Posted By:
Frank WakefieldI agree with Mark T above with Wagner at #1.
When you forget about what "we" think, based on what we see with player stats and the like, the thing to do is go back and read what players of the day thought.
Players from the dead ball era thought Wagner was the best ball player ever. Those that played with Wagner, Cobb, Ruth, Jackson, Mathewson, Young, Johnson... they too thought Wagner the greatest ball player EVER.
I saw Koufax and Gibson pitch against one another. I saw Drysdale throw. Saw the Big Unit, Carlton, Seaver, Soto, Maloney, Bunning, Short, Marichal, Vida Blue, Dave Stewart, Dwight Goodin, Kerry Wood... Saw Lee Smith muscling balls past folks in the late innings. Saw Bob Veale. From what I've read about folks that saw these guys and older ones play, based on the overlapping of time, I gotta figure that Walter Johnson threw the hardest, Smokey Joe Wood was with him for a few years, and Feller threw pretty hard, too. Having said that, I can't think of anyone who'd throw in at you like Drysdale and Gibson, unless it was Maglie, who I didn't get to see...
The guys on Mark's list were great players. The only way we can know, 100 years removed, is to believe "them that'uz there seein' it". Wagner was the man.