Quote:
Originally Posted by BobC
CJ
Great points and interesting thought by slightly changing the question like that. Problem I can see in answering it though is that it gives an unfair bias/advantage to modern pitchers, like a Koufax, who we may have grown up with, or maybe our Father did and told us how great he was. We can read and learn about earlier players, but I fear for the vast majority of people, they're much more likely to throw their reverence towards a player they'd actually seen and grew up watching. Just basic human nature. And you can't really base a question like on just people here on this forum. Let's face it, we're mostly a bunch of pre-war baseball card collecting nerds, and an extreme outlier when talking about the public in general. LOL
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You’re spot on with this take, Bob. By and large, the players we admired and revered the most are those we have a direct (firsthand) or semi-direct connection with (through a parent’s or grandparent’s direct connection). Recency bias in full effect.
But there are only a handful of players whose reverence endures across generations…even if the vast majority of us never saw them play (or if we did, only a small percentage have a vivid and meaningful recollection). Seeing Roberto
patrol RF at Forbes Field in ‘66 as a 5 year old does not really count, as cool as that may be.
IMO, the list is a short one:
Babe
Lou
Jackie
Roberto
Willie
Mickey
Hank
Sandy
Not a slight to any of the other bonafide legends, but these 8 have a staying power in our consciousness and imagination like no others.
Then again, sentimentality has no place in this thread…even if we are all just fan(atics) at heart!