Super high end Mantle cards

[Peter_Spaeth]

For what it is worth, or not, Bill James ranked Cobb 5th and Mantle 6th. I don't see any argument for Cobb as 1st.

[jsfriedm]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

For what it is worth, or not, Bill James ranked Cobb 5th and Mantle 6th. I don't see any argument for Cobb as 1st.

Joe Posnanski's top 11:

1)Willie Mays
2)Babe Ruth
3)Barry Bonds
4)Henry Aaron
5)Oscar Charleston
6)Ted Williams
7)Walter Johnson
8)Ty Cobb
9)Stan Musial
10)Satchel Paige
11)Mickey Mantle

I am sure that will not start any fights

[packs]

People consider Cobb perhaps the greatest hitter of all time but no one sees him in the same light as they do Mantle so I’m not sure what Cobb brings to the conversation. Most people still think the book Cobb is an accurate reflection of his life.

Who considers him more popular than Mantle?

[jsfriedm]

Originally Posted by packs

People consider Cobb perhaps the greatest hitter of all time but no one sees him in the same light as they do Mantle so I’m not sure what Cobb brings to the conversation. Most people still think the book Cobb is an accurate reflection of his life.

Who considers him more popular than Mantle?

As I understand it, that is the core of Steve's point: that Mantle has had an unusually large gap between his popularity with collectors and his on-field performance, and the question is how much that is subject to change as those who saw him play leave the scene. Younger collectors, for example, seem to put a lot of stock in WAR (more, in my opinion, than it merits, but that's a different discussion). And Mantle can't really hold a candle to Mays or Aaron in WAR. So will they maintain Mantle's popularity/performance gap?

[packs]

Originally Posted by jsfriedm

As I understand it, that is the core of Steve's point: that Mantle has had an unusually large gap between his popularity with collectors and his on-field performance, and the question is how much that is subject to change as those who saw him play leave the scene. Younger collectors, for example, seem to put a lot of stock in WAR (more, in my opinion, than it merits, but that's a different discussion). And Mantle can't really hold a candle to Mays or Aaron in WAR. So will they maintain Mantle's popularity/performance gap?

Yes, for the reasons I outlined. Also my post was about Mays vs Mantle and not Mantle vs Cobb. I don't really see Cobb having a place in the conversation. Mantle will always be more popular than Mays because Mantle was a winner. Him being a winner will never change so people's opinions about winners would need to be watered down, which I don't see happening.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by jsfriedm

Joe Posnanski's top 11:

1)Willie Mays
2)Babe Ruth
3)Barry Bonds
4)Henry Aaron
5)Oscar Charleston
6)Ted Williams
7)Walter Johnson
8)Ty Cobb
9)Stan Musial
10)Satchel Paige
11)Mickey Mantle

I am sure that will not start any fights

LOL. It may be the only list I've seen with Ruth not first.

[G1911]

Ruth not first, 6/11 played together in the early 50’s. Seems like somebody’s list of favorites rather than an actual greatest list.


One does not need to see somebody to appreciate them, but is obviously true that the majority of people have a leaning to the people they saw or grew up liking. Young people are collecting Acuna, Trout and Ohtani instead of names from history books because they are contemporary and they watch them.