OT: Who would you put on your sports Mt. Rushmore. This is harder than it sounds...

[Rookiemonster]

Ruth was not good at running bases or fielding if there was a gold glove award he would not have won 1 . Walter Johnson was already 31 years old in 1919 . And it is not pointless to compare eras . He only played against whites and it wasn't even the best white players because most didn't want to play ball because there was no money to be made . I think mays in the 20s in Yankee stadium would have Put the most ridiculous numbers ever . Even if mays was not the best he sure was close as we will ever get .

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by Rookiemonster

Ruth was not good at running bases or fielding if there was a gold glove award he would not have won 1 . Walter Johnson was already 31 years old in 1919 . And it is not pointless to compare eras . He only played against whites and it wasn't even the best white players because most didn't want to play ball because there was no money to be made . I think mays in the 20s in Yankee stadium would have Put the most ridiculous numbers ever . Even if mays was not the best he sure was close as we will ever get .

I'm really not trying to argue just for the sake of arguing but you keep ignoring my main point. Does Mays have 100 pitching wins? He doesn't. Until he does, he's not even in the same room as Ruth.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Rookiemonster

Ruth was not good at running bases or fielding if there was a gold glove award he would not have won 1 . Walter Johnson was already 31 years old in 1919 . And it is not pointless to compare eras . He only played against whites and it wasn't even the best white players because most didn't want to play ball because there was no money to be made . I think mays in the 20s in Yankee stadium would have Put the most ridiculous numbers ever . Even if mays was not the best he sure was close as we will ever get .

No money to be made? Babe Ruth made more than the President of the United States. Players didn't make what they do today, but stars made a lot more than the average person. Ruth's peak salary of 80k was more than most players of the 50's and 60s, so by your logic, Mays didn’t play against the best players either, because salaries were nothing like they are today.

[mark evans]

There is some arbitrariness here as each of us has his preferred sports, and hard to calculate and consider both performance and public impact.

Ruth
Ali
Jordan
Palmer


Long second tier: Mays, J. Robinson, Jim Brown, Wilt, Kareem, Serena, Gretzky, Nicklaus (better than Palmer but Arnie's timing more impactful)

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by Rookiemonster

And it is not pointless to compare eras . He only played against whites and it wasn't even the best white players because most didn't want to play ball because there was no money to be made .

This statement struck me as biased nonsense and to confirm, I did a few google searches on average laborer wages in the 1920's and compared it to average baseball salaries.

The average laborer was lucky to make $1000 a year, and often much less than that, as low as $300 a year. Henry Ford's unheard of wage of $5 a day was only $1250 a year.

The average baseball player made 5-10x the wage of the average laborer. I have no doubt the best white baseball players were actually playing MLB baseball in the 1920's.

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Being a hopeless baseball fan, all four of my representatives are baseball players:

Babe Ruth
Jackie Robinson
Roberto Clemente
Ted Williams

(Sorry Hank Aaron and Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle and Ty Cobb)

[pgellis]

Rosie Ruiz
Barry Bonds
Danny Almonte
Tom Brady