The debate goes on in mulitple threads right now ... greatest 2B to ever play the game?
| Roberto Alomar |  17 (15.18%) |
| Craig Biggio | 4 (3.57%) |
| Eddie Collins | 3 (2.68%) |
| Charlie Gehringer | 1 (0.89%) |
| Rogers Hornsby | 40 (35.71%) |
| Nap Lajoie | 3 (2.68%) |
| Joe Morgan | 27 (24.11%) |
| Jackie Robinson | 13 (11.61%) |
| Ryne Sandberg | 2 (1.79%) |
| Other (who?) | 2 (1.79%) |
112 votes | 4 featured comments
These nine candidate courtesy The Baseball Page rankings.
Sorry #10, Frankie Frisch and all you others ...
Heh. Lajoie and Gehringer the only two without votes so far -- and the site I linked to above has them third and fifth. You'd think a couple of top-five guys could get a vote!
And I don't really think Biggio belongs on the list ... spent a lot of time behind the plate and in the OF ... oh, never mind. I just looked it up and he spent four times as many games at 2B as the other two spots combined ... AND won four Gold Gloves there. My memory fails me.
Jackie Robinson for me hands down. Screw the stats and objectivity. Sure Rogers Hornsby' s the best statistically, but nobody had to go through what Jackie did and he did it with such flair. Craig B went down the list of all of his athletic achievements before he arrived in the big leagues. There doesn't seem to have been a sport that he didn't excel at. Kick ass punt return guy, fine quarterback, shot the lights out in basketball, lit up the track, oh and he played baseball too. Obviously, he was the best athlete to ever play the position and I think his career was cut short because of the burden of being the first man to break the colour barrier. It must have worn him down. I wonder what would've happened if he'd come along later in MLB history and hadn't had to carry the torch. Would he have had a 20 year career? If he'd had a 20 year career, would this poll even be necessary? But he only played 10 and therefore all the others played much more than he did. I'm glad to see he currently trails only Hornsby, Morgan and Alomar (ahhh, the sentimental choice), but I'd still like to see him a little higher, at least ahead of Alomar.
I can't believe I account for fully half of the Eddie Collins votes...
Jackie Robinson was a great second baseman - for five years. After he turned 33, he wasn't a second baseman anymore. And after he turned 35, he wasn't a great player anymore. Obviously Robinson surely would have been a great second baseman for ten or twelve years if he'd arrived in the majors when he was 21 years old.
But Eddie Collins actually was a great second baseman, for almost twenty years, from age 22 through age 39. At their peak, you can flip a coin between Jackie, Cocky, Little Joe, and the Rajah. For career value, it's simply no contest.
And, of course, he was one of the greatest World Series performers of all time.
Jackie Robinson was a great second baseman - for five years. After he turned 33, he wasn't a second baseman anymore. And after he turned 35, he wasn't a great player anymore. Obviously Robinson surely would have been a great second baseman for ten or twelve years if he'd arrived in the majors when he was 21 years old.
But Eddie Collins actually was a great second baseman, for almost twenty years, from age 22 through age 39. At their peak, you can flip a coin between Jackie, Cocky, Little Joe, and the Rajah. For career value, it's simply no contest.
And, of course, he was one of the greatest World Series performers of all time.