Who do you think is the greatest all around baseball player of all time?

barry bonds. seriously. i’m not a huge baseball fan so i might be missing something but that guy’s obp was incredible. he has an eye like no other. he’s not the best defensively so maybe that doesn’t make him best all around but if that’s the case, pitchers are excluded cause they have no offense. i’m stickin with bonds.

Ozzie Smith. The man did backflips onto the field. He gobbled up anything hit to him. He was always a consistent hitter. He played the game good for many many years. He helped out the community. I doubt he used the juice either.

Barry Bonds!

The best baseball player to ever walk the planet was Ted Williams. He played when performance enhancers didn’t exist. He was the last player to have a .400 batting average ,17 time all star, won the triple crown twice and served as a United States Marine Corps pilot during World War II and the Korean War. The other thing Williams has the Bonds covets is the respect of his peers and players to come before him. Williams a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee with 93% of the votes.

Ted may have been the best pure hitter and a damn good slugger but his his two brothers were better defensively. As for Barry, he’s the greatestest slugger, and was an outstanding fielder ( until the last fee years) but he couldn’t throw. Mays could do everything. Ozzie was a great defensive player, but a hot dog. Jose Uribe was every bit as good defensively, he just didn’t show off.

barry bonds is a disgrace to the game—he’s one of the reasons i’ve lost interest in baseball. i’d say ozzie.

Barry Bonds is a joke. Willie Mays and Ted Williams are two I would say, but Mickey Mantle is close to my heart so him too.

You can’t go wrong with Mays, Mantle or Williams, but I don’t think you can call Bonds the greatest ever. Did I mention Williams was the batting champ at age 40?

Jackie Robinson. What kind of person can rise above adversity and excell at the same time….. He was not only a great player and athlete, but a truly special person. For those who do not know, no one who ever plays professional baseball can wear his number 42, it has been retired forever in his honor.

Ok family bias here. Cousin Arky Vaughn! LOL!

anyone who says bonds is a joke is a revisionist or conformist and if he’s a disgrace, so are half the players from the ‘roids era. The only things he did differently from anyone from the ‘roids era was hit a lot of balls into mccovey cove and not pander to the media.

Being a lover for the game of baseball (they say you never forget your first true love), I’d have to agree with some of the earlier posters and say Williams. He wasn’t know as the Splendid Splinter for nothing. If you look at Williams’ career stats, he’s remarkable in addition to the fact that he served during WWII as stated earlier also. Others that should definitely be considered are Babe Ruth, Cy Young, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, there are tons of other greats that deserve mentioning. It all depends on which of the myriad of stats in baseball you use to determine your best player ever.

i agree…half the players from the ‘roids era are disgraces. bonds is no different and nothing special.

@zaid: Barry Bonds is a disgrace to baseball and can be proven by the ammount of baseball general managers wanting his services.
@patty: Jackie was a GREAT player and overcame large odds but not the greatest. His numbers don’t compare to those of the previously mentioned. If were just talking baseball Jackie was great but not the greatest.

To be fair, Selig has used his influence over baseball ownership to blackball Bonds. Quite a few general managers showed interest in the off season ( St. Louis, Tampa, Oakland, Toronto, to name a few) then suddenly were not interested. Remember, Selig is from Milwaukee, where Aaron played much of his career. He never wanted Bonds to hit 756.

@rking: as astrochuck points out, alleged non-interest is not at all a sign of bonds’ “disgrace.” One can argue that the non-interest can be attributed instead to unfair treatment by the owners.

The Say Hey Kid, hands down. No player was as well rounded.

mays I have to say but bands is just some fake on steriods

sorry ment bonds

I think that at this point in time you can’t really go against Willie Mays. B/c of the steriod controversy Bonds has absolutely killed his chances of being in the conversation.However if A-Rod gets the homerun record and is able to avoid a Bonds-like scandal then I think he’s going to have a sizable arguement for GOAT.

I am an idiot. I mentioned Ted Williams two brothers playing better defence earlier. I was thinking of Joe DiMaggio and his brothers Dominic and Vince. Duh.

A-Rod has a long way to go he still hasn’t won a World Series.

You cannot base your arguments on numbers and hitting stats alone. If you did you would have to eliminate all leadoiff hitters and pitchers, intangables like leadership, longevity, durability, speed, playing your position, character and what the meant to the game itself would all be over looked. Sandy Koufax numbers for a pitcher are sick, but because he lacks what I mentioned, one would never say he was the greatest ” player” of all time.

a rod will have a world series before its done, no doubt about it the way the Yankees spend money theyll put atleast one good postseason run together, most likely he’ll have the homerun record, multiple gold gloves at two positions, and probably 7 or 8 MVPs I think that will be enough to make him a major contender for greatest ever

@khelms: I think its to hard to make the assumption that he will win a championship before he is done playing. He could get hurt and not even play as long as most predict.

I do think he’ll win a championship in New York. Of course, all the records hinge on his ability to stay healthy, the same way most of the other great players of alltime have been able to stay relatively healthy. He is way ahead of any other player in history’s pace as far as homeruns, several MVPs, and gold gloves. He is without a doubt the most gifted player in the game today, without a steriod situation like Bonds, he is well on his way to being the best player of all time.

I also think A-Rod is the best player in the game. All I am saying in let a guy finish his career before you call him greatest ever. You can’t base the greatest player ever on projections.

Babe Ruth. He was far and away the best hitter of his era when he was being a hitter. He was one of the five or six best pitchers of his era when he was being a pitcher. He was at least an adequate defensive corner outfielder (at least until he really slowed with age) with a strong arm. His only real weakness was speed, but even there, he really wasn’t slow until he got old… he wasn’t a base stealer, but he had average speed as a young man. He could have made the Hall of Fame as a pitcher had he stayed a pitcher, and he did make it as a hitter. Tough to be more “all-around” than that…