A Grip on Sports: Baseball’s long history lends itself to lists of all-time greats even if games are on hiatus
A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s April for goodness sakes. Showers. Flowers. And baseball. That’s what we expect, right? We’ll try to help.
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• Full disclosure here. I worked, on a freelance basis, with The Athletic for a while. Covered Washington State. Wrote a few stories. Picked up some cash. Argued with editors. The usual. It’s over. I didn’t want to work that hard anymore. Honestly. But there is no ill will or special place in my heart for the online sports magazine. I like it, like the writing, like the presentation, like the subjects it covers. I bought a subscription before I started writing for it and kept it up afterward.
So when I link pieces from the publication, it’s because the writing is worth it, whether it be about Seattle-based franchises or local colleges. Or, as is the case today, national subjects.
Which brings us back, in a long, lost-in-the-woods way, to baseball. And an Athletic project many months in the making.
The publication’s Joe Posnanski has been counting down the top 100 players in baseball history since December. He’s finally reached his top five. (No. 6 was posted yesterday. It is this story about Ted Williams, who would be higher on my list, but we will get there in a minute.)
Like all lists, as I’ve come to find out in the past few weeks, everyone’s is different. I’ve always felt Yankee players are consistently overvalued on such lists and players from older eras undervalued. But Posnanski’s list isn’t that way, for the most part. It doesn’t seem based solely on analytics or eyewitness accounts or how much ink the player earned. There is a little of all that, sure, but how else would you compare a Cy Young to a Greg Maddux, a Mike Trout to a Ty Cobb? You can’t, unless you delve deeply into all of it. And that seems to have happened.
There are five players left Posnanski hasn’t mentioned. Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Barry Bonds and Hall of Famer Oscar Charleston, a Negro League star. It seems as if they will make up his top five in some order. They certainly don’t make up my top five.
For one thing, if good pitching always stops good hitting, as Casey Stengel once decreed, then you have to have at least one starting pitcher among the best five. The highest-rated pitcher on Posnanski’s list is Walter Johnson, who checks in at No. 7. We have a few spots higher.
What is ours? Simple.
5. Hank Aaron
4. Ted Williams
3. Walter Johnson
2. Willie Mays
1. Babe Ruth
And why is it so? It’s funny, for years I felt Ty Cobb was the greatest player ever. By all accounts, he was Ichiro, except a bit bigger and stronger. They seemed to hit in a similar fashion as well. But Cobb played at a time when the ball was dead and the fences existed mainly to keep the fans away from the players. His career wins above replacement is fourth all time, but he did play 24 seasons, so, per year, it’s not in the top 10. Over the years, he has dropped lower and lower on my personal lists.
As for Bonds, there is no chance he’ll ever be high up on any all-time list I put together. He forfeited his chance when he went from being a very good player to an all-time great with a boost from what I believe was the use of illegal (not by baseball at the time, but under federal law) substances. And I’m not in a position to judge the validity of the Negro Leagues, so its hard for me to put someone like Charleston, who ability his peers worshiped, in the final five in such a list.
On the positive side, Williams is all over all-time lists despite losing all or part of five keys seasons while fighting in two wars. He was just the most pure hitter baseball ever produced. If it wasn’t Ruth. Aaron and Mays had unique styles that would be hard for anyone else to copy. They had physical talents that set them apart from anyone before or since. In contrast, Williams’ and Ruth’s swings are visible in today’s game, if you follow it closely.
And Johnson? He was a beast. No other pitcher since 1900 has had more of an impact on more games. In his 19 full seasons (he pitched for parts of two others), he appeared in an average of 41 games. So just about every third game, Johnson would show up to help the Senators. Most of the time – 531 out of 666 career starts – he finished what he began. That’s really impressive.
But not as impressive as what Ruth did. He was just different. He was Bonds – their career WAR is almost exactly the same – despite being a long-time user of performance-decreasing substances, from food to drink to his (lack-of-a) training regimen. He still is baseball’s career leader in slugging, OPS and hot dogs consumed (supposedly). He was a marvel that transformed the game. And, by the way, if it matters to you, his career earned run average in 10 years of pitching was 2.28.
• Just about every day, it seems, some major event is canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. Yesterday, just after we finished our work, it was announced Wimbledon would not be held this year.
If anything underscores how this virus is at the forefront of a world war, this is it. The All-England Tennis Club last canceled its tournament for World War II, when German bombs made it a risky proposition to play tennis. Now it’s a virus doing the same.
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WSU: Around the Pac-12, the most consistent news these days revolves around the future plans of basketball players. Washington freshman Isaiah Stewart made the expected announcement yesterday he’s headed to the NBA. Should his departure, and the expected departure of Jaden McDaniels, be a death knell for the Huskies and one-and-dones? No, it shouldn’t. Each player is different. … Another Washington player has entered the transfer portal. … An Oregon women’s player is transferring. The Ducks had a lot of All-Americans this season. … Arizona State lost its second starter to the pros this week. … Arizona is dealing with the fallout from the HBO documentary in the same manner it dealt with the news in the first place. … On the football field, will there be a 2020 season? … Oregon has attracted a grad transfer quarterback. … Colorado is wondering if the playing field will be level come fall. Or if the financial impacts will be hard to overcome. … Speaking of money, should the Pac-12 dip into its reserves now or wait?
Gonzaga: Filip Petrusev’s sophomore year has been well documented. And rewarded. The center picked up another All-American award yesterday, being named to the Wooden team. Jim Meehan has that information in this story.
EWU: Like every college coach in America, Aaron Best’s spring routine has been disrupted. Justin Reed has more in this piece.
Preps: It’s a good time to run, is it not? Alone, sure, but keeping fit is maybe even more important, especially for high school athletes. Cheney High track coach Derek Slaughter has come up with a way to motivate athletes to do just that, and still compete despite the virus lockdown. Dave Nichols explains in this story. … The HUB sports center in the Valley is shut down, along with everywhere else indoors where athletes congregate. Steve Christilaw gives us a look at what impact that has on the facility. … All over the country there are high school seniors who were hoping to show something this spring and summer that would lead to a scholarship offer. The usual paths for that are closed.
Chiefs: Larry Weir spoke with Mike Boyle yesterday concerning the now-over WHL season. It’s at the core of the latest Press Box pod.
Hoopfest: It’s still on in June. For now. Hoopfest director Matt Santangelo announced last night the 3-on-3 tournament is still on track for its usual date, the last weekend in June. But the organization has also reserved a late August weekend downtown in case circumstances dictate it has to be moved. Dave has the story.
Seahawks: The Hawks have been dipping into their past to shore up the defense, including yesterday’s signing of former Idaho standout Benson Mayowa. … Will that trend continue with Jadeveon Clowney? … Season-ticket holders can contact the team if they are struggling financially due to the virus-induced slowdown.
Sounders: The Seattle fanbase is one of the MLS’ deepest and most loyal. Even now.
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• It is surprising how much sports news is still happening despite there not being any sporting events taking place. Today is a great example. Tomorrow? Who knows? But we’re ready, no matter what. See ya later … (Did you read that in your Ron Fairly voice? I know I did.)