Who is the greatest player of the Pre-War Era?

[rcp1936]

Well I read that Branch Rickey who saw all the great ones play up to and including Aaron Mays Mantle Williams Musial said that if he was starting a team
the first player he would pick was Wagner

[Shoele$$]

Originally Posted by rcp1936

Well I read that Branch Rickey who saw all the great ones play up to and including Aaron Mays Mantle Williams Musial said that if he was starting a team
the first player he would pick was Wagner

To be fair Wagner is also almost always up there with Cobb and Ruth as top 3 players of all time.

[Brendan]

Well, there's really not much doubt in my mind that it's Ruth. Over the years, I've found the primary reasons some people disagree with this is:

• They don't like his homerun, power hitting style of play. Furthermore, all the photos they see of him is when he's old and out of shape and they discount him because "no way some old fat guy can be the greatest player ever."
• They claim he wasn't an all-around player. Well, call me crazy, but I never saw Willie Mays go 94-46 as a pitcher.
• Because he is always assumed to be the best player ever by the majority of credible baseball analysts and historians today, people pick someone else to be a contrarian and/or unique. Rather than just mindlessly following the pack, they bring up some other player who had a great career. Issue is, these careers simply don't compare to Ruth's.
• They make some excuse for some older player about them not playing in the live ball era.

As far as the best pitcher ever, I personally go with Cy Young. People seem to discount him for some reason, but when you look at his numbers, they're just incredible. I'm sure Walter Johnson was a great pitcher, but in a direct comparison, Cy Young has got to be the pick.

[HOF Auto Rookies]

Originally Posted by Brendan

Well, there's really not much doubt in my mind that it's Ruth. Over the years, I've found the primary reasons some people disagree with this is:

• They don't like his homerun, power hitting style of play. Furthermore, all the photos they see of him is when he's old and out of shape and they discount him because "no way some old fat guy can be the greatest player ever."
• Because he is always assumed to be the best player ever by the majority of credible baseball analysts and historians today, people pick someone else to be a contrarian and/or unique. Rather than just mindlessly following the pack, they bring up some other player who had a great career. Issue is, these careers simply don't compare to Ruth's.
• They make some excuse for some older player about them not playing in the live ball era.

As far as the best pitcher ever, I personally go with Cy Young. People seem to discount him for some reason, but when you look at his numbers, they're just incredible. I'm sure Walter Johnson was a great pitcher, but in a direct comparison, Cy Young has got to be the pick.

Ughhh, not worth arguing again...

[CMIZ5290]

Why is Frank Baker even on the ballot?

[Brendan]

Originally Posted by HOF Auto Rookies

Ughhh, not worth arguing again...

Seems like that's kind of the point of every "Who is the greatest player ever thread?" What purpose does a thread like this serve, other than to open up discussions and arguments about who the greatest player ever is?

[bbcard1]

Babe Ruth did a grave disservice to the game by making this argument not even close...it is only even an interesting argument if you either introduce a caveat that the game was for some reason different in that day...no air travel, no black/international players...or you completely disregard that he had several years at a hall of fame pace as a pitcher before becoming a revolutionary hitter.

Maybe the best thing about him is that he also had a couple of off seasons and failures on and off the field. Fully a superstar and fully human at the same time.

[CMIZ5290]

Originally Posted by bbcard1

Babe Ruth did a grave disservice to the game by making this argument not even close...it is only even an interesting argument if you either introduce a caveat that the game was for some reason different in that day...no air travel, no black/international players...or you completely disregard that he had several years at a hall of fame pace as a pitcher before becoming a revolutionary hitter.

Maybe the best thing about him is that he also had a couple of off seasons and failures on and off the field. Fully a superstar and fully human at the same time.

+1....Didn't he hit 3 homeruns in one of his last games as a Boston Brave? He also still to this day holds records as a pitcher.

[HOF Auto Rookies]

Originally Posted by Brendan

Seems like that's kind of the point of every "Who is the greatest player ever thread?" What purpose does a thread like this serve, other than to open up discussions and arguments about who the greatest player ever is?

Because if you do a search, there are at least 10 other threads in the past year with this same argument, heck, I even started one. My vote is Bonds, and you can read my opinions on that in the many many other threads.

[sayheykid54]

The greatest player of the Dead Ball era is without question Ty Cobb.

Babe Ruth technically wouldn't qualify as a possibility as he played MOST of his career post Dead Ball era with a different baseball. Babe Ruth should be taken off this list. His numbers with Boston as a hitter during the Dead Ball era weren't even close to Cobb's during the years the Dead Ball was being used.

In the Dead ball era the best Home run hitters would have only 12-14 homers per year. From 1900 to 1920 there were 13 home run champs that had fewer than 10 home runs in a season.

During the years that Ty Cobb played during the Dead Ball era he led the lead in hitting 12 out of 15 years. Unbelievable!!!!!!

[howard38]

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