Whos the greatest baseball player ever?

Question

Whos the greatest baseball player ever?

Answer 1

Willie Mays

Answer 2

Babe Ruth - one of, if not THE greatest hitter of all time, decent fielder with a great arm (at least until the end), AND he probably would have made the Hall as a pitcher even if he had not moved to the outfield. Nobody else could do it all quite like the Babe.

Note - I do not like the Yankees..but respect where it's due.

Answer 3

mantle

Answer 4

Joe Dimaggio

Answer 5

I answered this previously from somebody else...but yeah:

It's tough to compare eras, so I always think of it as who was the absolute most dominant in their own era...

Without a doubt, to me, it is Babe Ruth. He hit more Home Runs then entire teams for a time....He was a dominating World Series pitcher...His numbers and ability were basically unheard of at the time. Even the best players today aren't THAT far ahead of the next tier. Sure, people will argue that if you put him in today's game, he wouldn't do as well....but I would imagine he'd be fine, especially if he has access to the same programs, facilities, etc as modern players. I just don't think there will be another player who will completely dominate and change the game like George Herman did.

Babe Ruth hit .342, 714 HR, 2217 RBI, with 2873 hits...in 8398 At Bats...walking 2062 times for an OBP of .474! Only Ted Williams (would be my #2) was higher...Ruth also has the all time highest slugging percentage (.690) and easily the highest OPS (1.1638). He led the league in HR 12 times, and RBI 7. He had 136 triples even!

Aaron had about 4000 more at bats (12,364), a .305 average, and an OBP of .374. He's one of the best ever...but he never dominated like Ruth did. They also didn't give Gold Gloves in Ruth's time (although, i'll say I doubt he would have won any, but we have no way of knowing). He led the league in HR and RBI 4 times.

I'm only picking on Hank Aaron here, cause I just don't get the argument for him as best ever. He was great, no doubt...but it was also his lengthy career that has his numbers where they are (longevity counts for something, yes).

As for Bonds...he was a great all around player...but when he became dominant on offense, he lost a lot of speed and defense. I was impressed with him, regardless of whether he cheated (there really is no doubt there was use, just no admittance that it was done knowingly to cheat)...but he was doing it at a time when the records were being broken over and over again...the gap is not as wide from him and those around him.

Once A-rod is done, he might be up there for consideration (but I still don't think I could put him higher than 2 or 3 on my own list) But that's the fun of opinion based questions, we can interpret stats and careers any way we want. :)

Answer 6

Ted Williams - remember that he missed 3 years of his prime playing days (1943-1945) when he fought in the war and still put up ridiculous numbers.

19 Seasons - .344 BA, .482 OBP, .634 SLG, 521 HRs*.

*If you take his average of 37 HRs/ Season and fill those in for the 3 years he missed, he could've ended up with 623 HRs. Obviously a ton of other factors come into to play there, but you see how high a caliber player he truly was.

Answer 7

Babe Ruth

Answer 8

Frank Robinson:  

Won AL and NL MvP awards.   1961 (Reds) 1966 (Orioles)

1956 Rookie of the Year set a rookie record 38 home runs

.294 career avg.

second on Reds in homers (324) and is the all time Reds leader in Slugging (.554 )

Answer 9

Babe Ruth or Willie Mays (The Say Hey Kid)

Answer 10

Josh Gibson, the real home run king.

Answer 11

Babe Ruth!