Who is your favorite pre-1930 player and why?

[Rob D.]

Originally Posted by brett

Napoleon Lajoie. Aside from being underrated because of Cobb's presence he was a dignified, classy player and they named the team after him for Christ's sake!

Brett,

Just today I was reading Sports Illustrated, and with Ken Griffey Jr.'s retirement, the magazine assembled its all-time team of Hall of Famers who retired without a World Series ring. Right away I looked at the second base spot, expecting to see Lajoie. Of course SI went with Ryne Sandberg. I laughed.

[brett]

Originally Posted by Rob D.

Brett,

Just today I was reading Sports Illustrated, and with Ken Griffey Jr.'s retirement, the magazine assembled its all-time team of Hall of Famers who retired without a World Series ring. Right away I looked at the second base spot, expecting to see Lajoie. Of course SI went with Ryne Sandberg. I laughed.

What a joke. Sandberg is SO overrated it's ridiculous... Good player, but saying he's better than Lajoie is literally like saying Patrick Ewing was better than Chamberlain. Not even in the same class.

[celoknob]

After he retired, Johnny Kling bought the Kansas City Blues in the early 1930s and quickly eliminated segregated seating when that was not a popular stance. He's my choice.

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by celoknob

After he retired, Johnny Kling bought the Kansas City Blues in the early 1930s and quickly eliminated segregated seating when that was not a popular stance. He's my choice.

Good call there. Another extremely underrated player. Probably the best catcher in the dead ball era. His absence in 1909 likely cost the Cubs a 4th straight pennant.

[glchen]

Always been a big fan of Gehrig. Always a class act.

[sbfinley]

Can't believe no one has mentioned Ed Delahanty. The man was a beast in a time when the game went as followed: single, advance the runner, single, advance the runner.

Plus his demise is the stuff of "Unsolved Mysteries."

[green rhino123]

Cy Young, Ty Cobb, and/or Babe Ruth.
I can't decide.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by brett

What a joke. Sandberg is SO overrated it's ridiculous... Good player, but saying he's better than Lajoie is literally like saying Patrick Ewing was better than Chamberlain. Not even in the same class.

With all respect to Ryne Sandberg, he was no Patrick Ewing.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Bill James ranks Wagner 2nd, Cobb 5th.

[rdixon1208]

Grover Alexander

Mostly because we share a common drinking problem

[gracecollector]

Walter "Rabbit" Maranville - he was right up there with the other jokesters and characters of the dead ball era. Plus he had plenty of talent too. Just seemed to love the game and had a great sense of humor. He always hamed it up for photographers too, so the images we are left of him bring me a smile. Read "Run, Rabbit, Run : the hilarious and mostly true tales of Rabbit Maranville" for his antics.

[dstraate]

Obviously never saw him, but I think Evers would have been a blast to see.

1. He stepped in and took over when the other guy was having a rough spot (same way I met my wife)

2. As a loyal Cubs fan, I'm fascinated by the fact that there was a time, albeit 100 years ago, that the Cubs broke the hearts and playoff dreams of other teams, read; Baseballs Sad Lexicon

3. Anybody who can take a feed from short, pivot, and get enough mustard on it to nab the guy at 1st is pretty rad. Lord knows I can't even gun down the fat slobs in our beer league off the pivot.

P.S. Ryno is getting a tough break here. He may be no Lajoie, but the Ewing comparisons are just harsh

[Clutch-Hitter]

Originally Posted by gracecollector

Walter "Rabbit" Maranville - he was right up there with the other jokesters and characters of the dead ball era. Plus he had plenty of talent too. Just seemed to love the game and had a great sense of humor. He always hamed it up for photographers too, so the images we are left of him bring me a smile. Read "Run, Rabbit, Run : the hilarious and mostly true tales of Rabbit Maranville" for his antics.

I've been looking at this postcard for a few years now and have concluded that the guy with the arrow pointing at him is Rabbit. I know, can't be certain, but I think just based on the way he's standing and wearing his hat.





I know there's a thread on here somewhere in which it was found that this postcard pre-dated Ruth, but I can't find it, and can't recall if it was factual. Anyway, before that, when it was possible Ruth was hitting BP bombs in this postcard picture, exhibition style, with a packed stadium and all his teammates standing around in awe, I thought (and still do) that Ruth packed the stadium for BP, much like McGwire in '98.....

My family and I traveled to Atlanta in '98 for one of the Braves/Cardinals games, arriving early for BP and wow, McGwire was literally in another league by comparison. Ruth was the same way, yet further toward the extreme end of hitting by comparison. There was nobody close to him until later..........IMO, McGwire was the closest thing to "the next Babe Ruth," but he needed artificial enhancement to get there: Ruth just needed a dozen or so hot dogs....

I remember buying a bunch of unopened packs growing up and hoping for this and that, trading with my buddies, etc. Walking through our little league park one day I asked my older buddy, "Do you think there's such thing as a real Babe Ruth card, one that they did when he was playing? He didn't know; nobody seemed to know. I told him, (his nickname was "Hootie," nasty lefty pitcher, even back then), when I grow up, I'm going to get me one of those Babe Ruth cards if there is one........I thought about it all the time growing up:



My guy: Babe Ruth, the man with about a hundred nicknames

By the way, I have photos of each section of the postcard that I took with a macro lens if anyone is interested.

[brett]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Bill James ranks Wagner 2nd, Cobb 5th.

In this case Bill James is flat out wrong. As great as Wagner was, none of the numbers compare. I'm not just talking about overall career numbers because Cobb played a few years longer, but their 162 game AVERAGE goes as follows: At Bats: Cobb 611 / Wagner 605, Runs: Cobb 120 / Wagner 101, Hits: Cobb 224 / Wagner 198, Doubles: Cobb 39 / Wagner 37, Triples: Cobb 16 / Wagner 15, Homers: Cobb 6 / Wagner 6, RBI: Cobb 103 / Wagner 100, Steals: Cobb 48 / Wagner 42, Walks: Cobb 67 / Wagner 56, On Base Percentage: Cobb .433 / Wagner .391, Career Slugging Percentage: Cobb .512 / Wagner .467, and finally Career Average: Cobb .366 (highest of all-time) / Wagner .328 (37th highest of all-time). In Wagner's best season he hit .381 while Cobb had 9 seasons better than that including 3 over .400 (his best was .420). Bottom line is it's not even close. There isn't ONE facet of hitting that Wagner was better than Cobb. Although one of the greatest ever, Wagner gets a little more love than he deserves because of the position he played and the mystique of a baseball card. One can make a strong argument that Cobb was the greatest ever (I'll still go with Babe), and I'd put Wagner a few spots behind them both after the likes of Hornsby, Gehrig and possibly Musial, but just ahead of Lajoie, Speaker, and some of the other legends of the game. Not that any of this matters because it's all opinion, but the Sporting News ranked Cobb 3rd best (after Ruth and Mays) and Wagner 13th (their top-ranked shortstop).

[Peter_Spaeth]

Ruth pretty clearly ranks first. As for second, I think strong arguments could be made for Cobb, Wagner, Mays, Bonds, and anecdotally anyhow, Oscar Charleston.

[glynparson]

I'm a Pirates fan and a baseball card fan did I really have any other choice?