4191 career hits, a lifetime average of .361, and batted .400 three different seasons. Arguably the greatest hitter ever (how did I forget to include Cobb in that other thread?) batted with his hands separated on the bat, giving him better bat control. Yet they still teach the little leaguers to hold the bat with their hands together.
Why doesn’t anyone use that sort of grip today? Is it because you get better power with your hands together on the bat?
Best Player- Willie Mays, he could run, hit for power, hit for average, and play centerfield like no other.
A truly exciting player. And he was always doing something to beat my Dodgers.
Best player seen in person- Toss up between Rod Carew when he was with the Angels(when I lived in SoCal) and Kirby Puckett. Both are Hall of Famers and classy dudes to boot.
Over my lifetime my favorite players have changed from Bill Buckner(as a Dodger) to Dusty Baker(same) to Fernando Valenzuela to Steve Sax to Kirby. Now my favorite(or is that favortie) player is Doug Mientkiewcz.
He’s really playing well right now and is one of the big reasons the Twins are off to their best start ever.
You mean 61, right? I mean, with all the press surrounding that HBO movie (which I haven’t seen >:() you just slipped right? You meant 61, I’ll just tell myself that.
Best player ever? Babe Ruth. Not even all that close.
Best player I’ve ever personally seen? Barry Bonds. Again, not particularly close. I mean, sure, he’s an asshole. But he’s disgustingly potent offensively, and defensively, he’s wonderful (despite the occassionally really ugly play). Second-best LF ever, and will probably be pushing Ted Williams for that title in a couple years (sorry, Crunchy…)
Of course, pitcher-wise, there’s always Pedro and Maddux. And, as a Cub fan, I still weep over Maddux every time I watch him pitch.
Favorite player? Tough choice. So many Cubs to choose from…Jody Davis? Mitch Williams? Augie Ojeda?
Nah. Rick Sutcliffe.
Must not… debate. Must… follow… my own… rules…
Actually, having never seen either of those two play, I can’t begin to debate. All I have are stats.
So we’ve now had two Cubs fans post and still no mention of Ernie Banks. Interesting.
Ah, yes. The great Mr. Cub. He was a very good player, from what I understand. However, I would not argue that he’s the best player ever, and I am not old enough to have seen him play. I wasn’t aware of the history of the Cubs when I was a kid, I just knew that Sandberg played the position I liked playing and that he was good, so he’s my favorite player.
Best Player of Alltime: Babe Ruth. Aside from his hitting, the man was 94-46 with a 2.28 career era, and was 3-0 with a 0.87 era in the World Series. He used to hit more homeruns than entire teams. Imagine McGuire hitting 250 homers in a year. Thats what it was like when Babe was setting his records.
Best I’ve ever Seen: Pedro Martinez. He can flat out pitch. Only time will tell how good he can be. I can’t wait until he decides he wants to win and signs with the Yanks.
Favorite Player: Don Mattingly. For a kid growing up in the mid 80s as a Yankee fan, he was baseball. I still get pissed he didn’t get MVP in 86. Freakin’ Clemens. Just watching old-timers day on TV last year gave me chills when Mattingly came out.
Clark’s performance is even more baffling when contrasted with his comparatively putrid first half with the Orioles. But I digress.
My favorite player: Pete Rose. I got a chance to see him play a number of times with the Phillies when I was a kid, and I always liked everything about his approach to the game. You gotta respect a guy who slides into bases head first and sprints to first base on a bunt. And I won’t even mention that gambling business since it has nothing to do with his performance on the field. And he was a member of my all time favorite team: the world champion 1980 Phillies, along with Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton. Of course, by the time the Phillies went back to the World Series I had switched allegiances to my new hometown team, the Orioles, who just happened to beat them in the 1983 fall classic.
My favorite that I’ve seen: B.J. Surhoff. As an Oriole, he exemplified everything I love about the game of baseball, from his defensive play to his prowess with the bat to his work off the field. I was very saddened when he was traded and actually started watching Braves telecasts so I could continue following him.
I’d have a hard time arguing with Mays as the greatest ever. You can make a case for Ruth, particularly when you consider his pitching career into the bargain, but as a hitter/fielder Mays definitely had dimensions Ruth didn’t. The telling thing for me is that if you told me I had to manage a team and could pick one or the other, I’d probably take Mays.
