Worthless and Weak

First off, I had a great time in Hawaii. Probably a better time than you had, unless you were also in Hawaii. Anyway. It was great.

Anyway, shortly before vacation, the great Edgar Martinez announced that after this season, he will retire. Now, a lot of people began to discuss whether he would be a hall of famer or not. I wondered something else...

Edgar Martinez reached the majors in 1987 with Seattle, became their regular third baseman in 1990, and is now retiring in 2004 with Seattle. Thus, he has spent his entire career with just one team. A feat that just doesn't happen very often. So I got to wondering, where does Edgar Martinez rank with all the people who played for one team their entire career. So, in deciding to find out, I am going to list the top whatever (maybe 50 or so) players who played there entire careers with one team.
Here are the rules,

1. No pitchers. Because that just makes my job all that much harder.2. You can play all your career for one franchise, even if it moves from one city to another or changes its name, (Brooklyn to LA, Boston to Milwakee to Atlanta).3. Players are rated on their accomplishments including their time in the negro leauges, but only if they spend a significant time in the majors (ie, if a negro league great plays only one year or two in the majors, he'll be an all time great and only played for one major league team, but thats not what I wanted to do with my list). 4. I'm going to announce them five at a time, or so. Here we go.

1-5, in alphabetical order:
Joe DimaggioLou GehrigMickey MantleStan MusialTed Williams.
Now, you probably know how you'd rank those guys, and your list as good as mine. What I'm basically saying, is that they are all truely great, and that you can rank them however you wish.
Anyway, here's my list.

1. Ted Williams:

Boston Red Sox, Left field. 2292 games, .344 avg, 1839 RBI, 521 HR.
Commonly known as the greatest hitter who ever lived. Last man to hit .400. Led the league in RBI's, avg, and Home Runs twice (one of two people to ever do that.) Highest on base percentage in the history of the game.

2. Stan Musial:

Saint Louis Cardinals, Left field. 3026 games, .331 avg, 1951 RBI, 475 HR.
ESPN's page two had him as the most under-rated athlete of all time, which is probably about right. Fourth all time in career hits. From 1942 till 1958, he was year in year out a great player (minus '45 when he was in the military). For fifteen straigh years, he was a great player. Very few if any can match that.

3. Lou Gehrig:

New York Yankees, First base. 2164 games, .340 avg, 1995 RBI, 493 HR.
There are two types of players you'll see a lot on this list. The first is players who met an unfortuneate end to there career (Roberto Clemente, Roy Campanella), and Yankees, Lou Gehrig is both (as is Thurmon Munson). Anyway, if he didn't catch a bad case of Lou Gehrig's disease, he might be at the top of this (and every other) list. But he caught it. He, much like Musial and Williams, almost never had a bad year. He has the second longest consecutive game streak (ended by ALS), and the third highest all time OPS.

4. Mickey Mantle:
New York Yankees, Center Field, 2401 games, .298 avg, 1509 RBI, 536 HR.

Mickey Mantle vs Ted Williams, years 1951, 1954-1960

Year Williams (avg/opb/slg) Mantle (avg/obp/slg)

• 51 .318/.464/.556 ____ .267/.349/.44354
• 54 .345/.513/.635_____.300/.408/.525
• 55 .356/.496/.703_____.306/.431/.611
• 56 .345/.479/.605_____.353/.464/.705
• 57 .388/.526/.731_____..365/.512/.665
• 58 .328/.458/.584_____.304/.443/.592
• 59 .254/.372/.419_____..285/.390/.514
• 60 .316/.451/.645_____..275/.399/.558

These were the only years that Mantle and Williams were both playing. 53-54 Williams was fighting in Korea. One could argue that Mantle's best years aren't included, although I'd take his 56 season over anything he did, and his 57 third only to 56 and 61. And we can see here that Williams had better hitting years in 51, 54, 55, 57, and 60. Mantle takes 56 and 59, and 58 is a draw. Several things to note. First, Mantle played much better defense, played in a worse hitters park, and stole a lot more bases. IE, he was better than his raw hitting stats show. Secondly, Mantle played many many more games during that period.

But what we can see is that, minus 57, these are about the most normal of Williams years you can find. He was at or below his career average in 5 of the 8 years in OBP and SLG, and 6 of the 8 years in batting average. So Ted Williams average years were better than many of Mickey Mantle's best years. And Mickey Mantle was truly great. And I don't throw that term around lightly.

Anyway, thats why I have Williams ranked first here, and Mantle ranked not as high as Williams.

Now, you might think it unfair to Mantle for me to spend Mantle's space talking about Williams, but thats ok, I'll just talk about Mantle during Dimaggios space.

5. Joe Dimaggio:
New York Yankees, Center Field, 1736 games, .325 avg, 1537 RBI, 361 HR
People often say that Mickey Mantle was the great what-if. What kind of career could he have had he kept himself in shape, and if he never got injured. While its true that Mantle was often injured, and certainly didn't reach his full potential, the real what-if was Dimaggio. Although widely regarded as one of the best players ever, he only played 13 seasons, and played in 86.7% of his team games those years. Mantle played 18 seasons, and 84.8% of his team games.
Had Dimaggio not lost time to the war, had he played in a park that wasn't murder on right handed hitters, had he avoided injuries, he would have been awesome. Well, he was pretty awesome anyway, but, imo, he certainly was more of a what-if than Mantle.