My 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time List.
Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” William Shakespeare
March 11, 2022
The slang term “Bucket List”* [a list of things that one wants to do before they die] is derived from the slang term for dying: “Kicking the Bucket.” On my list of things to do before I depart this life has always been to figure out my own personal list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time. This post is the beginning of that undertaking. Hopefully, it will end with one more thing off my list. I will begin by discussing the history of “100 Greatest Baseball Player Lists.” Then I will lay out the ground rules for creating my own list. Of course, I do not promise to absolutely abide by these rules. You should never put on a straightjacket willingly. But, if I do break my own rules, I will hopefully have a good reason and even better explanation. After formulating the rules, I will finally get to the fun part: beginning to create the top 100 list itself in a future post.
*Could the Slang term of a Slang term accurately be called the Son of Slang?
The 1981 Ritter & Honig Glorious 100
Debating the relative greatness of baseball players is a pastime as old as the game itself. But making a list of exactly the 100 greatest players seems to be a somewhat more recent development. In the year 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig published their book: “The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time.” This caused many other baseball writers to think to themselves: “I wish I had thought of that book title first.”* At that time, Ritter was already a very famous baseball author. In 1966, his baseball book: “The Glory of their Times” had climbed the best-seller lists. For his book, Ritter had traveled around and interviewed old baseball players. The resulting tome was a glorious exercise in baseball nostalgia. Some of it was even true. In the 1970s, Donald Honig picked up where Ritter left off. He wrote “Baseball when the Grass was Real” and several other books of baseball interviews. Then Honig convinced Ritter to collaborate with him to write the 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time book. For this book, Honig and Ritter used no formal procedure to pick their 100 players. They simply rounded up the usual suspects and then threw in a few other guys too. The resulting list was met with some criticism, disbelief and a little derision. Ritter & Honig quickly reissued the book in 1986 to fix some of the more obvious issues.
*That very same year (1981), New York Sportswriter Maury Allen also published his own personal list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. Allen simply named his book: “The Baseball 100” and watched Ritter & Honig’s book steal the glory. No one ever asked Maury Allen to reissue his book.
One problem was that Ritter & Honig included some active players who were still in mid-career. The authors made the assumption that the careers of these players would continue on the same trajectory. Unfortunately, a whole bunch of these players (Steve Garvey, Dave Parker, George Foster, Jim Rice, and Fred Lynn) did not hold up their end of the bargain. They swerved off their career paths, ended up in various ditches or the tall grass beside the road, and never arrived at the destination. Another problem Ritter & Honig encountered was sharp criticism over the inclusion of some “shooting star” type players. These baseball meteors began their careers like future All-Time Greats (Pete Reiser, Herb Score, Joe Wood), but then their careers crashed and burned soon after reaching altitude. In the introduction to the book, Ritter & Honig anticipated this criticism. They claimed that players who could have been great deserved representation on their list too. To be blunt, this rationalization for including these players made no sense at all. The list was for the 100 All-Time Greatest Baseball Players, not for anyone who would have been on it with a little better luck. Yet another problem was the exclusion from the list of any player whose career was primarily in the 19th Century. Ritter and Honig did include Honus Wagner and Cy Young, whose careers bridged the centuries; but Cap Anson, arguably the greatest Player from the previous century, was absent. However, all these assorted problems paled beside the list’s two main dilemmas.
The Main Problems with the Glorious 100
First, Ritter & Honig did not include a single player whose career was spent mostly or totally in the Negro Leagues. There was no Satchel Paige, no Josh Gibson, on the list. Considering that the Baseball Hall of Fame had just spent the 1970s electing a symbolic team of Negro Leaguers, this omission seemed strange. Ritter & Honig did put an explanation for this odd oversight in the book’s introduction. They explained that they had excluded the Greatest of the Negro League Players because: “we are unable to document what we know to be true.” Considering that their list was not even ranked (which would have supported a lack of statistics to accurately rate argument), this statement was basically nonsensical. They had included Players on the list for what they may have accomplished in a perfect world. To exclude the Negro League Players after that was ridiculous. Ritter & Honig could have included both Paige and Gibson to represent the Negro Leaguers. They could have just gone crazy (for that time) and included the entire 1970s Baseball Hall of Fame Negro League “dream team” as a protest against discrimination. Instead, Ritter & Honig just dropkicked the issue. They did not include a token Negro Leaguer. They did not bend over backwards to right a wrong. To their discredit, Ritter & Honig simply ignored the Negro League Players other than their single paragraph of explanation for this neglect. But even this was still not the worst misjudgment in the Ritter & Honig 100 Greatest Baseball Players book.
For some reason, they included Hal Chase on their list. In his defense, Chase was often considered one of the best first baseman of all time while he was playing. On the other hand, he was also involved in basically every gambling scandal that plagued Major League Baseball during the 1910s. In 1919, this ongoing corruption resulted in gamblers bribing players of the Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series. Although he was not directly involved in the worst Baseball Scandal of All-Time, Chase was able to profit handsomely from it through insider information from his gambling associates. In the aftermath of this crime, he was permanently banned from Baseball for being a crook and all-around bad influence. While he was a good but not great player, Chase’s credentials for inclusion on any 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time list are slim and non-existent. To be fair, Shoeless Joe Jackson, a member of the banned 1919 Black Sox, was also on the Ritter & Honig list. But the difference between Jackson and Chase is the difference between a man who fell into the cesspool and the person who created and filled the septic tank. Jackson was not a career criminal. He was just a gullible man too weak to resist the peer pressure that cost him the twilight of his career and his reputation. Jackson was also, without any doubt, statistically over-qualified to be on any list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. Chase was not. Why Ritter & Honig chose to include the underqualified and completely corrupt Hal Chase on their top 100 list remains a mystery.
The Glorious 100 Get Revised
In 1986, when they revised their 100 Greatest Baseball Players book, Ritter & Honig removed and replaced seven players. The seven players deleted from their list were the doomed Hal Chase (of course), Chief Bender, Jimmy Collins, George Foster, Fred Lynn, Tony Oliva, and Dave Parker. They added seven of the best players left out of the first printing: Ferguson Jenkins, Eddie Mathews, Nolan Ryan, Harmon Killebrew, Willie McCovey, Willie Stargell, and (arguably) Rollie Fingers. Ritter & Honig did not remove Herb Score, Pete Reiser, or Joe Wood. You had to admire them for sticking to their principles, no matter how odd or wrong-headed. Of course, all this criticism may make it seem like the Ritter & Honig list of the Greatest 100 Baseball Players is worthless. However, even considering their lack of methodology, it should be admitted that Ritter & Honig actually did a pretty good job considering the limitations of the time and the form. They pretty much got all of the top 50 Baseball Players of All-Time on their list. It only got strangely squiggly down near the bottom. The book was actually a lot of fun and it started a very interesting conversation: “Who were the actual 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time?”
