Willie Mays - RIP
 

With Willie gone, who is the best living baseball player?

Why there will never be another MLB player like Willie Mays - ESPN

very sad news, my parents loved this guy. wishing him peace.

I saw Willie Mays play quite a few times. Great ballplayer.
RIP

Say Hey!

RIP

Great player and human being.

Made the greatest catch I ever saw…running directly away from home plate at full speed and reached out as far as he could to make the catch out in front of him. Obviously a very deep center field! :)

The Catch? In the 1954 World Series?

Yep! I should have used the capital letters! :)

This one?

https://youtu.be/1vrsg_-dV7Q

They showed it on the CBS Evening News a few hours ago.

The "cancelled" Pete Rose.

Hard to tell with steroid use. As far as I know the players of Willie Mays' time made it on talent, not chemicals.

Babe Ruth made it on a diet of whisky and donuts.:smiley:

Lol. True, as far as I know. Seems as if the greats are great no matter what their physical condition. I read a story once about one major league pitcher (can't remember which one) who refused to do pregame wind sprints because "you can't run the ball over the plate".

Sort of like Mickey Mantle in that respect, who apparently holds the (very unofficial) MLB record for playing with a hangover. One story about Mickey: several teammates decided to play a practical joke on him, took one of his sweatshirts, soaked it in flammable alcohol and when he was done with his workout, surreptitiously switched it for his shirt, then lit it up in front of Mantle. From the story, he actually believed that it was alcohol that he had sweated out!

Willie Mays
 

There will never be another like Willie Mays. He could do it all, not just a slugger.

Willie Mays
 

Although always a Dodgers fan, I always loved Willie Mays and his awesome talent. Now that he passed the oldest living former player is Luis Aparicio.

Aparicio is the oldest living Hall of Famer. There are 76 former players that are older but none are in the HOF. I was surprised to see that Bob Uecker is still alive. I thought he had died.



The Oldest Living Major League Baseball Players | Baseball Almanac

These things are subjective and debatable but maybe Carl Yastrzemski (“Yaz”) former Red Sox great. No World Series wins for him unfortunately but undoubtedly one of the most heralded players of his generation (60’s/70’s) and still a baseball legend and icon in Beantown.

The Greatest Living Ball Player?
 

So far only Pete Rose comes to mind…who might the candidates be?

Good nomination!

Goat imo

Yes, especially the part "human being". Sad that his humility, integrity, and ability to accept his exceptional fame without waving from his basic principles, with such GRACE, is so rare today. Many famous people today should be so fortune as to be able to realize no matter what they have attained in money and fame, they are still only simple human beings among billions. RIP

Interesting article on the top 12.

Bench,
Bonds,
Clemens,
Schmidt
Griffey
Henderson
Johnson
Maddux
Martinez
Pujols
Rivera
Rodriguez


Who is now the greatest living MLB player? Cases for Barry Bonds, Mike Schmidt, Roger Clemens and more - CBSSports.com

I would put Ichiro on that list. He played his first nine years in Japan and didn’t play his first MLB game until he was 27!
If he had played in the major leagues his entire career, his numbers would have been awesome!!

Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens.

No one else close to them.

According to this article from last year, Mays was only the second greatest living baseball player.

The 20 Greatest Living Baseball Players – St. Louis Bullpen

I rest my case.

I think Maddux is close. Their statistics are below. The winners are in bold. Maddux beats Clemens in four categories and Clemens wins in six categories. Maddux was consistent. He had 17 straight seasons - 1988 to 2004 (this includes the strike seasons) - with at least 15 victories, the longest streak by any pitcher in big league history. They were both great players - but Maddux was never accused of using steroids.

Maddux
355
3.16 ERA
5008.1 innings pitched
3371 strikeouts
109 complete games
35 shutouts
4726 hits allowed
1981 runs allowed
353 home runs allowed
999 walks allowed

Clemens
354 wins
3.12 ERA
4916.2 innings pitched
4672 strikeouts
118 complete games
46 shutouts
4185 hits allowed
1885 runs allowed
363 home runs allowed
1580 walks allowed