Baseball's Greatest Hitter?
Who is the all-time greatest hitter in baseball?
My vote goes to Ted Williams. His numbers are very, very impressive. No, his numbers are not Ruthian or Aaronesque. BUT, when you consider that he lost nearly five seasons to serving in two wars, it is scary to think what kind of numbers he could have put up. He holds the major league record for career on-base percentage, won the Triple Crown twice, and was the last man to hit .400, a feat he accomplished at the age of 22. He won his last batting title at age 39. His 521 homers still put him in the top 15 all-time (he'd be even higher if the cheaters were removed from the list; I count at least 4 cheaters ahead of him).
The one knock against him? He's not a member of the 3,000 hit club. Hard to believe the great Ted Williams didn' t even have 2,700 hits. But consider this, he was walked more than anyone in his generation and, again, he missed nearly five seasons to military service. Had he played just 3 of those seasons, he would have easily surpassed the 3,000 mark.
posted by Brett @ 8:37 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
While your touting of Teddy Ballgame as the greatest hitter of all time has merit, I disagree with the follow-up comments of Tim who calls Ty Cobb the "best" player of all time.
Check out all the numbers on The Great Bambino, The Sultan of Swat sometime Timmy. No one in his era could even approach his numbers and before he left the mound to became the game's greatest home run hitter, he was the game's elite pitchers. In my opinion he nudges out Willie Mays for the honor as greatest player of all time.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here: Barry Bonds. I know he doesn't have the greatest personality, but I believe that his overall stats, consistency, power, and especially the fear he strikes in opposing teams will push him past all of the aforementioned luminaries of the game by the end of his career.
If Bonds were clean, a case could be made for him.
However, without steroids, he would probably already be out of the game.
Good case for Barry Bonds Gordon. I still stick with Ruth. Just go check out the statistics and how he fared against ALL other players of his era and there is no contest. Not Bonds, Cobb, or even my favorite Willie Mays, can compare on such a grandoise level so far and above his peers as did Ruth. Ruthian does not appear in dictionaires by accident.
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