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Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B
I completely agree with your thoughts and immediately felt the same way when the question was first posed. I don't think DiMaggio qualifies at this point in the game, however. If we had been asked this question 50-75 years ago, sure, but Joe D's potential place on this list has faded with time. Ruth and Robinson simply can't be argued to me. I chose Branch Rickey as my third because there would be no Robinson without him, and he was a player himself. I didn't mind letting him in on that technicality simply for the sheer magnitude of what he did later on.
It just dawned on me: has nobody mentioned Ted Williams?! He led a uniquely remarkable life in and out of the game. He might be a contender.
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You make a good point. For a long time DiMaggio's link to Marilyn Monroe, not to mention Mr Coffee and the Bowery Savings Bank, kept him a household name. However, since his passing his fame has faded somewhat. It is really a testament to Ruth and Robinson that their fame continues. I don't think Rickey should be on the list--very few in the general public know of him. I also don't think the Cobbs and the Wagners of the world ever deserved to be on the list. Perhaps the answer is that three was an arbitrary number and there is Ruth and Robinson and then no one else close.