<p>Title explains itself</p>
<li><p>Ruth</p></li>
<li><p>Ty Cobb</p></li>
<li><p>Ted Williams</p></li>
<li><p>Honus Wagner</p></li>
<li><p>Willie Mays</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Honorable Mentions- Mickey Mantle (what could have been), Stan Musial, Lou Gerig, and Barry “roids” bonds.</p>
<p>i would put willie mays higher up</p>
<p>i think you could swtich 2-5 up anyway you want. I just listed them off the top of my head :)</p>
<p>Ruth simply because when you compare him with the other players of his day, he was way ahead of them.</p>
<p>don't forget ruth was a great pitcher, too</p>
<p>Though I've never seen any of them play, I'll base it on what I know.</p>
<ol>
<li>Babe Ruth</li>
<li>Mickey Mantle</li>
<li>Ted Williams</li>
<li>Willie Mays</li>
<li>Ty Cobb</li>
</ol>
<p>ichiro... lol nah... ted williams, mickey mantle, babe ruth, ty cobb, tony gwynn</p>
<p>It's interesting you mention Tony Gwynn.... I agree that he is one of the greats, but I think he's going to be some forgotten in Baseball history, just because he never played for a great team.</p>
<p>Others to consider: Cal Ripken Jr., Peat Rose (remember this is greatest players, not greatest people),Ricky Henderson, and (assuming he is clean for the fun of it) Barry Bonds. Final one I've always wondered about is Ken Griffey Jr... Had he played a injury free career I believe his name would be on these lists.</p>
<p>ya gwynn was awesome. too bad the padres suck</p>
<p>350 career average!!!! only ichiro can pass that... with that said where are the pitchers... the koufax's the ryan's the spahn's... the YOUNG'S</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Barry Bonds
If he retired before his 70 HR season, he would still be considered one of the top 5 greatest players ever. Is the only 500-500, let alone 400-400, player to ever play the game. Not to mention 8 gold gloves, 13 all-star appearances, and 7 MVP awards. The total package, most complete player ever.</p></li>
<li><p>Babe Ruth
Staggering home run numbers as well as a .342 career average. His legend speaks for itself. Was a great pitcher as well.</p></li>
<li><p>Ted Williams
It's funny how his stature has grown immensely since his retirement. He wasn't consdiered the best player in his era during his time (played second fiddle to Dimaggio and the mighty Yankees), yet his statistics speak for themselves. As the baseball community has grown more and more statistic oriented, we look at his numbers with more awe as the years go on. Looking at the numbers we can see why so many call him the greatest hitter of all time. Only drawbacks were his poor fielding and his failure to lead his team to a pennant(always falling short of Dimaggio and his Yankees). A one-dimensional player, but that one dimension(hitting) brings him to my top three.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I really don't see how anybody is going to argue any of those players out of the top three players of all time... but here are my next two.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Stan Musial
This 20 time all-star is considered the best St. Louis Cardinal to ever play the game. This man never had one astronomical season, but is considered one of the most consistent players ever. Day in and day out he would contribute, and continued to do so for 23 seasons. Never had any major injuries, and the Cards could always count on him for 30 HR and ~120 RBI. To put up the numbers he did for that long of a period is flat out amazing.</p></li>
<li><p>Willie Mays
Another 20 time all-star as well as a 12 time gold glove winner. Was a pretty similar player to Bonds in that he was a complete player- he could field, run, hit, and had a patient eye. The fact that he was a winner doesn't hurt either- he won mulitple pennants and a world series in the era of Yankee dominance. Was a great team leader and one of the greatest all-around players ever.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>HM: Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Joe Jackson, Hank Aaron, Jimmy Foxx, Lou Gehrig</p>
<p>Negro league greats like Josh Gibson and Oscar Charleston deserve some recognition as well whenever a discussion of baseball greats comes up.</p>
<p>Don't mention Tony Gwynn without saying George Brett or Wade Boggs.</p>
<p>GOD WHY AREN'T PITCHERS IN THE TOP 5... and i'd hardly put boggs infront of tony gwynn...</p>
<p>pitchers shouldn't and can't be considered in the same category as hitters. when you name great baseball players- you're generally talking about the players who play both ways. basically, comparing pitchers and position players is comparing apple and orange. we're talking greatest players here, and pitchers aren't on the list for the same reason designated hitters aren't on the list- they don't play both ways and they're completely different animals.</p>
<p>even with steriods, bonds wasn't consistent enough to be in the top 5. I think Ruth is ahead of him in every offensive category except for stolen bases even though ruth has played less games and had far less at bats.</p>
<p>Where's Hank Aaron? He's the actual homerun king and he did it against better competition on a sorry Braves team.</p>
<p>Babe Ruth, Nolan Ryan, Hammerin Hank and all those great Yankees (Mantle, Gehrig).</p>
<p>I don't think you can put Bonds on the list with the steroid investigations going on. If you can prove to me he didn't use steroids, then he can be in the top 15 or even 10.</p>
<p>I really don't know. I really want to watch some of the old negro leagues stuff. I don't know if any of it was ever recorded, though. I heard that's got some really great baseball.</p>
<p>Satchel Page. Some consider him to be the best pitcher who ever lived - he pitched consistently for about 40 years, in a variety of leagues including in MLB. Many say that had he been in the Major Leagues instead of the Negro Leagues from the start of his career, he could've easily gone down in history as the best. Guess we'll never know.</p>
<p>And as far as impact on the game, I'd say Babe Ruth definitely was the most important.</p>
<p>what about derek jeter? he is def. underrated...</p>