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Greg EcklundI'd choose Johnson as the greatest ever, with Grove and Alexander right behind. Johnson's consistent dominance on a team that was never great until the end of his career puts him over the top. If Johnson had pitched for the teams Mathewson got to pitch for, there would be no question as to who the greatest pitcher ever was.
Even with the high esteem he is held, I don't think Grove gets the credit he deserves. People have a tendency to get mesmerized by deadball era E.R.A's, and while they are impressive, the era in which a pitcher played needs to be taken into context when looking at his E.R.A. totals. To me, Grove's ability to consistently keep his E.R.A. under 3.00 while pitching almost his entire career in an extremely hitter friendly era, is an incredible achievement and makes him the second best.
Chad, to answer your Satchel question - From everything I have ever read, one could definitley make a case for Paige being among the greatest ever, but I don't feel that I have enough information to judge. I may have never seen Johnson, Matty, or Alexander, but I do have numbers and the quality of their teams that I can use to compare them - I have always felt that people who choose the Negro League stars for all time teams are picking with their hearts rather than their heads because they really don't have anything to base it on other than anecdotal evidence.
One more question for others to answer if they choose...if you had one game that your life was riding on, who would you want to pitch it?
For me, that one is a no brainer...Bob Gibson