Hank Aaron

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali once called Hank Aaron “The only man I idolize more than myself ” and in 1970, Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle said “As far as I’m concerned, Aaron is the best baseball player of my era. He is to baseball the last 15 years what Joe DiMaggio was before him. He’s never received the credit he’s due.” 1957 was arguably Hank Aaron’s best season. He hit .322 that year with 44 home runs and 132 RBI, captured the National League MVP Award and led the Braves to their first World Series Championship since 1914. It was shortly after Hank Aaron’s record breaking 715th home run that Georgia congressman Andrew Young declared “Through his long career, Hank Aaron has been a model of humility, dignity, and quiet competence. He did not seek the adoration that is accorded to other national athletic heroes, yet he has now earned it.” Hank Aaron’s humility and grace was never more evident than at his Hall of Fame induction speech in 1982, where he proclaimed “I never want them to forget Babe Ruth. I just want them to remember Henry Aaron." It was shortly after Hank Aaron’s record breaking 715th home run that Georgia congressman Andrew Young declared “Through his long career, Hank Aaron has been a model of humility, dignity, and quiet competence. He did not seek the adoration that is accorded to other national athletic heroes, yet he has now earned it.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Aaron

Ty Cobb

ty cobb stats
A Fascinating Legend That Surrounds the Storied Career of Ty Cobb Centers on the Time He Hit Five Home Runs Over a Two-Game Stretch in 1925. the Detroit Star Didn’t Think It Took a Lot of Talent to Hit Home Runs and Was Convinced That His Way of Playing the Game Was Vastly Superior. So, as the Legend Goes, He Took Time in St. Louis to Show That, If He Had Wanted To, He Could Hit a Lot of Homers, Too. Cobb’s Disdain for the Post-1920 Proliferation of the Long Ball Was Well-Documented. in Particular, He Hated Slugger Babe Ruth and How the Bambino Had Transformed the Game. Cobb Thought the Deluge of Home Runs Minimized the Need for Strategies He Honed to Perfection During the Dead Ball; Skills Like Bunting, the Hit-And-Run, Using the Whole Field, and the Stolen Base. One of the People Who Had Reportedly Heard Ty Cobb Predict His Power Surge, Sid Keener, Was a Respected Sports Journalist. 

He Later Served as the Director of Baseball’s Hall-Of-Fame from 1952 to 1963 and Might Be Considered a Reliable Source. One Wonders If Someone in the Public Eye Like Keener, Would Stick to This False Narrative Like He Did in Subsequent Years. If It Had Been Proven That Cobb Didn’t Say Those Things Before a Game in St. Louis in 1925, Keener Would Have Been Discredited in His Profession. Coupled with the Facts That Ty Cobb Was Impulsive, High Strung and Enormously Egotistical, Keener and Salsinger's Account Rings True. One Could Easily See Cobb Making Such a Boast and Then Having the Talent (Along with a Little Bit of Luck) to Pull It Off. Thats Why Ty Cobb Is One of the Best Players Ever.

willie mays

Now, I understand that arguing for Willie Mays as the greatest baseball player of all time isn’t exactly like arguing for barack Obama to be the greatest president ever in american history. because he was better than Aaron ,and Aaron was pretty awesome. Here’s one comparison with Aaron, using the number of runs created per season, starting with the best season of each plays first best second best and so on. Aaron eventually passed Mays -- but it took him 13 seasons to do it. And remember that Mays missed nearly two full seasons while in the Army early in his career; the first year he returned he won the MVP Award. The point is: When you're a tad bit better than Hank Aaron and played one of the most important defensive positions and played 150-plus games 13 consecutive seasons ... well, Jim Murray had a good point. 

He was one of the best fielders of all time. He won 13 Gold Gloves. Do I need to defend his fielding? The advanced fielding metrics back up the reputation. Baseball-Reference ranks him as having the eighth-most fielding runs saved of all time -- behind Brooks Robinson, Mark Belanger, Andruw Jones, Ozzie Smith, Roberto Clemente, Bonds and Carl Yastrzemski. Other than Bonds, none are within 100 points of Mays in career OPS.

Babe Ruth

There are those who believe Barry Bonds has to be thought of as that player due to the monster numbers he generated. There are many who say that Willie Mays was the Number one player.

But to be honest, I'm not sure why there's any kind of debate since there is only one answer: Babe Ruth.

George Herman Ruth, Jr. was the most dominant player in the history of baseball. In fact, you could make a strong case that he dominated his sport in a way that no other athlete in any other sport has ever done. It can hardly be overstated how much of an impact the Bambino had on the sport of baseball.

Ruth arrived just as the game was changing, moving from little league to the home run era and Ruth led the hitting parade. But he wasn't just a home run machine. He was much, much more.

But most importantly, he led the vanguard of ballplayers out of the Dead-Ball Era and into the Live-Ball Era. Hitting and pitching changed in the decade where he did his best work and his presence indelibly shaped that change.

And that my friends is why babe Ruth is the number one baseball player of all time.