If nicknames meant anything Bob Ferguson would lead the list.

It's hard to find too many areas where Lajoie was better than Speaker. Nickname or not, he easily cracks my top 10. Lajoie would be in the late teens for me.

It's way up there, agreed.

Good lists. I might put Cobb ahead of Wags.....

Not in any real order (sort of chronological):
A.19th century (or mostly)

1. H Wright (player-mgr-creator)
Spaulding (player-creator)
D. White
Anson
Galvin
Ward
Radbourn
Clarkson
McPhee
Browning
10. Caruthers (great 2 way player)
Ewing
Kelly
Ward
Keefe
Delahanty
Rusie
Connor
Nichols
Hamilton
20. C. Young
--
1900-20
Dahlen
Crawford
Waddell
F. Clarke (player also mgr etc.)
25. JJ McGraw (mgr also player)
Wagner
Lajoie
Matty
.M. Brown
30 - Cobb
W.Johnson
J. Jackson
E Collins
Speaker
Evers-Tinker-Chance (one card?)
Alexander
Ruth
Heilman
. Hornsby
40. Gehrig
Foxx
Ott
Cochrane
Grove

--
C.Mack (Mgr-- )
J. McCarthy (mgr)
C. Griffith (baseball lifer-- Player-manager-owner-etc,)
C. Comiskey (Same)
Bill Klem (Ump)
--
Negro-League/Cuban
O. Charleston
Pop Lloyd
Rube Foster
M. Dihigo
Smokey Joe Williams
--
I think this about 54 and .... Miller Huggins maybe should be included instead he was a baseball lifer who died young (maybe because he had to manage Babe Ruth).