[James_F]

I saw a poll on ESPN and it got me thinking. I believe the choices where:

Willie Mays
Henry Aaron
Pete Rose
Barry Bonds
Stan Musial
Ricky Henderson

I voted for Willie Mays who I think was the best player amoung those on the list. Are there anymore that are left off? Nolan Ryan, Mike Schmidt, Kirby Puckett....

 

[RandyAB]

Personally I think that Barry Bonds is the best of all time

 

[John Corn]

James, I can't believe you didn't vote for Bonds??

Barry Bonds is the #1 guy, he has good defense,speed,power and the best plate discipline in the game.

The rest at the moment are my top 5 ACTIVE players.
(Subject to change)
Just thought I would list this bunch.

#2 - A-Rod - has a good chance to finish his career as one of the ten best ever, legitimate MVP seasons in 96, 00, 01 and probably 02 as well.

#3 - Johnson, Randy - this guy has been scary since 1993, 165-55 with a 2.7-something ERA I believe.

#4 - Sosa, Sammy - biggest career turnaround ever?

#5 - Guerrero, Vladimir - Roberto Clemente with more power, still a bit over-rated at this point, but I like this guy.

 

[Kevin]

What about Pedro Martinez? He mows down the Yankees every single time. I sure wouldn't want to bat against him.

 

[Frapp]

Originally posted by James_F
I saw a poll on ESPN and it got me thinking. I believe the choices where:

Willie Mays
Henry Aaron
Pete Rose
Barry Bonds
Stan Musial
Ricky Henderson

I voted for Willie Mays who I think was the best player amoung those on the list. Are there anymore that are left off? Nolan Ryan, Mike Schmidt, Kirby Puckett....

All of these guys can be topped by furthering the question to:
Who is the greatest living baseball player who also played pro football in the off season ?

Not to many of them around, although I do know a few

 

[James_F]

It better not be Bo....

 

[James_F]

Originally posted by John Corn
James, I can't believe you didn't vote for Bonds??

I agree, Bonds is the best current player, its just he is not at the level Willie Mays is/was.

 

[Mike]

The only problem with this poll is that 20-30% of the ESPN audience has only seen Rickey and Barry play. I never saw Willie, Stan or Hank play. I remember Pete from the 80's, but only saw him on the national games of the week. Rickey has been around since I was 11 and Barry has been watched by me since the ASU days.

This is a tough poll to vote for me. I can't do best ever, just an opinion by position. Nolan and Randy have to be the best pitchers. Randy would of had better years if the M's were any good when he 1st joined them. Mike Schmidt was the best 3rd baseman, Mike Scioscia blocked the plate the best I've ever seen, Rod Carew was the best clutch hitter that I can remember, Rickey is/was the best person to steal a base. Darin Erstad and Jim Edmonds are the best center fielders. Mariano in NY is the best shut them down reliever and so on and so on....

What constitutes the best baseball player? So you hit 600 homers, but how about 7 no-hiiters? Why are hitters better baseball players then pitchers? Because they play more? How about Sandy? This is a tough poll because you are dealing with generations of players and every generation has their favorite players.

Based on the ESPN poll listed above, I'd have to say Peter Edward Rose. The guy played quite a few positions and very well and was a real good hitter for 20+ years.

 

[James_F]

True, Sandy Kolfax, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, Don Sutton, Jim Palmer were all left off.

 

[gopherscot]

Let's divide this into 2 groups ... pitchers and everyday players

Everyday players
1- Willie Mays
2- Hank Aaron
3- Pete Rose

Pitchers
1- Randy Johnson
2- Sandy koufax
3- Bob Gibson

Mike .. you really missed something not seeing Willie Mays play .. he could do it all (too bad he's a jerk in real life)
Hank Aaron is very close and one of the real gentleman of the game and I am proud to say I have met him and my childhood idol (Eddie Matthews .. who also was a great guy). all Rose needed was the power .. he hit everything else.

Randy Johnson is the most intimidating pitcher of all time .. and now that he really has learned to pitch .. he is even better. most people didn't see hime early in his career with Seattle. Koufax retired too early but what a pitcher and Gibby may be the most underated of them all!

 

[James_F]

Don't forget that Mays was also a incredible fielder. Everyone has seen "The Catch", but he was amazing.

 

[HarryD]

Shouldn't we keep this to 'no longer active' players? It's not fair to say that A-Rod (for example) is the best of all time because he's not done playing yet.. What if he would get a career ending injury?

 

[James_F]

Agreed, the list from ESPN was at the top of this thread. I was surprised to see no pitchers in that list....