The 1986 Bill James Historical Abstract List
In 1977, the Ubiquitous Bill James [UBJ] published his first annual “Baseball Abstract” book. James used these annual books to analyze baseball statistics from the previous season in a scientific manner. He would also throw in some interesting essays about players, teams, and baseball in general. He continues to write about Baseball today and is certainly the most famous Baseball writer alive (and probably dead too). I usually like to refer to him as the Ubiquitous Bill James [UBJ]; because, if you think up an interesting subject for a baseball discussion, you soon find out that he has already written a book, an essay, or an article about it. But his career started with his annual abstracts. In 1986, UBJ took the obvious next step and wrote: The Bill James Historical Abstract of Baseball. In this book, UBJ applied his scientific method of analyzing Baseball across the entire breadth of its history. A good part of the Historical Abstract rates the best players at each individual baseball position. At the end of this positional rating section, UBJ included his list: The 100 Greatest Players of this Century. Because he was ranking these 100 players by scientific and statistical methods, UBJ expressed his regrets that he could not include 19th Century or Negro League players because he felt that too much evidence was missing to properly evaluate these two groups. Even with this restriction, the adoption of a methodology to create the list was a great improvement over the seat of the pants approach taken by Ritter & Honig.
In his 1986 Historical Abstract, UBJ asked a very interesting question that has pretty much never been raised again: When you inquire who are the Greatest Baseball Players, do you mean by career value or by peak value? For instance, Don Sutton won 324 games in the Major Leagues and Sandy Koufax won just 165 games. Both played primarily for the Dodgers (Koufax, of course, played only for the Dodgers). By games won, Sutton would seem to have had twice the career that Koufax had. But the kicker to all this is that Koufax, at his peak, was a much much greater pitcher than Sutton. Koufax had four straight years (1963-1966) that tower over any year from Sutton’s career like Mount Everest over some random hilltop. Who had the better career? Were Sutton’s twenty years of solid pitching worth more than four years from the “Left Arm of God” (Koufax’s actual nickname)? To answer this puzzle, UBJ created two separate lists of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. One list for peak value and then one for career value. However, there was a significant issue with peak value. How do you define a Baseball Player’s peak value? Is it simply his best season? Or is it his best two or three or four or more years? Do his peak seasons need to be consecutive? If not continuous, how many years apart can they be? What if they are a decade apart? With so many possible peak season(s) definitions, the inevitable conclusion was reached. Career value should be used to make 100 Greatest Baseball Player lists. Ultimately, UBJ’s initial attempt at creating his top 100 Baseball Player list had all the usual problems of any first draft: it created more questions than answers.
The 1998 Sporting News 100
In 1998, the Sporting News decided to release its own 100 Greatest Baseball Players list. Founded in 1886, the Sporting News [TSN] outlasted its two early rivals, the New York Clipper and the Sporting Life newspapers, to become, by the 1920s, the only remaining national baseball newspaper. TSN styled itself as the “Bible of Baseball.” For many years, the annual Sporting News Baseball Guides and Registers were the primary source for all baseball statistics. But, by 1998, TSN was on its last legs. The cable channel ESPN had replaced TSN as the primary source of news about baseball. Within a decade, TSN would be pretty much washed away by the tides of time. But before they went, TSN gathered twelve of their long-term Baseball editors to vote for the Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time. In its own way, the list was a fitting coda to the newspaper that had covered Baseball for well over a century. Because of its selection process, the TSN 100 Greatest Baseball Players list was basically a popularity contest. In many respects, the 1998 TSN list could be labeled the “Baseball Establishment” view of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time. Despite this, it is actually not a bad list at all. It is notable for including some of the Star Players from the Negro Leagues. Considering that TSN had always been a very conservative voice in the Baseball World and originally opposed integration, it was nice that they exited stage right with a note of grace. Their list is a testament to how the 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time were popularly viewed at the end of the 20th Century.
The 2001 New Bill James Historical Abstract List
In 2001, the Ubiquitous Bill James [UBJ] published his: “The New Bill James Historical Abstract.” Despite the title, UBJ had almost completely rewritten his 1986 book. In between versions, James had developed new methods to rate players, in particular his Win Shares [WS] formula. Using his new equations, UBJ revamped his 100 Greatest Baseball Player list. At the very top of the list, nothing had changed. Babe Ruth was still rated at number one and the great Honus Wagner at number two. Some of the more extreme positions from his earlier list were moderated (for example, the rankings of Rogers Hornsby and Nap Lajoie rose). Most importantly, Bill James, to his credit, became the first baseball writer or historian to try to rank Negro League Players in their actual places rather than just as token inclusions. UBJ placed Oscar Charleston at #4 and Josh Gibson at #9. All in all, James placed twelve players whose careers had been pretty much completely obscured by the Color Line in his top 100. His reasoning for doing this was completely logical. He also admitted that he felt he may have been too conservative. UBJ even listed several players from the Negro Leagues whose exclusion from the list troubled him. At that time (now 20 years ago), almost all of the statistics that are presently available for the Negro Leagues were non-existent. His inclusion of all the Negro Leaguers in his list looks prescient today. UBJ’s 100 Greatest Baseball Players list from his 2001 Historical Abstract was a vast improvement over his 1986 list. In my opinion, it was a good way to start the 21st Century.
