Via River Ave. Blues, I came across this well thought out post by Jonah Keri, ranking the top-10 Yankees of all-time.
Now I know, start your quibbles. Different eras...dead-ball...no African Americans...and so on. We know it's all conjecture. I still enjoy the conversation, even if it's worthless.
Jonah (who's not a Yankees fan) went purely with offensive players, so there will be no slotting of Mariano Rivera, White Ford, Red Ruffing, Lefty Gomez, Ron Guidry, Andy Pettitte and the other great Yankees pitchers (Hoyt, Raschi, Lopat, Gossage, Reynolds, etc). And he picks them only based on their Yankees numbers. Here they are:
1 Babe Ruth
2 Mickey Mantle
3 Lou Gehrig
4 Joe DiMaggio
5 Yogi Berra
6 Derek Jeter
7 Bill Dickey
8 Jorge Posada
9 Bernie Williams
10 Earle Combs
Babe Ruth? Of course he's number one. Personally, I would argue for Gehrig over The Mick, but I can also argue for DiMaggio, as Mantle and Joe D are almost interchangeable at times. Jonah's flaws are few to me, but I think he makes the mistake that so many others make - getting hung up on stats. Clearly going the sabermetrics route, Jonah and those who commented spit out numbers, and they're great but I like stats to illustrate. There's more to ones game than that.
Plus he is very harsh on first basemen, so there's no Don Mattingly, who I would probably take over Earle Combs or even Bernie Williams. Tony Lazzeri can also be argued for. The 70's fan will push for Thurman Munson, but to be fair, Posada has quietly had a great career, and is now starting making a case for the Hall of Fame.
Your comments are welcome.
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