greatest baseball player of all time

[Chance174]

Mays was good and can be argued as one of the best all time easily. Hard to argue against him.

I still say Mantle because of everything he did when he was healthy. Just my opinion.

[Chance174]

Ruth was one of the best pitchers of the time, but he never threw a no-hitter.
I know there is the game where he walked the first batter got in an argument with the umpire and tossed from the game and his replacement, Ernie Shore, came in and threw nine perfect innings.

Your right, Ruth didn't throw the no hitter that was my bad. I just saw his name tied to it.

[Chance174]

IMO:
Pitcher: Greg Maddux or Walter Johnson
Position player: Roberto Clemente or Ty Cobb

This is a fun topic. It might be fun to go through each position and choose the "best".

That would be fun. We should start one later this week. Start with Pitchers?

[Tight-Waist]

Mantle may well have been the best all round player. His ability in centerfield could only be matched by Sey Hey Willie Mays. Speaking of Mays he does have more homers than Mantle and, well, he played center just as well.

I'd have to throw a curve at everyone and put Willie up there as the best in the game given his HR production, hits, rbis stolen bases. Need I say more. Willie was over shadowed by Mantle playing for the Yanks. Had Willie been a Yank and Mantle a Cubby, ther'd be a whole loy more popularity for Mr. aMaysing.

I'll admit, its a clse call, but I give the edge to Mantle based on his speed.

[rustyshackleford]

Based on statistics, Mays is well above Mantle. Mays has 12 Gold Gloves to Mantle's 1. 338 steals to Mantles 153. 523 2B and 140 3B to Mantle's 344 and 72. Average is close (Mays by .004.) Mays has ~400 more runs and RBI than Mantle. Mantle did win a triple crown and have one more MVP (2 to 3.) By the numbers, Mays wins easily, IMO.

[matclone]

What's interesting about Mays-Mantle is that they played in the same era (in fact they started just about the same year). Mays' career lasted a few years longer, which helped his numbers a little but those are significant diff's in gold gloves, SBs, 2Bs and 3Bs. It would be interesting to compare their slugging pcts. On the info given, it appears Mays would have the edge.

[rustyshackleford]

Mantle has a higher career OPS. That surprised me. Mantle is 14 all time at .977, and Mays is 30 all time at .941. Slugging is an absolute dead heat. They are next to each other on the all time list, Mays ahead at .55749, Mantle 1 behind at .55678.