Lists

Caution: Corny baseball post.

Everyone Loves lists. Especially baseball nuts. Or maybe it's just me. Before I took a break, I promised revealing my master list of the greatest hitter of all-time. A couple years ago, I was drunk and shared with my roommates my list of the 20 greatest hitters that I had created when I was 10. This is similar. Before taking a break, I promised to reveal the list I had worked an entire summer creating. Well, I didn't begin the summer with the intention of creating a list of the greatest hitters of all-time. I thought I already knew that. I just wanted to know where everyone stood in a given year of baseball and try to compare that the current state of baseball. For example, we can say that we are watching living legends who have faded (Ken Griffey, Jr.) playing alongside guys just past their dominant prime (Alex Rodriguez) who are playing alongside players in their early 20's who will one day take their place in baseball history alongside these greats. Well, it's easy to take all the players today and analyze them in a vacuum (how are they doing THIS year) without really looking at what stage these guys are in a their careers or where they stand or will one day stand from a historical standpoint. Last night we watched Manny Ramirez hit his 500th homerun. This is a guy who, from his baggy pants, Bob Marley hair and crazy antics, you would probably never think in a historical sense. He just doesn't look the part. That is until he hits a historical homerun. Do you see what I am getting at? It's Manny freaking Ramirez alongside Jimmie Foxx. That's just crazy to me. It's insane when you get to see an entire career unfold from start to finish. As it's happening, you don't think about one day watching his 500th home run or something like that. One reason is because you don't really know who was a flash in the pan or who is going to be an actual consistent superstar. It's hard to look at a guy like Manny and use the term consistent just from looking at him and watching his antics. His career kind of flew by (not that it's over, but he's 36 and that's usually the start of the true decline in a superstar's career). I'm loving it. But I digress. What interested me last summer were questions like "who battled for best player in the league every year from 1900 to now" or who was the most popular player in 1907 or how old was Ty Cobb when Babe Ruth rose to stardom, what actual stage in his career was Ruth when Gehrig showed up, what would be the modern-day equivalent of Ted Williams missing 5 years of his prime to go to war at two different stages in his career?

Just to show you what type of research I actually did, I'll answer those random questions right now without going to any outside resource besides my brain. Ok I'm not going to answer the first one (right now), but starting with the second...

In 1907, Honus Wagner was the most popular player in Major League Baseball. He had been in the league for about 10 years, was in his early 30's and had won various league titles in several different categores. He had probably been considered the best player in the league for 4 or 5 years by this point, after taking that title from Nap Lajoie (who was about the same age but had peaked in popularity early than Honus). Actually he may have been sharing this title with Nap Lajoie, who was the consensus top player when the century turned. People probably argued about who was actually the best until these two guys were already past their primes (think of A-Rod now being Lajoie and Pujols being Honus or something like that. If you really made someone say who is the best right now, and this person knows baseball, 2/3 or more is going to say A-Rod or Pujols... although in the future when these two guys are long gone, we may look back and say no, Hanley Ramirez was already better by that time. But right now, we don't really know how good Hanley is. In 1907, I could look back at stats and say, Cobb was already better than these two by this time. But IN 1907, people didn't know how good Cobb was even though he had already started his prime. See what I mean?)

Next question... In 1920, Babe Ruth hit 54 home runs. He was like 24-25 years old or so and had already his 29 home runs the year before, breaking the record. But 1920 was when things started to get ridiculous and that was also his first year with the Yankees. Cobb was like 33-34 years old. Think of Cobb being thought of like Jeter and Ruth being Prince Fielder. See, people knew what Cobb was bringing to the table by now and that he was probably toward the end of his prime. Ruth was a loose cannon. No idea where he's going with his career, we just know he can hit the crap out of the ball and he's young. You also have to add that Ruth had been a prominent pitcher in the league since he was like 19 or 20. So, really we have no comparison nowadays when we're talking about Babe Ruth. But you get the point.

Next question... Gehrig "showed up" in 1927 on the greatest team of all-time. He played well the few years leading up to this, but this is when his real prime began. He was 23-24 and Ruth was 32 and had already become what we think he is now. Actually he added to his legacy in this specific year. This would be the equivalent of Melky Cabrera busting out this year for the Yankees and hitting like 50 home runs, while Alex Rodriguez hits 75 home runs (1927 is when Ruth hit 60) and the Yankees win the World Series (you'd also have to tack more postseason success to really use A-Rod as Ruth but that will probably stand true for any comparison in which I use A-Rod). Also, add some more off-the-field chaos, alcohol and arrogance to A-Rod and a very fan-friendly and shy attitude to Cabrera (in 1927, New York fell in love with Gehrig and kind of looked at Ruth as inhuman and didn't really identify with him anymore). You may think Cabrera is a bad example to be the "Gehrig" here but trust me, if he goes off and hits 50 home runs this year and then went on to have one the greatest careers of any player ever you would have to agree with the comparison. However, I will admit that Gehrig was already thought of more highly at the time than Cabrera is right now, but 1927 was when he really busted out.

The Ted Williams question is the most difficult. He was 24 years old when he served our country in World War II. He missed 3 prime years of 24, 25 and 26 years of age. He also left to serve our country in Korea in 1952 (33 years old), after playing 6 games. He came back to the major leagues late in the 1953 (34 years old) season after having an ear infection and being relieved from duty. He was able to play 37 games in 1953. That's 5 years of his prime. Add 150 home runs or so (which is conservative). He would have hit about 670 home runs or more. The most comparable situation we have today is the injuries that plagued Griffey during his prime. They are somewhat similar players. While they were healthy, people regarded them as the best. They were young when they rose to greatness. Most of all, they have the 2 sweetest swings that I have ever seen, they played the game with passion and were fan favorites. There will always be the question of "what if" when people talk about these two baseball legends. Another way to view it would be to imagine that Alex Rodriguez joined the service voluntarily in the year 2000 (by then, he was established as the next big thing if not already the big thing with God-knows-what potential. Also, it was his last year in Seattle, which is perfect because now you have to imagine the conversation in which A-Rod informs Scott Boras that he has decided to join the Army during a contract year). He returns in 2003 (so, basically pretend A-Rod never went to Texas and take away all those homers he hit at The Ballpark) and continues his career. Now imagine that next year we attack Iran and A-Rod reluctantly returns to active duty during the middle of the season and returns for the last month of 2010. For the record, A-Rod would be sitting at 375 career home runs right and would be missing 2 future years. Instead of chasing Bonds, he'd be chasing Williams himself. I'm just saying. While we're on the topic- check out Ted Williams stat line from 1941 http://www.baseball-reference.com/w/willite01.shtml . He had 10 more home runs than he did strikeouts. If Ryan Howard would have done that last year, he'd have hit 209 home runs. SPOILER: Williams is second on my official list and it's not really debatable.