Lifelong LA Dodger fan.
I will trust 67-year HOF broadcaster Vin Scully, who broadcasted the entire careers of Mays, Aaron, and Mantle.
I recently saw a YouTube video of Ted Williams talking about the game. In his opinion Shoeless Joe Jackson was the game's greatest hitter, but when you are talking about the baseball's greatest all-around player, my vote goes to Willie Mays. He may have been one of the first "five tool" players: he could hit, hit for power, run, field and throw. Mays won 2 MVPs, but I've read that by today's analytics he probably should have won 8 MVPs. Mays was my first baseball hero. I remember going to the library as a kid and checking out 3 or 4 biographies on him.
Thank You for that article.I recently saw a YouTube video of Ted Williams talking about the game. In his opinion Shoeless Joe Jackson was the game's greatest hitter, but when you are talking about the baseball's greatest all-around player, my vote goes to Willie Mays. He may have been one of the first "five tool" players: he could hit, hit for power, run, field and throw. Mays won 2 MVPs, but I've read that by today's analytics he probably should have won 8 MVPs. Mays was my first baseball hero. I remember going to the library as a kid and checking out 3 or 4 biographies on him.
Nice article on ESPN today about the true greatness of Willie Mays:
660 home runs, 12 Gold Gloves and ... eight MVPs?! How modern analytics would have added to Willie Mays' legacy
Mays was truly a player before his time, and the numbers we value in today's game would only have enhanced his all-time place.www.espn.com
The "Say Hey" kid was one of a kind.
Mays gets rated higher than the other two because he was the best fielder and baserunner of the three. He was a 5-tool player. Mantle and Aaron both had decent speed and were pretty good fielders, too, but not as good as Mays. Mantle was actually very fast when he was younger, but had bad knees later on.
As a Red Sox fan, I'll mention a stat about Williams. His career OPS of 1.116 was higher than Mays or Aaron ever had in a season. He's 2nd behind Babe Ruth all-time. That's why he's considered by many to be the greatest hitter of all time. But he certainly wasn't the 5-tool player Mays was.I recently saw a YouTube video of Ted Williams talking about the game. In his opinion Shoeless Joe Jackson was the game's greatest hitter, but when you are talking about the baseball's greatest all-around player, my vote goes to Willie Mays. He may have been one of the first "five tool" players: he could hit, hit for power, run, field and throw. Mays won 2 MVPs, but I've read that by today's analytics he probably should have won 8 MVPs. Mays was my first baseball hero. I remember going to the library as a kid and checking out 3 or 4 biographies on him.
Nice article on ESPN today about the true greatness of Willie Mays:
660 home runs, 12 Gold Gloves and ... eight MVPs?! How modern analytics would have added to Willie Mays' legacy
Mays was truly a player before his time, and the numbers we value in today's game would only have enhanced his all-time place.
The "Say Hey" kid was one of a kind.
Williams one of the game's greatest pure hitters, and possibly the best. Amazing career numbers, especially when you consider he lost almost 5 full seasons of his prime years to military service, first in WWII and then in the Korean War. As you note, he wasn't the 5-tool player that Willie Mays was, but what a hitter he was.
Okay cool. Why start this. There is no one best player ever. There are others in that argument. It's not a definitive thing
Who mentioned it was or is definitive.
You said I will trust, just because he said he was better than the other 2 doesn't make it so. Be cause other respected people could say something different. So need to just trust that 1 guy
IMO, the lack of integration within MLB during Babe Ruth's entire playing career can call that into question.