The 2021 Joe Posninski’s Baseball 100
In 2021, Joe Posnanski published his list of Baseball’s 100 greatest players. He first wrote this list for the internet website: “The Athletic.” Posnanski wrote an essay for each individual Baseball Player on his top 100 list. Then the website published them, counting down from 100 to 1, until they were all done. After the website finished posting his work, he had all 100 essays collected in book form titled: “The Baseball 100.” To create his list, Posnanski used the statistical formula “Wins Above Replacement” [WAR] to help build the basic structure of the list. But then he moved the Players around like chess pieces to fit into his own idiosyncratic fancies. Willie Mays was rated number one over Babe Ruth to emphasize that baseball post-integration was harder than pre-integration. There were two number 20s but no number 19 in condemnation of the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. Jackie Robinson was listed at #42 for his uniform number. Joe DiMaggio was listed at #56 for his hitting streak. Sadaharu Oh, basically the Japanese Babe Ruth, made the list. In other words, it was a good fun list. Posnanski, who wrote the biography of Negro League legend “Buck” O’Neil, did not leave the Negro League Players out. He included nine Negro League Players on his list. In many ways, Posnanski’s list was an updating of the Bill James list from 2001. One way of looking at this list would be to consider it the anti-Establishment or opposition view of Baseball history. Almost like a counterpoint, the website ESPN, representing the ‘Establishment’ view of the history of Baseball would soon formulate their own list.
The 2022 ESPN Greatest 100 Baseball Players of All Time List
In February of 2022, ESPN published on their website their own 100 Greatest Baseball Player list. Following in the footsteps of 1998 Sporting News list, this list employed a number of ‘baseball experts’ to sift through the potential 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time. Basically these experts voted in a series of face-offs between individual players until the list was winnowed down from number 100 to number 1 (Babe Ruth). This process, consisting of hundreds or perhaps thousands of votes, actually seems to be very over-complicated. It is a procedure that seems guaranteed to deliver all the problems of groupthink and none of the advantages of a coherent methodology. In other words, it is a good example of typical establishment consensus. In the old Indian Fable of the six blind men and the elephant, each blind man thinks he knows what he is touching (a snake, spear, fan, tree, wall and rope). But none know that it is actually an elephant. This is the problem of such a consensus. Maybe they all get together and guess that it is an elephant. Or maybe their guess is totally off-base. As an establishment example of a 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time list, this is a perfectly good follow-up to the 1998 Sporting News list. As an actual list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time, it veers off the path into the gutters pretty quickly.
My Own Greatest 100 Baseball Players of All-Time List
On the theory that anyone can do it, I have decided to compile my own list of the Greatest 100 Baseball Players of All-Time. Considering how many top 100 Baseball Player lists have already been published, the obvious question would be: Why do another one? For one thing, my list should hopefully have a much better representation and also ranking of Blackball Players. With the available information now, Players who toiled behind the “Color Line” can be listed in a reasonable approximation of their actual career value [Blackball is used rather than Negro Leagues for the simple reason that those Leagues don’t cover the entire era of segregation]. To truly look at the Players who didn’t get a chance due to the color of their skin, you must go all the way back to 1876 when Bud Fowler began lacing up his cleats. You cannot just go back to 1920 when the great Andrew ‘Rube’ Foster founded the first Negro Major League. Hopefully, in the end, my Greatest 100 Baseball Players of All-Time list will be closer than any previous list to the actual truth. Of course, that is a tall order and perhaps it will end up just being another person’s opinion. However, even if my list is no better than anyone’s else, there may still be worth value in its compilation. It is possible to sift diamonds out of the sand if you are in the right place.
My Process for the List
In the process of creating my own top 100 list, I also intend to simultaneously create three other lists. The first list will be the top 100 Baseball Players from the pre-integration Blackball teams. The second list will rank the 100 Greatest Baseball Players from Organized Baseball (both the Major and Minor Leagues) before integration. The 3rd list will be the 100 Greatest Baseball Players from after integration. Next the first two lists will be combined, to create a single pre-integration list. Finally, the pre-integration and post-integration lists will be combined to actually produce a combined 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time list. My final 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time list will try to alternate Players chosen from the pre-integration list [from 1871 to 1945] and Players from the post-integration list [1946-2020]. In other words, I will try to pick a Player from the 75 years before baseball was finally integrated to match each Player chosen from the 75 years after baseball desegregated. Of course, this will simply be a guideline. The main guideline will always be to follow the evidence where it leads.
If this procedure works correctly, there will be about 50 Baseball Players from before integration [1871-1945] and 50 Baseball Players from after integration [1946- 2020] on the final list. In other words, there will be around 50 Players total from Organized White Baseball and Independent Black Baseball before integration on the final list. However, it obviously cannot be an exact 50-50 split between these two classes of pre-integration Players. Organized White Baseball was up and running years before the Negro Leagues. It took a little while for the African-American contingent to get coordinated and especially get all their talent out of the Deep South. But I believe that my final list will probably have about 20 Blackball Players from before integration on it. None of the previous Greatest 100 Baseball Player lists already published have ever included that many Blackball Players on it. Usually, the inclusion of Players from behind the Color Line has been haphazard at best. I am certain, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Bullet Rogan and Jud Wilson belong on any 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time list (especially Rogan). But the only list that ever included Rogan was Joe Posnanski’s The Baseball 100, which placed him at number 94. Any really serious evaluation of Wilber (Bullet) Rogan will probably conclude that he is one of the 50 Greatest Players of All-Time at the very least. It goes without saying that Rogan should be in a top 100.
Why do I conclude that any list of the 100 Best Baseball Players should have about 20 Blackball Players on it? If 50% of all the Hall of Fame Players right after integration came from the Negro Leagues, then that percentage is most probably accurate right before integration too. But was it always this 50%? I believe the answer to that question is: “No, it reached 50% between 1910 and 1920.” If that is true, and it also steadily increased from 0% when professional Baseball began in 1871, then simple math concludes that about 20 of the 50 Hall of Fame Caliber Players from before integration should have come from behind the “Color Line.” It could be claimed that this is over-compensating to correct an ancient wrong. But I don’t believe it to be so. The pursuit of justice may make amends for past transgressions, but the pursuit of truth should not. My list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players will not discriminate against or for any class of Players, if I can help it. But it is an indisputable fact that, because of prejudice and/or lack of data (especially statistical information), the Players from Blackball have been under-represented in the past.
