Greatest Centerfielder of all time

[tycobb420]

Who do you believe is the greatest CF in history? All the players are in the HOF except Jr. (not yet eligible).

 

[grandy]

Alex Sanchez

 

[spockmaster]

Mays, without a doubt.

 

[byco42]

Mays. Hands down. Mantle would gain some consideration if he were healthy and sober more of is career. Might have arguably the best player ever were that true.

 

[kalinecountry]

I have gone back and forth with Cobb and Mays for years. Mays the ultimate 5 tool and do everything player, but so was Cobb, if you look at his power in the dead ball era, slugging, ops, etc. Cobb was also considered the second best defensive centerfielder of the day next to Speaker.

flip a coin
Cobb - Mays,
Mays - Cobb,

After those two, I think DiMaggio and Mantle, for third and fourth flip a coin again. Mantle is my second favorite player, and tomorrow Oct. 20 would have been 80. I will never forget the 5/10 minutes I spent with him and my late uncle at an autograph session back in the mid '80's. Uncle Charlie would have been 79 next Monday.

5. Speaker.

 

[turok]

Cobb in the AL.

Mays in the NL.

Cobb was better all-around offensively, and still holds the MLB record of stealing second, third, and home plate 4 times in his career. Although not reknown as being the power hitter that Mays was, playing in the "deadball' era or not, he did everything else possible extremely well, when at bat. I did get to see the tail end of Mays' career, but obviously not Cobb's, so I can't compare their defense, which Mays excelled at, not to mention that they played in different eras.

If only the Tigers had someone even 3/4ths as good as Cobb was right NOW playing CF and leading off.

If only....

 

[spockmaster]

lol how did i completely forget cobb? i changed my vote to him. he's a top 2 player all time with ruth imo. to say cobb was a gigantic douche is an understatement, but the guy can play. my favorite cobb bit:

"After enduring several years of seeing his fame and notoriety usurped by Ruth, Cobb decided that he was going to show that swinging for the fences was no challenge for a top hitter. On May 5, 1925, Cobb began a two-game hitting spree better than any even Ruth had unleashed. He was sitting in the dugout talking to a reporter and told him that, for the first time in his career, he was going to swing for the fences. That day, Cobb went 6 for 6, with two singles, a double, and three home runs.[71] His 16 total bases set a new AL record. The next day he had three more hits, two of which were home runs. His single his first time up gave him 9 consecutive hits over three games. His five homers in two games tied the record set by Cap Anson of the old Chicago NL team in 1884.[71] Cobb wanted to show that he could hit home runs when he wanted, but simply chose not to do so."


he was 38 then!

 

[turok]

When I was a kid growing up in the city of Detroit in the 60s, the word "cobb" was still being used back then sometimes, as slang for stealing something, like candy from a party store or toys from a dime store.

 

[tomdalton22]

I don't consider Cobb a CF since he didn't play most of his games there. He played almost 3x more games in LF or RF than CF. It's Mays hands down.

 

[tycobb420]

KalineCountry[/color]]I have gone back and forth with Cobb and Mays for years. Mays the ultimate 5 tool and do everything player, but so was Cobb, if you look at his power in the dead ball era, slugging, ops, etc. Cobb was also considered the second best defensive centerfielder of the day next to Speaker.

flip a coin
Cobb - Mays,
Mays - Cobb,

After those two, I think DiMaggio and Mantle, for third and fourth flip a coin again. Mantle is my second favorite player, and tomorrow Oct. 20 would have been 80. I will never forget the 5/10 minutes I spent with him and my late uncle at an autograph session back in the mid '80's. Uncle Charlie would have been 79 next Monday.

5. Speaker.

There are some good stories of Mantle doing whatever he could to annoy DiMaggio. At one autograph session, Joe sent someone to Mantle to ask him to not be so nice to fans b.c it made Joe look bad...so Mantle started being nicer and friendlier to the people.

 

[tycobb420]

In 1968 (or so), DiMaggio was voted greatest living player over Mays. Always found that interesting.

 

[Mitchrapp]

When you're talking Cobb and Mays I'm not sure any vote could be "hands down". You really have to look at the era and Cobb was the dead ball era. He won a triple crown.

 

[tycobb420]

I don't consider Cobb a CF since he didn't play most of his games there. He played almost 3x more games in LF or RF than CF. It's Mays hands down.

The baseball hall of fame considers him a CF...

 

[tomdalton22]

I don't consider Cobb a CF since he didn't play most of his games there. He played almost 3x more games in LF or RF than CF. It's Mays hands down.

The baseball hall of fame considers him a CF...

I looked again and the first site I looked at was misleading. It does appear that he started more games in CF than in LF. That said I think It's still Mays with an edge over Cobb...not hands down.

 

[kalinecountry]

The baseball hall of fame considers him a CF...

I looked again and the first site I looked at was misleading. It does appear that he started more games in CF than in LF. That said I think It's still Mays with an edge over Cobb...not hands down.

Record keeping is kind of here and there for certain stats before 1919/1920. Baseball Reference doesn't have full fielding stats, and neither does Baseball Almanac.
I did know that Cobb played RF during the 1907, '08, and '09 seasons with Crawford in center. Afterwards, Cobb was exclusively in centerfield and Crawford moved to RF. Unless there is a site I am missing, I haven't seen or read much of anything about Cobb in Leftfield, not to say he didn't play there, just not as much as even the 500 or so documented games in right he played
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=cobbty01
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cobbty01-field.shtml

 

[batcave76]

When I was a kid growing up in the city of Detroit in the 60s, the word "cobb" was still being used back then sometimes, as slang for stealing something, like candy from a party store or toys from a dime store.

I remember that too. LOL! We used to say someone got cobbed if we could trade say, a Frank Kostro for a Tony Oliva BB card!

 

[batcave76]

I think it's too difficult to compare Cobb, Ruth w/Mays or Mantle etc. It's like comparing Charlie Chaplin to Johnny Depp.

 

[kalinecountry]

I can't split my vote between the 4 to 5 Centerfielders I like all-time, and because he hasn't had a vote yet, and in honor and memory of what would have been his 80th birthday today Oct. 20, I voted for Mickey Mantle. even though there are 3 or 4 imo better all time, Mickey will always be number 1 in my heart with all the CF'ers, and number 2 next to Kaline of my favorite players.

If it wasn't for Mickey, I never would have taught myself to become a switch hitter, became a lefthanded hitter in the spring and summer of 1956 as an 8 year old future wannabe baseball player.

 

[tycobb420]

Cobb leads 8-7 over Mays. Jr. with 2 votes and The Mick with one.

I met Mick and Whitey Ford when I was 14 at a card show. Whitey was pretty funny. Mick was pretty drunk.

 

[kalinecountry]

Cobb leads 8-7 over Mays. Jr. with 2 votes and The Mick with one.

I met Mick and Whitey Ford when I was 14 at a card show. Whitey was pretty funny. Mick was pretty drunk.

Whitey will be 85 tomorrow the 21st.