>>>7. Mariano Rivera.
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>>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.
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>>In other words, the player you always wanted to be part of the team you are rooting for and not the opposite team.
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>>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.
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>>Regards,
>>Frank
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>>> 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.

I just made an argument for Ted Williams but would have to go with the Bambino as the best baseball player. He didn't just break records, he shattered them. He hit 59 homers when the existing record was 12-14, something like that. It took decades before Hank Aaron broke his lifetime home run record -- 714, one of the holiest of holies in a game dominated by statistics -- and that was a longevity feat. Aaron never hit more than about 40 homers in a season and was never dominant. That record was stained beyond recognition by Barry Bonds but it still means something to baseball geezers like me.

Sometime before I die I am going to go to a game with Tamar. She is very knowledgeable about the game and loyal to her team. Like my teams, the Phillies are having a rotten season. As she pointed out, too many guys got old at once. She and Marshal still have season tickets and still go out to the old ballgame. That's what real fans do. They support their team through thick and thin.