August 24, 2008

Who’s Your (All-Time) Tiger?

By Mike McClary in Featured, Fungoes | 4 comments

OldBookXSmall.jpgESPN’s Baseball Tonight is asking baseball fans to weigh in on the question “Who is the all-time greatest in history?” for each major-league team. On Friday night they revealed the results for the Tigers as chosen by 40,229 online voters. The names aren’t surprising but the order could be up for debate:

Who is the all-time greatest player in Tigers history?

#1. 77.4% – Ty Cobb (1905-1926): The “Georgia Peach” hit .400 or better three times. .366 lifetime BA ranks first all time.

#2. 14.0% – Al Kaline (1953-1974): 15-time All-Star hit .379 in 1968 World Series win over Cardinals.

#3. 4.0% – Hank Greenberg (1930-1946): Made five All-Star teams and won two MVPs. Hit 58 home runs in 1938.

#4. 2.1% – Alan Trammell (1977-1996): Underrated shortstop hit .450 in 1984 World Series win over Padres.

#5. 1.0% – Jack Morris (1977-1990): Ten-inning shutout in 1991 World Series defines Morris’ legacy.

#6. 0.7% – Lou Whitaker (1977-1995): Slugging second baseman was Trammell’s iconic double-play partner.

#7. 0.3% – Sam Crawford (1903-1917): “Wahoo Sam” ranks first all time in triples with 309.

#8. 0.3% – Charlie Gehringer (1924-1942): Six-time All-Star hit .321 in three World Series appearances.

#9. 0.2% – Harry Heilmann (1914-1929): .342 batting average is 12th all time. Led league in batting four times.

#10. 0.1% – Hal Newhouser (1939-1953): Won 20 or more games four times with the Tigers.

Discuss.

email this | tag this | digg this | trackback | comment RSS feed

4 Comment(s)

  1. Kurt | Aug 24, 2008 | Reply

    As for greatest, I guess you can’t bicker with choosing Cobb, though the heart says Kaline.

  2. Eddie | Aug 25, 2008 | Reply

    Jack Morris #5 is a complete crock. Among pitchers, there is no way he tops Newhouser, Bridges, Lary, Bunning, and Trout. And that’s just some pitchers. I failed to include 20 or so position players he should have been behind.

    I’m still curious where Bobby Veach is, but I wouldn’t expect ESPN to get that one right. The correct ranking would go something like this:

    Cobb
    Crawford
    Greenberg/Heilmann/Kaline in some order
    Gehringer
    Veach/Whitaker in some order
    Newhouser
    Trammell
    Bridges
    Trout

  3. Mike McClary | Aug 26, 2008 | Reply

    Eddie, I’m a huge Jack Morris fan but I have to agree with you. I was surprised to see him at #5 — though it’s only 1% of the votes. My guess is that a lot of the voters saw the names Newhouser, et al, and had no clue who they were. What do you think?

    Mike

  4. Doug | Aug 26, 2008 | Reply

    Wow! That’ll teach me to spend too much time working and not enough surfing. I take a couple days away from the Fungo and there’s a flurry of activity.

    Everybody’s right about Morris not being able to hold Newhouser’s jock. Why he ranks that high on the list is perplexing.

    Where’s Virgil Trucks? His stats are almost identical to The Cat’s! And, by all accounts, he was a heck’uva lot nicer guy than Jack was too.

Post a Comment