Who is the greatest player of the Pre-War Era?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Vintageclout

Leon,

Aside from being a HOF PITCHER, I firmly believe Ruth's stand-alone greatness is confirmed by the FACT that he actually out-homered virtually all of the TEAMS in the league during the early 1920's!!! I will always look at that statistic as one of if not THE most unfathomable feats in Major League history. Babe Ruth will forever stand "above the game" itself!

Joe T.

Joe- I always remember that same statistic. And I also remember that he was one of the very best pitchers while he was pitching early in his career.

[BeanTown]

Interesting results from this poll.

[Huysmans]

Absolutely no surprise looking at the results....

Cobb and Ruth are king, best of the best, with no other comparable players in my opinion.

...it isn't even a contest.

[John1941]

Actually, I just voted for Josh Gibson, the only guy who can compare with the Babe in my opinion. I remain unconvinced that the Negro Leagues were equal to the major leagues, but even if you discount his 215 OPS+ a little, if you factor in that he was a catcher, that's more impressive than Ruth. Leaving aside pitching at least.

[nat]

"Ruth broke the HR record 4 times! and won only 1 MVP."

For a while there was a rule that a player could win the MVP award only once. I don't know if that was holding Ruth back, but it might have been.

[oldjudge]

Not only did Ruth change the game, but he saved baseball after the Black Sox scandal. I think Cobb was two and Wagner three. Unfortunately, we will never know how Gibson would have done in the majors but because he never played there I cannot consider him.

[Exhibitman]

I notice only one pitcher on the original list. In terms of pitchers I would list the top 5 as:

Johnson
Grove
Young
Mathewson
Alexander

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by Leon

Joe- I always remember that same statistic. And I also remember that he was one of the very best pitchers while he was pitching early in his career.

+1 Agree that is an amazing Stat that Ruth himself hit more home runs that most entire teams in the league for several years early in the 1920's. No one has ever been that dominate compared to the rest of the League

PLus added his pitching acumen and no one is even close