused to hit home runs, thinking they made for dull baseball. At one point, he told reporters that he could hit homers any time he wanted and proceeded to set an AL record for the most home run in two (or maybe three) games that may still stand.

Second choice: Babe Ruth. Not only a great hitter, but he would have made the Hall of Fame as a pitcher, too.

Favorite player
Tom Seaver. Generally a classy guy, and the man who gave the Mets their miracle.

Second Choice: Roger Maris. The 60 home runs was great, but those that knock him fail to remember that the won MVP the year before he hit them.

Third Choice: Amos Otis. Loved the name, and I used it in my first published work (in its entirety):

4th choice: Sean Fitzmaurice. I was present at what was probably the only time he was in the starting lineup. I just loved the name – it seemed so Irish.

Best player I actually saw live

Sandy Koufax. Second choice, Mickey Mantle.