Best Baseball Player of all Time

[Kurn]

Hard to argue with anyone on basketball and Hockey. Clearly MJ and #99 were the greatest ever at their sports.

And Wes hit the nail on the head with Football. Too many different jobs to pick one, but being an ex-LB myself, I'll cast my vote for Lawrence Taylor. I can't imagine how good he would've been had he been drug-free.

Now to baseball.

I must disagree on Ruth. Yes he could pitch and hit, but I can't pick him as the best ever for two reasons.

1) Offensively, he was a paradigm shift. Pitchers of his era had no clue how to handle a guy who could knock it out of the park on every swing. I can no more call Babe the greatest offensive baseball player based on his stats than I can call Wilt the greatest NBA player based on his.

2) More important, nobody pre-1947 can be considered the greatest since they competed against watered down talent. No hitter who never had to face Satchell Paige in his prime can be considered the best, no pitcher who never had to pitch to the fearsome Josh Gibson can be the best.

Thus my vote for the greatest MLB player is Willie Mays.