Pre-Integration versus Post-Integration Players
Of course, some people may also take issue with the 50-50 split between pre-integration and post-integration Players. It is often argued that the caliber of Major League Baseball being played right now is far superior to the any brand of Baseball that was played many years ago. Modern pitchers boast that they would easily strike out Babe Ruth now. The Modern Players are bigger, faster, stronger…. we can rebuild them. No wait, that’s the introduction to the old TV show The Six Million Dollar Man. I believe that Modern Baseball gets way too much credit for being better than the Baseball played long ago. Baseball is the one sport that does not automatically reward physical size. I don’t believe that the talent level of Baseball rises quite as steeply over time as is claimed by some. In fact, I do not believe that it has always gone up. I do believe that George Ruth, if you could send him through a time warp to the present day, would still be an absolute phenomenon. However, this is my personal opinion and the proof is harder to find than an honest man in politics.
Strangely, the 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time list that I still think is the best ever done was UBJ’s 2000 list. Despite the fact that it is now over 20 years old, UBJ used a consistent methodology to rank all the Major League Players. Then, through applied logic, UBJ estimated just how many Blackball Players should also be included. He proceeded to place them in the list where he felt they fit best. Twenty years plus later, there is a lot more information on the Negro Leagues and those placements can be evaluated. To say the least, UBJ did an amazing job. My list will depart from UBJ’s list in one significant way. I will try to look at the totality of the Player’s career, not just rank them completely by a statistical formula. For instance, I believe that Joe DiMaggio was actually a greater player than Stan Musial (virtually every lists rank Musial over DiMaggio). Perhaps I am wrong. But I will explain why when I rank the Players. In one other way, the delivery of my list will be different from those lists that came before it. Most published lists start at 100 and count up to number one. Joe Posnanski published his list as a countdown from 1 to 100. My list will start at Numero Uno and then count the Players all the way down to 100. And If I ever get to 100, I may just continue.
Just for the Fun of it:
The following are each of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time lists discussed in this post [with comments about each one afterwards]:
RITTER & HONIG [1981]: Babe Ruth [183.1], Walter Johnson [164.8], Cy Young [163.6], Willie Mays [156.1], Ty Cobb [151.5], Henry Aaron [143.1], Tris Speaker [134.7], Honus Wagner [130.8], Stan Musial [128.7], Rogers Hornsby [127.3], Eddie Collins [124.4], Ted Williams [122.1], Pete, Alexander [119.0], Lou Gehrig [113.7], Mel Ott [110.9], Mickey Mantle [110.2], Tom Seaver [109.9], Frank Robinson [107.2], Nap Lajoie [106.9], Mike Schmidt [106.9], Lefty Grove [106.8], Christy Mathewson [106.5], Joe Morgan [100.4], Warren Spahn [100.1], Carl Yastrzemski [96.5], Roberto Clemente [94.8], Jimmie Foxx [93.1], Eddie Plank [90.9], Steve Carlton [90.2], Bob Gibson [89.1], George Brett [88.6], Robin Roberts [86.1], Charlie Gehringer [84.7], Rod Carew [81.2], Pete Rose [79.6], Joe DiMaggio [79.2], Brooks Robinson [78.4], Arky Vaughan [78.0], Luke Appling [77.6], Sam Crawford [75.3], Johnny Bench [75.1], Paul Waner [74.7], Harry Heilman [72.5], Johnny Mize [70.6], Ted Lyons [70.5], Carl Hubbell [68.5], Jim Palmer [68.5], Al Simmons [68.1], Ernie Banks [67.7], Goose Goslin [66.4], Duke Snider [65.9], Ed Walsh [65.9], Jackie Robinson [63.9], Bob Feller [63.5], Juan Marichal [62.9], Frank Baker [62.8], Joe Jackson [62.2], Zack Wheat [60.5], Dazzy Vance [60.2], Wes Ferrell [60.1], Yogi Berra [59.6], Joe McGinnity [59.0], Rube Waddell [58.4], George Sisler [57.1], Whitey Ford [57.0], Bill Dickey [56.5], Bill Terry [56.5], Gabby Hartnett [55.9], Luis Aparicio [55.8], Hank Greenberg [55.5], Joe Sewell [54.7], Joe Medwick [54.6], Jimmy Collins [53.3], Burleigh Grimes [52.8], Fred Lynn [50.2], Mickey Cochrane [49.9], Sandy Koufax [48.9], Chief Bender [47.9], Kiki Cuyler [47.9], Jim Rice [47.7], Dizzy Dean [46.2], Herb Pennock [45.6], Edd Roush [45.6], Addie Joss [45.4], George Foster [44.2], Tony Oliva [43.0], Roy Campanella [41.7], Dave Parker [40.1], Joe Wood [40.0], Pie Traynor [38.5], Steve Garvey [38.1], Ernie Lombardi [37.9], Ross Youngs [32.7], Chick Hafey [31.2], Pete Reiser [24.6], Hal Chase [23.0], and Herb Score [13.4].
Ritter & Honig did not rank their players from 1 to 100 in their book. They are listed above by their modern WAR [Wins Above Replacement] statistic.* Despite all the criticism, this is not really a bad list at all. You could even claim that the truly idiosyncratic choices [Score, Chase, Reiser, Garvey, et al] simply give it some extra flavor. All in all, their list certainly serves as a good starting point for the discussion. Although not included in this review, I would like to briefly discuss another list of the Greatest 100 Baseball Players. In 1981, the same year that Ritter & Honig released their book, longtime New York City sportswriter Maury Allen published his book “Baseball’s 100: A Personal Ranking of the Best Players in Baseball History.” Other than verifying the old saying that great ideas often emerge simultaneously, Maury Allen’s book is basically forgotten. But it is an interesting book. It has an unmistakable New York bias. There is no process or methodology used to rank the players other than personal opinion. The hook used to publicize the book was that Babe Ruth was not number one. Allen rates Ruth #3 after Willie Mays and Henry Aaron. Allen explains that he believes that Mays and Aaron, because they played in the integrated Majors faced a greater level of competition than George Herman Ruth. In other words, Allen makes a time line argument. No list of the Greatest 100 Baseball Players of All-Time can get around the problems of measuring the quality of play over time. One of the objectives of my own top 100 list will be to understand, if not wrestle with, the Time line of Baseball.
*WAR [Wins Above Replacement] Statistic from Baseball Reference website.
