NationStates Jolt Archive

I want to know what other people's opinions are. I believe that it is Ty Cobb. Please don't say any fads like Sammy Sosa Ken Griffey Jr. or someone like that. Though I don't like them, people like Bonds or Palmiero *sp?* are fine. Poll coming.

Also, please give your reasons why. (Ty Cobb with his hitting and stealing.)

You really should've replaced Cobb with Willy Mays. Seriously.

So what you're really asking is "Who is the greatest hitter ever?" Not a pitcher on the list.

Ted Williams or Joe DiMaggio, take your pick.

1) I believe that Cobb is if not the best, one of the best on that list, so I would probably replace either Clemente or Speaker with Mays.
2) To the best of my knowledge of baseball (which is very good) Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth were pitchers.
3) The list is compiled of the best from hitting, defense, and baserunning. Possibly Nolan Ryan or Cy Young would be on there, but pitching is all that they've got.

Ted Williams was the greatest pure hitter of the game.

Me.

Ted Williams was the greatest pure hitter of the game.
What do you mean by pure hitter?

You really should've replaced Cobb with Willy Mays. Seriously.
And why Mays? No records or stuff...

What do you mean by pure hitter?I'm refering to the capabilities required to hit the ball dissregarding other abilities as fielding, pitching and baserunning.

It would translate into 6 league batting titles and 2 triple crowns.

How about Mantle, Longest HRs and fastest time to first

How does Barry Bonds get on there? What makes him such a great player? I happen to think that Sosa and Griffey Jr. are great players as well, as baseball is about more than just your hitting ability, and I think these players are both excellent outfielders in addition to great hitters. Although I don't think they belong on the list...

That said, how does Nolan Ryan not make your list? Or how about Cal Ripken Jr.?

How about Mantle, Longest HRs and fastest time to first
I'll give you "fastest time to first," but after it's beyond the wall, what does it really matter how LONG the ball went when you're trying to determine the best player?

And how come everyone is only judging on one half of the game?

Where are the pitchers? Just out of curiosity.

Personally, as much as I like Barry Bonds, who I saw hit number 700 in person, I'm going with Ruth, basically because he was a 20-game winner as a pitcher before he switched to the field and became the Bambino. That's a special kind of athleticism.

Christy Mathewson

I would say it's a tie between Gehrig and Ruth.

Ruth was hall-of-fame caliber as a hitter, center fielder, and as a pitcher. As far as all-around baseball playing is concerned, there is not nor has there been a player who ever did so much so well as Ruth.

Gehrig ties because while Ruth may have been the stat king, Gehrig not only proved his equal or near equal in all respects (he is to this day the best baseman to play the game) statistically, but also because there is a certain something about him that exudes excellence even though it doesn't translate into statistics. Gehrig had a certain instinctive knowledge about how to deal with plays that just isn't measured by error rates: he knew how to best respond to every play. He was also the linchpin tieing together the Ruth and DiMaggio eras of baseball, and was instrumental in the success of both eras: neither Ruth nor DiMaggio would have been nearly as successful in the batter box had they not had solid Gehrig helping them out. Finally, unlike Ripkin, every game Gehrig played was a game the Yankees needed him to play. What I mean by this is that Ripkin's streak is less impressive to me primarily because there were times when it seemed that the streak was more important to him than his team winning. That was never the case with Gehrig.

As a side note, you can't knock a guy who batted .291 in an era dominated by the best pitching corp in baseball history while he was dying.

Of the players I know:

1. Babe Ruth
2. Ty Cobb
3. Willie Mays
4. Barry Bonds
5. Hank Aaron
6. Lou Gehrig
7. Joe DiMaggio
8. Ted Williams
9. Mickey Mantle
Roberto Clemente
Pete Rose (tie)
12. Honus Wagner/Jimmie Foxx/Tris Speaker (the "forgotten old-timer" vote)

Babe Ruth .... he could pitch as well as hit for average and power .... besides
he was funny to watch run ...

Babe Ruth for popularising the game when it was in its pre-national pasttime days. He brought people to the ballpark and made baseball what it became at its heyday.

How are Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle not on that list?

How does Barry Bonds get on there? What makes him such a great player? I happen to think that Sosa and Griffey Jr. are great players as well, as baseball is about more than just your hitting ability, and I think these players are both excellent outfielders in addition to great hitters. Although I don't think they belong on the list...

That said, how does Nolan Ryan not make your list? Or how about Cal Ripken Jr.?
Yeah, I don't think that Bonds is worthy, but there are a lot of SportsCenter guys and guys at my school that say that Bonds is so great. But I don't really think so.

Yeah, I don't think that Bonds is worthy, but there are a lot of SportsCenter guys and guys at my school that say that Bonds is so great. But I don't really think so.If you ever saw him play, up close and personal, you'd change your mind. He's the most fearsome batter I've ever seen, and I've seen a few.

How does Barry Bonds get on there? What makes him such a great player? I happen to think that Sosa and Griffey Jr. are great players as well, as baseball is about more than just your hitting ability, and I think these players are both excellent outfielders in addition to great hitters. Although I don't think they belong on the list...

