Joe Posnanski's top 100 Baseball Players of All Time

[The Gray Eagle]

I'm way behind on these, because I am savoring them and reading only one per day, if that. I just got to the Rogers Hornsby article, and it was great. Buried in the comments section to that one, someone posted a link to another Posnanski piece on his blog about another hated player who had a terrible reputation, Dick Allen.

joeposnanski.substack.com/p/whats-in-a-name

I don't even know what to do with that story. I had no idea of most of that, even though I remember as a kid hearing about how everyone in baseball hated Dick Allen, the lazy, druggy complaining guy. While not denying that Allen did some bad things, Joe sheds some light on why he did some of those things, and illustrates some of what he had to deal with. Yet another classic Joe piece that shows that in this life, everyone is complicated. There's always a lot more going on than the "good or bad" narrative.

Joe Posnanski IMO is the best baseball writer going right now. He's clearly the best baseball history writer, but I don't think there's anybody currently out there I'd rather read about on any aspect of sports, not just baseball history.

 

[TedYaz&JimEd]

Today, of course, Mr. Willie Howard Mays, Jr. This one is pure joy.

 

[LogansDad]

Sad it's over, but what a perfect ending.

 

[Detts]

I’m still wiping away the tears.

I’ve read about half of these tales while delving into holes to fill in self distancing.

Fuck

 

[Awesome Fossum]

I'm way behind and reading these out of order, but it's so depressing -- and sort of instructive -- how so many of these stories are sad or the player lives/dies miserable. As a kid, being awesome at baseball is probably the one thing I wanted more than anything else. On its own, it doesn't take you very far in life, does it?

 

[Max Power]

I'm way behind and reading these out of order, but it's so depressing -- and sort of instructive -- how so many of these stories are sad or the player lives/dies miserable. As a kid, being awesome at baseball is probably the one thing I wanted more than anything else. On its own, it doesn't take you very far in life, does it?

That's true literally. Being awesome at baseball only lasts until your mid 30s or early 40s. There's plenty of time afterwards for things to go off the rails.

The one thing that everyone in the top 10 seemed to have in common is a terrible father until it came to Willie Mays. He broke the mold in every way.

 

[The Gray Eagle]

Joe did a Q&A on The Athletic about the list:
https://theathletic.com/1746287/2020/04/14/live-baseball-100-qa-with-joe-posnanski-april-15-from-noon-100-p-m-et/?source=dailyemail_discussion
On the process of writing this:

The thing that was wild was that the first 85 or so days of this series, I literally wrote one EVERY SINGLE DAY including weekends. That was probably a mistake on my part, but it did give me a certain discipline. I stayed about two weeks ahead for the first month, about 10 days ahead for the second month, about a week ahead for the next two weeks, and then suddenly I was only one or two days ahead. Time was always the consideration so I would spend the night before reading a book or a series of articles about the players as fast as I could. Then in the morning, I would start the newspaper research. And usually around mid-afternoon, I would start writing and try to finish the piece. Then, I'd get the book on the next player.

On choosing Mays over Ruth for #1:

Well, defense and baserunner were certainly factors. Eras when they played was certainly a factor too. I said on the most recent PosCast, my podcast with Mike Schur, that I could have made a real argument for a dozen players as greatest ever. Ruth's argument has been made more than anyone and it's hard to argue with -- more homers than teams, terrific pitcher, basically invented the home run, etc. For me, Mays' ability to do absolutely anything was the final factor, but I could have made that argument for Henry Aaron or Ty Cobb or any number of others. There's no right answer.

On what he'll be doing next:

I actually have a plan for a new series that I will be starting soon ... I don't know if I want to give it away but it would definitely have some of the stories that you're talking about.