Ty Cobb vs. Willie Mays

[bagwell368]

Mays was a class act wasn't he

Bryant cites a first-hand account from 1957, a United Press/Movietone News reporter named Reese Schoenfeld, that Mays ragged on Aaron from the sidelines while Henry was being interviewed in front of a TV camera: "How much they paying you, Hank? They ain't payin' you at all, Hank? Don't you know we all get paid for this? You ruin it for the rest of us, Hank! You just fall off the turnip truck?"

While Aaron became more and more agitated, Mays laid it on thick: "You showin' 'em how you swing? We get paid three to four hundred dollars for this. You one dumb ******!"

Oh wait. He was an ******* too.

That's called talking trash. Mays didn't beat people on the street, or for being black like Cobb.

[BackyardRounder]

This is a pretty good one. Cobb was the much better hitter, there's no doubt about that. Cobb played in the deadball era had a better raw OPS than Mays. Cobb had a .445 wOBA to .409 for Mays. Cobb was also a much better baserunner with a 60.2 BsR to Mays' 32.9. And Mays was a much better fielder with an 18.1 dWAR to Cobb's -10.8. Both bWAR and fWAR give a slight edge to Mays. But given how unreliable I believe defensive metrics are that go back over 100 years, I'm inclined to give the edge to Cobb.

Cobb was in fact a terrible person, but he also had a pretty terrible life. His rookie year his mother murdered his father. And his attitudes on race were hardly unique for someone who grew up in Georgia at the turn of the century. He later softened his views and voiced support for desegregation on multiple occasions.

[WOwolfOL]

I love me some Mays.

Dude started tiring in games and the team had him examined and it was just determined to be exhaustion - because he was playing stickball in the streets with the kids between games lol

[The Thing]

Mays wins because of league quality, not to mention he lost nearly two years serving his country.

[kokes]

considering they played during different times i would say Ty Cobb...he re-invented the way people played the game and during his time there was nobody better than him...IMO i would LOVE to see more trash talkers in the game, it's a great way to get in the other teams head and if that's done huge advantage