who is the best baseball player of all time?

Question

sorry but its not babe ruth, i have many reasons to prove that babe ruth is no where nere the best player.

Answer 1

Obviously Babe Ruth is the best baseball player to ever live.

tyty - I'd LOVE to see you prove he's not. This outta be great.
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Answer 2

This question is the one that start alot of fights! The true Baseball fan has his/her favorite player, and could argue for him and would have the stats to back it up with.

Each generation has had good players, but the "Greats or the Best" would have to come from the past. Therefore with out a doubt in my mind. The Best BallPlayer of all time would have to be "Ty Cobb".

Dude he made the game what it is today, and all the records that guy's make it to the Hall on were his to begin with, Hits, Steals, Batting Averages (lifetime-400), etc. I'm sure if we looked hard enough we would find other catagories that he holds records for.

Answer 3

Babe Ruth is one of the best of all time but in my book it would have to be Ty Cobb. The man could do anything and everything better than everyone else in the league. Ty Cobb had a lifetime .366 BA and batted over .400 three times in his career. Cobb had 4189 career hits, stole 892 bases and home plate 54 times.

Answer 4

Babe Ruth

Anyone who says otherwise, knows nothing about baseball.

Edit: Sarah, Mays is a very strong candidate, but falls just short. If only he could pitch.

Ok, tyty2417, if it's not Babe Ruth then who is it? Why don't you state this so called "proof".

Answer 5

Babe Ruth comes to mind, as well as Joe Dimaggio, Willie Mays, Hammerin Hank Aaron, and even A-Rod is making a pretty good run for it.

Answer 6

Why isn't it Babe Ruth?
Every conceivable statistical analysis ever used, to my knowledge, has him as the best.
You really can't just say he's not and that you have mysterious reasons without presenting any.
Otherwise, why bother to ask the question if you already have determined the answer?

Answer 7

Babe Ruth is the best of all time, as he hit over .340 for his career, was on base about half the time, slugged .700 to .800, and hit alot of home runs. He may not have been all that great in the field, but he was so good at the bat that he was the greatest ever (not to mention that he could have been the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time).

The only other player who has even come close is Barry Bonds. Bonds has been a better all-around player than Babe, but he wasn't a pitcher at all. Barry was a gold glove outfielder who hit for average and power and stole alot of bases. Later in his career, he morphed into a Ruthian slugger (well, if you look at them, they actually have alot of facial similarities, even though their skin color was obviously different).

The greatest player who wasn't a power hitter would have to be either Ty Cobb or Honus Wagner. Cobb has the best batting average of all time and held the stolen base record for many years. Wagner was the greatest shortstop of all time as he fielded good, stole alot of bases, and hit for a very high average.

The greatest pitcher has to be Walter Johnson. Johnson was about a century ahead of his time (he was one of very few strikeout pitchers prior to the last 40 years or so and his fastball was probably about 100 MPH, though we won't ever know for sure). Johnson won over 400 games in his career and was the first player ever to win the MVP twice (he won it in 1912 for winning 36 games and later in 1924 when he was getting on in years for carrying Washington into the World Series).

Answer 8

well I don't know why you're throwing down babe ruth automatically. if you're going to ask a question you shouldn't shut down possible answers. If you don't think it's Babe it would have to be someone from quite a long time ago like Willie Mays, before steroids were used. all the modern day amazing players are artificial cheaters.

Answer 9

WOW! you got Babe Ruth, Roger Marris,Mickey Mantle, George Brett, Lou Garrig (sp?), Joe DiMaggio, Ty Cobb, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Hank Aaron, Mark McGuire, Thurman Munson,the list goes on and on and on. I know about Rock -n- Roll Heaven but what about Baseball Heaven...can you imagine a team like that? If you want to go by stats then I can't tell you I have no clue. But these guys....that is why we have a baseball hall of fame

Answer 10

It is impossible to say, for one simple reason, the game today is a completely different game then what was played 50, 60, 70, 80 years ago. Yes, superficially the game is the same, but when you look at how the game was played and also how much the rules have changed over the years you can not compare yesterdays players with today's players.

First of all the ball park itself. Years ago ball parks were much bigger, and I mean allot bigger. When Yankee stadium was first built center field was 500', left center was 475', compare that to any current ball field today and none are anywhere near that size. So it's much easier to hit a ball into the stands today then it was years ago. Most home runs hit in the last 30 years would have been caught 50, 60, 70 and more years ago. I can't think of his name but the statistician who founded Sabermetrics calculated that no batter in the history of baseball was more penalised by thier home ball feild then Joe DiMaggio. This was because Yankee stadium was so big in center feild and left center, that it was nearly impossible for a right handed hitter to hit a home run at Yankee stadium, and he estimated that if Yankee stadium was the size of the other ball feilds of his day that Joe DiMaggio would have hit over 700 home runs, thats double what he did hit, and would have had a batting average over .400. Having said that, by the size of the parks today he would have hit well over 800 homers. Although right feild was short, but that was only down the line it soon went very deep even in right feild, that Ruth would have hit over 1,000 homers and in todays parks many more.

Secondly at bats. Today a batter makes 10 plate appearances 3 are base hits 6 are outs and 1 walk, he is credited with 9 at bats and is batting .333. Years ago you made 10 plate appearances 3 are base hits 6 are outs and one walk, well years ago that was 10 at bats and your average was .300, the walk still counted as an at bat. A minor change in the rules but that made a great impact on batting averages.

Thirdly Foul Balls. Today a pitcher piches first pitch hitter fouls it off thats strike 1, second pich batter fouled that off strike 2, third pitch batter swings and misses he's out. Well years ago fould balls didnt count as strikes, so in same example instead of a strike out the batter would have only 1 strike. So a pitcher today thats a good strike out picher well many of those strike outs would not have been a strike outs years ago.

Fourthly the ball it self. Even forgetting the dead ball era, that even superman wouldnt have been able to hit a home run with that ball. But, pitchers were allowed to scuff the ball giving them greater control of the pitch, pichers could spit on ball also giving greater control, but even more importanly than that, they used to same ball all game, so when the ball got dirty it was alot harder for the batter to see making it harder to hit, not the bright white ball today that 2 pitchers and they change the ball, ok im exagerating with 2 pitchers, also the more u hit a ball the softer it gets making it harder and harder to hit the ball far.

I can go one for the next 4 days, but my point is you can not comapre the players of yesterday to today because the game was too different what you have to do is compare players to players of their own era.

So in my opinion from 1900 - 1930 Toss up between Babe ruth and Ty Cobb, both equaly good but completly different styles of playing and philsophies.

1930 - 1950 Joe DiMaggio without a doubt and anyone who disagrees doesnt know the history of the game.

1950 - 1970 Toss up between Willie Mays and Micky Mantle

1970-current thats a tough one Pete Rose ide say the early part of the last 37 years and I don't know who else anyone one of 5 guys, BUT NOT A-ROD, NOT BONDS, NOT McGuire