BILL JAMES [1986]:* 1) Babe Ruth [1], 2) Honus Wagner [2], 3) Lefty Grove [4], 4) Stan Musial [9], 5) Henry Aaron [30], 6) Ty Cobb [11], 7) Lou Gehrig [6], 8) Joe DiMaggio [14], 9) Willie Mays [12], 10) Ted Williams [10], 11) Warren Spahn [NL], 12) Walter Johnson [7], 13) Mike Schmidt [16], 14) Cy Young [NL], 15) Eddie Collins [48], 16) Yogi Berra [40], 17) Christy Mathewson [13], 18) Tris Speaker [21], 19) Mickey Mantle [3], 20) Jimmie Foxx [19], 21) Joe Morgan [8], 22) Pete Rose [97], 23) Frank Robinson [33], 24) Mel Ott [28], 25) Tom Seaver [36], 26) Carl Yastrzemski [35], 27) Pete Alexander [43], 28) Johnny Bench [31], 29) Brooks Robinson [49], 30) Willie McCovey [50], 31) Hank Greenberg [NL], 32) Bob Feller [32], 33) Goose Goslin [64], 34) Luke Appling [83], 35) Jim Palmer [NL], 36) Joe Cronin [66], 37) Harmon Killebrew [37], 38) Rollie Fingers [HM], 39) Steve Carlton [41], 40) Ernie Banks [17], 41) Mickey Cochrane [18], 42) Rogers Hornsby [29], 43) Johnny Mize [56], 44) Al Kaline [100t], 45) Carl Hubbell [27], 46) Juan Marichal [34], 47) Paul Waner [63], 48) Whitey Ford [88], 49) Bob Gibson [57], 50) Charlie Gehringer [80], 51) Zack Wheat [NL], 52) Reggie Jackson [61], 53) Gaylord Perry [NL], 54) Gabby Hartnett [73], 55) Jimmy Collins [82], 56) Hoyt Wilhelm [NL], 57) Robin Roberts [55], 58) Lou Boudreau [74], 59) Rod Carew [68], 60) Bill Terry [99], 61) Mordecai Brown [77], 62) Sam Crawford [NL], 63) Ron Santo [NL], 64) Bill Dickey [100t], 65) Roberto Clemente [58], 66) Goose Gossage [70], 67) Dick Allen [92], 68) Eddie Plank [NL], 69) Early Wynn [NL], 70) Fred Clarke [67], 71) Bobby Wallace [NL], 72) Sandy Koufax [5], 73) Billy Williams [HM], 74) George Sisler [38], 75) Stan Hack [NL], 76) Frankie Frisch [NL], 77) Ernie Lombardi [NL], 78) Don Sutton [NL], 79) Al Simmons [90], 80) Ferguson Jenkins [NL], 81) Luis Aparicio [NL], 82) Roy Campanella [15], 83) Duke Snider [44], 84) Joe Medwick [86], 85) Bruce Sutter [24], 86) Jackie Robinson [20], 87) Jim Kaat [NL], 88) Arky Vaughan [52], 89) Carlton Fisk [94], 90) Ken Boyer [NL], 91) Willie Stargell [89], 92) Phil Niekro [NL], 93) Enos Slaughter [NL], 94) Red Ruffing [NL], 95) Joe Jackson [42], 95) George Brett [47], 97) Lou Brock [NL], 98) Max Carey [NL], 99) Ted Lyons [NL], 100) Bob Johnson [NL].
* Bill James provided two lists, career and peak, of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players of the 20th Century in his book. The career list is provided from 1-100 above. After their name, the Player’s peak rank is given in parentheses []. If the peak rank of the Player is listed as [NL] that means their peak value was [Not Listed]. UBJ listed the 100th peak value as a 3-way tie [100t] between Al Kaline, Dave Winfield, and Bill Dickey. He also listed eight other player’s peak values as Honorable Mention [HM].
There are 31 Players listed on the Bill James top 100 peak values list that are not on his top 100 career value list: 20) Dizzy Dean, 21) Ralph Kiner, 25) Eddie Mathews, 26) Denny McLain, 39) Dazzy Vance, 45) Robin Yount, 46) Charlie Keller, 51) Vida Blue, 53) Gary Carter, 54) Nap Lajoie, 59) Jim Rice, 60) Ron Guidry, 62) Frank Baker, 65) Wes Ferrell, 69) Joe Wood, 71) Al Rosen, 72) Johnny Evers, 75) Frank Chance, 76) Lefty Gomez, 78) Jimmy Collins, 79) Ray Chapman, 81) Thurman Munson, 84) Ed Walsh, 85) Larry Doby, 87) Ted Kluszewski, 91) Chuck Klein, 93) Dan Quisenberry, 95) Jack Coombs, 96) Hal Newhouser, 98) Glenn Wright, plus 100t) Dave Winfield who is tied with Al Kaline (#44 career) and Bill Dickey (#64 career) at number 100 for peak value. UBJ also listed 8 Honorable Mentions for peak value. Two are listed in the top 100 career value list, Rollie Fingers at #38 and Billy Williams at #73. The six players also given Honorable Mention are: Eddie Cicotte, Dick Radatz, Hack Wilson, Harlond Clift, Larry Doyle, and Joe Gordon. The highest rated player on the career list who does not appear on the peak list is Warren Spahn at number 11.
The 1986 Bill James list is, in its own way, as idiosyncratic as Ritter & Honig’s list. Maybe even more so. James values some players highly to make a point (Honus Wagner, Yogi Berra, Joe Morgan). On the other hand, UBJ denigrates and devalues Dick Allen and Rogers Hornsby for having difficult personalities. Some ratings simply make no sense. Hank Greenberg, number 31 on the career list, does not appear on the peak list at all. Nap Lajoie, number 54 on the peak list, does not appear on the career list at all. The reliever Rollie Fingers [#37] is rated above Steve Carlton [#38] and many other starting pitchers. Despite his insistence on analysis by objective evidence, this first attempt by UBJ at a 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time list seems more personal than scientific. To put it frankly, many of the ratings seem strange if not downright sloppy [in one of the oddest anomalies, Eddie Mathews is ranked 26th for peak value but is not even listed on the career list] . The whole section is tacked on at the end of the Player Ratings sections. Perhaps it was simply an afterthought.
