In yesterday’s chat, I was asked to name the first ten players I’d put into a restarted Hall of Fame, and came up (off the top of my head) with these names:
Babe Ruth
Ted Williams
Honus Wagner
Walter Johnson
Cy Young
Lefty Grove
Mickey Mantle
Rogers Hornsby
Rickey Henderson
Warren Spahn
The question of today, of course: Who would be your ten, using only actual HoF-eligible players and not giving it too much thought or research? (Since I answered off the cuff, I’m asking all of you to do the same.)
I’ll also throw a link up here when the Mike Leake piece is posted.
Ruth
Williams
Hornsby
Cy
Walter Johnson
Musial
Mays
Cobb
Foxx
Matt Weiters
Sorry, just kidding on Weiters, last one is Hank Greenberg
Keith, if you want to let people know how to get to your chats, when they are on the ESPN home page, scroll over the Sportsnation link at the top, and wait for the drop down. After that, click on chats, and then all of the chats are listed by day. Yours is there at Thursday, 1 pm. Not quite sure what they would do if you did a different day or different time since you haven’t done that yet on the new ESPN setup, but that’s how I find yours and it seems to be pretty reliable.
Reading comprehension isn’t what it used to be. Other than the people who were joking some added Bonds, Clemens, Maddux, etc. They are not yet eligible.
I did miss that. Gehrig instead of Pujols, then.
Babe Ruth
Ted Williams
Willie Mays
Jimmie Foxx
Honus Wagner
Rickey Henderson
Ty Cobb
Mickey Mantle
Barry Bonds
Albert Pujols
Wow that was harder than it looks. I typed that up without reading everyone else’s, then looked back to see who I missed.
Players that you could add to my list and get no argument from me: Stan Musial, Walter Johnson, Lou Gehrig, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Joe DiMaggio, Rogers Hornsby, Ken Griffey Jr.
There’s just too many good players to make a top 10 list.
Also I read selectively.
1. Babe Ruth
2. Willie Mays
3. Walter Johnson
4. Ted Williams
5. Hank Aaron
6. Honus Wagner
7. Cy Young
8. Stan Musial
9. Ty Cobb
10. Eddie Collins
Mantle and DiMaggio aren’t close. 18 and 25 maybe.
A few players who haven’t been mentioned yet but should are Mel Ott, Cal Ripken, and Nap Lajoie.
I know we’re all talking opinion here, but take a look at Mantle’s baseball reference page when you get a minute. He didn’t have the longevity of most of the guys on this list, but his peak was as good as anyone’s.
On second thought, since the list doesn’t ask for the ten best MLB players of all time, but asks for the 10 players most deserving of HOF enshrinement. So I’ll happily take out the racists Hornsby and Cobb and replace them with Jackie Robinson (doesn’t deserve it on actual performance, but probably deserves it more than anybody else for actual impact on the game of baseball, and society) and Satchel Paige (who almost certainly would deserve it if enough people had been paying attention and keeping track of Negro League games).
Well, longevity counts. And I don’t think Mantle’s peak was as high as people think, nor was his fielding as good as people think. He was about as good as Tris Speaker, and well behind Mel Ott. Comfortably top 20, but not in the top 10 discussion.
Only leaving Bonds/Clemens out as they aren’t yet eligible.
1. Ruth
2. Mays
3. Aaron
4. WJohnson
5. Wagner
6. Cobb
7. Young
8. Musial
9. Henderson
10. Lajoie
Babe Ruth
Walter Johnson
Honus Wagner
Ted Williams
Lou Gehrig
Rogers Hornsby
Rickey Henderson
Cy Young
Lefty Grove
Warren Spahn
I’m surprised how many pitchers I ended up with.
Off the cuff, I came up with (1) Ruth, (2) Gehrig, (3) Hornsby, (4) Musial, (5) Cobb, (6) Young and (7) Johnson without giving it much thought. I’d probably throw (8) Aaron, (9) Mays and (10) Matthewson in as the final three.
