When I first saw this thread I was thinking Mr. Musial was the greatest I'd seen. But as I mentioned above, after reading through posts and consulting Mr. James' Historical Abstract, Willie Mays must have been the greatest. Musial had a better average, more games, more doubles, more triples, a better on base percentage, a better slugging average, more walks, and Mr. Musial was infinitely nicer when signing an autograph for someone... Willie could play, though. I remember seeing him the first time, knowing about his basket catches and how I shouldn't be doing it. I can still see that first basket catch... and he almost always was in motion when catching a ball; if it was far from him he'd be flying across the outfield grass, if it were only a few steps away he'd wait the ball out and drift over at the last moment. I can see him wheeling around third base, dead set on scoring, hat flying off and arms churning. Willie brought excitement to the ballpark.
