Greatest Baseball Player Ever

[HoustonGM]

Ripken made the all star game his last year and he didn't deserve it. You cant go by all star games because of that and the fact that Thome wont make it this year and DEFINATLY should be there!!!

How do you know he wont make it?

Look at Dimaggio's year-by-year sats http://www.baseball-reference.com/d/dimagjo01.shtml. Only 1951 was a questionable year.

What the **** is your rpoblem with thinking ARod will be the "worst player to ever hit 900 homers" if he doesnt win a ring? That's utter ****. Bonds hasn't won a ring, and say he didnt do steroids and had the same stats, nobody would say he is the bad. And besides "the worst to hit 900" is kinda...odd. He could be the only one, so yeah, he' dbe the worst and the best. He oculd be one of 2. One of 3. Whatever. "Worst to hti 900" is a lame title. If you hit 900 home runs, you cant be bad. Winning a ring is not the sole determinor of a players ability...

[robinhoodnik]

I picked Ruth but a close second is Williams. He missed a total of five prime seasons in two wars, and still went out and put up HOF numbers.

[TheNamelessPoet]

How do you know he wont make it?

He might make it if enough people like me vote 25 times and wright him in. He will get in to the all Star game alright, but because a manager will take him not because he was chosen by the fans. He wasnt even on the ballot. I do however agree with the statement u made about the worst to hit 900 HR meaning Barroid Bonds. That is a pretty dumb statement to make. A-Rod will make it to 800 I personaly think. Griffey would have made it if he didn't get hurt. Even has an outside shot at 700 I think. He has to stay healthy tho... hes gettin up there in age. The only 2 guys I can see doing even 800 are A-Rod and I'd have to say Pujols but hes still so young. He could start to slide (not that that looks likely.)

[TheNamelessPoet]

No love for Cobb here huh??? Did you guys know his mother killed his father with a shotgun. Blew his freakin face off, thinkin he was a prowler. His mom was 12 when she got married and had Cobb at I think 15 or 16. She killed him a week before he got the call to the big leagues... Thats y he was so crazy.

[HoustonGM]

He might make it if enough people like me vote 25 times and wright him in. He will get in to the all Star game alright, but because a manager will take him not because he was chosen by the fans. He wasnt even on the ballot.

There's no spot for DH, that's why, and he's only played 1 game in the field all year

[TheNamelessPoet]

Hmmmm. God point. I forgot he was the DH with Konrko there.

[petrel]

Comments:

1. Babe Ruth is probably the greatest player of all time for a few reasons:
-- he was invariably associated with championships, first in Boston and then in New York
-- he was an outstanding pitcher (Who has the best record as a pitcher against the Yankees, minimum 20 decisions? Babe Ruth! But the Yankees weren't that great before he joined them.)
-- he did not just hit a lot of home runs -- he obliterated home run records. He set his first season record in 1919 when he was with the Red Sox, with only 432 at bats. The next year, in 1920, he almost doubled that record.
Barry Bonds would have hat to hit something like 120 home runs in a season to get that kind of attention.
-- he would out-homer entire TEAMS.
-- he is a "divider". All of the transcendent players are "dividers" in the sense that you can divide baseball history naturally as "before Babe Ruth" and "after Babe Ruth".
-- true, he wasn't playing against the great Negro Leaguers. But then again, he was playing in the 1920s, without the advantages of training, weight lifting, or "the juice". I've never been impressed with those types of arguments. He might have not been playing against the best possible arrangement of opponents -- but neither were the Negro Leaguers, and no one belittles Satchel Paige's ability because he wasn't pitching against white major leaguers.

2. Re: Joe Dimaggio. No, DiMag isn't the greatest player of all time. He's probably not in the Top Ten either.

But DiMaggio, like Ted Williams, lost years of his career to World War II. He departed in 1942 and didn't come back until 1946. (Ted Williams lost years of his career to TWO wars, World War II and Korea). He would have had around 450-470 lifetime homeruns with an uninterrupted career. (And God knows what kind of record Terrible Ted would have had!)

DiMaggio was a fantastic defensive outfielder. "Transcendent" is the word I would use. Looking at his last year to measure his greatness and value to the team would be like saying Babe Ruth sucked because he only hit .181 as a fat forty-year old in Braves Field. Ruth was as immobile as a post in his last year, too.

--Pet

[disposablehero]

i think Joe wasnt even the best OFer in the DiMaggio family. his defense is overrated in my opinion.

[robinhoodnik]

Think that Joe D's career numbers would have cut it with voters had he played for the St. Louis Browns?

[TRHeck3]

Thats a hard argument to make. There are so many great players to have played the game.

[robinhoodnik]

I agree with Pet. It wouldn't have made all that much difference if Babe Ruth had played against black players. He was just so far ahead of where everyone else was that there's just no comparison to this day.

[TheNamelessPoet]

imagine what he would have been had he taken care of his body!!!

[robinhoodnik]

I know what you mean. He was just one big guy when he was younger. Not fat at all. Too bad most of his photos and newsreel footage are from later on in his career.

[seand89]

Teddy Ballgame's the best player ever, because of everything he put up with due to the media, going to war for our country, and still putting up amazing numbers.

[robinhoodnik]

I agree on those facts. The difference is that Ruth was also a dominant pitcher before his hitting career. Based solely on baseball and nothing else, I think Babe is it. Teddy ballgame was John Wayne but he was a real life John Wayne