RIP Willie Mays

For my money, one of the two best players of all time. I had never seen his arm strength until I saw him gun a runner at third in the Astrodome. Looked like a Nolan Ryan fastball.
 
RIP. 93 is indeed a great run.

Definitely one of those who would be on the Mount Rushmore of baseball if we were to carve it into a mountain near Cooperstown.

The four faces on that mountain for me are Ruth, Mays, Aaron, and DiMaggio, with Ted Williams a very close fifth behind Joe D.
 
FW,

Great choices, but while I was never a Yankee fan, I think Mantle was the best ever - power, average, speed (only Willie Davis was faster down the line & that's debatable), arm. I don't think anyone was better.
 
RIP, #24. One of the best ever. The catch he made in deep CF in the Polo Grounds on the Vic Wertz fly ball is still the most amazing athletic play I've ever seen.
 
FW some old true baseball bloods might say you need a pitcher in there.

I have a pitcher, Ruth always makes every list of top 3 or 4 players ever because he was a dominant pitcher for the Red Sox before he was traded to the Yanks and hitting became his forte.

That said I think pitchers should have their own monument mountain and mine would have Koufax, Gibson, Randy Johnson, and Nolan, with a ton of others having very deserving claims.
 
FW,

Great choices, but while I was never a Yankee fan, I think Mantle was the best ever - power, average, speed (only Willie Davis was faster down the line & that's debatable), arm. I don't think anyone was better.

When he was at his peak, I think you are right, uninsured and focused Mantle certainly would have a strong argument to be on the mountain, but Mantle didn’t have the longevity or consistency of the others and Mantle’s personal demons both alcohol and injuries are why he, for all of his incredible stats, remains a coulda woulda shoulda guy.
 
When he was at his peak, I think you are right, uninsured and focused Mantle certainly would have a strong argument to be on the mountain, but Mantle didn’t have the longevity or consistency of the others and Mantle’s personal demons both alcohol and injuries are why he, for all of his incredible stats, remains a coulda woulda shoulda guy.
The last time that I saw Micky was at Ruth Chris Steakhouse. He was so drunk that his son had to walk him to the rest room and he ended the evening wearing his napkin on top of his head.
 
FW,

I think only a very small percentage of fans realize that before Babe Ruth, Home Run Baker was the "Sultan of Swat", hitting as many as 10 homers a year. When Ruth hit the Bronx with 59/60 in a season, and that 27 Yankee team was loaded with hitters, baseball hit a new popularity level, but he led the charge.

Do you include Cy Young?
 
With all the pain he played with, I'm surprised he didn't have a drug addiction to the pills & shots. I remember the disease, but can't come close to spelling it.
 
Do you include Cy Young?

He certainly would be one of those I mentioned as having a deserving claim and 500 wins is something no one will ever touch (300 is considered HOF Gold Standard). I discount some of Young's stats based on his era (all of his games are 1911 or earlier) which maybe isn't fair to him but that is what makes baseball debates so much fun, there are arguments at every position and across multiple eras.
 
Do you include Cy Young?
Sabre, if I were making a Mount Rushmore of pitchers, I would include Cy Young, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, and Nolan Ryan. And it would be hard to overlook the likes of Christy Mathewson, Warren Spahn, Don Drysdale, Greg Maddux, and who-knows-how-many others.
 
Grew up outside of Houston, got to go the the old Colt 45's field and then the Dome,
and was really great getting to see the talent in the National League at that time. Aaron, Clemente, Mays and many more, but there was something about Mays that made him a little different, that elusive IT.
Thanks for the memories.
 
The Rickwood game in Birmingham last night and the memories shared of Mays was a lot of fun to watch. I really like these early summer games that MLB is doing every year now at a unique location whether it is at the Field of Dreams in Iowa, at a military base in North Carolina, and now at Rickwood. Kind of like the NHL's Winter Classics it is a great way to showcase baseball and the fact that it had such a tie to Willie Mays last night was a great way to pay him tribute.
 

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