ESPN's "Hall of 100" - Counting Down the 100 Greatest MLB Players Ever

[Texas2step]

@HHR Here are the rest.

| No. 25 -- Tris Speaker
| No. 24 -- Tom Seaver
| No. 23 -- Randy Johnson
| No. 22 -- Frank Robinson
| No. 21 -- Joe DiMaggio
| No. 20 -- Joe Morgan
| No. 19 -- Albert Pujols
| No. 18 -- Alex Rodriguez
| No. 17 -- Cy Young
| No. 16 -- Mike Schmidt
| No. 15 -- Rogers Hornsby
| No. 14 -- Rickey Henderson
| No. 13 -- Greg Maddux
| No. 12 -- Walter Johnson
| No. 11 -- Lou Gehrig
| No. 10 -- Honus Wagner
| No. 9 -- Mickey Mantle
| No. 8 -- Stan Musial
| No. 7 -- Roger Clemens
| No. 6 -- Ty Cobb
| No. 5 -- Hank Aaron
| No. 4 -- Ted Williams
| No. 3 -- Barry Bonds
| No. 2 -- Willie Mays
| No. 1 -- Babe Ruth

How can Ruth be ahead of Bonds when the only aspect of baseball he was better in was pitching?

We will never see someone who was as feared and dominate as Barry Bonds

 

[itsyoung!!]

if barry bonds and ken griffey jr aint #1 and #2 (dont care which order) then this list is garbage

 

[Taadow]

Thomas was a god at the plate....but he was positionless.

Mathews was a solid third baseman who still raked (156 OPS+ in best 9-year stretch). That's more valuable than a DH with a 168 OPS+.

And, Eddie Murray is arguably the greatest switch-hitter of all time...



EDIT - Rocket @ #7?

 

[No1]

I fee like Pedro got disrespected.

 

[HHR]

mlb players would go bak to their regular jobs in the off season, like plumbing or being car salesmen... babe ruth would go to coney island and kobayashi a couple dozen hot dogs with a 24 pack of beer..
those werent athletes, ruth's numbers would never happen in this day and age because players now are professional athletes.. they dont go home after the seasons over to work at sears changing oil.
fk all these old ass segregated players from the 20s and their shtty competition

...Babe was doing the same thing though...I fail to see your logic.

The segregated league is at least worth discussing, but great players were going to be great regardless of their competition. If you choose to ignore MLB pre-Jackie then you have to do the same to the Negro Leagues. I'm not really cool with that...are you?

 

[Absolut]

How can Ruth be ahead of Bonds when the only aspect of baseball he was better in was pitching?

We will never see someone who was as feared and dominate as Barry Bonds

does babe ruth not lead the world in slugging, ops, and ops+?

 

[MIAlien]

Let's not act like its farfetched for them to have Babe Ruth #1 on the list. He and Bonds are the most dominant hitters in baseball history and his career batting average(.342) is tied for 10th all time. Bonds' career average is .298. Nearly all their other hitting numbers are virtually identical. He only has one MVP because they only let players get one in their career.

THEN, lets think about his pitching: 94 career wins in 5 full seasons as a pitcher. two 20+ win seasons. Career 2.28 ERA. He had one season with 35 complete games! They didn't start handing out the Cy Young til the 1950s, but if they had, he probably would've won one. He also went 3-0 in the World Series with a .87 ERA and even threw a shutout.

I'm not saying he's better than Barry Bonds, who is very easily the greatest baseball player I have ever seen, but it's not ridiculous for Ruth to be #1 on the list. I do have trouble dealing with the fact that there were no black or hispanic players in the league. Not sure what to do with that, and I think it's a bigger deal than the steroids era, because pitchers were definitely using too.

 

[sfgiants]

...Babe was doing the same thing though...I fail to see your logic.

The segregated league is at least worth discussing, but great players were going to be great regardless of their competition. If you choose to ignore MLB pre-Jackie then you have to do the same to the Negro Leagues. I'm not really cool with that...are you?

yes i am... these "goat" discussions should only include players from eras where there was no segregation. negro leagues should be excluded from 'greatest mlb players' lists because they didnt play in the league. the fact that babe ruth was also not a pro athlete doesnt mean he was some sort of alien that was ahead of his time, it just means that his competition was that garbage.
if you took willie mays and transported him back to the 20s he'd probably have like 100 hrs and 500 stolen bases every year. wtf

 

[HHR]

Yeah, you're an idiot.

 

[Texas2step]

does babe ruth not lead the world in slugging, ops, and ops+?

So you think Ruth was a better hitter than Barry Bonds? A better base-runner? Fielder? Defensive player?


Im not sure if he even lead his era in those numbers

Spoiler

Josh Gibson

 

[sfgiants]

you're the one thinking this fat turd is the goat, fat mothafukker wouldnt even make an mlb roster today.

omg he hit more home runs than entire teams!
the entire AMERICAN LEAGUE hit 148 home runs in 1914. the fukkin yankees hit 245 this season alone. bunch of unathletic cowards playing baseball with babe ruth.

 

[SHAQAVELLI]

Wow at the intolerable levels of ignorance in here.

Babe Ruth is clearly the GOAT.

 

[sfgiants]

how u gona be the goat if you never played against blacks or latinos?

bunch of fatasses

 

[HHR]

Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and David Ortiz are fatasses too.

 

[ghostwriterx]

So you think Ruth was a better hitter than Barry Bonds?

By what metric was Bonds a better hitter than Ruth?