The 100 Greatest in 100 Days: #18 Mickey Mantle

Bursting onto the list at #18 is Yankee dynamo Mickey Mantle. Mantle’s career regular-season totals are somewhat muted by injuries, but his combination of per-game performance and playoff performance is unparalleled in history. His 172 career OPS + is the 7th most all-time and “The Mick” joins Barry Bonds and Babe Ruth as the only three players in history with at least a 172 OPS+ and 530 career home runs. He joins Barry Bonds and Mike Trout as the only three players in history with at least a 172 OPS+ and 150 career stolen bases. Mantle and Bonds are the only two players to debut after 1940 with a career on-base percentage of at least 420 and a slugging percentage of .557. Mantle is tied for 2nd all-time with three MVPs while also finishing runner-up three times and top-5 nine times. Mantle’s regular-season statistics are eye-popping on their own, but Mantle’s place in history really comes into perspective when we consider that he is arguably the greatest World Series performer of all time. Mantle led the Yankees to a World Series appearance in 12 of his first 14 seasons, including seven World Series titles. He holds the records for most career World Series home runs, RBIs, runs, total bases, and walks.

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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 If you are a jabroni, like the one above, then your comment will die in the lonely void of the unpublished comments section.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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