The baseball world misplaced a legend on Tuesday night time with the passing of Willie Mays. Regardless of the gravity that the phrase “legend” carries, that also won’t do justice to his greatness.
There is a quick listing within the heads of all long-time, die-hard baseball followers of the greats: Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams. Understanding what we all know now, Josh Gibson ought to positive be on that listing. Clearly, Mays belongs towards the highest, alongside Ruth and Aaron. Actually, there’s an argument to be made that he’s THE biggest participant in baseball historical past.
In honor of Willie’s life, spanning 93 years of positivity and baseball ambassadorship, let’s now make that case.
Whenever you hear the time period “five-tool celebrity,” there was no larger historic instance than Mays. We may go larger than 5 issues, too, as a result of Mays was superb at every part. He checked each single digital field you may dream up, successful MVPs, Gold Gloves (there weren’t Silver Sluggers but, however he’d have had a closet full), a World Sequence, a Rookie of the Yr and making a whopping 24 All-Star groups. He went professional as a 17-year-old for the Birmingham Black Barons and hit Main League Baseball at age 20.
We are able to begin with the straightforward stuff.
Mays scored 2,068 profession runs, good for seventh all-time. He scored at the least 100 runs in a season 12 occasions. Solely 9 gamers in historical past did so, with Hank Aaron main the way in which at 15. Mays ended up with 1,909 RBI in his profession, which ranks twelfth in historical past. He topped 100 RBI 10 occasions, one in every of 18 gamers in historical past to take action. The one gamers to high 1,900 runs and RBI have been Ruth, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Musial, Cobb, Barry Bonds, Cap Anson, Hank Aaron and Mays.
Mays ended up with 3,293 hits, which is now thirteenth all-time. He doubled 525 occasions (forty sixth) and tripled 141 occasions (63rd). His 660 house runs are actually sixth in MLB historical past. Add all of it up and his 6,080 whole bases path solely Aaron, Pujols and Musial. His 1,326 extra-base hits are sixth behind Aaron, Bonds, Pujols, Musial and Ruth.
Whereas doing all this, Mays posted a .301/.384/.557 line, which was good for a 155 OPS+, that means he hit over .300 whereas being 55% higher than the common hitter at getting on base and hitting for energy all through his whole profession.
Once more, inserting Mays in historical past as a hitter and run producer is the straightforward stuff. He additionally led the majors in stolen bases 4 occasions and ended his profession with 339 steals.
It’s kind of more durable to quantify protection, after all. We all know all about “The Catch” and it is one in every of baseball’s most well-known catches for a cause. The over-the-shoulder catch has a a lot increased diploma of issue than any kind of dive and Mays did it within the World Sequence going straight backward. He even whirled and made a powerful throw as an alternative of basking within the glory of the catch.
Talking of his arm, do you know that he led the league in assists from heart discipline 3 times? He additionally completed second 4 occasions and third 3 times. In 9 totally different seasons, he had at the least 10 outfield assists.
Once more, it is troublesome to quantify protection, particularly vary within the pre-Statcast days, however there are stats which have tried. Whole Zone Runs has Mays twelfth all-time with the one heart fielder above him being Andruw Jones, who is usually thought to be the best defensive heart fielder ever.
We go to nice lengths to ensure that folks perceive we don’t suppose WAR is the one stat value utilizing. It is not. There are a ton of helpful stats to assist illustrate apparent greatness. That stated, WAR is an all-encompassing stat that features protection and baserunning with the offense, so it is helpful in telling the entire image. This is the all-time WAR leaderboard.
1. Babe Ruth, 182.6
2. Walter Johnson, 166.9
3. Cy Younger, 163.6
4. Barry Bonds, 162.8
5. Willie Mays, 156.2
6. Ty Cobb, 151.5
7. Hank Aaron, 143.1
8. Roger Clemens, 139.2
9. Tris Speaker, 134.9
10. Honus Wagner, 131
A season of 8.0 WAR is usually thought of MVP-caliber. Mays had 11 of these, trailing solely Ruth and Bonds’ 12. Nobody else has greater than 9. If we set the standards to 9-WAR seasons, Mays was second with 9 (Ruth had 10, nobody else has greater than eight). If we went to 10-WAR seasons, Mays and Rogers Hornsby had six. Ruth had 9. Nobody else has greater than three.
It is extremely troublesome to check eras, however that is in all probability the very best we have got and it says Babe Ruth was the best participant ever. Bear in mind, after all, that he performed in a segregated league that would not have even allowed Aaron or Mays to take the sphere. I do know that this assertion angers folks, however it’s a reality. The identical goes for Johnson, Younger, Cobb, Speaker and Wagner. If we have been going to argue that the best participant ever needed to face the best potential competitors, that eliminates all these gamers. Bonds, after all, has the PED asterisk, as does Clemens. Mays and Aaron are then left alone and there is little doubt that whereas Aaron may’ve been the higher hitter — actually the higher energy hitter — Mays was the very best all-around participant.
In the event you needed to say the very best Main League Baseball participant in opposition to fellow MLB gamers on the time he performed, the reply might be Ruth, however you may’t say in opposition to his friends as a result of he did not play in opposition to all his friends. Would he have been as nice with the likes of Oscar Charleston, Cool Papa Bell, Turkey Stearns and Mule Suttles combined in? We have now no manner of understanding. With Mays, we do not have to surprise.
We do not have to boil it down to simply WAR as soon as the league was built-in, although. We have already run via these numbers. Whether or not we’re speaking about runs, hits, doubles, triples, house runs, RBI, stolen bases, hitting for common, getting on base, hitting for energy, outfield assists, any defensive metric that measured vary, Mays measures up as the very best all-around place participant we have ever seen. He led the league in most of these issues a number of occasions. He walked greater than he struck out in 10 seasons, too!
Let’s additionally remember that Mays misplaced a full yr of growth to navy service (1953, when he was 22). He got here again the subsequent season and gained MVP, successful the batting title with a .345/.411/.667 slash, good for a 175 OPS+. The Giants gained the World Sequence that season and, sure, that is the sequence that featured “The Catch.”
Maybe some testimonials from individuals who noticed him play may do him justice. In all probability not, however I discovered this quote significantly glorious: “If any person got here up and hit .450, stole 100 bases and carried out a miracle within the discipline daily, I would nonetheless look you within the eye and say Willie was higher.” That is Leo Durocher, from Mays’ Corridor of Fame webpage.
Do issues like “everybody liked him” or “he was so optimistic he had a nickname like ‘The Say Hey Child'” rely? In all probability not, however he was stated to exude charisma and that by no means hurts in these discussions.
To be clear, I do not essentially consider Willie Mays was the one biggest participant ever. It may be Ruth. It may be Aaron. It may be Charleston or anybody else I discussed on this column. Hell, perhaps it is a pitcher like Johnson or Clemens or Pedro Martinez or Tom Seaver or Greg Maddux. Perhaps it is Shohei Ohtani! Nobody is aware of for positive and anybody who claims in any other case is not being trustworthy with themselves.
What I’m saying is that Willie Mays completely has a case — a really robust one — as the best participant ever. On the night time of his passing, it felt like a superb time to make that case.
