The origin of baseball has been a subject of debate for more than a century. But, as most seem to believe, it derived its modern appearance from various bat-ball and running games like the Round Ball and Fletch-catch. And now, this sport is dominated by some of the greatest baseball players of all time.
With 12 MLB Home Run leader award and 2 times introduction in MLB All-Star, Babe Ruth is undoubtedly the greatest baseball player of all time. Many also consider Barry Bonds (14 MLB All-Star) and Willie Mays (24 MLB All-Star) among the greats.
As recorded in history, amateurs in the US played a baseball-like game with informal rules during the 18th century. The New York Knickerbockers were the first team to play baseball under modern rules.
As per the official records, the New York press was still devoting more space in 1855 to the coverage of cricket than to that of baseball. Eventually, baseball became one of the most played and watched games in America.
Greatest Baseball Players of All Time | 2024 Updates
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Baseball has also seen various controversies like the betting and doping scandals. But there were many great players also who left their marks on the hearts of a vast number of baseball fans. So here is the list of the top 10 greatest baseball players of all time.
10. Nolan Ryan
- 8 times MLB All-Star
- 11 times MLB Strikeout Leader
- 2 times MLB NL ERA Leader
- Major League Baseball All-Century Team Member
Former Major League Baseball player Nolan Ryan is currently serving as the chief executive officer of the Texas Rangers and serving as an executive advisor of the Houston Astros.
He is widely regarded as one of the best pitchers in baseball history for his above 100 miles per hour average pitching speed. During his career, he played as a right-handed pitcher for the New York Mets, California Angels, Houston Astros, and Texas Rangers.
Nolan is the all-time topper in no-hitters, with seven, ghostwriter and one of the 29 players to appear in Major League baseball games in four decades.
He became the Strikeout champion eleven times and made eight times to the All-Star team. Houston Astros and Texas Rangers retired his jersey no. 34 as an honor to him. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.
9. Stan Musial
- 24 times MLB All-Star
- 7 times MLB NL Batting Champion
- 3 times MLB NL MVP
- Major League Baseball All-Century Team Member
Major League Baseball player Walter Johnson died on January 19, 2013, at the age of 92. He played his 22-year baseball career as an outfielder and first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to 1963 and was nicknamed Stan the Man.
Stan is widely regarded as the greatest hitter in baseball history. Besides baseball, he was also a Navy veteran of World War II. He made 475 Home runs and 3,630 hits with a spectacular batting average of .331.
He became an NL batting champion seven times and the NL RBI champion twice. Musial also won the World Series championship thrice and was named NL Most Valuable Player three times.
Stan was also included in the All-Star team 24 times. St. Louis Cardinals retired his jersey no.6 as an honor to him. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.
8. Walter Johnson
- 12 times MLB AL strikeout leader
- 6 times MLB AL Wins Leader
- 5 times MLB AL ERA Leader
- Major League Baseball All-Time Team Member
MLB player Walter Johnson played his entire 21-season baseball career as a right-handed pitcher for the Washington Senators from 1907 to 1927 and was nicknamed The Big Train.
He made a record 3,508 strikeouts, and for over 50 years, he was the only player in the 3,000-strikeout club. Johnson is the all-time top position holder for his 110 shutouts.
He also holds second place in the all-time list for his 417 wins and is placed in the fourth position for 531 complete games. Walter led the league in strikeouts for a record eight consecutive seasons.
He was also selected as a member of the Major League Baseball All-Century Team and Major League Baseball All-Time Team. Johnson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. He died on December 10, 1946, at the age of 59.
7. Joe DiMaggio
- 13 times MLB All-Star
- 9 times MLB World Series Champion
- 3 times MLB AL MVP
- Major League Baseball All-Century Team Member
American Major League Baseball player Joe DiMaggio played for the New York Yankees as a center fielder in his entire 13-year career and was nicknamed The Yankee Clipper. He had a Batting average of .325 with 2,214 hits and 361 Home runs.
Till now, his fans regard him as one of the home run champions in MLB. He also holds the record for his 56-game hitting streak in MLB. Joe won the World Series championship nine times and became the AL Most Valuable Player three times.
To honor his contribution to the team, New York Yankees retired his jersey no.5. He was ranked fifth on the all-time list for his home runs and ranked sixth in the list for a .579 career slugging percentage.