SPORTING NEWS [1998]: 1) Babe Ruth, 2) Willie Mays, 3) Ty Cobb, 4) Walter Johnson, 5) Hank Aaron, 6) Lou Gehrig, 7) Christy Mathewson, 8) Ted Williams, 9) Rogers Hornsby, 10) Stan Musial, 11) Joe DiMaggio, 12) Pete Alexander, 13) Honus Wagner, 14) Cy Young, 15) Jimmie Foxx, 16) Johnny Bench, 17) Mickey Mantle, 18) Josh Gibson, 19) Satchel Paige, 20) Roberto Clemente, 21) Warren Spahn, 22) Frank Robinson, 23) Lefty Grove, 24) Eddie Collins, 25) Pete Rose, 26) Sandy Koufax, 27) Tris Speaker, 28) Mike Schmidt, 29) Nap Lajoie, 30) Steve Carlton, 31) Bob Gibson, 32) Tom Seaver, 33) George Sisler, 34) Barry Bonds, 35) Joe Jackson, 36) Bob Feller, 37) Hank Greenberg, 38) Ernie Banks, 39) Greg Maddux, 40) Yogi Berra, 41) Nolan Ryan, 42) Mel Ott, 43) Al Simmons, 44) Jackie Robinson, 45) Carl Hubbell, 46) Charlie Gehringer, 47) Buck Leonard, 48) Reggie Jackson, 49) Tony Gwynn, 50) Roy Campanella, 51) Rickey Henderson, 52) Whitey Ford, 53) Roger Clemens, 54) Harry Heilmann, 55) George Brett, 56) Willie McCovey, 57) Bill Dickey, 58) Lou Brock, 59) Bill Terry, 60) Joe Morgan, 61) Rod Carew, 62) Paul Waner, 63) Eddie Mathews, 64) Jim Palmer, 65) Mickey Cochrane, 66) Cool Papa Bell, 67) Oscar Charleston, 68) Eddie Plank, 69) Harmon Killebrew, 70) Pie Traynor, 71) Juan Marichal, 72) Carl Yastrzemski, 73) Lefty Gomez, 74) Robin Roberts, 75) Willie Keeler, 76) Al Kaline, 77) Eddie Murray, 78) Cal Ripken Jr., 79) Joe Medwick, 80) Brooks Robinson, 81) Willie Stargell, 82) Ed Walsh, 83) Duke Snider, 84) Sam Crawford, 85) Dizzy Dean, 86) Kirby Puckett, 87) Ozzie Smith, 88) Frankie Frisch, 89) Goose Goslin, 90) Ralph Kiner, 91) Mark McGwire, 92) Chuck Klein, 93) Ken Griffey Jr., 94) Dave Winfield, 95) Wade Boggs, 96) Rollie Fingers, 97) Gaylord Perry, 98) Dennis Eckersley, 99) Paul Molitor, 100) Early Wynn.
The Sporting News gave the World a good solid list on their way out the door, exit stage right. Notably, they included five Negro League Stars, placing Josh Gibson at 18 and Satchel Paige at 19 before also including Buck Leonard [47], Cool Papa Bell [66], and Oscar Charleston [67]. The placements are interesting, with 2 sets of pairs and Leonard midway between them. It is obvious that the Blackball Stars were not included in any sort of analytical way; but rather their placements were a gesture to the inescapble fact that the Negro League Players needed some representation on the list. This could be considered a step in the right direction by those inclined to see the glass as half-full or just tokenism by those inclined to see the glass as half-empty.
BILL JAMES [2001]:* 1) Babe Ruth [1], 2) Honus Wagner [2], 3) Willie Mays [9], 4) Oscar Charleson [NL], 5) Ty Cobb [6], 6) Mickey Mantle [19], 7) Ted Williams [10], 8) Walter Johnson [12], 9) Josh Gibson [NL], 10) Stan Musial [4], 11) Tris Speaker [18], 12) Henry Aaron [5], 13) Joe DiMaggio [8], 14) Lou Gehrig [7], 15) Joe Morgan [21], 16) Barry Bonds [NL], 17) Satchel Paige [NL], 18) Eddie Collins [15], 19) Lefty Grove [3], 20) Pete Alexander [27], 21) Mike Schmidt [13], 22) Rogers Hornsby [42], 23) Cy Young [14], 24) Frank Robinson [23], 25) Turkey Stearnes [NL], 26) Rickey Henderson [NL], 27) John Henry Lloyd [NL], 28) Mel Ott [24], 29) Jimmie Foxx [20], 30) George Brett [96], 31) Mark McGwire [NL], 32) Jackie Robinson [86], 33) Pete Rose [22], 34) Eddie Mathews [NL], 35) Craig Biggio [NL], 36) Warren Spahn [11], 37) Carl Yastrzemski [26], 38) Tom Seaver [25], 39) Arky Vaughan [88], 40) Nap Lajoie [NL], 41) Yogi Berra [16], 42) Christy Mathewson [17], 43) Mule Suttles [NL], 44) Johnny Bench [28], 45) Jeff Bagwell [NL], 46) Bob Gibson [49], 47) Kid Nichols [NL], 48) Cal Ripken [NL], 49) Roger Clemens [NL], 50) Duke Snider [83], 51) Sandy Koufax [72], 52) Joe Williams [NL], 53) Roy Campanella [82], 54) Tony Gwynn [NL], 55) Robin Yount [NL], 56) Bob Feller [32], 57) Reggie Jackson [52], 58) Ryne Sandberg [NL], 59) Charlie Gehringer [50], 60) Wade Boggs [NL], 61) Eddie Murray [NL], 62) Johnny Mize [43], 63) Harmon Killebrew [37], 64) Rod Carew [59], 65) Buck Leonard [NL], 66) Joe Jackson [95], 67) Cristobal Torriente [NL], 68) Hank Greenberg [31], 69) Willie McCovey [30], 70) Frank Baker [NL], 71) Al Simmons [79], 72) Mickey Cochrane [41], 73) Ken Griffey Jr. [NL], 74) Roberto Clemente [65], 75) Frank Thomas [NL], 76) Cool Papa Bell [NL], 77) Ernie Banks [40], 78) Steve Carlton [39], 79) Mike Piazza [NL], 80) Roberto Alomar [NL], 81) Tim Raines [NL], 82) Willie Stargell [91], 83) Mordecai Brown [61], 84) Paul Waner [47], 85) Minnie Minoso [NL], 86) Willie Wells [NL], 87) Ron Santo [63], 88) Frankie Frisch [76], 89) Sam Crawford [62], 90) Al Kaline [44], 91) Brooks Robinson [29], 92) Greg Maddux [NL], 93) Barry Larkin [NL], 94) Carl Hubbell [45], 95) Martin Dihigo [NL], 96) Robin Roberts [57], 97) Carlton Fisk [89], 98) Kirby Puckett [NL], 99) Ed Delahanty [NL], and 100) Billy Williams [NL].
