Who Is Considered The Greatest Baseball Player Of All Time?
Contents
The answer to this question is difficult to determine as there are many great baseball players who have made significant contributions to the game. However, some experts believe that Babe Ruth is considered the greatest baseball player of all time.
Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth was a professional baseball player who played for 22 seasons from 1914 to 1935. He is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Ruth was a left-handed hitter and also pitched for the Boston Red Sox from 1914 to 1919. He helped the team win three World Series titles. Ruth was traded to the New York Yankees in 1920, where he played for the next 15 years. He is one of the most famous sports figures in history.
Early life and career
George Herman Ruth Jr. was born on February 6, 1895, in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the first of eight children born to George Herman Ruth Sr. and Katherine Schamberger Ruth. His father worked as a barber and his mother was a Saxon Protestant who later became a Catholic converts. George Sr. had immigrated to Baltimore from Pigtownin 1893 or 1894, and became a tavern keeper after finding work as a docker on the Baltimore waterfront. In time, he became well known for making Babe’s Hamburgers at his tavern with beef scraps from the local butcher shop.
Katherine Ruth’s parents had immigrated to America from Merseburg in Saxony-Anhalt in 1866; they died before she met her future husband. She and George Sr. married in October 1885, just before their first child’s birth; they had seven more children over the next 13 years, including six girls and one boy who died in infancy. According to the Social Security Administration, Babe Ruth was left-handed; however, contemporary sources indicate that he batted both ways early in his career. He threw right-handed when playing catch with his father or other children
Achievements
Babe Ruth is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. He was an incredible hitter and an outstanding pitcher. He played for the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. He helped the Yankees win seven World Series titles. Ruth was also a very charitable man. He started the Babe Ruth Foundation to help disadvantaged children.
Legacy
Babe Ruth is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 6, 1895. Ruth began his professional career with the Baltimore Orioles in 1914. He was then sold to the Boston Red Sox in 1920. Ruth helped the Red Sox win three World Series titles. He was then sold to the New York Yankees in 1920. With the Yankees, Ruth won four more World Series titles. Ruth retired from baseball in 1935. He died of cancer on August 16, 1948.
Willie Mays
Willie Mays is considered by many experts and fans to be the greatest baseball player of all time. He was an incredible talent who could do it all on the field. He was a great hitter, fielder, and base runner. He was also a leader and helped his teams to a lot of success.
Early life and career
Willie Mays was born in Westfield, Alabama, on May 6, 1931. When he was eight years old, his family moved to Fairfield, just outside Birmingham. It was there that he began playing baseball with his father and other boys in the neighborhood. Mays soon showed himself to be a talented player, and when he was just 13 years old he was recruited to play on a semi-professional team sponsored by the Birmingham Industrial League.
Mays’ incredible talents caught the attention of major league scouts, and in 1950 he was signed by the New York Giants. He spent the next few years playing minor league baseball before being called up to the Giants in May of 1954.
At just 22 years old, Mays quickly became one of the best players in baseball. He was an excellent hitter and fielder, and helped lead the Giants to victory in the World Series in 1954. The following year he won the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award after hitting .319 with 41 home runs and 110 RBIs.
Mays continued to be one of baseball’s best players throughout the 1950s and 1960s. In 1962 he set a new National League record with 51 home runs, and helped lead the Giants to another World Series title. He was named MVP of both the regular season and the World Series that year. Mays was also named MVP in 1965 after hitting .317 with 52 home runs and 112 RBIs.
Achievements
Willie Mays was an American professional baseball player who spent almost all of his 22-year career playing for the New York/San Francisco Giants, before finishing with the New York Mets. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility.
In 1999, Mays placed second on The Sporting News’s “List of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players”, making him the highest-ranking living player. Later that year, he was also elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Mays is one of five National League players to have won two MVP Awards and he is also a 16-time All-Star who had a batting average over .300 for his career.
