Pretty good debate..Greatest Shortstop Ever?

[Journeyman]

I just watched a special on the greatest shortstops ever (top 10) and I was somewhat surprised at the man at the top!

The top 5

5 Banks
4 Wagner
3 A Rod
2 Ripken
1 Ozzie

Without question Ozzie Smith is the greatest fielding shortstop...and perhaps the greatest fielder of all time...he may very well be the number 1 person in world history to wear a baseball glove!

LOL, imagine that!?

But, is Ozzie Smith the greatest shortstop ever when you include batting, some may disagree... Who would you select ?

Also mentioned in the top 10 included Yount, Jeter and Nomar...

'The Wizard of Oz'...Best Ever?

 

[Journeyman]

'It sure as hell isn't me man'

 

[RobFunk]

lol. .they actually mentioned nomar and jeter?! nomar tosses it in the dugout on routine throws to first and jeter likes to watch the ball roll through his legs. of course it is ozzie. if it isnt statistically, its becuase he can do that damn back flip.

a-rods sceret sex life with jeter keeps him from the list. no man could ever be great if he is not a hetero sexual. thats what the bible taught me and stuff.

 

[SSI]

some baseball guru's that i know and i agree say its Honus Wagner, without a doubt..

 

[MilesO'Toole]

I have no problem whatsoever with that ranking. Growing up in St. Louis as a kid and watching him on a daily basis you could really appreciate what he did. Every night he was in the highlights with some great play.

 

[RobFunk]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>some baseball guru's that i know and i agree say its Honus Wagner, without a doubt.. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>he had a collar on his uniform for cris sake. are you just kidding or what?!

 

[SSI]

absolutely not, look up his numbers... without a doubt Honus Wagner was the best.. Just as i consider Babe Ruth the best ever.. doing a little reading on mr. wagner..

 

[Journeyman]

Wagner had insane stats Rob...of course it was a million years ago, and all the players looked 55, but he sure as hell seemed to be the man...I love those old players...

Also, some may not realize this but Ripken was a damn good fielder...I'm not a huge Cal Ripken fan really but, I saw just about every inning of every game he ever played in... I will say this, whatever his glove got to, stayed in it, and he had a great accurate arm ..

Ripken was an amazing glove man as was his brother Billy...

At the same time Cal was not a great clutch hitter...I never felt confident when Cal was up with the game on the line...

 

[DNoonan]

I am not sure he is the best ever but it boggles my mind that someone can get that high off the ground without a trampoline, much less do a feckin flip....I still think all the time about the last time I dunked a basketball and that was eight years ago...

I am drinking to ozzie tonight

 

[bunyon]

I think Dave Concepcion deserves a plug here. He was over shadowed by the other members of "The Big Red Machine".

 

[OMNIVOROUS FROG]

Usually nobody has my guys, but this time Bunyon got mine. Dave Concepcion. With lack of range Pete at third, he had to cover everything. With Joe Morgan at second, they were one of the best dp, fielding and hitting 2nd/ss combos I have ever seen play. No backflips for Dave, he just was solid for years. Too many names on team for him to get recognition. Pete, Johnnny Bench and Joe got the press. Who was on Ozzie's teams, I forgot. Best Wishes...OF

 

[Journeyman]

What never is mentioned about those Big Red machine teams is defense...and up the middle they were spectacular

Bench C
Morgan 2B
Concepcion SS
Geronimo CF (who was great as well)

Amazing team they had...not heavy on starting pitching but that 8 they put on the field everyday... arguably best ever.

 

[SSI]

agree about the reds and concepcion was underrated... whats your take on Tejada Jman, in comparison with the other big names of today..

Ozzie played on a few good cardinal teams. vince coleman, terry pendelton, tommy herr, hernandez (early).. Whitey ball was pretty good there for a few years, remember when he was traded for garry templeton..

 

[Journeyman]

Yeah Tejada was the guy I thought of immediately, before he is done he may be better than Jeter and Nomar...Watching him regularly now...he's had an incredible year...But what will hurt him is no big post season moments as of yet....I always liked Miguel Tejada..I still feel bad for Oakland losing such a talent in his prime...

I hope he really is his age though,lol...

 

[wilheim]

Concepcion deserves mention, but during his 19 year career Pete Rose was only his 3rd baseman for 4 years (75-78), it happens to be that two of the best years of Concepcion's career (75-76) were on the same team with Rose. Ray Knight joined the Reds in 79 as the regular third baseman for a couple of years, followed by a string of others throughout the 80's. Dave scored baseball's 1,000,001 run, barely missing run #1,000,000. On May 4, 1975 the Giants beat the Astros 8–6 in the first game of a doubleheader at Candlestick. In the 2nd inning, Houston's Bob Watson scores what is calculated as ML baseball's one-millionth run of all time (the Philadelphia Nationals Wes Fisler scored the first run on April 22, 1876) as Milt May hits John Montefusco's first pitch to drive him home. Dave Concepcion homers about the same moment and races around the bases, but Watson, on 2B, scores first.

wil.

 

[SurfBoard]

Jeter

 

[Railbird]

Khalil Green

 

[winkyduck]

first off - "the sports list" (the show J-man saw) SUCKS! summer sanders looks comatose. the ONLY reason the show is even on-air is because it is co-produced by al michaels SON, steven (which is why so many people comment on each show - they did it because of Al).

for surf to say "jeter" is laughable. jeter will go down in history as one of the most OVERRATED shortstops in the game. he has ZERO range. A-rod is LIGHTYEARS better than him at SS but has to play 3B since moving Jeter to 3B would cause a riot!

so - who is the best SS ever.

NOT ozzie smith. i saw this show and nearly died laughing when they made him #1 (then again - espn named Michael Jordan the #1 athlete of the last century - which is beyond stupid! jordan has to rank BEHIND babe ruth, wayne gretzky and jackie robinson to start with and probably behind Jim Brown and Jim Thorpe). to me - what Cal Ripken did playing EVERY DAY for a zillion years in a row puts him #1 in my book. if A-rod stayed at SS - very good chance he is #1 when his career is over.

the fact ozzie couldn't hit hurst him in my book. i'd put Ozzie BEHIND ripken, a-rod, banks and wagner making him NO BETTER than #5.

 

[Mr NJ Sports]

I love how people say Jeter is overrated. I cant stand the Yankees but Jeter is one of my favorite players. He is a GREAT big game player.while guys like Nomar and Tajda bat .089 every year in the playoffs and Tejada stops running between 3rd and home every year in October , Derek Jeter hits .500 every postseason and plays like the best player on the the most famous franchise in US sports.

Overrated is Cal Ripken

Someone mentioned Khalil Greene...he is fun to watch (even more fun if all the SD games werent blacked out here in vegas)

 

[Mr NJ Sports]

http://www.baseballreference.com/j/jeterde01.shtml

http://www.baseballreference.com/t/tejadmi01.shtml

LOOK AT THE POSTSEASON #S

nomars are actually good i shouldnt have put him with tejada as chokes.


http://www.baseballreference.com/r/ripkeca01.shtml

Ripken was brutally average the 2nd 1/2 of his career