*The ranking in parantheses [] following each player’s name corresponds to his ranking on the 1981 Bill James list. The notation [NL] means the Player wasn’t listed on the 1981 list.
Taking his second shot at a 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time list, the Ubiquitous Bill James [UBJ] does, in my opinion, a much improved job of it. UBJ had developed a scientific system called Win Shares. He used this methodology to arrive at more objective conclusions about the rankings. His system seems to have only failed him once again at second base (in 2001, he would overrate the second baseman Craig Biggio badly after wildly underrating both 2B Nap Lajoie and 2B Rogers Hornsby in 1986). Although still pretty much excluding the 19th Century Players, UBJ did not punt this time on the Negro Leaguers. Despite not having anything like the statistical databases now available, UBJ reasoned that, since basically half of all the Greatest Players in the Major Leagues in the years after integration came from the Negro Leagues, the same ratio would have to be applied to those Players who were banned from the Major Leagues before the Color Line was erased. Using this logic, UBJ included twelve Negro League Players in his 100 Greatest Baseball Players list. This was actually probably a bare minimum, but UBJ was actually so far ahead of the times on the issue of including Negro League Players that he admitted it. He should be commended for that.
JOE POSNANSKI [2021]: 1) Willie Mays, 2) Babe Ruth, 3) Barry Bonds, 4) Henry Aaron, 5) Oscar Charleston, 6) Ted Williams, 7) Walter Johnson, 8) Ty Cobb, 9) Stan Musial, 10) Satchel Paige, 11) Mickey Mantle, 12) Honus Wagner, 13) Roger Clemens, 14) Lou Gehrig, 15) Josh Gibson, 16) Alex Rodriguez, 17) Rogers Hornsby, 18) Tris Speaker, 19) [no number 19], 20tie) Mike Schmidt, 20tie) Frank Robinson, 21) Joe Morgan, 22) Lefty Grove, 23) Albert Pujols, 24) Rickey Henderson, 25) John Henry Lloyd, 26) Pete Alexander, 27) Mike Trout, 28) Randy Johnson, 29) Eddie Collins, 30) Johnny Bench, 31) Greg Maddux, 32) Mel Ott, 33) Jimmie Foxx, 34) Cy Young, 35) George Brett, 36) Christy Mathewson, 37) Pedro Martinez, 38) Carl Yastrzemski, 39) Nap Lajoie, 40) Roberto Clemente, 41) Tom Seaver, 42) Jackie Robinson, 43) Yogi Berra, 44) Cal Ripken Jr., 45) Bob Gibson, 46) Eddie Mathews, 47) Wade Boggs, 48) Ken Griffey Jr., 49) Warren Spahn, 50) Nolan Ryan, 51) Al Kaline, 52) Adrian Beltre, 53) Buck Leonard, 54) Chipper Jones, 55) Bob Feller, 56) Joe DiMaggio, 57) Rod Carew, 58) Jeff Bagwell, 59) Reggie Jackson, 60) Pete Rose, 61) Arky Vaughan, 62) Joe Williams, 63) Steve Carlton, 64) Johnny Mize, 65) Ernie Banks, 66) Robin Yount, 67) Hank Greenberg, 68) Gaylord Perry, 69) Monte Irvin, 70) Sandy Koufax, 71) Bert Blyleven, 72) Robin Roberts, 73) Brooks Robinson, 74) Frank Thomas, 75) Justin Verlander, 76) Willie McCovey, 77) Miguel Cabrera, 78) Clayton Kershaw, 79) Derek Jeter, 80) Carlton Fisk, 81) Ferguson Jenkins, 82) Kid Nichols, 83) Phil Niekro, 84) Cool Papa Bell, 85) Sadaharu Oh, 86) Gary Carter, 87) Charlie Gehringer, 88) Curt Schilling, 89) Mike Piazza, 90) Max Scherzer, 91) Mariano Rivera, 92) Bullet Rogan, 93) Ozzie Smith, 94) Roy Campanella, 95) Tony Gwynn, 96) Larry Walker, 97) Roberto Alomar, 98) Carlos Beltran, 99) Mike Mussina, 100) Ichiro Suzuki.
Joe Posnanski’s 2021 list is similar to Bill James 2001 list but with the addition of a whole bunch of modern Players (Pujols, Trout, Beltre, Verlander, Cabrera, Kershaw, Scherzer) who weren’t even eligible in 2001. Even more players from UBJ’s 2001 list have risen up after finishing their careers, led by Barry Bonds in the third slot. Ending the list with Ichiro, who played half his career in Japan, is certainly a good thing. However, the addition of Sadaharu Oh, who played his entire career in the Japanese Leagues, is even better. Oh was undoubtedly one of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players who ever lived. Strangely, Posnanski, who was well-known as the biographer of Negro League legend John ‘Buck’ O’Neil, included just nine Negro Leaguers against the twelve included by Bill James. He kept the order pretty much the same as UBJ, but he switched Paige and Gibson’s places on the list; dropped Stearnes, Suttles, Torrienti, and Wells; added Irvin; and, right at the end, switched out Martin Dihigo for Bullet Rogan. It is pretty evident that Posnanski wasn’t working hard at placing the Negro Leaguers on the list in any proper order. He just followed the lead of UBJ in the placement and then probably just threw the ones he didn’t have a ready story for off of the 100 Greatest Player bus. All and all though, Joe Posnanski’s book is filled with interesting, if usually sentimental, essays and stories about each player. If you like that sort of thing, the book is highly recommended. I highly recommend it.
