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Baseball's Greatest Players: The Inner Circle and 10 numbers that define them
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- Baseball's Greatest Players: The Inner Circle and 10 numbers that define them
Baseball's Greatest Players: The Inner Circle and 10 numbers that define them originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
They are the greatest baseball players who ever lived.
Our journey has reached its destination.
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From July through October, we've unveiled baseball's 140 greatest players
ever, 10 legends at a time grouped into 14 "rooms" via threads of commonality. And until now, we've refrained from editorializing the scope of their greatness. Why? Because it runs contrary to our ethos: not debating them, not ranking them, connecting them.
But today we make a declaration.
In a collection of the sport's greatest players, these are the 10 greatest. Not the best, in pure scientific terms - everyone has done some variation of that list - but the 10 players whose blend of productivity and imprint rendered them greater than all the rest.
Welcome to the Inner Circle.
BASEBALL'S GREATEST PLAYERS
Immortals
| Artists
| Unicorns
| Juggernauts
| Supernovas
| Unsung
| Showmen
| What-Ifs
| Pioneers
| Prodigies
| Stalwarts
| Beloved
| Pariahs
(Editor's note: Each hyperlinked name takes you to that player's page within the digitized SN Archive. Once registered (it's free!), readers have instant access to every article and cover related to each player, as they originally appeared in print.)
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Baseball's Greatest Players: The Inner Circle
Willie Mays
The quintessential five-tool player, Willie Mays remains the standard by which all players are measured.
Mays retired after the 1973 season as one of 91 players with 300 career stolen bases (339); he hit 506 more home runs (660) than any other player on that list (Willie Davis: 154).
Willie Mays on the July 25, 1970 cover of The Sporting News
SN
Henry Aaron
Henry Aaron eclipsed the most revered record in sports with grace and dignity amidst a torrent of hatred and bigotry.
If one were to exclude all of Aaron's 755 home runs, he would still have more than 3,000 hits (3,016); he is the only member of the 500-HR club with that distinction.
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SN Archive (1974): The day Hank Aaron hit HR No. 715 as told by his teammates
Henry Aaron on the July 3, 1965 cover of The Sporting News
SN
Albert Pujols
Albert Pujols was so consistent that his first decade reads like the same brilliant season played ten times and so enduring that he finished with numbers once reserved for Ruth and Aaron.
Pujols (debuted in 2001) is one of 10 hitters with 1,000 extra base hits and more extra base hits than strikeouts; the average debut season of the other nine is 1929.
Albert Pujols on the May 26, 2006 cover of The Sporting News
SN
Lou Gehrig
Lou Gehrig played in 2,130 consecutive games - a record once considered unassailable - as the backbone of some of baseball's deadliest lineups and six World Series champions.
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Across his 13 full seasons (1926-38), Gehrig averaged 139 runs and 147 RBI; since 1947 integration, only three players have achieved that in a season (1949 Ted Williams, 2001 Sammy Sosa, 2007 Alex Rodriguez).
Lou Gehrig on the cover of the 1928 SN MLB Record Book
SN
Ted Williams
Ted Williams was to hitting what Albert Einstein was to physics -- an obsessive, unrelenting mad scientist whose genius was generations ahead of its time.
Williams posted a .500 on-base percentage across a 1,068-game span between 1940 and 1951, comprising 47% of his career.
Ted Williams on the August 17, 1960 cover of The Sporting News
SN
Josh Gibson
Josh Gibson went to his grave knowing what few acknowledged then and many do now - he was Babe Ruth's equal at the plate, and he did it while playing baseball's most demanding position.
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Gibson stakes a claim to two of the best hitting seasons in MLB history: in 1937 (274 OPS+), he slugged .982, 105 points higher than any other hitter ever has; and in 1943 (281 OPS+), he batted .466, the highest in a season all-time.
SN Archives (1970): Josh Gibson stood alone
Josh Gibson in the March 14, 1970 issue of The Sporting News
SN
Ty Cobb
The defining player of the dead-ball era, Ty Cobb turned the diamond into a battlefield on which blood was spilt -- rarely his and often yours.
Cobb's total bases record (5,854) stood until 1962, his stolen bases record (897) until 1977, his hits record (4,191) until 1985, and his runs record (2,245) until 2001.
Ty Cobb on the August 12, 1909 cover of The Sporting News
SN
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Walter Johnson
With an effortless delivery and a hissing fastball, Walter Johnson made pitching look as natural as playing catch and hitting a hopeless endeavor.
From 1907-27 (his career span), the Senators played at a 95-win pace when Johnson pitched (468-318) and a 73-win pace when he did not (1,091-1,290).
Walter Johnson on the cover of the 1925 Sporting News MLB Record Book
SN
Shohei Ohtani
Decades of evidence declared two-way prowess an impossibility, and then a miracle befell us in the person of Shohei Ohtani .
Ohtani won four MVPs unanimously in the five seasons spanning 2021-25, during which he had the majors' second-best batting line (171 OPS+) and its best pitching line (151 ERA+).
Shohei Ohtani named 2024 Sporting News Athlete of the Year
SN
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Babe Ruth
Baseball history can be cleanly divided into two acts - before Babe Ruth picked up a bat and after he turned the home run into its most valuable currency and grandest spectacle.
Ruth hit 54 home runs in 1920, outhomering every other team in the American League; his total comprised 14.6% of the league's total output.
SN Archives (1999): Baseball's 100 Greatest Players
Babe Ruth on the December 30, 1926 cover of The Sporting News
SN
Our process for Baseball's Greatest Players
Every week through the end of the World Series, we'll unveil one room at a time — 10 players along with the numbers that define them — culminating in the Inner Circle, the 10 greatest to ever play, period.
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We researched and considered over 500 names, weighing not only fundamental changes to the game, but also factoring in modern metrics, recently uncovered Negro Leagues data, shifting league demographics and the evolution of today's stars. We stripped away preconceptions and applied objective, critical analysis to every player under consideration.
SN140: Baseball's greatest 25 teams since 1886
Once we landed on 140 names, we decided that traditional rankings simply don't work for baseball. How is one to honestly assess if Cy Young — a pitcher whose career began in the 19th century — is greater than Albert Pujols, a 21st-century slugger? How do you compare Josh Gibson in the Negro Leagues to Jackie Robinson in the National League?
Instead, we created 14 position-less rooms, each representing and articulating varying archetypes of greatness.
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From there, we slotted 10 players into each room with careers connected by defining common threads.
We factored in modern metrics, recognized and utilized now accessible Negro Leagues data, contextualized changing league demographics, considered functional changes to the game such as strike zone and mound height adjustments, and included active players alongside their historical counterparts.
The result?
The most unique, comprehensive and celebratory evaluation to date of Baseball's Greatest Players.