On ESPN’s MLB page, just scroll down and you’ll see a box with links to all MLB Chats (at least, that’s how I found yesterday’s chat).
My ten:
Ruth
Mays
Gehrig
Ted Williams
Cobb
Cy Young
Mantle
Wagner
Hornsby
Bonds
wow, that’s difficult, I’ve had to leave out so many.
Ruth, Mays, Williams, Schmidt, Wagner, Morgan, Gehrig, Walter Johnson, Lefty Grove, Stan Musial.
Like everyone else, I don’t feel great about the list. And, like everyone else who tried to include all the positions, I was surprised to realize there isn’t an obvious candidate for Greatest Catcher.
oops, that’s right, Bonds isn’t eligible yet. I’ll replace him with Walter Johnson. Or DiMaggio. Or Spahn. Or Grove. Or Mathewson. Or….
Just based on numbers, what is the rationale not to include Lou Gehrig (for those of you who excluded him)?
And Pujols, someday,if he keeps going like he has. But I just can’t find room for Rickey or Musial.
Greatest catcher = Yogi Berra?
2&For: $5 for Sizemore.
Ruth
Williams
Aaron
Mays
Hornsby
Musial
Walter Johnson
Cy Young
Mantle
Satchel Paige
No particular order:
Ruth
Cy Young
Jackie Robinson
Ted Williams
Hank Aaron
Walter Johnson
Lou Gehrig
Willie Mays
Honus Wagner
Ty Cobb
For what it’s worth, I asked the original question during Thursday’s chat, so my list has gravitas.
Building on Joe’s comment noting the propensity towards old-timers, I’m going to consciously try to pick players throughout the century (otherwise off the top of my head):
Ruth
Wagner
Johnson
Williams
Mays
Spahn
Morgan
Schmidt
Henderson
And, umm… Hornsby
I don’t know my late 60s to early 80s players all that well, so not sure about those picks.
Williams
Ruth
Young
DiMaggio
Mantle
Robinson
Mays
Aaron
Henderson
Ripken
As a 25-year-old, when I think “BASEBALL”, these are the first 10 names that came to mind of Hall-Eligible cats. Not the most scientific approach, but seems to basically be a balance between the “legends” and the guys of my youth. Nolan Ryan almost slipped in there at #11.
Babe Ruth
Honus Wagner
Ted Williams
Jackie Robinson
Willie Mays
Hank Aaron
Lou Gehrig
Warren Spahn
Walter Johnson
Christy Mathewson
If we weren’t limiting it to currently-eligible guys, Bonds would definitely be on there, and at least one of Maddux/Pedro.
Honus Wagner
Willie Mays
Babe Ruth
Josh Gibson
Oscar Charleston
Walter Johnson
Christy Mathewson
Jackie Robinson
The Mick
Ted Williams
And I know that it’s premature, but I’d get you into the writers’ wing ASAP 😉
To get to the chats, I bookmarked this link:
http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/story?page=ChatArchiveIndexHome
It refreshes each week and if I hit the refresh button every fifteen minutes, it doesn’t take up too much bandwith while I’m at work.
Bored of reading the same 10 guys, mostly because I don’t care about guys I haven’t seen with my own two eyes (or something):
Troy O’Leary – Subjective viewing is the only true measure of the man and I saw hit hit a granny one time;
Carl Everett – No such thing as dinoaurs in my HoF;
Spike Owen – dude seriously had ‘Spike’ on his baseball card;
Rickey said that Rickey totally belongs in Rickey’s own wing;
Ty Cobb – just for the spike sharpening thing, that’s playing the right way, David Eckstein;
Dock Ellis;
Dizzy Dean – allegedly dude once made his outfielders sit on the mound while he pitched an inning;
Jimmy Dugan- imagine if he never set that hotel fire and had to jump out of the window;
Vin Scully;
Dr. Frank Jobe.