The greatest I ever saw play was probably Bob GIbson. My first major league game was in the Astrodome in 1971, with the Astros playing the Cards and GIbson on the mound. I wish I could claim I remembered more about the game than I do. It was also the last MLB game I saw until after I moved to Atlanta. My next game was opening day 1987, Braves-Phillies, and my runner-up, Mike Schmidt was on the field that day. Gibby also wins out over other worthies like Tony Gwynn (I always seem to catch the Padres when I decide to go to a Braves game), Greg Maddux, Dale Murphy, Ozzie Smith, and a number of other current and future Hall of Famers.
Favorite is actually kind of tough. I’m going to say Brooks Robinson, because he’s from Arkansas, because my dad played American Legion ball against him (so he says), because Schmidt is probably the only third baseman of the last 30 years you can compare with him on defense, and because he’s generally a good guy. Another candidate would be Mark Lemke, an extremely smart guy who made everything that could be made out of relatively modest talents and played the game with exactly the right attitude: he seemed to be having lots of fun while taking the game extremely seriously. Another that’ll probably surprise some people is Keith Hernandez. He was (and by all accounts still is) a prick off the field and often on it, but he was also extremely smart, deadly serious about both the offensive and defensive side of the game, and also because he played for one of the Arkansas Travelers teams of the mid 70s that I followed and watched as a kid (along with Al Hrabosky, Garry Templeton, Hector Cruz, Ken Oberkfell, Tommy Herr, etc.).
Dignan, I missed where you said you were a Cub fan. So that makes 3 fans. No defense needed of course, in not picking Ernie Banks, it just wasn’t what I expected.
Of course, how many people expected a Cards fan to pick the best player he ever saw to be Ozzie Smith over Mark McGwire?
Like you, it has to do with the position I played. I was a second baseman and since my best offensive year was a .274 batting average with 2 homeruns, I prided myself in my defensive skills (once made an unassisted triple play). So to me, Ozzie was the best player I ever saw because I could identify with the amazing defense and wanted to play like that, since I knew I didn’t have the power to be a slugger.
JBirdman - Rose’s gambling thing was BS if you ask me. People with drug problems get chance after chance to clean up and play again. Rose gets in trouble for gambling - does he get sent to Gambler’s Anonymous or something? No. He gets booted from baseball for life. The all-time hit leader will never be in the Hall of Fame. What a crock. But I’ll save the rest of that for a Pit thread someday.
I loved watching Rose take the field at Fenway Park during the All-Star game a few years ago, along with the other surviving players named as the 100 greatest of all time.
Best player of all time: Babe Ruth or Willie Mays. Babe Ruth changed the game so much. He hit more home runs than entire teams! And he was a fabulous pitcher, too. As for Willie, I am pained that I was never able to see him play. I mean, it hurts. He was the greatest Giant of all time, and that means more to me than statistics.
The best player I have ever seen, live, is probably Barry Bonds. I consider myself lucky to be able to see him play.
My favorite player is probably Jeff Kent. He’s a nice guy and a great player. And he hates it when pitchers walk Bonds to face him. (Note to pitchers: he’s the NL MVP for a reason. As the Pirates learned last night.)
Several people have mentioned consistency as a virtue, and no one has mentioned Henry Aaron? He never hit 50 home runs in a season, and look what he accomplished. A model of consistency, and a far, far, far greater player than Cal Ripen. (I guess people were trying to confine choices to active players, though.)
That brings up an interesting thought…
Imagine being a pitcher and having to face Babe Ruth and then Lou Gehrig! Do you pitch to Ruth and let him nail you, or do you walk him and pitch to Gehrig and let him nail you?
**
Here’s a little Hank Aaron factoid for you -
Aaron hit 755 homeruns. He also finished his career in the 3000 hit club with 3771 hits. Subtract every single homerun and imagine if Hank Aaron played his entire career without ever hitting a homerun, and Aaron still has over 3000 hits. That’s just amazing to me.
And I don’t know why people would feel like they need to pick active players. No one I chose is still playing.
I really don’t want to hijack this thread for this, but I’ve gotta say two things:[ul]
[li]Drug use isn’t explicitly identified as grounds for expulsion from the game; betting on baseball, particularly on your own team, is.[/li][li]From what I’ve seen and heard, very few of Rose’s contemporaries considered him the best player of their era. Rose’s approach to the game seemed to me to be designed to maximize his “Charlie Hustle” image without necessarily doing anything to improve his team’s chance of winning the game.[/li][/ul]
I will say that Rose was a great player, of Hall of Fame caliber, though probably not among the top 100 of all time. And point out that there are two entities who could see to his induction into the Hall. No commissioner is likely to ever change Giamatti’s ruling; the perception is that dealing with Rose killed Giamatti, who was well-liked enough that the disrespect implied by overturning his decision is more than the owners or future commissioners will be able to stomach. The other is the Hall itself (or the Clark family foundation that runs it), though no one ever mentions the fact. Technically, organized baseball isn’t keeping Rose out of the Hall, since the commissioner’s office has no direct control over the Hall. It’s a Hall policy that players on baseball’s ineligible list are not eligible to be inducted that prevents his entry, and that could (but probably won’t) be changed more or less by fiat.
