Baseball's Greatest Centerfielders

First a few ground rules. To be one of the greatest center fielders, first and foremost, you better be able to field your position with the best. Second, since you should have speed, you better do something with it. Stolen bases and hitting for average would be nice. The third category is hitting for power. If you can do all of these, welcome to the club. Here's the list.

5. Joe DiMaggio, New York Yankees, 1936-1951, 6-2, 193 lbs. "Joltin Joe," "The Yankee Clipper," you've heard the nicknames. Here's how good he was. A .325 lifetime batting average. 361 home runs. The 56 game batting streak. A .398 career on-base percentage. Known by his contemporaries as the best player of his era, DiMaggio was so graceful in center field, he made it look easy. Flirted with a .400 batting average in 1939, he finished at .381 with 30 homers and 126 RBI's. Not a big base stealer with 30 in his career.

4. Ty Cobb, Detroit Tigers/Philadelphia Athletics, 1905-1928, 6-1, 175 lbs. Cobb tends to be overlooked because of his low (117) home run numbers but he played during the dead ball era. He did everything else at the highest level. A lifetime .366 hitter no one has ever surpassed him. Cobb stole 897 bases. His lack of home runs didn't keep him from driving in runs. Cobb plated 1,938 runners in his career. He would do anything to get on base as evidenced by his .433 career on base percentage over 4,000 career hits. Baseball's fiercest competitor.

3. Mickey Mantle, New York Yankees, 1951-1968, 5-11, 195 lbs. The successor to Joe DiMaggio in the Yankee center field, Mantle went on to become the greatest switch-hitter of all time. Mantle's Triple Crown year of 1956 tells all you need to know: .353 batting average, 52 home runs, 130 RBI's. With a .421 on base percentage, Mantle was on base plenty of times other than his home run trot. Mantle before injuries had great speed in the outfield, yet was not a base stealer. He was also known for the sheer length of his home runs. One blast in Washington, DC was estimated at 565 feet. Mantle's career batting average was .298. Oh, and he hit 536 home runs.

2. Ken Griffey, Jr., Seattle Mariners, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, 1989-2010, 6-2, 230 lbs. For some reason, my image of Junior has him loping after nearly uncatchable balls, and leaping into the stands to rob batters of home runs. Yet his 630 home runs places his fifth on the all time list. Griffey won ten Gold Gloves in center field, and made the miracle catch routine. His batting average of .284 barely passes muster, but is made up for by his fielding. Like Mantle, Griffey's career was often derailed by injuries.

1. Willie Mays, New York Giants, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, 1951-1973, 5-10, 170 lbs. Known by many as the greatest all-round player in baseball history, it's not surprising that Mays is the game's best center fielder as well. Like Griffey, Mays was an incredible fielder, with a strong throwing arm. He is one of the few baseball players remembered more for his defensive plays than his batting. But Mays was an offensive force of a higher caliber. A .302 career hitter, Mays blasted 660 home runs. He was the first player to ever have a chance at surpassing Babe Ruth's mark of 714. If not for a year and a half lost when he was drafted into the Army in his second year, he probably would have. Mays returned from the Army in 1954 with a .345 batting average, 41 home runs and 110 RBI's. He led the National League in stolen bases on four occasions. His 338 stolen bases were surpassed only by Ty Cobb on this list. Mays hauled in 12 Gold Glove Awards, even though the award wasn't started until his seventh season. So if you're looking for a center fielder who could do it all, with the best, your man is Willie Mays.

Source: Baseball Reference.Com