The Legend—Willie Mays

Very intelligent picks.

I totally agree about Clemente. He was my hero growing up. Nobody that I have seen has ever had his outfield arm and he could also hit some. LOL. When I was in first grade I traded a bunch of good cards to get Clemente's rookie card from a classmate. Of course my mom threw all my cards out. But if we didn't have moms like that none of these cards would be rare and valuable. LOL.

I reluctantly agree about Mike S at third. Brooks Robinson was by far the best defensive third sacker I have ever seen and everybody loves him but Mike was no slouch defensively and he could really hit.

As for SS you have to remember that Ernie Banks and Mickey Mantle started out as shortstops. If I had to pick from guys that I saw play I would probably pick ARod over Cal Ripkin, Jr. Tough call.

 

Mays, Mantle, and Aaron... All 3 are amongst the all time baseball greats. Mays had the unfortunate situation of playing for the Giants in candlestick, not getting many shots at the World Series. Aaron, during those days, didn't get the press and discussion of Mantle and Mays.. Aaron turned out to be one of the all time greats and year after year just kept producing great numbers. Mantle is the what could have been, in spite of all his acheivements injuries and lifestyle cut his career short. Mantle was an all around tremendous athlete. The one record he holds which might never be broken is 7 bunt singles lifetime in the world series. Supposedly 3.1-3.2 lefthanded drag bunt time to first.

 

One thing going for him was that the Yankees almost every year were in the World Series. On the other hand (pun intended) he was a switch hitter so some of the time he was batting righty which is a tiny bit slower to first. Surprisingly a guy with his power is bunting for a base hit.

And he was hella fast before his knees gave out.

I still say the record that will never be broken is career steals of home by Ty Cobb. 54 times. A safer record than Nolan Ryan's 7 no hitters but both probably won't ever be broken.

 

Ryans record is safe as these guys rarely even throw a complete game

 

I agree with you except for Johnny Bench. Yogi Berra was better. Compare their overall record as hitters. If you look at their average based on a 162 game year, Berra is far better hitter. In addition, he did not strike out much, which is a key factor to playing the game. Put the ball in play even if you dont get a hit. Yes, he played for great Yankee teams, but then was he not one of the greats of the greats? He has far more rings too.

The rap on Yogi, based on the Netflix story on him, was: his looks, his nickname, and his funny quotes. He was not taken seriously in the media, was not portrayed as a tough guy but more a huggy teddy bear. In reality he was one tough guy.

A catcher in that era had to call the pitches and be a shrink to pitchers. He excelled at making average pitchers look far better. Ask Don Larson how he got that perfect game in the WS.

 

Yogi was great, tough call.

 

In Ball Four Jim Bouton said that pitching to Yogi when he thought the runner might try to steal he would aways call for fastballs. Not what I would want as a pitcher.

 

Just to se the record straight, you wanted to pitch to him as the catcher and not pitch to him as the batter.