Mays hit 660 home runs during his career, placed sixth on the MLB all-time home run list when he retired, and still ranks 11th on that list as of 2018. He had a batting average over .300 in 15 seasons and 20 seasons with over 100 RBIs. He is credited with saving baseball in San Francisco after his over-the-shoulder catch of a Vic Wertz fly ball during Game 1 of the 1954 World Series off the bat of Cleveland Indians slugger Larry Doby kept Alphonse (“Tuffy”) Lazzeri from scoring what would have been the tying run in a game eventually won by the Giants 11–0.
Legacy
Mays is widely considered the greatest all-around baseball player of all time. Mays was a superb hitter who excelled in both power hitting and contact. He was an outstanding defensive player, winning a record-tying 12 Gold Glove Awards in his career. Mays also made numerous spectacular catches while roaming center field.
Mays led his teams to four World Series titles, including one with the Giants in 1954, when he was named the series MVP. He hit a game-winning home run in the bottom of the 10th inning of Game 1—sometimes referred to as “the Say Hey Kid’s” home run—and made “the catch”, a spectacular over-the-shoulder grab of Vic Wertz’s long drive to deep center field in Game 1, which has been described as “perhaps the greatest catch ever made.” Mays had 5 hits for that series, including 2 home runs and 7 RBIs.
Hank Aaron
Hank Aaron was born in 1934 in Mobile, Alabama. He played his entire career with the Milwaukee / Atlanta Braves, and still holds the record for the most years played with a single team. He is also one of the most prolific home run hitters of all time, with 755 home runs.
Early life and career
Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron was born in 1934 in Mobile, Alabama, one of eight children of Herbert and Estella Aaron. His father worked on a railroad dock and his mother was a housewife. Aaron’s older brother taught him how to play baseball at an early age. Aaron started his professional career with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League in 1952. He played for the Eau Claire Bears in the Wisconsin State League in 1953, before joining the Major Leagues in 1954.
Achievements
Aaron consistently hit for both average and power, and his defense was superb. He holds or shares numerous Major League records. In his last 12 seasons with the Braves, he compiled more home runs (312), RBIs (1,122), extra base hits (653), and total bases (2,297) than any other player in baseball history. Aaron is also distinguished for having hithome runs in all seven of the American League parks in which he played.
He totaled 3,771 hits during his career, slugging 2,174 RBIs and hitting 755 home runs, which stood as the all-time record for 33 years after his retirement in 1976.
Legacy
Hank Aaron is widely considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time. In his 23-year career, he hit 737 home runs, which is still the most in MLB history. He also won three Gold Glove Awards and was named to 21 All-Star teams. After he retired from playing in 1976, he became the Milwaukee Brewers’ director of player development.
In 1999, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. In 2004, he was ranked number five on The Sporting News’ list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and he was also named to Major League Baseball’s All-Century Team that same year.
Stan Musial
Stan Musial, born in 1920 in Donora, Pennsylvania, was a professional baseball player for 22 seasons. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to 1963 and is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Musial was a 24-time All-Star and won seven World Series championships. He was also the National League MVP three times.
Early life and career
Stanislaus Francis Musial, nicknamed “Stan the Man”, was an American professional baseball player who spent 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1941 to 1963, primarily as a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals. Regarded as one of the greatest and most consistent hitters in baseball history, Musial batted .331 over his major league career and set numerous National League (NL) batting records. His 6,134 total bases ranked fourth in NL history; he also was sixth with a .559 slugging percentage and seventh with 3,630 hits. A seven-time batting champion with identical totals of 1,815 hits at home and on the road, he also led the NL in triples four times and doubles six times. Musial shares the major league record for the most All-Star Games played (24) with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays; he was selected to a record-tying 24th All-Star Game in 1963 but did not appear due to injury.
