Mickey Mantle was the greatest switch hitter ever!
People worship “round” numbers far too much. Ok, so Chipper Jones hit the magic .300 for his career. That is a huge achievement, no doubt.
But Mickey Mantle batted .298 for his career while doing so many other great things. Falling an eyelash or two below .300 does not lessen Mantle’s achievements overall.
Don’t forget also that Mantle held on longer than he should have . . . producing a couple of injury prone subpar years before finally retiring. Take those out and he easily clears .300.
“Falling an eyelash or two below .300 does not lessen Mantle’s achievements overall”
Didn’t say it did. But when you compare players of different position, I feel too much is determined by the opinion of the notoriety of the player and not the achievements. And you said it yourself, the “magic” .300. Another stat that is part of the show is stolen bases. Mantle was blessed by the media with having great speed. He did. Jones was not noticed. Mantle stole 153 career while Jones stole 158. Not much difference, but Mantle was the super star and Jones wasn’t.
Mantle’s job was not to steal bases. He was there to hit home runs in that short porch in both fields with a short fence. That helped a lot. But my point becomes obvious in that you can compare Jones as being comperable with Mantle. But you can’t say he isn’t better and more deserving than Trammell. So it tarnishes the award for me as it was given in my mind as a gift to him and not as deserved. And I like Trammel and thought he was a great player. But not as good as others.
rwood
I’ll go one better. Mickey Mantle was the greatest PLAYER ever. Take a ten year period of a player’s career (their prime, if you will), and I defy you to show me a better output than Mantle from 1952 to 1962.