Best lefty off all time? My vote is Koufax!

[BobC]

Originally Posted by cjedmonton

This has been a truly enjoyable thread, even if I’m out of my depth with much of the analysis.

Can’t help but wonder how the narrative would’ve unfolded with just the slightest tweak to the title:

Best Most revered lefty of all time? My vote is (still) Koufax!

Despite the iron clad arguments for Robert Moses, Warren Edward, and Randall David, none…and I mean none carried the mystique and the aura of Sanford. Metrics cannot adequately quantify that.

Also, his peak fell during a perfect storm of West Coast expansion, the end of the Golden Era, and the ushering in of the pitching era. It was the right time and the right place for a guy like Koufax to dominate the scene like he did. There were so many great pitchers during his time, but Koufax’s artistry was unmatched…even if his stats don’t support it.

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 this 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

[cjedmonton]

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

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!

[BobC]

Originally Posted by cjedmonton

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!

Makes perfect sense, and that is a great list. But the majority of people on your list are still recent enough that we, or a family member, would possibly still be affected by that familiarity bias. Ruth and Gehrig (and possibly Robinson) are back enough that we wouldn't likely have that familiarity bias. But those earlier players have movies and shows about them to keep them in the public eye long after they were done playing. So that helps as well.