All three were players that could, and did, beat you time after time after time.
At the end of the day, I guess it comes down to, for me, what player has left me with an impact that is simply mammoth, and which will not change---Mickey Mantle.
Collectors and/or fans of Hank or Willie are convinced about them, and they are most correct. Both of them were awe-inspiring and the man you had to stop on their respective teams if you were going to beat them, though Willie benefited greatly by the emergence of Willie McCovey. Hank just kept going, and going, and going---amazing.
So, it becomes an endless argument in the Hot Stove League. I get so tired of hearing all the "Mantle should have taken better care of himself" and "Mantle was always partying and drunk". I'm rather certain in his darkest private thoughts, Don Mattingly wishes hard and viciously condemns himself for throwing away a Hall-of-Fame career with that stupid clubhouse wrestling match he had with pitcher Mike Witt (?/?) that resulted in Don injuring his back, and affected him for the rest of his then curtailed career. We will never know how good Mick would have been had he not had that terrible injury in the 1951 World Series. The only thing I will say about the other matters is that the man was absolutely convinced he would be dead by age 40, just as his dad and other men in his family.
There is a great deal of "the underdog" in the personna of Mickey Mantle. As Hank Bauer very vehemently put it, and I am paraphrasing, for someone who was injured as much as Mickey and partied so hard, I think he did awful good. If that makes you gnash your teeth, I would encourage you to stop lest you chip or fracture those choppers. Just ask Yosemite Sam after what Bugs Bunny did to him in "Buccaneer Bunny". I think we could all do with a laugh right now.
We're all correct, and happy in what we collect. Cheers.
--Brian Powell