1933 Goudey Ruth vs 1952 Topps Mantle

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

An interesting stat. For the 40 year period of 1950 to 1995, there were 276 Major League players with at least 5,000 at bats. Mickey Mantle had the highest OPS of all of them. Only Wade Boggs had a higher OBP, and nobody had a higher slugging percentage than Mantle.

I already stated my opinion of Mantle being overvalued in cards in another thread so I am not going to state it all again, but I did want to point out that Willie Mays' Slugging was actually higher (barely but still higher):
Mays Slugging: .5575
Mantle Slugging: .5568

Originally Posted by the 'stache

he [Ruth] didn't face the best black players of his era

This is slight misdirection. Out of the last 5 teams to allow black players, 4 of them were in the AL.
Senators - Sept 6 1954
Yankees - April 14 1955
Phillies (Only NL in the last 5) - April 22 1957
Tigers - June 6 1958
Red Sox - July 21 1959

So 8 years after his Rookie year Mantle wasn't constantly playing in a diverse league either. Even then these were the dates of the first black player and doesn't mean the team was fully integrated.


Mantle was good, there is no doubt about that, but people that support him seem to narrow down the facts to make him seem like he is the top player of all time. He wasn't, he was the top AL player during his time.