That said, how does Nolan Ryan not make your list? Or how about Cal Ripken Jr.?
People forget that for the first ten or twelve years of his career, there was no better defensive right fielder than Bonds, and that he was a basestealing threat as well as a power guy. He's the only 400-400 man ever, I'm pretty sure, and a Gold Glover who now has 703 homers. He certainly deserves to be on that list.

As for Ryan...I'm a huge fan and I have my doubts. I saw him pitch his fifth no-hitter on television when I was a kid, and saw him get close a couple of other times, and when he was on, there was no one like him.

But he was never the ultimate stopper. He wasn't a Koufax or Drysdale, he wasn't even a Seaver. He walked nearly as many people as he struck out in his career, and was barely a .500 pitcher in the win-loss with a career era in the mid 3's I believe, in a time when that wasn't all that impressive. Great pitcher, no doubt. But I'm not sure he'd make my top five of all time, and certainly not best ever.

If you ever saw him play, up close and personal, you'd change your mind. He's the most fearsome batter I've ever seen, and I've seen a few.
Yeah, your second sentence cancels out the first a little bit. You say you've seen a few. I'd say you'd need to see many to make an assumption. Secondly, there are only two on that list that are living (Bonds and Rose) so it's very unlikely that you've seen much competition against Bonds up close unless you're over 80 years old...

Ted Williams was the greatest pure hitter of the game.

Here here!

I agree 100%! He had a complete understanding of the science of hitting, and he had impecable vision. There's a story that says one day he was standing at the dish and was saying that he thought the mound wasn't at the proper height. As it turned out, it wasn't, it was off by half an inch.

Last player to bat over .400 for the season(1941), and was incredibly consistent throughout his career, even missing time to fly planes in Korea. What a guy!

Btw, no offense, but that list isn't very good. There's a large chunk of 'player of their era's' missing off it. No Williams, Dimaggio, Musial, Mays, Foxx. Other great pitchers: Walter Johnson, Cy Young, Neikro, Carlton, even Clemens can be added to the all-timers.

Yeah, your second sentence cancels out the first a little bit. You say you've seen a few. I'd say you'd need to see many to make an assumption. Secondly, there are only two on that list that are living (Bonds and Rose) so it's very unlikely that you've seen much competition against Bonds up close unless you're over 80 years old...

I think of Bonds as an ignorant cheater.

And I'd love to see his numbers if he wasn't juiced up for the past 10 years.......

I voted for Roberto Clemente. He could hit for average, power if needed, steal bases, field very well, had one of the best throwing arms the game had ever seen. If he didn't die on a Humanitarian Mission, he would have had a lot more than 3,000 hits. Plus he was a real leader in the Clubhouse and on that team.

I think of Bonds as an ignorant cheater.

And I'd love to see his numbers if he wasn't juiced up for the past 10 years.......

I'm a Pirates fan and I think Bonds is a joke. He can hit 73 Hr's in the Regular season and for almost all of his career he could never hit a home run in the Playoffs. If he's supposed to be such a great player, how come he couldn't get Sid Bream out at the plate in 1992? He is an ignorant ass, not just to the media but to the fans as well. He thinks he's God's gift to baseball because Willy Mays is his Godfather. Mays is a hundred times the player than Bonds is. Mays hit homeruns during the dead ball era and against the best era of pitching in the history of the majors. Bonds is hitting against watered down pitching in a juiced ball era.

My friend's daughter. She's really, really good at rounders/brännboll (the sport played by girls here that baseball pretty much is).

Other: I don't give a fuck.

Btw, no offense, but that list isn't very good. There's a large chunk of 'player of their era's' missing off it. No Williams, Dimaggio, Musial, Mays, Foxx. Other great pitchers: Walter Johnson, Cy Young, Neikro, Carlton, even Clemens can be added to the all-timers.Of course he can he's the Rocket. :cool: I would dare to add Sandy Koufax also.

Wait, there are actually other Pirates fans? I'm not the only one? I thought that they all died out in the great disappointment of '93...

Wait, there are actually other Pirates fans? I'm not the only one? I thought that they all died out in the great disappointment of '93...1993? :D Great year to be alive for a Blue Jay fan such as myself.

OK for all you that are wanting pitchers: What can they do besides pitch? The others have got records in hitting, (Ty Cobb-.367, 4191 hits, 2245 runs, 297 triples, 892 SB; Babe Ruth-714 HR, 2213 RBI, 2174 Runs, .690 Slug, 1.159 OPS; Pete Rose-4256 hits, 2165 runs; Roberto Clemente-Pioneered as one of the first Latino players, 3000 hits; Honus Wagner-3415 hits, 640 doubles, 252 triples, 722 steals) just to name a few. They are some of the best fielders ever too. So don't say that a pitcher is better than another player, because that's the only thing that they have got going for them.

That's why there can never be a greatest baseball player. A Pitcher and hitter are two diferent things that can't be measured directly against each other. That's why you've got MVP awards, CY Young awards and Gold Glove awards.

Hank Aaron should be on the list. He wasn't just a great hitter, he could field and run. He was on the All-Star team for twenty straight years and won three golden gloves.

Yes, Hammerin' Hank is the only one that I regret not putting in the poll.

And possibly Ted Williams...