Time Machine: Willie Mays leads Top 100 list of greatest players of all time

This story originally ran in the Japanese newspaper Yukan Fuji in 2021.

TOKYO — For the past four months the popular sports website The Athletic has been running daily essays by acclaimed writer Joe Posnanski ranking, in his opinion, the top 100 players of all time. The list included Ichiro Suzuki at #100 and Sadaharu Oh at #86. Posnanski, in his final essay, named Willie Mays as the greatest player of all time, ahead of #2 Babe Ruth, with Barry Bonds as #3 and Hank Aaron #4.

This raised a lot of eyebrows because Ruth surpassed Mays in just about every category. Babe Ruth’s career WAR: 182.5, #1 all time. Willie Mays’ career WAR: 156.2, #5 all time. Ruth was also a great pitcher. Mays wasn't a pitcher at all.

Here are some more relevant numbers.

Ruth / Mays
At-bats: 8399 / 10881
Hits: 2873 / 3283
BA: .342 / .302
OBP: .474 / .384
R: 2174 / 2062
RBI: 2214 / 1903
SLG: .690 / .557
OPS: 1.164 / .941
OPS+: 206 / 156