Dick Barrie's
Baseball Website

My Top Ten Baseball Players

In preface to this list, I should explain that - while I am committed and devoted to baseball, I only saw my first television games in 1985 (when Channel 4 carried the World Series) and didn't make it to a "real" game until 1992, at Wrigley Field.

Thus, to create a Top Ten listing of who I consider to have been the greatest players of them all is at once an awful presumption, even conceit (on my part) and perhaps also a curious scenario and examination of past media coverage, as in many cases I have obviously to go by the image created for me by old film and written history.

Anyone with a differing opinion on who is/was The Greatest, of course, is welcome to e-mail their protest in right away!

This list is created in roughly chronological order.

As an observer from afar, I have my opinions. Here they are.

Play ball!

1) BABE RUTH: The man who made baseball famous throughout the world. Not only the greatest home-run hitter for years, but a World Series-class pitcher and - long before the word was coined - a superstar. Pre-Ruth, only baseball fans knew (and could recognise) their stars. The Bambino made baseball fashionable, and his name was known around the world.

2) LOU GEHRIG Had he played for another team, in another era, Lou would have been an even bigger star. Scrutiny of his statistics reveals his stature, and while his untimely death created the legend, it was the man who played tough for all these years in the shadow of the Babe.

3) TED WILLIAMS He came on the scene at just the right time to take the torch from the great Yankees and carve his own position on baseball's Mount Rushmore. His career could have been even greater had he not served in two wars - coming back to the game with distinction after each - and his last at-bat was the mark of a true star.

4) WILLIE MAYS. It took a lot for me - when considering a Giant for this list - not to go for my countryman Bobby Thompson (albeit that he had emigrated from Glasgow ten years before I was born) but Willie's stats - and his reputation in the field - make it no contest.

5) WHITEY FORD: With only two pitchers (OK, three if we count the Babe) on my list, I may be revealing that a Scot, thousands of miles from the action, cannot become as engrossed in mound work as are those closer to the action. Whitey is here for his statistics - admittedly for a very good team (but they were playing against very good teams in all these World Series, you know) and for his guile. Also, I loved his book.

6) PETE ROSE: So he wasn't the brightest guy away from the diamond? So he has an addiction? Not for me to judge - he could hit and he could run and he could make things happen - with probably less natural baseball or athletic ability than anyone else on this list. I believe that Ty Cobb, whose record Pete outstripped, wasn't too wonderful away from the diamond (or indeed, on it!) at times, too. The heading to this list says Top Ten Baseball Players - so Pete is in, OK?

7) NOLAN RYAN: The other pitcher - and what a pitcher! I've seen videos of Nolan in his Mets days, and almost thirty years later - and he was faster in the 'nineties! Certainly straighter. I have his 300th win on video, and get it out to watch as much as any tape (except maybe Game 6 of the '86 series). Of all baseball records, who is going to match his strikeout totals - ever?

8) CAL RIPKEN Jr: I read about him in Earl Weaver's (excellent) book and noted the name. I watched as the totals mounted. He seemed such an average guy, but everything he did had class. I was in Nevada when he beat Lou Gehrig's record, and watched it all live on TV. The man, and his demeanour, impressed me as much as the feat. Later I saw him play live, twice. First time, in Milwaukee, he left the game after three innings, having done nothing exceptional. Next summer, in Tampa, I saw Cal lift a three-run homer over the left-field wall to win the game for his beloved Birds. I immediately felt justified in accepting that he is the greatest of them all!

9) MARK McGWIRE: Noted his power from USC days (I got their 1984 media guide from, ironically, my pal Rab Nelson in Australia) and as a rookie with the A's. Remember hoping his injuries wouldn't end a solid career. Suddenly, he was at St Louis, off and running. I followed his race with Sosa avidly - as did so many non-baseball people in the UK. A real superstar, Mark - if spared, and if motivated enough - can become the greatest slugger of them all. I'll be rooting for him, anyway….

10) MIKE PIAZZA: I saw his very first game for the Dodgers! It was my very first big-league game, too! Wrigley Field, near the end of 1992. Mike caught, and hit 1,000! Three at-bats, three hits! I thought then that this must be some player - and surely Mike has the next day's papers clipped, showing that magic average! I am no believer in Rupert Murdoch's ways of doing business, and to see his empire trade away the player who will (not may, will) prove to be the best-hitting catcher in the history of baseball proves the point.

Of course, I just know you don't really agree with the above, do you? You think I should have given credit to a great many other stars, don't you?

Well, you're maybe quite right - but if you don't tell me about it, and allow me to reconsider (or update) my Top Ten, it ain't going to happen, is it?

Why don't you e-mail me with your thoughts? Put up, or shut up, that's what I say!