# Who is the greatest catcher of all time? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 12, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514 "2012-03-12T01:56:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514/1 "2012-03-12T01:56:26Z")
A simple one vote poll and feel free to explain your vote or argue over others. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514/2 "2012-03-12T02:14:31Z")
Going to hold off on my vote - anyone want to make an argument that someone else’s glove makes up for Piazza’s bat? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514/3 "2012-03-12T02:20:46Z")
Heck with it. Looked at the numbers and voted for I-Rod. Baseball reference thinks there was a 25-win difference between Rodriguez and Piazza behind the plate, over their careers. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514/4 "2012-03-12T04:31:22Z")
> [@](#): > > Going to hold off on my vote - anyone want to make an argument that someone else’s glove makes up for Piazza’s bat? The poll asks for “greatest catcher”, not “greatest ballplayer who played in the catcher position”. That, to me, implies that we’re just talking about the quality of the catching. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514/5 "2012-03-12T04:57:12Z")
I think “greatest catcher” is generally understood to mean greatest player who was a catcher. > [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > Going to hold off on my vote - anyone want to make an argument that someone else’s glove makes up for Piazza’s bat? Yeah: Piazza’s. Or rather the other way around - his bat didn’t stay good enough for long enough to make up for the glove. There’s nobody I’d rather have than Dodger Piazza, but for me, once he slowed down a little he fell behind Bench. The two are surprisingly comparable offensively in the second halves of their careers, and Bench by the numbers didn’t stop being a great defensive player until he was a bad outfielder. I have no idea how to evaluate Pudge Rodriguez. Fangraphs says Pudge saved 6 fewer runs in 1996 & 1997 than Bench saved in his best 5 seasons combined. And that’s Johnny god-diddly Bench. ---
**Author:** ![Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dread_pirate_jimbo/32/3897_2.png) [@Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dread_Pirate_Jimbo)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514/6 "2012-03-12T17:49:29Z")
In spite of his reputation, Piazza wasn’t nearly as bad a catcher as people like to think. No, he couldn’t throw my grandma out stealing second, but he called an adequate game, framed pitches reasonably well, and could block balls in the dirt acceptably. When you add to it the fact that he was one of the top two offensive hitting catchers ever (probably the best, really), he certainly deserves to be on this list. Nevertheless, I went with Mickey Cochrane, just to be different. Cochrane was the standard by which all other catchers were compared until Bench showed up on the scene, so I have to go with him. You gotta like a .320 career batting average, 2 MVP awards, and a career 39% caught stealing percentage. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514/7 "2012-03-13T15:07:50Z")
Josh Gibson and it’s not close. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514/8 "2012-03-13T16:27:45Z")
> [@Gadarene](#): > > Josh Gibson and it’s not close. This is certainly possible, but I have no idea how you could state it so definitively. Has any attempt even been made to compare Negro Leagues performances to MLB at the time? ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514/9 "2012-03-13T16:41:59Z")
Did MLB’ers ever play in the Mexican or Cuban leagues that Gibson’s wiki entry show he played in? If so, that might be some area for comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514/10 "2012-03-13T17:03:45Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > This is certainly possible, but I have no idea how you could state it so definitively. Has any attempt even been made to compare Negro Leagues performances to MLB at the time? Yes, many, many attempts have been made. Baseball Think Factory has several threads on the subject; let me see if I can find them. [Here’s one recent thread](http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/hall_of_merit/discussion/mike_piazza/) that talks about Josh Gibson extensively in this context. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514/11 "2012-03-13T17:16:43Z")
Lot’s of good stuff there - thanks for the link! ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514/12 "2012-03-13T17:19:58Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > Lot’s of good stuff there - thanks for the link! 🙂 (And obviously I’m just giving my opinion about whether Gibson is the greatest catcher of all-time. The discussion in the link I posted has several different viewpoints on the matter, although most people there agree that Gibson and Piazza are head and shoulders above all other catchers in terms of offensive prowess.) ---
**Author:** ![Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@Wilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wilson)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514/13 "2012-03-13T17:38:47Z")
Yeah, leaving Gibson off this poll is possibly even more egregious than leaving Charleston off the CF list. Unless, of course, the poll was meant to be the greatest catcher in MLB history, but that’s not what it says. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-greatest-catcher-of-all-time/615514/14 "2012-03-13T18:07:05Z")
It was major league players and again I did not choose the positional players, only the pitchers.