Greatest Catcher in Baseball History

In honor of Yogi's 83rd birthday today - I thought this could be an interesting poll. I'm voting for Yogi.

 

Josh Gibson.

 

Good point

 

How can you do a poll with 2 choices in one selection? Gallup is aghast. Besides Thurman Munson was a better catcher than Pudge Fisk.

 

Munson was a dirt bag. That's a scientific fact!

As an aside - a bunch of friends in Worcester got together for a golf outing one day. They had a great time and decided to have a tournament every year. This happened to be the day Thurman died. The name of the outing which has been held every year since? The Munson Open.

 

I vote for Bench based on "The Baseball Bunch" alone.

 

Top 5 reasons to vote for Yogi over Bench

1. Yogi had 7 straight years of top 4 MVP votes - Bench only had 4 such seasons in his career. Not to mention Yogi's 3 MVP awards to Bench's 2.

2. Yogi had incredible bat control. The most he ever struck out in a season was 38 times. In any season in which Bench finished in the top 20 in MVP voting - he had at least double that number of strikeouts.

3. 77% of Yogi's games were played behind the plate. Only 74% of Bench's games were as catcher. And if you want to argue Gold Gloves - please note that Gold Gloves weren't awarded until 1957 by which time Yogi was 32 and already in his 12th season in the league.

4. Despite playing fewer games - Yogi still had more hits, runs and RBI than Bench.

5. Bench made the bigs at age 19. Yogi didn't make the bigs until he was 21 because he was busy fighting in WWII in the Navy.

 

Roy Campanella was a three-time MVP, but Berra seems as strong a choice as anyone.

 

Then why not vote for him?

 

Bob Uecker...hey, he's in the Hall of Fame, too (sittin' in the front row)....or Josh Gibson

 

Why not Mike Piazza as one of main choices ?

Interesting stat on Yogi - struck out only 414 times in 19 seasons . A stunning stat really.