If Ted did not serve in the USA AirForce as a fighter pilot for 6 years he would of hit 715 or more home runs to beat Ruth and maybe come close to the 800 home run mark. And he was a phenomenal pitcher, one of the best in baseball. #10: Roger Hornsby hit .358 in his career, and had 2,930 hits in that span. When the Yankees use to have a score that is when Joe really shown.He was good at coming through in the clutch situations. The best second baseman the game has ever seen, at least from an offensive standpoint, Rogers Hornsby has the second-highest career batting average in baseball history at .358. He was more than just a durable player, though, as he truly revolutionized the shortstop position. Choosing anyone else is just silly. An 11-time stolen base champ, Henderson topped the 100-steal mark three different times, including 130 in 1982. The Greatest Baseball Players Of All Time. You know the names: Ruth, Aaron, Mays, Mantle, Bonds, DiMaggio. He had a .977 career OPS and had over 2,000 hits. But no one will ever come close to the stolen base record. Koufax won three World Series titles, three Cy Young awards, and was a five time ERA champ. All told, he finished his 22-year career with 303 wins, a 3.29 ERA and 4,875 strikeouts, and he led the Arizona Diamondbacks to a World Series title in 2001 alongside fellow ace Curt Schilling.

Admit it. He was a charismatic athlete and if you were old enough to remember his playing days then you know what I mean. He built his legacy in the postseason, though, as he converted 42 of 47 save chances and went 8-1 with a 0.70 ERA over 96 appearances. He won three NL Cy Young awards, three win titles, three ERA titles and five strikeout titles over the course of his 20-year big league career. If you took all the players in the Hall of Fame out because of infractions that are a detriment to the game, there wouldn't be many left in the Hall.Arguably the most consistent player of all time, not the greatest. "The Hammer" holds the all-time records for runs batted in, extra-base hits and total bases. My favorite player growing up and the face of Major League Baseball in the 1990s, Ken Griffey Jr. could have challenged for a spot in the top 10 if he just could have stayed on the field. The greatest pitcher ever, and remember pitching is 90% of the game. As was typical of Negro league teams, the Grays played a short league schedule and then barnstormed around the country playing semi-pro teams. The best defensive shortstop the game has ever seen, Ozzie Smith won 13 straight Gold Glove awards while manning the position for the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals. #41: Eddie Collins racked up 3,315 hits in his career, and while he will never go noticed to some, he was one of the best second basemen to play the game. 1 Babe Ruth George Herman Ruth Jr., better known as Babe Ruth, was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935.. He was lights out in the postseason and one of the most consistent relievers the game has seen. Rose was a 17-time all-star and won three batting titles. That was was the first of what would be six batting titles he won, but he was by no means a slap hitter. #30: Roberto Clemente was one of the best defensive players of all-time, and adding in his 3,000 hits he goes down as one of the greats. Take Clemons or Feller or Gibson and tell him "great job pitching, now become one of the greatest hitters, Lifetime Average, Home Runs, etc., not happening, ask Mays, Williams, Aaron, etc., stop hitting and win us 20 games as a pitcher. He hit 242 home runs with 842 RBI’s before a career ending auto accident in the winter of 1958. He holds the records for most career wins (511) and most career complete games (749). Search the Baseball-Reference.com Baseball Encyclopedia of Players by the first letter of the player's last name, or use the search box above. He was average defensively, but he ranked as the best offensive third baseman of all time by far until George Brett and Mike Schmidt came along. No pitcher or ball player was more valuable to their team. No question that Robinson's impact on the game was and remains huge. Johnson did more for his team than any other player. Other Links > Baseball > All-Time Baseball Player Rankings . Satchel Paige is the greatest pitcher of all time PERIOD! Otherwise, Koufax would have moved his way up the leaderboards for various categories. NONE should ever be in the HOF ESPECIALLY BONDS whose stats this last 10 years are ludicrous and bizarre and out of keeping with his first 10 years. Those were far from his only productive seasons but they were his best, as he played a total of 18 seasons and hit .295/.380/.540 with 407 home runs and 1,333 RBI. Cobb is #1 on my list followed shortly by The Mick. Number two and so forth really begin at number three at best. Entering what will be his final big league season, Derek Jeter has been the face of the New York Yankees for years, and he will be looking to go out on top after an injury-plagued 2013 season. Thank God his second wife helped him and he hit the record of 60 home runs in the 1927 season a record that stood until Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961 as a Yankee. On July 4, 1939, he delivered a speech at Yankee Stadium for “Lou Gehrig Day,” telling fans “he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth” for being able to play baseball. IF Ty Cobb is the Greatest and if BIG PETE has more hits in his career than Ty Cobb ... well then ... if ya do the MATH correctly -- Wouldn't that put PETE ROSE on top of the Mountain? He launched an AL-high 58 home runs in 1938 and drove in a whopping 183 runs in 1937, and neither of those seasons ended in MVP honors. With Rickey, Cobb or Mays not so. All time.317 batting average, including 4 batting titles and two of them with.351 and.357 average. Jackson is one of the top power hitters in the game, and of course was a clutch playoff performer as well. Roberto Clemente has 3,000 hits because a tragedy ended his career early. THE best leadoff man in history. Imagine if other managers had the guts to let him hit. All told, he finished his 11-year stretch with the Cardinals with a .328/.420/.617 line to go along with 445 home runs and 1,329 RBI. Some say he was heartbroken that he was not first black player in the majors. Campanella was an all-star eight straight seasons from 1949 until 1956. He was 27-10 with a 1.97 ERA and 310 strikeouts in his first season with the Phillies, winning the pitching Triple Crown and his first of four NL Cy Young awards.