Spike Owen is his birth name.
rfs: yup. I actually knew that. When I was 9 he got traded to the Red Sox and I started collecting his cards. I did not then realize it wasn’t a nickname (though thanks to nostalgia and baseball-reference I checked him out a couple years ago). He is still the only player that I have a decent collection of non-mlb cards. (in fairness, my collection is all of 3 or 4 years from when I was 8-12 or so). I can still remember buying this card for a dime.(image not mine) http://s118.photobucket.com/albums/o82/mpappagallo/?action=view¤t=Spike_Owen_83TCMA.jpg
I thought it was the best thing ever. Sadly 46hr and a career 83 era+ keeps him out of any hall of fame but the one in my parents attic.
ah!!! that’s “ops+” of course. Where is the edit feature?
Babe Ruth
Ted Williams
Willie Mays
Walter Johnson
Lefty Grove
Ty Cobb
Honus Wagner
Micky Mantle
Cy Young
Hank Aaron
Hi Keith,
Not sure if this more of chat question but why no Willie Mays on your top 10?
There was no “why,” Barry. I just went off the top of my head – didn’t look up any stats at all.
missed this:
Babe Ruth
Honus Wagner
Lefty Grove
Willie Mays
Ted Williams
Christy Matthewson
Ty Cobb
Walter Johnson
Satchel Paige
Mickey Mantle
Ha, apparently all you need to do is pose an open question and you can get a Posnanski number of comments, Keith.
Let’s see what I have off the top of my head:
Babe Ruth
Honus Wagner
Willie Mays
Ted Williams
Hank Aaron
Tom Seaver
Cy Young
Walter Johnson
Lou Gehrig
Joe Morgan
Babe Ruth
Honus Wagner
Walter Johnson
Ted Williams
Willie Mays
Stan Musial
Sandy Koufax
Rogers Hornsby
Yogi Berra
Rickey Henderson
Ruth
Williams
Aaron
F Robinson
Mays
Mantle
Musial
Matthewson
Henderson
Cobb
Stan Musial
Ty Cobb
Hank Aaron
Babe Ruth
Willie Mays
Walter Johnson
Ted Williams
Lou Gehrig
Rogers Hornsby
Cy Young
Have to say I’m shocked that Mathewson has so many responses, while not one person has mentioned Pete Alexander.
My list (not actually ordered)
1. Babe Ruth
2. Walter Johnson
3. Tom Seaver
4. Lefty Grove
5. Willie Mays
6. Honus Wagner
7. Cy Young
8. Ted Williams
9. Josh Gibson
10. Lou Gehrig
Aaron and Alexander were my next two, I think.
I was shooting for a mixture of modern and older players, included Gehrig and Young largely for their iconic status, and Gibson to represent the Negro Leagues because he’s the only NgLer to have a pretty strong argument to being the best at his position. (Others may be in the discussion, such as Paige, Charleston or Lloyd, but it’s a lot hazier).
I’m sure someone is tabulating results here…have we established a dish commenters’ inner circle?
Ted Williams
Babe Ruth
Walter Johnson
Cy Young
Willie Mays
Harmon Killebrew
Frank Robinson
Nolan Ryan
Rickey Henderson
Jackie Robinson
Babe Ruth
Cy Young
Walter Johnson
Ty Cobb
Honus Wagner
Jackie Robinson
Willie Mays
Ted Williams
Mike Schmidt
Lou Gehrig
Mantle
Ruth
Aaron
Johnson
Gehrig
Cobb
Young
Berra
Mathewson
Henderson
10 off the top of the head is tough isnt it.
wow have to replace Berra with Williams.
F it, even though it’s too late to be counted, I like reading my own words (sorry, anyone who happens upon this and doesn’t care).
1. Babe Ruth
2. Willie Mays
3. Warren Spahn
4. Hank Aaron
5. Roberto Clemente
6. Ted Williams
7. Mickey Mantle
8. Lou Gehrig
9. Rickey Henderson
10. Bob Gibson