Many years ago, when I was living in Highland Park, in a home for children, we had what we called a house father there who loved baseball.
His name was Mr. Howell. He was from Connecticut, and he was a huge baseball fan, especially of the Dodgers. His favorite Dodger? Dolph Camilli and Pee Wee Reese. But what I truly loved to listen too was when he would talk about some of the greats, he had seen play.
He missed Ruth but saw Gehrig a couple of times. He loved watching Joe DiMaggio. Seems his dad liked to go to several Yankee games every year, and he would occasionally take his sons to Ebbets Field to see the Dodgers.
He also had a lot of praise for the Tigers Hank Greenberg. He saw guys like Lefty Gomez, Van Lingle Mungo, Red Ruffing, and Spud Chandler pitch. Until Campy came along, he felt the best catcher he had seen was Bill Dickey. But being a true Dodger fan, he switched once Campanella established himself as one of the greats.
He would go to Vero several times and had photos of many of the players. Seeing a photo of a very young Pee Wee Reese in those baggy uniforms alongside Dolph Camilli was a great thing to see.
But when I asked him who the best he ever saw was, he did not even hesitate. DiMaggio. And the reason was simple. Joe D could do it all. Run, hit, field, hit for average and power. He was most impressed by the fact that he had never seen DiMaggio make a mistake in the field. I had read somewhere that someone had said the same thing about Ruth.
I believe his love of the game got him through one of the toughest times of his life. He and his wife lost their son, Aubrey when he was killed on Okinawa in the last months of WWII.
It got me to thinking about all of the baseball I have seen over the last six decades. Who is the best I ever saw? Well, you see great players every day of the week now on MLB.TV. Plus, you see slo-mo replays of their best plays.
So, I have thought about it, and I will stick to a player or players I have actually been at the ballpark to see. For me, the choice is easy too. Willie Mays. He was as graceful as they come. He could run like the wind, and his cap was consistently flying off of his head when he ran. Remember, this was before batting helmets were mandatory.
Willie had a great arm and could make the hardest of catches look easy. There was a certain flair to the way he played the game. Even when he was beating your team, you had to admire the guy’s talent and love of the game.
The first time I heard Vin Scully interview Mays, I was stunned and thought he was interviewing the wrong guy. Willie had such a high-pitched squeaky voice. But his play on the field was always top-notch. It was hard for me to watch him in his last year with the Mets.
I have seen many greats play. Willie Stargell impressed me a lot. First, he was super nice to the fans, even the opposition. I went to a game at Dodger Stadium and before the game he autographed a ball for me despite me wearing my Dodger gear. I just respected the man’s talent. That night off of Alan Foster, he hit a ball over the right field pavilion roof. One of two he would hit in his career. The second one came off of Andy Messersmith.
Hank Aaron never seemed to hit long majestic home runs. Hank would hit these line drives that never seemed to climb very high, but they would go into the seats anyway. He was also an excellent fielder.
I never saw Griffey Jr. play in person, but he was on the highlight reel almost every night. I would put him, Mays and Andruw Jones as maybe the best defensive CF’s I have seen. I did not see Duke or Mickey play as often as I saw those guys.
You can go to every era of the game and find so many great players. For years I thought Brooks Robinson was the best third baseman I had ever seen. But Greg Nettles looked a lot like him in a World Series against the Dodgers. It seemed like they could not get a ball past the guy.
I look at Arenado the same way, and although I really cannot stand the guy, Machado is a top notch third baseman too. LA has had some good players at third, Cey was the longest tenured. But in my lifetime, they have not had a defender there as good as those two.
Ozzie Smith was in my mind, the best defensive SS I have ever seen. There are some excellent ones now, but Ozzie had that little something extra and made plays that made you say, what just happened. Made himself into a decent hitter after he joined the Cardinals.
I saw Roberto Clemente play maybe four times in person. And in every one of those games, he made a great play or throw. I remember watching the Pirates take fielding practice, and he would show off that cannon arm of his. Puig had that type of arm, so did Raul Mondesi. The Dodgers have been blessed with three RF’s who could throw accurately to any base. Furillo was the other. Mookie is pretty good out there too, but he is an infielder now.
The meanest pitchers I have ever seen, Big D, Bob Gibson, Randy Johnson. Anyone of them would probably throw at their mom’s if they were hitting. There might be a couple more, but it is hard to remember them all. I do remember how competitive Juan Marichal was, and I also remember how hated he was by Dodger fans.
When you talk about catchers, it seems Bench is at the top of everyone’s list. Johnny Bench was a great catcher. He caught over 1700 games. But he moved to third and first later in his career. My choice would be Ivan Rodriguez and Yadier Molina. Two of the best, maybe not with a power bat, but as defenders, they were A-1.