He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955. Joe was named the sport’s greatest living player in a poll in 1969. He died on March 8, 1999, at the age of 84.
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6. Ty Cobb
- 12 times MLB AL Batting Champion
- 6 times MLB AL Stolen Base Leader
- MLB All-Time Record of .367 Career Batting Average
- Major League Baseball All-Century Team Member
American Major League Baseball player Ty Cobb played 22 seasons as an Outfielder for Detroit Tigers and played his last season before retirement for Philadelphia Athletics. He is the youngest player ever to make 4,000 hits and score 2,000 runs.
He holds the record for the highest career batting average of .367 and won the highest career batting titles with 12 wins. His amazing career was decorated with 4,191 career hits, 2,246 career runs, 3,035 career appearances, and 11,434 at-bats.
Cobb was nicknamed The Georgia Peach and became the AL home run champion in 1909. He also became the AL RBI champion four times and AL batting champion twelve times.
Cobb was also awarded the AL MVP in 1911. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. He died on July 17, 1961, at the age of 74.
5. Ted Williams
- 19 times MLB All-Star
- 6 times MLB AL Batting Champion
- 4 times MLB AL Home Run Leader
- Major League Baseball All-Time Team Member
American professional baseball legend Ted Williams was widely regarded as the greatest hitter who ever lived and was nicknamed The Kid. He made a still unbeaten record of .344 batting average, .482 on-base percentage, and 521 home runs. During his heydays, he made several unbreakable MLB records in hitting.
Williams became the American League Most Valuable Player twice and the batting champion six times. He made it to All-Star teams 19 times and became the Triple Crown winner twice during his career.
He also holds the record for the highest batting average for scoring more than 500 runs every season on average. Williams became a member of the MLB All-Time Team in 1997 and the MLB All-Century Team in 1999.
He also earned his place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. He died on 5th July 2002 at the age of 83.
4. Hank Aaron
- 25 times MLB All-Star
- 3 times MLB Gold Glove Award
- 4 times NL Home Run Leader
- Major League Baseball All-Century Team
Retired American baseball player Hank Aaron is the only player to score more than 30 home runs in a season more than 15 times. He played as a right fielder for Atlanta Braves in the NLB from 1954 to 1974 and for Milwaukee Brewers in the American League from 1975 to 1976.
Aaron won Gold Glove Award three consecutive times and became the National League Most Valuable Player in 1957. He also became the World Series champion in 1957. Hank participated in 25 All-Star games.
MLB introduced the Hank Aaron Award as an honor to him in 1999 to appreciate the top offensive players of each league.
He earned his place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. His jersey no. 44 was retired by the Atlanta Braves in 1977 and by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1976.
3. Willie Mays
- 24 times MLB All-Star
- 12 times MLB Gold Glove Award
- 2 times MLB NL MVP
- Major League Baseball All-Time Team
Retired American baseball player Willie Mays won a record 12 times Gold Gloves starting from the year the introductory year of the award. He played throughout his career for the San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets as a centerfielder. His fans nicknamed him ‘The Say Hey Kid.’
Mays became NL Rookie of the Year in 1951 and won the World Series championship in 1954. He became NL Most Valuable Player twice and MLB All-Star Game MVP twice.
He also earned his place in the All-Star a record 24 times from 1954 to 1973. Willie received the Gold Glove Award twelve times from 1957 to 1968.
Willie was placed in the second position on the list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players by The Sporting News in 1999, which is the highest for any living player. He earned his place in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.
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2. Barry Bonds
- 14 times MLB All-Star
- 8 times MLB Gold Glove Award
- 7 times MLB NL MVP
- 12 times MLB Silver Slugger Award
Former American baseball star Barry Bonds is the son of All-Star outfielder Bobby Bonds. Barry still holds his place among the greatest baseball players of the Major League for his amazing records, such as 73 Home runs in a single season, 762 career Home runs, and 8 consecutive seasons with more than a .600 slugging percentage.
The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Bonds as the sixth overall pick of the 1985 Major League Baseball Draft. He played for Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants as a left fielder throughout his career. He scored more than 30 home runs in a single season for 13 consecutive times from 1992 to 2004.
