Five Greatest Hitters in Baseball from the Babe to Barry Bonds

Any list of the top five hitters in baseball history is bound to be controversial. Fans who love to debate consider the differences between baseball eras, the reliability of statistics, the length of a player's career, the qualities that make a great hitter, and even the likeability of players. In this list I have taken into account the following: players whose baseball careers carry into at least two decades; lifetime slugging average, slugging percentage and runs created; and indicators of power and clutch hitting, such as, a player's homerun and runs batted in records.

Babe Ruth

His real name was George Herman Ruth but he was mostly known as Babe, the Bambino, or the Sultan of Swat. An orphan born in Baltimore in 1895, the Babe made his first mark on baseball as a lefthanded pitcher for the Boston Red Sox with three World Series wins in 1916 and 1918.

In need of money the Red Sox owner sold Ruth to the Yankees in 1920 (bad luck for the Red Sox who did not win another World Series until 2004. Babe's hitting took off during his time with the Yankees (1920-35). He set a single season 60 homerun record that was not broken until 1961 by Roger Maris. With Lou Gehrig batting clean up, he led the Yankees to four World Series championships out of seven appearances.

Babe Ruth set the standard for great baseball hitting. Although he died in 1948 from throat cancer, he still lives on with the highest lifetime slugging percentage (.6898), third in homeruns (714), and second in RBIs (2,211). All hitters striving for greatness are judged by how they match up to the Sultan of Swat.

Hank Aaron

It took four decades before a player broke Babe Ruth's 714 career homerun record. As was his way Hank Aaron quietly endured insult upon injury while he racked up hits and homeruns over the course of his career with the Milwaukee Braves (1954-1965), Atlanta Braves (1966-1974), and Milwaukee Brewers (1975-1976). The enmity against Aaron was both racial and fanatical given that Aaron threatened beloved Babe Ruth's homerun record.

Although I never saw Hank Aaron play in person, my family tuned in on black and white television to watch him hit his 715^th homerun on April 8, 1974, and we continued to watch him through the remainder of his career.

In addition to his 755 homeruns, Aaron helped the Braves defeat the Yankees in the 1957 World Series. He set all-time still unbroken records for 6,856 total bases and 2,297 runs batted in. From 1955 to 1974 he consistently hit at least 20 home runs per season with highs of 44 four times and 45 in 1962.

Hank Aaron definitely went shoulder to shoulder with the Babe as a great hitter. It is fitting that alphabetically he will probably always come first in baseball encyclopedias.

Ted Williams

Ted Williams (Boston Red Sox 1939-42; 1946-60) worked hard to accomplish his goal of being the greatest baseball hitter of all-time. As a confident, opinionated player he had a vitriolic relationship with Boston fans despite being the last player to hit over .400 with his .406 in 1941.

Two major gaps in William's career are due to three years as a fighter pilot in World War II and in 1952 39 missions in Korea. Even so his hitting statistics are incredibly impressive. With 521 home runs, he is not as great a power hitter as Ruth or Aaron, but he was a genius at getting on base. He has less than half Ruth's 1,330 strike outs and is fourth all-time in walks (2,019).

Williams wrote a book Signs of Hitting detailing his disciplined approach to hitting. He was a lefthanded batter with near perfect eyesight who did not swing at bad pitches.

Stan Musial

I chose Stan Musial over Willie Mays , Jimmy Foxx, or Ty Cobb by figuring Runs Created. Beyond being a power hitter, a player needs to produce hits when there are men on base. Stan the Man did this.

According to Musial himself, he was not a scientific hitter like Ted Williams; rather, hitting came naturally to him. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals 1941-44 and 1946-63. He is 9^th in runs scored, 4^th in hits (3,630), 2^nd behind Aaron in total bases, 3^rd in doubles, 6^th in runs batted in (1,951), 3^rd in runs created, 3^rd in extra base hits, and he has 13 fewer strike outs than Williams. With 475 home runs to his credit, he is not too shabby in the power hitting department either.

Barry Bonds

This is the most controversial pick in my top five; however, I have seen with my own eyes the greatness of Barry Bonds despite alleged steroids use.

Being Pirates fans my husband and I followed Bonds early career closely through the late '80's and early '90s. On April 11, 1992 before a game with the Phillies we were early enough to catch the Pirates in batting practice. Bonds was phenomenal; he cracked one ball after another into the stands.

Unfortunately, Bonds career might be over. He played for eighteen years for the Pittsburgh Pirates and then the San Francisco Giants from 1986-2007. Due to accusations against him for using performance enhancing drugs, he has not played now for the past two seasons.

In slugging percentage he ranks sixth all-time among active and retired players. He is first in home runs with 762, third in runs scored (2,227), sixth in on-base percentage, fourth in total bases (5,976), fourth in runs batted in (1,996), first in base on balls. Like him or not, drugs or not, Barry Bonds is a great hitter.

Active Players

How do the players of today compare to the players of yesterday? It is a shame that steroids usage has to taint the careers of all our star players today. Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez have great batting statistics but both have tested positive.

Personally, I like Vladimir Guerrero even though I doubt his final career statistics will be as great as my top five. Fourteen seasons into his career Vladimir Guerrero is fourteenth in slugging percentage with 400 home runs and 1,293 RBIs. I first saw him play live in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for the Eastern League Senators in 1996. Soon after the Senators won the Eastern League championship, Guerrero moved up to the big leagues. He currently bats DH for the Los Angeles Angels.

Maybe Albert Pujols can save baseball from steroid scandal the way Babe Ruth is known for rescuing the game after the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Now in his ninth Major League season with the St. Louis Cardinals, he is fourth in overall slugging percentage behind Ruth, Williams, and Gehrig. I am hoping that for the next ten years or more his at bats will prove consistent and clean.

"Baseball Reference.Com" 12 August 2009. Sports Reference LLC. 12 August 2009. http://www.baseball-reference.com.

The Baseball Encyclopedia: The Complete and Definitive of Major League Baseball. 9^th Edition. Rick Wolff, Editorial Director. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993.

Nemec, David, Matthew Greenberger, Dan Schlossberg, Dick Johnson and Mike Tully. Players of Cooperstown Baseball's Hall of Fame. Lincolnwood, Illinois: Publications International, Ltd., 1994. Articles: "Babe Ruth" (106-107), "Hank Aaron" (222-223), "Ted Williams" (192-193).

The Sporting News. Heroes of the Hall: Baseball's All-Time Best. St. Louis, Missouri: The Sporting News, 2002. Articles: "Babe Ruth" (402-405), "Hank Aaron" (23-25), "Ted Williams"(487-490), "Stan Musial" (348 -350).