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May 11, 2021
New Blog Topic: WHO’S THE GREATEST?
As the great Willie Mays celebrated his 90th birthday last Thursday, the tributes and accolades rolled in from everywhere. Those of us old enough to have seen him play gladly shared our memories of the Say Hey Kid on a baseball field. There’s little doubt that the oldest living Hall of Famer was one of the greatest ever to grace the diamond. He was the ultimate five-tool player with a baseball IQ that
was off the charts. And he played with joy and grace, fire and imagination. He also entertained without showboating, making his basket catches in centerfield and running out from under his cap while legging out a triple. Yep, Willie Mays was hard to beat. But was he THE greatest?
Many who watched Willie’s entire career from 1951 to 1973 feel he was the best ever. And, certainly, there’s a case to be made. The numbers speak for themselves and the intangibles are off the chart. Some point out that had he played the bulk of his career in a place like Ebbets Field, Wrigley or Fenway, he may well have hit 1000 home runs. There’s no doubt that Willie Mays was extra special and always will be. Yes, he was the best I’ve seen in my many years of watching baseball. But how, in reality, can you really pick a greatest ever when you haven’t seen them all?
I began learning and loving baseball around 1949. My grandfather, born a day after Ty Cobb in 1886 and a ballplayer himself, talked about Cobb all the time,
along with others from the Dead Ball Era. Once I began reading about Cobb I quickly concluded he had to be the best to ever play up to that time. The record number of batting titles, three .400 seasons, the most hits and stolen bases, and the way he played the game with reckless abandon. He must have been something to see. And to a young kid like myself, I thought that no one could be better.
Then I soon began learning of another player. Before I saw his name in print I thought it was Bay Bruth. At least that’s the way it sounded when people spoke it quickly. Of course it was the Babe, and once I began learning about him – his great early pitching career, all the home runs, the magical numbers 60 and 714 – I began to wonder if maybe he was the best, even better than Cobb. I learned about other players from the Dead Ball Era and into the 1920s and ’30s as well, but it was Cobb and Ruth who still seemed to tower over all the others.
It pretty much stayed that way until 1950s when a whole new group of young superstars came into the game, the most prominent of which were Mays, Mantle,
Aaron and Clemente. Mantle jumped out first. Both he and Mays were rookies in 1951, but then Willie spent two years in the service while Mickey solidified his reputation as the best young player in the game. He had the looks, enormous switch hitting power and unbelievable speed that often saw him legging out drag bunts. Could he become the best ever? For awhile it looked like he had a shot until leg injuries and hard living caught up with him. Then Willie returned from the service and hit the ground running, quickly becoming the most dynamic player in the sport.
Hank Aaron was more a quiet assassin, with all the skills that would eventually enable him to pass the Babe in career home runs while becoming the all-time leader in runs batted in and total bases. Aaron could do it all, but didn’t have Willie’s flair and wasn’t quite as good in the outfield. Willie also had Rock Star charisma – the IT factor on the field – that Aaron lacked. Clemente had a higher batting average than Willie or Hank, but didn’t hit as many home runs. Playing in Pittsburgh probably kept him somewhat out of the limelight, but certainly had flair, was an all-time great and not far behind the other two.
But here’s where it gets tricky. Moving forward from there,the game began
changing, both in style and substance, and comparing great players from the different eras is not an easy thing. Forget about that gimmicky statistic called WAR, which they now apply to players from the past. That simply doesn’t work to show greatness or rank players who were on the field 75 or 100 years apart. I’m also leaving out many great players here, the likes of Honus Wagner, Rogers Hornsby, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio and some others. Can’t discuss them all, but the only one I’ve heard mention of as a possible greatest ever is Wagner, who played from 1897 to 1917, totally in the Dead Ball Era.
Obviously, there’s no one alive today who saw him play and, back in those days, the few films of the early players were grainy and not close enough to show very much, especially compared to what we have today. But some historians still feel Wagner had special greatness as a shortstop and hitter, and might have been the
best. One thing is certain. Wagner could not have made some of the spectacular plays the shortstops of today make for one reason. He wore a small, flat glove with virtually no pocket and no webbing. Those gloves had to be limiting in both the infield and outfield where spectacular catches are made today with the ball being trapped by massive gloves and webbings. So you have to look past those things when judging greatness. Give the great older players today’s equipment and well manicured fields and they would be more than capable of doing what today’s stars do.
Perhaps the best players of the past two decades have been Albert Pujols and Mike Trout. Pujols hit as well as anyone ever his first ten years, easily punching his ticket to Cooperstown, but then began fading and more or less limped home his last
couple of years. Trout is a guy who can do it all, an exciting player who doesn’t quite have the flair or charisma of a Mays or Clemente. And, of course, today’s game sees players striking a lot out more without the high batting averages of years back. You can thank analytics for that, and the home run or strikeout style of play today might hamper young stars like Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis, Jr. from someday entering the greatest ever discussion.
So it’s really a debate without a possible resolution and a baseball discussion that will surely continue forever. Who was baseball’s greatest player ever? Like I said, the greatest I ever saw was the Say Hey Kid. But I’ve also seen strong cases made for the Babe, who surely would have been a Hall of Famer as a pitcher had he not shown otherworldly talent with the bat and his ability to hit home runs when few others hit them. And I’m sure Ty Cobb still has his boosters as well as a few others. It’s something fans will always talk about, sometimes quite passionately. But that’s also part of the beauty of baseball. And as one final thought. Happy 90th birthday, Willie Mays.
Bill Gutman
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