Quote:
Originally Posted by Smarti5051
I am sure this has been discussed before, but I am curious why Ted Williams always gets left off the list of most important "vintage" ballplayers. Clemente/Jackie make sense from a cultural perspective, and obviously Ruth, Gehrig, Cobb and Wagner are pre-war titans. But, how is Ted Williams not part of the Aaron, Mays, Mantle level? It is not one or two omissions, he is consistently on a lower tier when I have seen folks listing the best player cards by era (whereas, he is almost always Top 10 by baseball analysts compiling "best of" lists). As someone newer to vintage collecting than many of the long-timers here, I am wondering why his performance is viewed as less significant than his contemporaries in the 40s-50s.
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Just guessing, but if you look at the players you listed and Williams, the differences that stick out are that:
1) He did not play for a New York team.
2) He did not set, nor still holds, what many may consider as a significant all-time MLB record.
3) He was not the first/only one ever in MLB to set, achieve, or perform some significant mark, goal, or event.
He is the last player to hit .400, but he wasn't the first. He is the only player (that I know of) to literally miss almost 5 full seasons of MLB because of military service, which doesn't really count as a baseball related stat in people's minds. And yet, it is because of his military service that he likely missed out on setting, and still holding, some all-time MLB records. Had Williams not missed those 5 years for military service, and instead had 5 average Ted Williams years, he would very likely also be the current all-time MLB recordholder for RBIs and Runs Scored, and possibly for all-time Walks as well. And it probably would have boosted him, at least at some point in time, into the top 5/10 all-time category for some other batting records as well, including second all-time in HRs behind only Ruth, until Aaron would eventually pass him years later. And this is all in addition to the one all-time batting record he does hold for OBP. But for some reason fans don't seem to think of OBP as highly as they do RBIs, Runs Scored, and HRs. It is also possible he may have batted .400 for a season at least one more time as well, or who knows what else had he been able to play those 5 lost years. So, he does seem to get downplayed/forgotten a bit in relation to the other star players mentioned, and military service and not playing for a team in the right media market are likely big contributing factors as to why.