If you had a baseball time machine...

[harnesslover]

....what would be the 5 players you would want to watch live in their prime that you never got to see?

For me, they would be:

1) Mickey Mantle
2) Bob Gibson
3) Teddy Ballgame
4) Roberto Clemente
5) Sandy Koufax

[chickenhead]

no particular order

ty
satchel
willie
babe
bob g

[ezrabrooks]

....what would be the 5 players you would want to watch live in their prime that you never got to see?

For me, they would be:

1) Mickey Mantle
2) Bob Gibson
3) Teddy Ballgame
4) Roberto Clemente
5) Sandy Koufax


Teddy Baseball..

[ezrabrooks]

Spahn
Koufax
Page
Score
Feller

[cj]

Babe Ruth
Walter Johnson
Jackie Robinson
Cy Young
Ty Cobb

[harnesslover]

Spahn
Koufax
Page
Score
Feller

Ezra, Score is a new one for me to see. Curious, what interested you about him?

[ezrabrooks]

Ezra, Score is a new one for me to see. Curious, what interested you about him?

Herb Score was a hard throwing lefty with the Indians in the mid 50's. He could have been on his way to greatness but a line drive caught him in the eye..in, I think his 2nd season. Never was the same after that. He could bring it..

Ez

[OTM Al]

C'mon guys, some of those lists you could see almost all of them in one year. Here's who I'd like to see and why

Alexander Cartwright, 1846, Elysian Fields, Hoboken NJ. First recorded organized game. Played under the new official rules of the New York game (there was also a Boston game with a different field configuration which lost out just like so many of the boston teams between 1918 and 2004.....ok had to get that jibe in there)

John McGraw as a player on the National League Baltimore Orioles in the 1890s. A tough team that defined small ball and the Baltimore chop. One last look at pre-modern era baseball.

Fred Merkel, September 23, 1908. Merkel's Boner. Not only would you see Christy Mathewson pitch for the Giants, but you would see them blow the key game that allowed the Tinker to-Evers-to-Chance a chance to get into the World Series and win for the second and hopefully not last time.

Satchel Paige, August 26, 1934, 2nd East-West All Star game. Satch at the height of his skills. Cool Papa Bell scores the only run in the eighth.

Roberto Clemente, Sept 30, 1972. He gets his 3000th hit in his final regular season game (he did play in the playoffs that year). Clemente is still the most underrated player of all time IMO.

[Marshall Bennett]

Bob Feller
Sam McDowell
Ty Cobb
Ted Williams
Warren Spahn

[wonatthewire1]

Definitely Clemente (though I did see him play but I was only 13 when he died)

Honus Wagner

The Waner brothers (Big Poison - Paul and Little Poison - Lloyd)

A bit before my time: Ernie Banks

As a whole: 1927 Yankees (Murder's Row team, they beat the Waner brothers' Pirate team that year in the series)

[kenwoodallpromos]

Yogi Berra
Joe Jackson
Ty Cobb
Babe Ruth
Walter Johnson

[Robert Goren]

Maury Wills
the"say hay" kid
Rod Cerew
Jackie Robinson
Babe Ruth

[Robert Goren]

A sixth would be Rogers Hornsby, He was so great that they retired his name!

[Barremill]

the Yankee Clipper
Satchel Paige
Tris Speaker
Bob Gibson

barremill

[harnesslover]

I am curious about a few listed. Curious as to the 'greatness' of the following:

Yogi Berra
Satchel Page
Maury Wills

[Robert Goren]

The question was not about "greatness", but about who you would like to see. To me the best part of a baseball game is the "cat and mouse game" between a pitcher and a basestealer. Too bad it doesn't happen much any more. That is why you would have to point a gun to my head to get me to a game today.

[chickenhead]

I would have liked to have been at the game where Nolan Ryan beat the hell out of Robin Ventura

[bigmack]

I would have liked to have been at the game where Nolan Ryan beat the hell out of Robin Ventura
"Bad meat needing to be tenderized": :lol:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_-jcyPznI8

[The Judge]

I got to see most of my favorites play. Saw some before they were great, we had the San Francisco Seals and the Oakland Oaks before the big leagues came West. If I only knew I would have went to more games. When you are young you think things will never change and it will all be there just waiting for you when you are ready. No such luck.

[kenwoodallpromos]

I am curious about a few listed. Curious as to the 'greatness' of the following:

Yogi Berra
Satchel Page
Maury Wills
_____________
"During his nineteen-year career as a Yankee, Berra's teams dominated baseball. Berra appeared in fourteen World Series, winning ten championships, both of which are records.
Name another field general with that record for calling pitches!! He also had power and hit for .285 average.
AL MVP 1951, 1954, 1955
All-star (AL): 1949-1962
10 World Series Championships
14 American League Pennants
3 World Series Championships (Manager)
2 National League Pennants (Manager)
4 American League Pennants (Manager

[OTM Al]

Ken, you fail to mention also that the days he didn't catch he played out in the field. That famous Bill Mazeroski homer in 1960 is going over Berra's head. Casey Stengel's great quote, "I never played a game without my man" was about Berra, not Mantle. A true great and also a wonderful man according to anyone I've met that has met him

[harnesslover]

Ken, you fail to mention also that the days he didn't catch he played out in the field. That famous Bill Mazeroski homer in 1960 is going over Berra's head. Casey Stengel's great quote, "I never played a game without my man" was about Berra, not Mantle. A true great and also a wonderful man according to anyone I've met that has met him

And on a side note, on Jeopardy the other day, they had a Berra quote:

"Always go to your friend's funerals, if not, they won't come to yours"

[ezrabrooks]

And on a side note, on Jeopardy the other day, they had a Berra quote:

"Always go to your friend's funerals, if not, they won't come to yours"

That is a thread by itself... "When you come to a fork in the road...take it".

Ez

[skate]

Williams

Musial (?)

Mays

Rose

Mantle

Skate

[pandy]

The top 5 I saw were Mays, Mantle, Aaron, Clemente, Frank Robinson, but if you include Pitchers I'd put Koufax in there.

Top 5 I'd like to see--Ruth, DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson, and Bob Feller.

[Binder]

I would love to be there
Oct 3 1951 Polo Grounds 3:58 pm

Bobby Thompson

The Giants win the pennant !