MLB Hall of Fame: The Second Best Hall of Famer at Each Position
There has been endless debate with respect to the greatest player at each position. One criterion is whether the player is in the Hall of Fame, but there has been little discussion with respect to runners-up.
Most "experts" consider Babe Ruth to be the greatest player of all time. Others rate Ty Cobb ahead of Ruth.
But who are the real second best Hall of Famers at each position?
What follows makes no attempt at selecting the best Hall of Famer at each position. The goal is to select the second best player.
First Base: George Sisler
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Eighteen first basemen are in the Hall of Fame. The second best player among the 18 is George Sisler.
Sisler is an almost forgotten player, whose career spanned parts of both the dead ball and lively ball eras.
Sisler played for 15 seasons. He batted .340, had a .379 on-base average and slugged .468. Sisler was not a home run hitter, but he was more than a singles hitter, averaging 34 doubles and 13 triples over a 162-game season. He hit 18 triples three consecutive seasons from 1920-22.
In 1922, he batted .420, led the American League with 51 stolen bases and won the American League Trophy, which was the first MVP award. He also hit in 41 consecutive games. Remarkably, he didn't consider it his best season.
In 1920, he had batted .407, setting a record with 257 hits in a season that Ichiro Suzuki broke. Sisler had 49 doubles, 18 triples, 19 home runs and 42 stolen bases. Only Babe Ruth, with 54, hit more home runs.
Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and Rogers Hornsby were quoted as saying that Sisler was their equal.
Second Base: Nap Lajoie
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Nap Lajoie won baseball's first Triple Crown in 1901, which was the American League's first season.
He became the first American League to be walked intentionally with the bases loaded that same year.
Lajoie led the league in batting four times (1901, 1904, 1906 and 1910), in RBIs three times and was considered to be the top defensive player in the American League.
Lajoie batted .338/.380/.467 during the dead ball era. He finished his career with 3,242 hits and leads all Hall of Fame second basemen with 1,599 RBIs.
Third Base: Eddie Mathews
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There are only 10 Hall of Fame third basemen. The pick as the second greatest third baseman is a difficult choice, but despite the fact that he had to make himself into a solid fielder and he had some Adam Dunn type seasons, the pick is Eddie Mathews.
Mathews hit 512 home runs and batted .271, but he had a .378 on-base average, which was topped by only Wade Boggs and Mike Schmidt. He and Schmidt are the only Hall of Fame third basemen to have slugged over .500 for their careers.
Mathews hit at least 30 home runs for each of nine straight years from 1953 to 1960.
Teammate Hank Aaron and Mathews hold the record for the most home runs by teammates with 1,267.
An interesting but almost irrelevant fact is that Mathews is the only player to have been a member of the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta.
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Shortstop: Ozzie Smith
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Shortstop is known as a defensive position which means that the second greatest Hall of Famer at the position is Ozzie Smith. Ernie Banks won two MVP awards as a shortstop, but he played more games at first base than at shortstop.
Smith hit only .262, but his defense was far superior to any shortstop who is in the Hall of Fame.
"The Wizard" set major league records for career assists (8,375) and double plays (1,590) by a shortstop as well as the National League record with 2,511 career games as a shortstop.
Smith won 13 consecutive Gold Gloves from 1980-92 and was on the All-Star team 15 times.
He won the National League's Silver Slugger Award as the best hitting shortstop in 1987.
Left Field: Al Simmons
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Al Simmons was an excellent all-around player who spent most of his career with Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics. He was a major player in Philadelphia's three consecutive pennants from 1929-31
Known as the Duke of Milwaukee, Simmons averaged 35 home runs in his prime. Over about 20 seasons, he batted .334, with a .380 on base average and a .535 slugging average.
In 1930, one of the most offensive years in baseball, Simmons won the American League batting title with a .381 average. He won again in 1931, hitting .390.
Simmons fell 73 hits short of 3,000, which bothered him the rest of his life.
Center Field: Mickey Mantle
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Selecting the second greatest Hall of Fame center fielder is the trickiest of all, but it is Mickey Mantle.
Mantle's feats are well known. He won the Triple Crown in 1956, was the greatest switch hitter of all time, was the fastest player to ever play the game, the distance of his home runs was second only to Babe Ruth and he would have been even greater if he had been healthy.
Mantle batted .298/421/.557 and hit 536 career home runs. He walked 1,733 times and struck out 1,710 times.
Right Field: Hank Aaron
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Hank Aaron is easily the second greatest Hall of Fame right fielder.
He hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973 and is the only player to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least 15 times.
Aaron made the All-Star team every year from 1955 until 1975. He was an excellent outfielder who won three Gold Glove Awards. He was the MVP in 1957.
Aaron was less spectacular than Willie Mays, and his home runs didn't travel as far as Mickey Mantle's, but if he played in New York instead of MIwaukee and then Atlanta, Aaron might have been ranked ahead of either among the greatest of all players.
Catcher: Yogi Berra
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Yogi Berra is the second greatest catcher of all time.
He has more RBIs than any Hall of Fame backstop, won three MVP awards and played in 14 World Series. His .482 slugging average is topped only by Roy Campanella, Bill Dickey and Gabby Hartnett.
Pitcher
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The second greatest pitcher of all time is Christy Mathewson, who was the dominant pitcher of his era and one of the first five members of the Hall of Fame.
Mathewson had 372 wins, 78 shut outs and a 2.13 ERA. He never won fewer than 22 from 1903-14. In 1908, he won 37 games with a 1.43 ERA, 259 strikeouts and 12 shutouts.
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