>>7. Mariano Rivera.
>
>Most likely the first ever player who played for the Yankees that gets respected by all Baseball fans across the globe, regardless of the baseball-team they root on.
>
>In other words, the player you always wanted to be part of the team you are rooting for and not the opposite team.
>
>Truly the best ambassador of baseball the commissioner could wish for, not just for the USA, but also as for the rest of the globe to show that it does not matter where you were born to become (hopefully) a first round HOF'er and also to get unanimous votes for it.
>
>Regards,
>Frank
>


>> player who played for the Yankees that gets respected by all Baseball fans across the globe,

Mariano is great in all the respects you mention, but in those respects I'd put Yogi before Mariano.
Besides his baseball accomplishments, Yogi coined an entire language!
Overall, no one comes close to matching The Babe.
One of my former golf buddies (RIP) caddied for The Babe.
The Babe would arrive at the course already half-smashed early in the AM, drink a quart of scotch during the round, and go 4 for 5 that afternoon at the ballpark.
Steroids? He had his own version - Johnny Walker Red.