Baseball's Greatest Living Player...who is it?

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by poorlydrawncat

Although I'm more impressed by Ruth because his contemporaries probably took better care of themselves than he did (I know everyone smoke and drank, but Ruth took it to another level and gorged himself on food to boot). I'll never understand how he was so much better than everyone else around him.

Ruth, of course, was great, almost certainly the greatest of all time. But he also played in an era of few minorities and no black players at all. "Everyone else around him" excludes a significant segment of the population.

[prewarsports]

Ruth also played in the pre-expansion era so he faced the best pitchers in baseball regularly. Considering how few teams there were he missed facing a handful of great black pitchers, no doubt, but he faced great pitchers all the time. Now the best pitchers are spread out over 32 teams and only pitch every fifth day. How many times a year does Mike Trout have to face a teams ace?

Best living player, my vote:

Ken Griffey Jr. By far the biggest casualty of the steroids era and ranked the number one player of all time during much of his career ahead of Aaron and Mays.

[poorlydrawncat]

Originally Posted by Bored5000

Ruth, of course, was great, almost certainly the greatest of all time. But he also played in an era of few minorities and no black players at all. "Everyone else around him" excludes a significant segment of the population.

True! Very good point. And very depressing.

[Jdoggs]

Mays is the best.