1.a. Best player: George Herman Ruth
1.b. Best Hitter: Teddy Ballgame
1.c Best Pitcher: Sandy Koufax / Pedro Martínez
1.d. Most Complete Player: Barry Bonds
Only have had the opportunity to attend one lousy game, Tigers vs. Brewers back in 1993. So, Robin Yount it is.
Hi deo Nomo!
6 billion breasts and counting…Who ever said that overpopulation wasn’t a good thing?
Babe Ruth. Come on. No contest.
I’d say for overall greatness, Mike Schmidt is the greatest player I have ever seen play. He’s one of ten or fifteen best players ever, IMO. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, and Mark McGwire could pass him. Maybe. Actually, Bonds is probably going to tie him.
But in terms of greatness at any one time, Pedro Martinez. I’ve seen him live a few times and I’m telling you, it is not possible for a pitcher to be better than he is. Can’t be done; he is the ULTIMATE pitcher, the absolute end state of 150 years of baseball progress in the art of pitching. He is perfect; there is no aspect of the art of pitching you could improve on from where he is. His career doesn’t have the length and weight of Clemens and Maddux, but over these last few years he has elevated pitching excellence beyond anything I ever imagined I would see. If I lived in Boston I’d pay whatever it took to see every one of his home starts live.
In the modern age… thats tougher. Pitcher: Nolan Ryan. In his thirty years he did more than most people in this day in age with EVER be able to do. Hitter: Mark McGwire, and trust me I am not part of the hype train. For power, this man is the best. Otherwise, gotta go with Cal Ripken. Just an all around good player.
I have seen Nolan Ryan pitch 68 times. When he was in Houston I would schedule my summers around going to the ball park just to see him pitch and have had the great pleasure to meet him and his wife for dinner (a great story btw, one to be shared at a future date I am sure). 5,000+ K’s, 7 no hitters, 300+ wins etc. Needless to say he is my favorit.
Without sounding like a broken record I wont say Nolan Ryan. My choice for a current player would be Craig Biggio. All around decent day to day player that has done more for the city of Houston than any other ball player ever.
As for older players it would be Jose Cruz. LF for the Astros in the 70’s and 80’s and was my first favorite player.
Same answer to all three. The man known as ‘Charlie Hustle’, Pete Rose! The all-time leader in at-bats, games played, and of course, hits. A man who was voted into 17 all-star games with starts at 5 different positions. A man who won the NL Rookie of the Year, the NL MVP and the World Series MVP, played in 5 World Series, winning 3 Championship rings.
A man who played more than 150 games in 17 seasons. A man who played 500 or more games at each of 5 different positions. A man who had over 200 hits in a season 10 times. And above all, a man who played with a fire and intensity that would have awed the great Ty Cobb
AUGIE OJEDA! [Comic Book Guy]Shortest Shortstop EVER![/Comic Book Guy]
jarbaby
One of my favorites of all-time is Eddie Murray:
Only player ever with 20 consecutive seasons of 75+ RBIs (that included a couple of strike-shortened seasons, Hank Aaron is second with 19 consecutive 75+ RBI seasons)
One of only three players with both 500+ home runs and 3000+ hits
Over a very long career, he had better than a .400 average with the bases loaded and was second to Lou Gehrig in career grand slams. Eddie Murray was not only a great hitter, but an even greater clutch hitter, and from both sides of the plate.
In the top ten all-time for RBIs
Best of all time has got to be Babe Ruth, not only for his hitting, but for his pitching as well.
Best player I’ve seen live: As a biased Indians’ fan, I’d say its a tie between Albert Belle during 1995 and Manny Ramirez during 1999.
My all-time favorite players are both from when I was a little kid. I played catcher on the little league team, and the Indians catcher at the time (1970) was Ray Fosse, so he was my favorite player. He was on his way to becoming great, until that no-good dirty so-and-so Pete Rose unnecessarily drilled him during the All-Star game. I was very upset when the Indians eventually traded Fosse (and somebody else) to the A’s for George Hendrick and Dave Duncan, but I wasn’t as upset as Hendrick and Duncan, who were forced from the championship A’s to the always bad Indians. My second favorite player was Gaylord Perry, who won his first Cy Young award pitching for Cleveland in 1972, and who never seemed to pitch a bad game.