Mickey Mantle Will Remain the Greatest Switch-Hitter of All-Time

Mickey Mantle retired following the 1968 season. He is considered the greatest switch-hitter in baseball history.

Forty-three years have passed, and Mantle clearly remains the greatest switch-hitter in the history of the game.  That will not change.

Switch-hitters Chipper Jones, Eddie Murray, and of course, Pete Rose have had Hall of Fame careers, but none was as great as Mantle.

Jones, like Mantle, has played for only one team. Although he isn't normally thought of as a slugger, entering 2011, Jones had 437 career home runs.

He is the only switch-hitter to have at least 400 home runs and a .300 batting average.

Murray leads all switch-hitters with 1,917 RBIs. He was the 1983 American League Rookie of the Year and finished his career with over 3,000 hits.

Known as a clutch hitter, he played on three World Series teams. Despite batting only .169, he hit four World Series home runs.

Rose, of course, will never get into the Hall of Fame despite being baseball's all-time hits leader. Rose was a "compiler" who played for 24 seasons.

He is the career leader in games, plate appearances, at-bats, and hits.

It is almost impossible to pick the best player among Jones, Murray and Rose. Murray had the most power, Rose had the most hits in history and became Hall of Fame-worthy despite lacking natural ability, and Jones hit for average and power.

Returning to the thrilling days of yesteryear, Frankie Frisch, the old Fordham Flash, hit .316, the highest lifetime batting average for a switch-hitter. Frisch ranks 53rd in batting average among all players. Not many switch-hitters hit for a high average.

Chipper Jones' .306 at the end of the 2010 season ranked second to Frisch among switch-hitters.  The great Pete Rose batted .303.

During the last 15 years, the number of major league switch-hitters has varied been between 12 and 15 percent. Historically, only six percent of non-pitchers have switch hit.

Including all players whose careers started after Mantle's ended produces only a handful of players who might be ranked ahead of Mantle.

Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr., and of course, Barry Bonds comprise the extremely short list. 

A-Rod and Barry are tainted. Griffey might have been greater if he had been healthy, a fact that makes Mantle, who suffered from injuries his entire career, even more remarkable. Pujols is relatively young, and still has a chance to overtake Mantle.

At his peak, Griffey was as good an all-around player as Mantle. From his sophomore season in 1990 through and including 2000, Junior batted .299/.384/.579. He averaged 44 home runs and 126 RBIs over a 162 game season.

Pujols has been almost unbelievable, batting .331/.426/.624 over his first 10 seasons. He averages 43 home runs and 129 RBIs over a 162 game season.

The key is that if so few players, whether or not they were switch-hitters, might rank higher than Mantle, it becomes obvious that the chances of a switch-hitter ever being greater than Mantle are slim to none.

A side note is that only Pujols and Griffey legitimately challenge Mantle, but many fans and "experts" claim that Mantle wasn't the greatest of his era.

Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Ted Williams and Stan Musial certainly were in Mantle's class, and until Mickey's Triple Crown Season, all but Clemente were better than he was. What's the point?

Despite the fact that today's players are bigger, stronger and train better than players of Mantle's era, only Pujols and Griffey are in the same class as Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Williams, Musial and Mantle.

Is it possible that the greatest athletes become pitchers?

References:

Percentage of Switch-Hitters

Baseball's Switch-Hitters ESPN