Who is on your Mount Rushmore of Baseball?

The Game Room
21

Alexander Cartwright (Codified early rules)
Harry Wright (Organizer of first fully professional team)
Casey Stengel (Best Manager)
Babe Ruth (Best Player)

22

Babe Ruth
Lou Gehrig
Willy Mays
Jackie Robinson

23

Babe Ruth
Jackie Robinson
Cy Young
Sadahura Oh (since the OP said “baseball” and not “MLB”).

If we stick to MLB players, I am tempted to put Mariano Rivera in the last slot.

24

Babe Ruth
Joe DiMaggio/Lou Gehrig (I’m split and could accept either one)
Willy Mays
Jackie Robinson

Those are the “faces” of baseball. Yes, pitching is left out (except sort of Ruth), but really, how many ball players would the average person recognize? Those are all names that most people would know were baseball players.

If you want to make it more spread out by era:
Babe Ruth
Jackie Robinson
Johnny Bench (assuming Pete Rose is ineligible, if not Rose)
Derek Jeter (in spite of not really wanting to include an active player)

Again, not necessarily the best players (although some were), but recognizably the face of baseball in their time.

25

Babe Ruth
Willie Mays
Sandy Koufax
Bill James

26

Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle, and Harry Caray.

27

Sandy Koufax
Don Drysdale
Pee Wee Reese
Don Sutton

Honorable mention: Vin Scully

28

Ruth, Aaron, Robinson, Scully

29

Babe Ruth - best player
Casey Stengel - best manager
A. Cartwright - codified the game
Jackie Robinson - truly turned it into America’s pasttime.

30

Babe Ruth - greatest ever
Jackie Robinson - changed the game forever
Hank Greenberg - Jewish Jackie
Roberto Clemente - Latin Jackie

31

Ruth
Robinson
Aaron
Nolan Ryan

32

(Cartwright wrote the earliest surviving written set of rules, but that doesn’t mean he invented the game).

Babe Ruth, obviously
Jackie Robinson, for what baseball has meant in society
Harry Wright (if you can only pick one name to be the founder of the major leagues)
Earl Weaver (one of the faces of what is so much fun about the game)

33

There ARE teams other than the Dodgers! :rolleyes:

34

Babe Ruth
Jackie Robinson
Mariano Rivera
Rickey Henderson

35

I’m not qualified to opine but will try to contribute as a clerk. By my count the votes as of post #34 are:

 25 Babe Ruth
 17 Jackie Robinson
  8 Willie Mays
  6 Alexander Cartwright
  5 Ted Williams
  3 Sandy Koufax
  3 Lou Gehrig
  3 Walter Johnson
  3 Hank Aaron
  2 Mickey Mantle
  2 Joe DiMaggio
  2 Harry Wright
  2 Casey Stengel

  1 Warren Spahn
  1 Ty Cobb
  1 Turk Wendell
  1 Stan Musial
  1 Vin Scully
  1 Sadahura Oh
  1 Roberto Clemente
  1 Pete Rose 
  1 Pee Wee Reese
  1 Oil Can Boyd
  1 Nolan Ryan
  1 Mark McGwire
  1 Ichiro Suzuki
  1 Harry Caray
  1 Hank Greenberg
  1 Eddie Gaedel
  1 Earl Weaver
  1 Don Sutton
  1 Don Drysdale
  1 Cy Young
  1 Branch Rickey
  1 Bob Feller
  1 Bill James
  1 Barry Bonds
  1 Alex Rodriguez
  1 Al Hrabosky
  1 Mariano Rivera
  1 Rickey Henderson

(We’re waiting on a 4th vote from a few posters. I didn’t know what to do with Zakalwe’s post – he needs to subtract one from the five votes I’ve credited to him above.)

36

Of course. Nobody invented baseball. Cartwright was still more foundational than anyone else mentioned.

37

Babe Ruth
Pete Rose
Nolan Ryan
Joe Shlabotnik

38

I listed DiMaggio first, so subtract one from Gehrig. Thanks for that, it’s an interesting list. 2 “of course” players and then it gets muddy fast…

39

Gutzon Borglum had it easy with the actual Mount Rushmore; he only had 30 possibilities to choose from.

I’m dismayed to see so little representation for the art of pitching, which is so fundamental in distinguishing baseball from all previous bat-and-ball games. Christy Mathewson?

40

OK, the other posts have convinced me that we need a founding father up there - so add Cartwright as my 4th (making my vote: Ruth, Mays, Walter Johnson, Alexander Cartwright).