Greatest Baseball Players

Dedicated to my son Ben, an avid baseball fan and never shy

from offering his opinion on the sport!

Preface

As in other papers by the same author the term “greatest” is somewhat subjective and can only be substantiated via statistics.

Using the table below and the subsequent argument, the author will make his case for the greatest baseball players of all time, including THE GREATEST.

In some cases, the argument will combine the impact the player had on the game, in 2 aspects, through pure incredible statistics, and culturally.

Ranking	Player	Team	Years Played	Rationale
1	Babe Ruth	New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox	1922-1935	One of the first 5 players inducted into the hall of fame, won 7 world series, 12 x American League batting champion, played 23 games as a pitcher and threw 3 x no-hitters! In 1927 he hit 60 home runs, a record that would stand until Roger Marris broke it, hitting 61 in 1951, he hit the most home runs in baseball history (714) that was not to be broken until 1974 by Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves
2	Cy Young	Boston Red Sox	1901-1911	Established all major pitching records in baseball and was so impactful that the :Cy Young award is now presented to the best pitcher in baseball
3	Ty Cobb	Detroit Tigers	1922-1928	Voted by baseball writers as the greatest player of all time
4	Jackie Robinson	Brooklyn Dodgers	1868-1966	Broke the “color barrier” in major league baseball as the first black player
5	Willie Mays	New York Giants	1961-1973	One of the first players to hit over 500 home runs

George Herman “Babe Ruth, an orphan without sophisticated coaching, established his extraordinary presence with the New York Yankees of the 1930’s with his earth-shattering obliteration of baseball’s records.

Ty Cobb