ESPN [2022]:* 1) Babe Ruth [1], 2) Willie Mays [2], 3) Hank Aaron [5], 4) Ty Cobb [3], 5) Ted Williams [8], 6) Lou Gehrig [6], 7) Mickey Mantle [17], 8) Barry Bonds [34], 9) Walter Johnson [4], 10) Stan Musial [10], 11) Pedro Martinez [NL], 12) Honus Wagner [13], 13) Ken Griffey Jr. [93], 14) Greg Maddux [39], 15) Mike Trout [NL], 16) Joe DiMaggio [11], 17) Roger Clemens [53], 18) Mike Schmidt [28], 19) Frank Robinson [22], 20) Rogers Hornsby [9], 21) Cy Young [14], 22) Tom Seaver [32], 23) Rickey Henderson [51], 24) Randy Johnson [NL], 25) Christy Mathewson [7], 26) Alex Rodriguez [NL], 27) Roberto Clemente [20], 28) Derek Jeter [NL], 29) Johnny Bench [16], 30) Albert Pujols [NL], 31) Mariano Rivera [NL], 32) Sandy Koufax [26], 33) Bob Gibson [31], 34) Pete Rose [25], 35) Josh Gibson [18], 36) Tris Speaker [27], 37) Joe Morgan [60], 38) Jackie Robinson [44], 39) Yogi Berra [40], 40) Jimmie Foxx [15], 41) Satchel Paige [19], 42) Nolan Ryan [41], 43) George Brett [55], 44) Tony Gwynn [49], 45) Wade Boggs [95], 46) Ichiro Suzuki [NL], 47) Warren Spahn [21], 48) Nap Lajoie [29], 49) Frank Thomas [NL], 50) Bob Feller [36], 51) Ernie Banks [38], 52) Clayton Kershaw [NL], 53) Oscar Charleston [67], 54) Lefty Grove [23], 55) Reggie Jackson [48], 56) Dave Winfield [94], 57) Pete Alexander [12], 58) Steve Carlton [30], 59) Miguel Cabrera [NL], 60) Whitey Ford [52], 61) Captain Carl Yastrzemski [72], 62) Mel Ott [42], 63) David Ortiz [NL], 64) Eddie Mathews [63], 65) Max Scherzer [NL], 66) Cal Ripken Jr. [78], 67) Brooks Robinson [80], 68) Manny Ramirez [NL], 69) Ozzie Smith [87], 70) Harmon Killebrew [69], 71) Al Kaline [76], 72) Justin Verlander, 73) Willie McCovey [56], 74) Juan Marichal [71], 75) Rod Carew [61], 76) Cap Anson [NL], 77) Vlad Guerrero [NL], 78) Chipper Jones [NL], 79) Hank Greenberg [37], 80) Robin Yount [NL], 81) Mike Piazza [NL], 82) Eddie Collins [24], 83) Roy Campanella [50], 84) Paul Molitor [99], 85) Jim Palmer [64], 86) Roberto Alomar [NL], 87) Carlton Fisk [NL], 88) Willie Stargell [81], 89) Joe Jackson [35], 90) Ivan Rodriguez [NL], 91) Ryne Sandberg [NL], 92) Roy Halladay [NL], 93) John Smoltz [NL], 94) Byrce Harper [NL], 95) Duke Snider [83], 96) Charlie Gehringer [46], 97) Adrian Beltre [NL], 98) Jim Thome [NL], 99) Phil Niekro [NL], 100) Barry Larkin [NL].
*Numbers in parathenses [] after each Player correspond to that Player’s place on the 1998 Sporting News list. The 1998 TSN list was also a compendium of votes from experts, just like the 2022 ESPN list. In other words, it was basically just a popularity contest. It is very interesting to see how time has changed the perceptions of the Players over the past 24 years. Mickey Mantle moves up from 17 to 7. Mike Schmidt goes from 28 to 18, Rickey Henderson from 51 to 23, Joe Morgan from 60 to 23, Ozzie Smith from 87 to 69 and Wade Boggs from 95 to 45. Even more Players have had their support just collapse. Christy Mathewson falls from 7 to 25. Rogers Hornsby goes from 9 to 20, Johnny Bench from 16 to 29, Jimmie Foxx from 15 to 40, Warren Spahn from 21 to 47, Nap Lajoie from 29 to 48, Lefty Grove from 23 to 54, Pete Alexander ftom 12 to 57, Steve Carlton from 30 to 58, Mel Ott from 42 to 62, and Hank Greenberg from 37 to 79 with his teammate Charlie Gehringer also falling from 46 to 96. The honest Eddie Collins falls all the way from 24 to 82 while his crooked compadre Joe Jackson keeps pace by dropping from 35 to 89. You have to wonder if the Chicago Black Sox stain has overtaken both the virtuous and the fallen there.
Of course the list is also filled with Players who finished their careers after 1998 and have risen up, led by Barry Bonds at #8 up from #34 and Pedro Martinez at #11 up from nowhere, and Players who didn’t even start their careers until after 1998 (led by Mike Trout at #15). Perhaps most interesting are the Players who did not move at all (Ruth & Mays at #1 and #2, of course, but also Gehrig at #6, and Musial at #10) or just a little bit (Bob Gibson 33 from 31, Lawrence “Yogi” Berra 39 from 40, and Nolan Ryan 42 from 41). You could just blame this on the different voting groups for the 1998 and 2022 polls. But there are definite trends going on here. The old-time Baseball Players whose legends are slipping away are sliding fast down the list (Eddie Collins). Those whose mythos are still strong (Nolan Ryan, Mickey Mantle) are holding steady or going up. Strangely, despite much more publicity for and evidence of the greatness of the old Negro League Stars, this list indicates a complete collapse of support for them by the “Establishment” writers. In raw numbers, they go from five to just three players. Josh Gibson falls down from #18 to #35 while Satchel Paige goes from #19 to #41. Interestingly, Oscar Charleston actually rises up to #53 from #67. This is probably not so odd considering his placement on several other lists previous to this as the Greatest Negro League Player of All-Time. But all the other Negro League Stars just disappear.
This ESPN list has a lot of biases. There is a Modern Era bias. The Modern Era Players are, in general, rated higher than the Ancient Era Players. There is a distinct New York City bias. The Players who played for teams in the New York area are, in general, rated much higher than they probably should be. There is a Major League bias. The Players who played in the Major Leagues are rated higher than the Players who played in the Negro Leagues [ignoring the recent fact that the Major Leagues now consider seven of the old Negro Leagues as Major Leagues]. There is a Fame bias. The Players who are most Famous are rated higher than those Players who wish to remain anonymous. There is not a single African-American player on this list whose prime was before the first Major Negro League was founded in 1920. It has all the problems you would associate with a list that was a combination of individual opinions without any real methodology behind it. Other than all that, it’s a pretty good list.