Top 3 — Most Important

[FrankWakefield]

Quite a few well thought out responses...

1 Cap Anson
2 Babe Ruth
3 Jackie Robinson


4 AG Spalding
5 Curt Flood
6 Ty Cobb
7 Christy Mathewson (people would go to see the college boy pitch)
8 John Montgomery Ward
9 Lou Gehrig
10 John McGraw

[Casey2296]

Lefty O'Doul should be on the list somewhere for fostering professional baseball in Japan.

[Schlesinj]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Lefty O'Doul should be on the list somewhere for fostering professional baseball in Japan.

The Philadelphia Royal Giants helped too.

[Bigdaddy]

I think when we are talking about most important, we have to ask "If I had to tell the tale of baseball to a stranger and could only mention three players, who would they be?"

I have no argument against the Big 2 mentioned earlier - Ruth and Jackie. Both had immense impact on the game, on and off the field. But if we look back, Jackie's debut in 1947 was 76 years ago and the game of baseball has undergone some pretty significant changes in those 76 years. To me, the biggest was the introduction of free agency in the 1970's. Curt Flood started down that path, but he only only cracked the wall, he didn't bring it down. It was Catfish Hunter, on New Year's Eve of 1974, whose contract with the A's was voided enabling him to sign with whatever team he desired. There were some more legal maneuverings after that, but Catfish was officially the first free agent. That was the first big change in the balance of power in the majors and would set the stage for where we are today with player's salaries.

So my Top 3 Most Important are:

Babe Ruth
Jackie Robinson
Catfish Hunter

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

I think when we are talking about most important, we have to ask "If I had to tell the tale of baseball to a stranger and could only mention three players, who would they be?"

I have no argument against the Big 2 mentioned earlier - Ruth and Jackie. Both had immense impact on the game, on and off the field. But if we look back, Jackie's debut in 1947 was 76 years ago and the game of baseball has undergone some pretty significant changes in those 76 years. To me, the biggest was the introduction of free agency in the 1970's. Curt Flood started down that path, but he only only cracked the wall, he didn't bring it down. It was Catfish Hunter, on New Year's Eve of 1974, whose contract with the A's was voided enabling him to sign with whatever team he desired. There were some more legal maneuverings after that, but Catfish was officially the first free agent. That was the first big change in the balance of power in the majors and would set the stage for where we are today with player's salaries.

So my Top 3 Most Important are:

Babe Ruth
Jackie Robinson
Catfish Hunter

Yeah but did Catfish himself do anything special to achieve that status? It was Marvin Miller, no? And Flood who had staked out the territory by being willing to defy the status quo.

[jbhofmann]

Ruth
Jackie


98 Sosa/McGwire- it's cliche but I think every grandma in the US knew that race was happening. It captivated the whole country and by many accounts triggered Bonds into making a decision to dive head first into PEDs. His seasons that followed were cartoon like.

[EddieP]

1) Doc Adams: wrote the “Rules of Baseball”, invented the shortstop position, advocated for the 9 man and 9 inning game, set the base paths 90 feet apart. Should be in the HOF.
2) Babe Ruth
3) Jackie Robinson

[Misunderestimated]

Harry Wright
Ruth
Jackie
=====
Ruth and Jackie are undeniable....I also thought about Spalding and Ward instead of Harry Wright for the 19th Century slot..... Others who come to mind are Rube Foster (the father of the first Negro Leagues and a great pitcher), Cal Ripken (for reinvigorating the game post-strike), John McGraw for strategic impact, Ned Hanlon for his "managerial tree" (which included McGraw !); Amos Rusie and Bob Gibson both semed to bring about rule changes; Ted Williams (not just for his singular excellence as a hitter but for speaking out for including the Negro Leaguers in the HOF); Roberto Clemente; and, projecting out a little, I think Ichiro Suzuki will be considered very important.

Other players were truly great but I'm not sure how "important" they really were: Nichols, Young, Cobb, Speaker, Gehrig, Hornsby, Ott, DiMaggio, Mantle, McGwire, Barry Bonds, Pujols and ARod...

[Tabe]

Ruth & Jackie are obvious.

Curt Flood is an interesting choice though, ultimately, he failed. Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally were the ones who ended the reserve clause.

Maybe Barry Bonds - his destruction of the record book brought us steroid testing.