Len and I heard an interview with Curtis Granderson the other day.  The guy is smooth and impressive.  Assuming he does as well on the field, he will be a great addition to this team. He speaks like a Yankee.

Maybe I don’t know all the facts about Canadian Dr. Galea, but given his link to Balco, why would any ball player go to him for anything?  What does this truly tell you about A-Rod?  Galea says he only gave A-Rod anti-inflammatory drugs.  Why would he need to go to Canada for anti-inflammatory drugs?  Oh, I forgot that the Canadian healthcare system is vastly superior to that in the US.  What a joke. He is still cheating.  There can be no doubt.

I’m going to miss David Cone in the broadcast booth. A very smart guy on and off the field. Rumor has it that he may be replaced by Tino, unless O’Neill does more games.  O’Neill would be more entertaining. It would be refreshing, though, if they put in a guy who has the stones to speak his mind.

How happy are the Steinbrenners with Mark Newman after his DUI arrest? It didn’t take them long to kick Swindel to the curb and he was a son-in-law.

Damon said that, on advice from A-Rod, he called Hal in January and told hem he wanted to come back to the Yankees.  The call was 6 weeks too late.

(Trivia – what long time Yankee was traded to the Dodgers before the 1963 season and so picked up another WS ring that year  - but said he still considered himself a Yankee so he never wore it!)

We deserve better.

• Rookie of the Year 2001
• 3 MVPs (2005, 2008, 2009)
• MVP runner up 3 times (2002, 2003, 2006)
• MVP top 5 8 time (out of 9 seasons)
• 1 Gold Glove
• Highest career Batting Average (.334) among active players
• Among active players (1st in BA, SLG, OPS, OPS+, 2nd in OPB)
• Career (already 4th in career SLG and OPS, 7th in career OPS+)
• Through age 29, most similar to Jimmie Foxx, Hank Aaron, Lou Gherig, Ken Griffey, Frank Robinson and Mickey Mantle in that order)
• For his first 6 years he was most similar to Joe Dimaggio

I know his resume is incomplete, but if he stays healthy, we are looking at one of the greatest hitters of all time.

You mention Ted Williams lost time to the military in 2 wars (he was really mad that they dragged him back for Korea). Those lost years were outside his control. I’m thinking Shoeless Joe Jackson had a shot at breaking onto list if he hadn’t gotten caught up in the Black Sox scandal and lost his career. We will never know.

No catchers on the list. Wear and tear cuts into their longevity and productivity. Because of that, maybe the greatest catcher of all time deserves a #11 and an asterisk.  Johnny Bench, Berra?

Players whose careers are finished – so no A-Rod or Ken Griffey Jr., I’m not sure they would be on the list but let’s count them out.  No Barry Bonds, either, because I cannot attribute what amount of his achievements are to steroids are what portion is just talent which would launch him into the top ten of all time.  The same goes for A-Rod.  No pitchers either, that would really confuse things.

Ok, so doing this off the top of my head might be a mistake, but Jimmie Foxx came off the list and was replaced by Stan Musial (sorry Stan).  I would think people might place some of these guys in a slightly different order.  But I think (without pitchers) these are the ten guys. 

1) Babe Ruth.  Never a discusion or a doubt.  He’s the Bambino, enough said.  That doesn’t even include the fact that he could have been one of the greatest pitchers.

2) Ty Cobb.  96 stolen bases one year.  11 batting titles, etc, an excellent defender as well.  Some baseball enthusiasts who depise the HR might even put him at the top of the list.  But Ruth changed the game, and Cobb played it to perfection at the time he played. 

3) Lou Gehrig 8 seasons of top five MVP, 3 seasons of 170 RBIs or more.  He was an RBI machine in every sense of the word.  He had seasons which were just as impressed after Ruth had left the Yankees too.

4 tie) Joe DiMaggio.  Most people cite his 1941 season where he hit in 56 straight games.  I like his 1937 season where he hit .346, 46 HRs, 167 RBIs, scored 151 runs and only struck out 37 times!  I am also equally impressed with his 1948 season, late in his career where he drove in 155 runs and hit .320 with 39 HRs and struck out only 30 times.  ONe of the more famous statistics of Joe D. was the fact that he hit 361 HRs and struck out 369 times for his career. 

4 – tie) Willie Mays.  One of the greatest all around players.  It is difficult to put him ahead of DiMaggio.  If you wanted to flip the two of them, you could.  Consider that Mays career high in RBIs is 141 and he struck out almost twice as frequently as DiMaggio but still not bad for a power hitter.  Mays defenders would say that DiMaggio played in better lineups for most of his career.   I think the ballparks are a wash, death valley in Yankee Stadium for Joe D. and Candlestick (for most of his career) for Willie.  It’s so close. 

6) Ted Williams.  The greatest hitter of all time?  Perhaps that’s Ruth.  But, consider the fact that he lost time to WWII and Korea and not only is he a great American, but his productivity probably would have surpassed Gehrig.  The only thing that holds him back is that defense hardly interested him at all.

7) Hank Aaron.  Longevity and consistency.  Consistently around 40 HRs over his long career.  Again, this gets back to what you like – consistency over a long time, or the high ceiling player. 

8) Stan Musial.  If he had a little more power, he would be higher.  7 batting titles, about 10 times in the top 5 for MVP voting.  Truly the dominant player of the National League in the 40s and 50s.

9) Honus Wagner.  The greatest shortstop of all time.  A run producer and baserunner like nobody has seen. 

10) Rogers Hornsby.  Two triple crowns in 1922 and 1925 have to get you into the top ten.

Others that are real close…. Frank Robinson… who I put at #10 but I went with Hornsby because of the two triple crowns and then there’s Hank Greenberg and of course Mantle who all should be included in the top 15. 

Some might say this is a Yankee heavy list, but objectively speaking, they have won 27 titles and how did they get that many?  Because they were lucky enough to have some of the greatest players.  Among the 3 Yankees on this list, there are 14 world series wins. 

I should probably do a top ten pitcher’s list (which will be even more difficult).  Let’s see…. Johnson, Matheson, Koufax, Alexander, Grove, ……

To me, it is difficult to evaluate Mantle and compare him effectively to Mays.  Injuries.  Mays has him beat overall because he played longer.  But, even if you evaluate their first 13 years (after which Mantle trails off) it is still difficult to evaluate because Mickey was hurt alot.  Having said that, injuries are a legitimate way of holding you back (Mattingly for example).  So, for a career, you must say that Mays is the better ballplayer.  In my own personal evaluation of the greatest ballplayers of all time – Mays is in the top ten.  I’m not sure how exactly it shakes out (one day I will settle on a definite order).  But suffice it to say, Mays is probably in the top five…. hmmmmm…..  

Anyway, I rank Mantle probably lower, definitely in the top 15 all time which is not too shabby. 

That’s not the end of the discussion however.  When I look at individual seasons I also conclude the following.  Mantle had a higher ceiling than Mays.  Put another way, if Mantle played at his highest capability, I believe that would be greater than Mays.  Mantle’s high ceiling year of 1956 is in all likelihood, a better individual season than anything Mays put up.  Mantle had that high of an ability.  It was almost Ruthian, if you will.  The problem is, of course, Mays had more “great” years than Mantle, but I’m not sure that Mays ever approached what I would characterize a Ruthian like season. 

Back to the list.  Hmmm…. let’s say no pitchers.  Ruth, Cobb, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Williams, Mays, Aaron, Wagner, Foxx, Hornsby and it gets difficult after that.