The 100 Greatest in 100 Days: #47 Honus Wagner

Sliding in at #46 on the list is SpongeBob’s favorite baseball player, “The Flying Dutchman” Honus Wagner. Wagner was the original “greatest of all time” when Major League Baseball was officially formed in 1903. While his reign at the top was usurped by Ty Cobb by 1910, Wagner’s imprint on the sport is still felt today as his 1909 T206 baseball card has been the most sought after on the market for over a century. Few players in history appear in baseball record books as often as Wagner.  He’s third all-time in triples, 8th in hits, and 10th in doubles and stolen bases. Among shortstops, he’s the all-time leader in hits, doubles, triples, stolen bases, WAR, batting average, and OPS+. Wagner led the league in WAR for position players 11 times, batting average and OPS eight times, doubles, extra-base hits, and runs created seven times, total bases and slugging % six times, on-base percentage and RBIs four times, triples three times, and hits and runs twice. Wagner was the star of the 1909 World Series as he led the Pirates to the title over the Tigers, throwing one last salvo at Cobb before the changing of the guard.

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Hi (hopefully) awesome reader! I welcome your comments. However, please be aware that I make all of my arguments using facts, statistics, and logic. Unfortunately, the average comment on a top-100 list goes something like this:

"UR StooPid. (Insert player) is trash. I've watched (pick a sport) for (pick a number of years) and (pick a player) is better than everyone. UR DUMB. HAHA6969."

–Some Jabroni

As cognitively stimulating as this species of comment is, it ends up being a missed opportunity to share a nuanced perspective. I reply to all comments that show even the most basic levels of thought and humility. The people who make the comments like the example above are under the assumption that the three seconds of thought that popped into their brains after reading the list is more than the 1000s of hours that I put into creating and maintaining the lists. I would be happy to defend any placement, or make an adjustment if one is warranted. If you are a jabroni, like the one above, then your comment will die in the lonely void of the unpublished comments section.

For everyone else, I look forward to your comments!

P.S. The theme of this site and the top-100 lists is that athletes from previous generations have historically been grossly overrated by sports publications in a way that is statistically improbable. Click on the "About" dropdown menu to see just how badly the average top-100 list disproportionately favors athletes from older generations when leagues were smaller, race quotas existed, and globalization wasn't a thing. Also, please consider reading "The History" section of the sport you are commenting on.

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