Who was the best center fielder of all time?

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by steve B

Teds point about Mantle is an important one, there are some players who make the team better, some even to the point of making the team great by making everyone around them better.

And that's a very hard thing to put to numbers. It's a bit more obvious in other sports, Jordan, Bird, Magic. All of them made the rest of the team much better.



Another player in Baseball who seemed to make his teams that much better was Don Baylor. At the end of his career, 3 straight trips to the World series with 3 different teams. I'm not so sure that has been done before or since. He didn't really get much credit for that, but it is a hard things to put to numbers.
Steve B

Thanks for making that point regarding Mantle. It's exactly my feeling about The Mick. This factor is something that has eluded many on this forum that favor Mays.

But, I understand and respect their opinions on this subject. However, I have the advantage over most of them in that I grew up with Mantle and Mays. I was a very
avid BB fan as a kid, I closely followed Mantle's performance from 1951 to 1964. And, also Mays playing days from 1951 to early 1970's.

Let's hear some opinions from guys here that were also lucky enough to have seen these two great HOFer's play ?


.. Type 2 .................................................. .................................................. Type 1



T-Rex TED