TSN 100 Greatest...

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Posted By: John Kalafarski

I'll wager that few of the voters have seen few of the players. I'm 61 and if you ask anyone of my age group they would agree that Ted Williams was WAY better than Hank Aaron. They would also say that Mickey Mantle was way better than Bench (Bench had some bad years). Putting Bench ahead of Mantle is a joke. If you saw Clemente you would want him on your team ahead of Aaron. Any list with Bonds on it has problems to begin with. Joe D is top 5 or 6 (the Bill Russell of baseball). Yogi is better than Bench. For me, longevity is WAY overrated: it's who do you want when you choose up sides downs at the sandlot. Where's Pedro? Best pitcher I've seen when he was healthy: Koufax very close second. I've seen all these guys I'm talking about. Remember, Ted lost 5 prime years serving his country. Otherwise, not a bad list. How can anyone know how good Matty or Josh or Joe Jackson was. Before Joe Wood got hurt he was a peer of Walter Johnson; Walter said so himself. In closing, Willie could do it all and was so much fun to watch. You should have been there. I saw a list of the top ten baseball play by play guys that didn't list Red Barber at all. This was on ESPN Classic. People who know, all say Red was #1: but you had to have actually heard him.