Hard to say either way for me.
His earlier career was in an era with a lot of excellent shortstops.
Jeter, Rodriguez, Garciaparra, Tejada, Neifi Perez, Barry Larkin, and a bit earlier Cal Ripken.
For a few years, Nomar actually was better, but not after 2000. And he eventually joined Tejada and Rodriguez on the PED list. (Although most likely as an injured player trying to hang on - not that it makes much difference.)
Aside from Rodriguez, none of them managed to stay injury free and productive for anywhere near as long. And somehow miss negative publicity while playing in NY.
Comparing eras is just too difficult. How would Wagner have fielded with a modern glove? Or batted with a livelier ball, a modern lighter bat, and a few more games each year?
So I don't know about "best ever" but best of his era I could go for.
Playing the game "right" is also pretty big to me. I usually have to temper it with an understanding that a guy making 10M + a season might have good reason to avoid crashing into the stands or something like that that might shorten his career.
And he always seemed to just play hard.
And I think he was the guy who answered a question about the fans in Boston getting on him said something like " I love it! it means they think I'm good enough to try to bother me. "
Not every player can take that attitude, some can't handle the scrutiny of playing in either Boston or NY (I haven't followed the Yankees as well, but there's a bunch of players who have been good, come to the Sox and been -average or worse, then left and been good again.)
Jeter managed to both deal with it and in some way enjoy it for a long time.
Steve B
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