Best / Greatest baseball player ever, redux

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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

Rob,

It is obviously not as black as white as saying anyone who wins a championship is a winner and anyone who doesn't is a loser. It takes a special player to actually qualify as a loser, because we're talking about some of the greatest athletes in the history of team sports here. A player's career should be evaluated in the proper context, meaning it is not right to compare Ernie Banks to Alex Rodriguez. For example, the players you mentioned who didn't win championships are all different:

TED WILLIAMS - You are exactly right. Ted Williams is not a winner. A Loser? No. Great hitter? Absolutely. In the top 2 or 3 ever to swing a bat. Winner? Not so much. He had a chance to step up when it mattered and he flat out choked. All because of his classic Ted Williams stubbornness, which I love. But it cost him AND HIS TEAM the World Series. Of course, there's no guarantee the Red Sox would have won the '46 series if he could have swallowed his pride and bunted a few times and slapped a few singles to left instead of hitting directly into the shift. In the 1946 regular season, Ted Williams hit .342 with 38 HRs and 123 RBI. His on base percentage was .497. His slugging percentage was .667. He was the MVP of the American League. In the World Series he hit .200 with zero HRs and 1 RBI. His slugging percentage was .200. Yes, 5 singles in 25 ABs. And what impact do you think it had on the rest of the Red Sox for them to watch that happen? Not exactly clutch. So, yes, Ted Williams gets knocked down quite a bit for that when I look at his career. And I'm a Ted Williams fan. Which is saying something considering how much I hate all things Red Sox.

BARRY BONDS: Gets knocked down huge in my eyes for his early playoff performances. Almost entirely redeemed himself with the greatest postseason performance in my lifetime and probably off all-time. Still, is he a winner? No. Not a loser, either.

ERNIE BANKS - Come on, now. Just bad teams.

BARRY SANDERS - (see Ernie Banks)

HARMON KILLEBREW - Exactly which of those Senators/Twins teams are you saying should have won the World Series?

WILLIE MCCOVEY - Exactly which of those Giants teams are you saying should have won the World Series?

CHARLES BARKLEY - He had bad luck on several fronts. His best 76ers teams were in his first year or two in the league where he wasn't even the "Go To" guy yet because Moses Malone was still there. After that, exactly which 76ers team are you saying should have won the championship? Then when he was finally on a good team, he became one of the many victims of Michael Jordan's Bulls. He was still incredible, though. He had a chance with Houston at the end of his career, but once again, more Jordan. I do not fault Barkley at all for not winning a championship. Ditto for Allen Iverson in his 76ers career.

ELGIN BAYLOR - He averaged 27 points and 12.9 rebounds per game in 134 career playoff games. As impressive as that is, he was on championship-caliber teams for most of his career and never won, although he did play 9 games for the 1971-72 Lakers who eventually won the championship. All the players on those Lakers teams get knocked down a bit. All of them, including Baylor, also get a partial break for being victims of the Celtics dynasty.

STOCKTON/MALONE - Winners? No way! In spite of playing in the Jordan era, they were together long enough and on enough good teams that they should have won at least one championship.

DAN MARINO - Bad teams. When they were good, it was all because of him. That just wasn't enough, though. I don't blame Marino for not winning the Super Bowl.

ALEX RODRIGUEZ - I really can't believe you brought Arod into this discussion. He is the only true loser of the players you mentioned. I could go on, but just do a Net54 search and you'll probably be able to figure out my true feelings regarding the biggest loser in the history of organized sports. Actually, throw unorganized sports in there as well. There's only one Alex Rodriguez.

So, Rob, judging by your list of winners, I take it you consider talent to be the determining factor as opposed to actual winning? Does that mean you consider The Professor, Hot Sauce, and Skip To My Lou to be winners as well?

In case you're curious, what I mean by a winner is someone more like Joe Montana, Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, and so on. A little less like Alex Rodriguez and a little more like Jerry Rice or Magic Johnson.

-Ryan