Achievements
Musial was a 24-time All-Star, won seven National League batting titles, and four NL MVP Awards. He holds MLB records for the most hits (3,630), doubles (725), triples (177), home runs (475), RBIs (1,951), and total bases (6,134). A Statistic called “Slugging Average” which is total Bases divided by At Bats is where Musial ranks 3rd all time with a .582 Slugging Average, only behind Babe Ruth (.690) and Ted Williams (.634). He also is 2nd in On Base Plus Slugging with a 1.057 OPS which is only behind Babe Ruth’s 1.164 OPS. These accomplishments lead many to call Stan “The Man” the Greatest Hitter of All Time.
In his 22-year career spent entirely with the Cardinals, Musial compiled a .331 batting average, .417 on-base percentage, .559 slugging percentage, and 3,630 hits. He hit .300 or more in 17 seasons, .400 or more in five seasons,”
Legacy
Stan Musial, nicknamed “Stan the Man”, was an American baseball player who spent 22 seasons playing in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals, from 1941 to 1963. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time, based on his career batting statistics, which include a .331 batting average, 3,630 hits, 475 home runs, 1,951 RBIs and 1,815 runs scored. He also hit .300 or more in 17 consecutive seasons and 24 times total during his career, won seven NL batting titles (tying Fred Clarke for the most all-time), and was named an All-Star 20 times.
Musial retired in 1963 as the MLB leader in hits and RBIs. He is still second in both categories and is also sixth in batting average. Musial was inducted into both the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame (in 1969) and Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969–the only person to be inducted that year. In 1992, he was voted into the Major League Baseball All-Century Team by fans. In 1999 he ranked Number 68 on The Sporting News’ list of “The 100 Greatest Baseball Players”, and he was also included on MLB’s All-Time Team selected by Selig in 1997–the only living player at that time besides Babe Ruth. Musial’s autographed baseball card sold for $2 million in May 2007 as part of Robert Edwards Auctions’ “The greatest sports collection ever offered.”
Ty Cobb
Ty Cobb is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. He played for the Detroit Tigers from 1905 to 1928 and is still the Tigers’ all-time leader in batting average, hits, and runs scored. He was a 12-time All-Star and won the Most Valuable Player award in 1911.
Early life and career
Ty Cobb was born in 1886 in rural Georgia, the son of a teacher and a former slaveholding father who had fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. Growing up, Ty became known for his fiery temper and fierce competitiveness, both on and off the baseball diamond.
As a young man, Ty Cobb began his professional baseball career with the Augusta Tourists of the South Atlantic League. He quickly proved himself to be one of the best players in the league, and in 1905 he was promoted to the major leagues, where he would go on to become one of the greatest players of all time.
In his 24-year career with the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Athletics, Ty Cobb won 12 batting championships, nine times stole more than 50 bases in a season, and amassed a staggering .366 lifetime batting average – still the highest in major league history. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936.
Achievements
During his 24-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB), Ty Cobb established himself as one of the greatest players of all time. He played for the Detroit Tigers from 1905 to 1928 and is credited with helping the team win six American League (AL) pennants and three World Series championships. Cobb is also recognized for setting numerous MLB records, including the most career hits (4,191), runs scored (2,245), and stolen bases (892). In 1936, he became the first player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Legacy
Though he played in an era before baseball was divided into separate leagues, Ty Cobb is widely considered the greatest baseball player of all time. He played for the Detroit Tigers from 1905 to 1928, compiling a .366 batting average and 4,191 hits over his 24-year career. He also holds the record for the most batting titles, with 12.
Cobb was known for his aggressive style of play, which sometimes got him into trouble with opponents and fans. He was involved in a number of on-field fights, and was once suspended from the Tigers for attacking a fan who had been heckling him. Despite his volatile personality, Cobb was respected by his teammates and opponents alike for his exceptional skills on the diamond.
After retiring from baseball, Cobb became a successful businessman. He also became active in Republican politics, and served as a director of the Atlanta Braves from 1943 until his death in 1961.