By Larry Crino
Recently The Sporting News, long considered
the eminent authority on baseball, and still its source for all
official records, published a handsome hardcover book that lists
the 100 greatest players in major league history. Or what they want
some of us to think are the 100 greatest players in major
league history.
With the end of the 20th century fast
approaching, nearly every baseball entity is embarking on a similar
project. And because even the most prestigious of these are somewhat
laughable, so are The Ballpark Guys.
USA Today Baseball Weekly enlisted the
renowned Society of American Baseball Research-SABR-to compose their
list of 100 greatest players of the 20th century. SABR's
membership included reliever Hoyt Wilhelm, certainly one of the
pioneer short relievers of the post WWII-era, but one of the 20th
century's best 100 players? Please.
They ranked Joe Morgan, a .271 lifetime hitter,
higher at second base than Nap Lajoie (.339) Eddie Collins (.333)
and Charlie Gehringer (.320). They ranked Willie Howard Mays Jr.
as the eighth-best player of the 20th century. Eighth!
Hank Aaron, whose skills have seemed to improve in the minds of
most observers over the last 25 years, was rated fourth. Aaron was
nothing close to the all-around baseball player that Mays
was. Mays was a vastly superior outfielder-perhaps the best ever.
Mays was a vastly superior base runner-one of the best ever. Mays
was nearly Aaron's equal as a power hitter and was Aaron's
equal as an all-around hitter.
Aaron's staggering lifetime offensive numbers
certainly rate him as one of baseball's greatest players. But we
are evaluating these men based on how they played the game-the whole
game. In the opinion of many, baserunning and defense are critically
important components to a baseball player's total game. But Aaron's
fourth and Mays is eighth according to the USA Today
poll.
Both The Sporting News and The USA
Today studies are fraught with absurdities too numerous to note.
Both impose an odd standard on today's players. Hasn't Mike Piazza
proven that he is history's greatest-hitting catcher by a significant
margin? Hasn't Ivan Rodriguez proven that he is on the short list
of all-time great catchers? Ken Griffey Jr, Cal Ripken Jr, Mark
McGwire, Roger Clemens, Juan Gonzalez and Barry Bonds have all played
enough years at a level of excellence befitting the 100 greatest
baseball players of the 20th century. Their places in
history are hard to dispute.
Well, since the SABR study, their places in history
have become disputable. They claim that the likes of Griffey must
do more to prove that they belong along side Mays, Aaron, Clemente,
Mantle. Ken Griffey is the finest all-around player in the game
today, has amassed two consecutive 50-homer, 140-RBI, Gold Glove
campaigns and a third in which he fell a bit short with 48 homers
and 134 RBI. For Griffey, every year is a Gold Glove year; he has
won the Gold Glove Award for fielding excellence virtually every
full season that he has played. At the age of 29, he has four 40-plus
homer years to go with his two 50-homer years. How long is the list
of players with five 40-plus homer seasons? Short. There are only
twelve. Griffey has six and he hasn't yet turned 30.
Griffey was the youngest player to hit 350 homers,
will be the youngest player to hit 400, 500 and 600 homers also.
Before his career is over, he may be the all time home run leader,
and one of the all-time RBI leaders as well. What more must Griffey
do to be regarded as what he truly is, one of the twenty greatest
players in baseball history? Isn't that what this 100 best players
stuff is all about? Well, it is according to The Ballpark Guys,
but not The Sporting News. They rated Junior 93rd.
He barely made the top 100 according to their study.
The Sporting News work shows a high regard
for Negro league players Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, sanctimoniously
placing them 18th and 19th, respectively.
The USA Today/ SABR poll shows no regard for Negro league
players at all-not even including them in their study.
The Ballpark Guys' list of the top 100 players
includes Paige and Gibson, with Paige among the top 30-The
Ballpark Guys' All-Century Team.
It is a long-accepted fact that Josh Gibson and
Satchel Paige and all of the finest Negro league players belonged
playing along side major leaguers. It is also reasonable to assume
that most Negro league players did not. Gibson and Paige competed
against mostly those that were not major league caliber players
and their gaudy statistics were attributable to that and to the
fact that they played nearly all year every year. Therefore, their
statistical achievements are almost insignificant.
What is significant: Players of Paige's and Gibson's
ilk competed in exhibitions against big league all-stars and future
Hall of Famers to a high degree of distinction. In fact, there were
instances in which they dominated the big leaguers of their day.
Therefore, one must consider the short list of the finest Negro
league stars-Paige, Gibson, Martin Di Higo, Buck Leonard-to be among
the 100 greatest players of the century. With apologies to the spirit
of Cool Papa Bell, we stopped at Buck Leonard.
There is something very wrong with ratings lists.
How can you compare players whose contributions are so diverse?
Given the nature of the special position of the
pitcher, how is it fair to compare them to position players in any
way? Are Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson better than Willie
Mays and Ty Cobb? How can there even be a question? We can say,
with relative ease, that they were better pitchers than Steve Carlton
and Roger Clemens, but comparing them to Mays and Cobb as players
is nonsensical.
Are catchers expected to contribute as much at
the plate as other players? They shouldn't be. The rigors of their
position demand that they concentrate as heavily on defense as anyone
on the field, while any noteworthy offensive contribution is a huge
bonus. And it is rare that a catcher plays as many as 140 games.
That is why only two catchers ever won a batting title and one catcher
ever won a home run title.
So with the list of The Ballpark Guys' 100 Greatest
Baseball Players of the 20th Century, we have broken
the players into several different categories that aptly describe
the type of player each one was, and one of the categories is catchers.
The others are pitchers, all-around players, hitters, sluggers,
defensive players and speed players. We have a category to honor
the four Negro league stars. We have tried to rate the members of
each group in order and we have highlighted the top 30-The Ballpark
Guys' All-Century Team. You'll note that Roberto Clemente and Jimmie
Foxx are in our top 30, thus making them members of The
Ballpark Guys' All-Century Team. We're not saying that ours
is the official All-Century Team, let's get that cleared up. Ours
is the unofficial All-Century Team and the easiest way to tell the
difference between our All-Century Team and the official All-Century
Team is that ours has Clemente and Foxx on it.
Our criteria for active players is, in some cases,
based on what the player is expected to do if his career stays on
the same basic pace as the first eight or ten years (Pudge Rodriguez,
Mike Piazza, Roberto Alomar). It's based, in several obvious cases
on what they've already done (Cal Ripken, Jr., Mark McGwire, Barry
Larkin). Griffey Jr, who as we told you, is rated 93rd
on The Sporting News' list is in The Ballpark Guys' top 30-easily.
There are a total of fourteen active players
on our list of the 100 Greatest Players of the 20th Century.
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