He may not have the win total of some of the other all-time greats, as he finished his career with a 219-100 record, but few were better than Pedro Martinez during his prime. Other players teased the rookie for being an unsophisticated country boy, but facing him on the mound was another matter. He won 1964 AL MVP honors and was the 1970 World Series MVP as well. He pitched just 13 full seasons but still ranks seventh all time in wins with 361, and his 116.6 rWAR is the fifth-highest mark among pitchers. Brett was inducted into the Hall of Fame, and won a a World Series in 1985. The game's best pitcher during what was a golden age of pitching, Tom Seaver racked up 178 wins during the 1970s alone on his way to a 311-205 career record. The fastest player ever--especially to first base. #11: A top priced baseball card, and a world-class career, Honus Wagner was one of the best players in history. He moved to the outfield and became a feared switch hitter, batting .337 during his time in the Negro leagues. Two days after Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Navy and served for almost four years. This isn't close at all. He won seven batting titles and had two Triple Crown seasons. As things stand today, he has a .299/.384/.558 career line with 654 home runs and 1,969 RBI. He had a huge amount of doubles and he had nearly 100 triples in his career. He won seven Cy Young awards, and had seven ERA titles. Murray also had 504 home runs, putting him in an elite list. He was no slouch at the plate either, hitting .267/.322/.401 with 268 home runs and 1,357 RBI in 23 seasons. He finished with 2,721 hits and 493 home runs.
You can't rank this man as the 17th best of all time because "He was good even before steroids! " He is the one that led his team to the national team championship. The winningest left-handed pitcher in baseball history, Warren Spahn was not a full-time member of the Boston Braves rotation until the age of 26, but he still managed to finish his career with 363 wins to go along with a solid 3.09 ERA and 1.195 WHIP. His 3,640 strikeouts are sixth in the all-time list, and his 106.3 rWAR is seventh-best among pitchers. He did not become a full-time starter until the age of 28, yet he still managed to win 319 games, posting an impressive 19 seasons of double-digit wins. For the sake of this list, those players suspected of using PEDs are judged simply on their production on the field, tainted or not. to a World Series title in 2001 alongside fellow ace Curt Schilling. Jeter is a winner. He won a batting title in three different decades as well and made a serious run at hitting .400 in 1980 when he finished the season with a .390/.454/.664 line to win AL MVP honors. Albert is on performance enhancing medications. Williams was a 19-time all-star and six-time batting champ. And this was when they played 152 games, not 162. The fact that Barry Bonds isn’t talked about here is ridiculous. If your gunna put Greg Maddux on this list you have to put tom glavin on this list.. CF Willie Mays. Mays was clearly a better player than Aaron. Rivera had his notorious cutter that made it tough for opposing hitters. Obviously, a certain amount of subjectivity goes into a list like this, and I don't expect everyone to agree. He won NL MVP honors in 1969 when he hit .320/.453/.656 and led the league with 45 home runs and 126 RBI. It will be interesting to see how much he helps the young players carry on the Yankee tradition as Yogi Berra helped him when he was young and coming up.


Mathewson went on to finish his big league career 373-188 with a 2.13 ERA and 1.058 WHIP, leading the league in wins four times and in ERA five times. Best all-around player of all time. When Monroe died in 1962, DiMaggio paid for the funeral, barred celebrities including JFK from attending, and sent roses to her crypt three times a week for 20 years. Grove was a nine-time ERA champion, and also won two World Series titles. Johnson is also my favorite player of all-time. Greatest shortstop ever to play, one of the best ever. On the strength of a blazing fastball, Bob Feller went 266-162 with a 3.25 ERA in his 18 big league seasons. #45: Eddie Murray cracks the list here with over 3,000 hits in his career.

His career OBP is around the .380 mark, with a .553 SLG.