Quote:
Originally Posted by G1911
I’d pick Kaline, by just a hair though. They are very close by any honest assessment.
Clemente was great, and greatly overrated. The emotional narrative is strong, and he fits into a contemporary narrative, as a victim of his times and a great humanitarian with a heroic death. It doesn’t change actual performance, where one may reasonably come down on either side.
What really surprised me is that their slugging is only .005 apart.
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Even leaving aside his death, Clemente had a LOT of charisma and was really a presence at the plate, my brothers and I as kids saw him in the 71WS in Baltimore and we thought we were watching God. There is also something to the notion that Forbes Field kept his HR numbers down some. Also, I think a lot of people (not Topps) admired him for being the first truly great (all respect to Minoso) Latin ballplayer, if I can still use that term.