Bonds won the Gold Glove Award eight times, Silver Slugger Award twelve times, became the NL’s most valuable player seven times, and made it to All-Star games 14 times. He has also achieved his place on the cover of Sports Illustrated eight times.
1. Babe Ruth
- 2 times MLB All-Star
- 7 times MLB World Series Champion
- 12 times MLB AL Home Run Leader
- Major League Baseball All-Time Team
American baseball legend Babe Ruth still holds his place as the greatest baseball player that has ever lived. His fans nicknamed him ‘The Sultan of Swat’ and ‘The Bambino’ for his charismatic skills at the time of the Roaring Twenties.
He started as an outfielder and pitcher for Boston Red Sox in 1914 and later joined the New York Yankees in 1920, where he played 15 seasons. Babe established huge numbers of records with his 714 career home runs, .690 slugging percentage, 2,213 RBIs, and 1.164 on-base plus slugging.
He won the World Series championship seven times and the AL home run championship record twelve times and also made it to the All-Star team twice. New York Yankees honored him by retiring his jersey no.3.
Babe was one of the five inaugural members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. He achieved such a great height of fame that his shirts are still among the most valuable sports memorabilia.
Conclusion
There are many interesting facts, along with many legendary players, which are also appreciated by the fans. Jimmy Piersall accomplished his 100th home run while running the bases backward as a celebration.
As an interesting trivia, Bobby Richardson is the first player to be named the World Series Most Valuable Player for a losing team. The Garbank brothers finished their season with exactly the same batting average.
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FAQs Regarding Greatest Baseball Players
Q. Why do they use K for a strikeout?
Little is known about Henry Chadwick, a baseball pioneer. During his career, he used the letter S for sacrifice and the letter K for a strikeout. Since K is the prominent letter of the word strike, which was used more frequently than a strikeout, he chose K. In some systems, a forward K represents a swinging strikeout, and a backward K represents a batter caught looking.
Q. What does Vaseline do to a baseball?
The baseball becomes smoother with Vaseline or saliva, whereas it becomes rougher with emery paper. Doctoring is the general term used to describe any form of ball modification.
Q. Has there ever been a 27-strikeout baseball game?
Batting and throwing right-handed, he struck out 27 times. On May 13, 1952, Necciai struck out 27 batters in a nine-inning game for the Class-D Appalachian League. He is one of the only pitchers to accomplish this feat in a professional game of nine innings.
Q. Has anyone hit 5 home runs in a game?
Four players have hit five home runs in a game: Pete Schneider (1923), Lou Frierson (1934), Cecil Dunn (1936), and Dick Lane (1948). 1866 was also the year Lipman Pike hit five home runs in the pre-professional era.
Last Updated On: April 2024
Ricky Henderson is the greatest non-pitcher ever to play the game, period!
3,000+ career hits – More than Wade Boggs, Ken Griffey, Barry Bonds, Al Kaline, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Ted Williams.
With a 110.7 Ricky tops the career WAR ~ Wins Above Replacement ~ of Mickey Mantle, Frank Robinson, Mike Schmidt, Carl Yastrzemski, Cal Ripken, Roberto Clemente, Pete Rose, Joe Dimaggio, and Reggie Jackson; essentially, a team would have had a better chance of winning a game by keeping Rickey in it, than that of the players above.
1,000+ Career RBIs.
4th in games played – Only Hank Aaron, Carl Yastrzemski and Pete Rose played in more.
To win, a team has got to score runs!
Scoring 2,295 times in his career, Rickey Henderson has more career runs-scored than Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Pete Rose and every other player in MLB history.
Gold Glove Winner (stellar defensive skills…) Silver Slugger, MVP and 10X All-Star. A true 5-Tool player.
More lead-off HR’s than any and everyone and more unintentional walks than everyone.
Ricky played more games than Willie Mays, Reggie Jackson and Cal Ripken. He had more hits than Babe Ruth and Ted Williams and again, most importantly, had more runs than everyone.
Oh shoot, did I mention stolen bases?
Joe DiMaggio and Nolan Ryan shouldn’t be in the top 10. Ryan shouldn’t even be in the top 30. Honus Wagner and Lou Gehrig would have been better choices, and I could have accepted Mickey Mantle too.