Three injury prone seasons derailed Campy’s career. 3 MVPs, and the all-time highest career caught stealing percentage, 57.4, label him as one of the greatest. The most HRs as a catcher title belongs to Mike Piazza. Mike had 399, 39 more than Carlton Fisk, and 43 more than Bench.
But as usual, it comes down to personal preference. Willie will always be to me, the best all-around player I have ever watched on a baseball field. There is probably a player out there somewhere who could be that good, but so far, he hasn’t shown up.
Born June 14th, 1948, in Los Angeles California. AKA The Bear
We’ve talked about this before. The best baseball player I ever saw was Willie Mays. 5 tools, all equal or better than anyone.
Best performance by a Dodger? Easy. Sandy Koufax 1965-1966. 53 wins, 17 losses, 658 innings of sub 2 ERA. Just let that sink in for a minute.
“Friedman and Gomes know Sasaki is as fragile as he is gifted, and their team is now tasked with developing him without breaking him.” This morning’s Times.
Gulp.
He’s like fine China. You don’t let the kids play catch with it in the front yard, you handle it very carefully once in a while then gently put it back on the shelf.
And the Dodgers are asked “to develop without breaking”? Really? How’s their track record on that working out?
“I’ve had numerous injuries in Japan”. Roki Sasaki
I got the under on 111 innings (what he threw last year). And, I’ve got under 150 innings for everyone else on this staff. I think the Dodgers are loading up for September and October and to get their healthy they will employ never before seen load management of the entire staff.
Seems to be the case. Heyman now saying the Dodgers might take a run at Bregman. I don’t see that, but the Arenado rumors persist with Rogan and Peete fanning that flame.
Had he not been so banged up so many times, Mickey would probably have been in the same stratosphere as Willie. He did win a triple crown once, something Mays never did. And Mick was an excellent fielder. His catch of Hodges line drive that helped preserve Larsen’s perfecto in the series is evidence of that.
You know how I feel about Mantle. His injuries, more specifically his leg injury, prevented him from advancing statistically past age 30. His WAR numbers between age 23 and 29 were league leading in all but one year. Mays went on for much longer. Who was actually better in their prime? Subjective.
Also, I saw a lot more of Mays than I did Mantle. I saw Mick play in person only once, and I was 9 years old when I did. It was immediate for me. Wow. That guy was different.
658 innings in a season????
That is absolutely ridiculous.
658 innings in two seasons. The final two years for Koufax. He definitely went out on top.
He had 53 wins in those two years and 54 complete games. Double the number of Kershaw’s career total in complete games.
I think it is not possible or it would not be fair to say who was or has been the best player, because baseball has changed a lot, you cannot compare Koufak with Kershaw, because they did not play at the same time or against the same teams or in the same stadiums or with the same managers or the same teammates and well, I think you already understood my point.
Would Babe Ruth have been the great hitter he was in his time if he were playing today?
My idea is that maybe one “could” compare players every 10 years, who was the best batter from 1971 to 1980? from 1981 to 1990? from 2001 to 2010? and so on, the same with pitchers.
Would Fernando have had the same numbers he achieved in 81, if he were to play today? Definitely not!
And an apology, I think that was not the topic of this day, but I just wanted to comment on it.
Something similar is when I keep reading that the Dodgers should have won in 2017 if it weren’t for the cheating Houston Astros.
That World Series could have been played against the Yankees, had it not been for Altuve’s homerun.
And we lost two games at home where they did not cheat.
Win one of those two and we win the series.
Still the Astros should have been stripped of the title and awarded to us.
That is still how I feel
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Agree, you have to consider the era a player played in. Would Dick Butkus even been drafted in this era? No, he was slow and plodding, a mean SOB but damn he would have never have stood a chance in todays NFL. GOAT (Greatest of All Time) or GOTE (Greatest of That Era) is the question. I’ll take GOTE as a possible measuring stick.
On that note, I say are the Dodgers the GOAT organization or actually the GOTE? Are the Dodgers regular season record over the last 10 years but only two WS rings enough to call them GOTE? As of right now , NO but give them a few more years to accumulate a few more rings and say YES to GOTE.
I didn’t get to see Mantle play, but I’ve often heard Trout compared to Mantle, for you guys that did see Mantle play, how do you think they compare in their early years before injuries side tracked both of their careers.
I think Trout is a better defensive CF than Mantle simply because of the many spectacular defensive plays he has made which are shown over and over on ESPN. Outside of the catch Mickey made in the World Series to save Larsen’s no hitter, you do not see a lot of videos of him making great defensive plays. But there is absolutely no doubt that the injuries affected both careers.
The title is that I have seen play. I did not see much of Mantle except on TV, but I saw what Mays did to LA on a regular basis every year. The times I went and saw Willie play in person; he was excellent almost every game. I only remember him not getting at least a hit once or twice. He did hate facing Big D because if the hitter before him did something, Drysdale would knock him down.