Greatest Catcher in Baseball History

Interesting.

Did any of these guys catch a knuckleballer for a long period of their careers? I that should skew the numbers a bit.

 

Piazza caught Tom Candiotti for several years.

 

Did Pudge as well? What about Charlie Hough for Pudge?

 

Gotta go with this, too. Bench had (and has, deservedly) a legendary defensive reputation, but Berra was much better behind the plate than anyone gives him credit for. Then Yogi stepped out and played a credible left field when Elston Howard came along. A lot tougher to do than many realize.

I go with Yogi.

Josh Gibson wasn't said to be much defensively, so he's third for me. (re: Negro Leagues stats, the ones that get taken seriously by SABR are the ones compiled against major league players/teams -- such as Satchel Paige beating Dizzy Dean/Bob Feller, etc. But unless the numbers can be verified, such as Buck O'Neil's NNL batting titles, the stats aren't usually used as a major factor in judging those players. It's largely off reputation, and what can be documented.)

 

I have to suggest that Bench's rep may have also benefited from the advent of national TV. Yogi didn't have the Game of the Week, the heyday of This Week in Baseball or The Baseball Bunch to set him up on a pedestal. Overall baseball gets more coverage today but its much more diluted then when Bench played. National coverage didn't exist in Yogi's day (correct me if I'm wrong).

 

While we're all gathered, a tangent:

Is Yogi Berra the most underrated superstar in modern baseball? Or is it Stan Musial?

Discuss.

 

Musial. People know Yogi Berra. They know he won a shitpot of titles with the Yankees. His malapropisms live in American yore.

Musial? They know he was a pretty good hitter for the Cardinals. That's the extent of most baseball fans' knowledge of The Man.

 

Great point, jg. And doc is probably right.
All those Yankees titles and his post-baseball career as a commercial pitchman and malapropist (is that a word?) have enhanced Yogi's rep while Musial got lost in the shadows somewhere.

 

Roberto Clemente

Gold Gloves - 12 straight
Hits - 3000
Career average - .317

Everyone knew he was a throwing God, but he still had 27 assists at age 34.

He might of had 3200 hits in him if the plane did not crash.

 

Selecting Bench or Yogi are legitimate choices and/or dilemmas. What I don't understand are you folks choosing Josh Gibson. I can't imagine any of you having seen him so what do you base it on, the words of some sabr person? I'm older than the rest of you and I can't even vote for Bill Dickey because I didn't see him play.

(And no one mentions Hobie Landrith?)


By the way, jgmacg, every baseball person I've ever spoken to (including GMs, managers, scouts, writers et.al.) are well aware of Stan Musial's abilities so I would hardly consider him underrated.

 

I think, Casty, Musial is underrated by the public and, sadly, largely unknown to the current generation of baseball fans.
One of the great hitters of all-time who rarely gets mentioned as an all-tme great

 

Josh Gibson.

BTW, the statistical evidence for Gibson is extremely compelling. There are some fine folks who have done a lot of work on Negro League MLEs (built off common players between the majors, NeL, Mexico and winter ball). Even conservative translations suggest Gibson was simply a hitter in another class than Berra or Bench of Dickey, something like a Jimmie Foxx or Frank Robinson.