Who do you guys think is the greatest hitter of all time?

Once again I have to give it to Ruth with Tyrus Cobb coming a close second. Ruth hit for power and for average, he once said that if he knew this game was about hitting singles then he would of hitted .500 for a season. He had close to 2900 hits, in just a bit more then 2800 games, that's a hit a game, then you consider that he was more of a home run, then it makes it more impressive.

I know Cobb has the highest career batting average of .366 and has had 4189 career hits, but if you take everything into consideration you have to give the edge to Babe Ruth in my opinion.

Opinions?

You have to take many things into account...

First Ill say that when it comes to Power, Babe Ruth was no doubt the best Power hitter to ever live.

Ruth hit 714 HRs, Aaron hit 755 HR's but you gotta think about 3 things. Babe Ruth played in about 5 less seasons that Aaron did. In the days of Babe Ruth, the amount of games per season were about 40 games less than what there were in Aaron's time. Also, in Ruths time, the outfield walls were 50-60 farther than the outfield walls were in Aarons time. When Yankee Stadium first opened, Center Field was 459 Feet and it stay at that distance throughout Ruths career.

When it comes to overall hitting, it is hard to choose.

Here is the number of games played followed by At Bats for them all...

Aaron - 3298...12,364
Cobb - 3035...11,429
Ruth - 2503...8,399
Williams - 2292...7,706
DiMaggio - 1736...6,821

When it comes to Batting Average, Cobb leads them all by far with a .367 BA. Williams and Ruth are close, .344 BA and .342 BA respectively. Next is DiMaggio at .325 and then there is a big drop off to Aaron at .305.

Although Aaron had the most HR's overall, Ruth was the best HR hitter based on HR per AB.

Ruth hit a HR 1 every 11.7 AB

Williams - 1 every 14.7 AB
Aaron - 1 every 16.3 AB
DiMaggio - 1 every 18.8 AB
Cobb - 1 every 97.6 AB

When it comes to Run scoring, Ruth leads that catagory

Ruth scored a Run 1 every 1.15 games.

DiMaggio - 1 every 1.24 games
Williams - 1 every 1.27 games
Cobb - 1 every 1.35 games
Aaron - 1 every 1.51 games

When it comes to Hits per AB

Cobb had 1 hit every 2.72 AB

Williams - 1 every 2.90 AB
Ruth - 1 every 2.92 AB
DiMaggio - 1 every 3.08 AB
Aaron - 1 every 3.27 AB

DiMaggio leads barely in RBI with 1 RBI every 1.12 games

Ruth - 1 every 1.13 games
Williams - 1 every 1.24 games
Aaron - 1 every 1.43 games
Cobb - 1 every 1.56 games

When it comes to BB's (Walks), Williams leads

Williams had 1 walk every 3.81 AB

Ruth - 1 every 4.07 AB
DiMaggio - 1 every 8.63 AB
Aaron - 1 every 8.81 AB
Cobb - 1 every 9.15 AB

Ruth leads by a fairly large margin in Slugging with a .690%

Williams - .634%
DiMaggio - .579%
Aaron - .555%
Cobb - .513%

Williams leads in On Base Percentage with .482%

Ruth - .469%
Cobb - .424%
DiMaggio - .398%
Aaron - .374%


Of the 8 Major Stat Catagories listed, here is the break down...

Ruth - 1st place (3)
Williams - !st place (2)
Cobb - 1st place (2)
DiMaggio - 1st place (1)
Aaron - 1st place (0)

Since Ruth was basically the same as DiMaggio in the RBI catagory, you can, if you want, call Ruth as a tie for 1st place.

The break down would then look like so...

Ruth - 1st place (4) (1 tie)
Williams - !st place (2)
Cobb - 1st place (2)
DiMaggio - 1st place (1) (1 tie)
Aaron - 1st place (0)

So if you go according to statistics, Babe Ruth would be the overall best player/hitter to ever play the game.
People say that Williams missed some 'prime' years because of Wars, well he did but when it comes to the numbers, the numbers are numbers. Numbers dont care how much or little some one played, they just show how good someone played and how good some one is.

So stat wise - Babe Ruth is the best over player/hitter in MLB history (thats not even taking into account his pitching statistics), and my personal opinion happens to agree

Ted Williams. 'Nuff said.

I still haven't figured out how much to knock Bonds, assuming he took steroids. If you take his numbers at face value, I think he surpasses even Ruth.

Williams is definitely up there, but I don't think he takes the prize, unless you give him war credit. I totally understand if you do so, but I don't want to get into that right now.

Cobb's amazing, but I wouldn't put him in with the greatest hitters. Maybe among the greatest players, but not hitters.

Hornsby at least deserves a mention. I wouldn't put him at #1, but he's right up there.

I'd probably put it at Ruth as #1, then Bonds, then Williams/Hornsby are about tied.