Top 106 Baseball Players: #91 - Rube Waddell

Rube Waddell

Rube Waddell was one of the greatest pitchers ever to take the mound at his peak, but other struggles prevented him from reaching his full potential as one of the greatest few pitchers to ever live.

In the first 5 years of his career, he played for 7 teams, including 4 minor league teams, because he quickly wore out his welcome everywhere he went. He was known to sneak off in the middle of a game to go fishing, or to leave the field to chase a passing fire truck. He was also a raging alcoholic, and it is said that he spent his entire first signing bonus on alcohol.

In 1902, he was picked up by the Philadelphia Athletics, where manager Connie Mack was able to keep him somewhat under control for a few years, and the following 6 years were some of the most productive any pitcher has ever had.

He led the league in strikeouts for 6 consecutive seasons, and topped 300 strikeouts in 1903 and 1904, a feat no other pitcher would reach in consecutive seasons until Sandy Koufax in 1965 and 1966. Not only did he have a huge number of strikeouts, but he led the league by an enormous margin each time, with no pitcher coming within 100 strikeouts of him in either of those seasons.

The next season he dropped to 287 strikeouts, but he accomplished another major feat when he won the pitching Triple Crown, topping the league with a 1.48 ERA and 27 wins as well as the usual strikeouts. His team reached the World Series that year, but he didn't pitch, and there is some controversy as to the reason, as he and the team claimed a shoulder injury, but had conflicting stories as to what happened. There is also a rumor that he was paid by a gambler to skip the Series, but that has not been proven.

After the 1907 season, despite still being the league's top pitcher, the A's grew tired of his antics and sold him to the Saint Louis Browns, where his performance regressed quickly, and by the end of 1910 he was out of the majors completely. He died of tuberculosis just a few years later, leaving behind a strange and amazing legacy.

It is unclear what caused Waddell's bizarre behavior, and it's unfortunate that there was no help available to him for his possible mental health disorder, because he was one of the most talented pitchers to ever take the mound, but even in his abbreviated career, he showed enough greatness to be included on this list of the all-time greats.

Top 106 Baseball Players: #92 - Billy Williams

Billy Williams

Billy Williams was the star for the Chicago Cubs for a long time, but never reached the playoffs in his 16 years with the team, despite the fact that he was among the top few players in the league for several years in the 1960's and 1970's.

He made his Major League debut in 1959, but didn't get called up full time until 1961, when he was named the Rookie of the Year with 147 hits and 86 RBI's, numbers that he would surpass in nearly every season for the rest of his career.

He was known as the NL Iron Man for his streak of 1117 consecutive games played between 1963 and 1970, which was the NL record until Steve Garvey passed it in 1983. While it never approached Lou Gehrig's streak in the AL, or Cal Ripken's later streak, going for more than 6 years without missing a day is very impressive.

He was twice the runner-up in the NL MVP voting, although he should have been the winner in 1970, when he led the league with 137 runs, 205 hits, and 373 total bases, while also reaching career highs with 42 home runs and 129 RBI's.

Two years later he reached similar numbers, this time leading the NL with a .333 batting average and 348 total bases, but again came in #2 behind Johnny Bench. After one more solid season with the Cubs, his production started to drop off, and he was traded to the Athletics.

With the A's he was finally able to taste the playoffs, but he went 0 for 7 in his lone career playoff series. The next season his average dropped to .211, which was by far a career low, and he retired as a result.

While he was not flashy, he was reliable and consistent, showing up every night and getting a lot of hits. At one point he reached 20 home runs in 13 straight seasons, which further proves the point. He was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1987 and had his number retired by the Cubs the same year, and now he has also found himself on the list of the best baseball players of all time.

Top 106 Baseball Players: #93 - Wade Boggs

Wade Boggs

Wade Boggs was one of the best hitters of the past 40 years, and was always in contention for the league batting title throughout the 1980's. He was never a power hitter, but he still always struck fear in the hearts of opposing pitchers.

He reached the majors in 1982, and as a rookie he hit .349, which would have won him his first batting title, but he did not have enough plate appearances to be included on the leaderboard.

Over the next 9 seasons, he finished in the top 5 in batting average every year, including 5 batting titles, and 4 in a row from 1985-1988, making him one of 5 players in history to accomplish that, joining Tony Gwynn, Rod Carew, Ty Cobb, and Rogers Hornsby. He also reached 200 hits in 7 consecutive seasons, which was the AL record until Ichiro Suzuki broke it. He had a peak of 240 hits in 1985, the highest total for any player since 1930.

Even though it was well known that he wasn't a power hitter (he only reached double digits in home runs twice in his career), he nevertheless led the league in intentional walks 6 straight times from 1987 to 1992, which shows that pitchers feared him even knowing that he wouldn't hit it out of the park.

He reached the playoffs 6 times in his career, advancing to the World Series twice. With the Red Sox in 1986, he hit .262 in the playoffs, well below his career average, and they lost to the Mets in 7 games. When he returned a decade later with the Yankees, he hit only .158 through the playoffs, but still received a World Series ring. In his other 4 playoff seasons, he hit .364, but his teams lost the Divisional Series each time.

In his final season, while playing for Tampa Bay, he became the 23rd to reach 3000 career hits, and was the first one to reach 3000 on a home run, which was extra special considering that only 118 of his career hits were homers. He retired at the end of that season, and is among the top 35 all time in hits, doubles, walks, batting average, and on base percentage.

Boggs was one of the best ever at both making contact and getting on base, and despite his relative lack of playoff success, he will long be remembered as a tough out and one of the best to ever play the game.

Top 106 Baseball Players: #94 - Ken Griffey Jr.

Ken Griffey Jr.

Ken Griffey Jr. was destined to be a star from the time he was a small child. His father was an All-Star outfielder, and Junior was the #1 overall pick in the 1987 draft. When he reached the Major Leagues in 1989, his father was still playing for the Cincinnati Reds, making them the first father-son duo to play in the majors at the same time.

To make that relationship even more interesting, Ken Sr. joined the Mariners the following season, and in September 1990 they hit back-to-back home runs in the top of the first inning of a game against the Angels, a feat that has never been and probably never will be duplicated.

Griffey was a great power hitter, even if he didn't look like it. He hit at least 40 home runs 7 times in 8 seasons from 1993 to 2000, falling short just once when he broke his wrist in 1995. He even had 40 home runs in 1994, when the season was cut short by a strike, and he was within striking distance of the single-season record at the time.

In 4 of those seasons he led the AL in home runs, reaching 56 twice, including the 1998 season when he was overshadowed by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. He was awarded the MVP in 1997 after leading the league in runs, home runs, RBI's, and total bases.

Seattle traded him away to his hometown of Cincinnati after the 1999 season amid worries that he wouldn't stay in free agency, and he had one more star-level season for the Reds before the injury bug really started to bite. He had season-ending injuries in 3 straight seasons, and his production when he was on the field dropped off as well.

In 2005, he bounced back somewhat, batting 35 home runs while hitting .301, which earned him the Comeback Player of the Year award. He hung around for 5 more seasons, reaching numerous home run milestones on the way, and ended his career with 630. At one point he reached #5 on the all-time list, but has since fallen behind Alex Rodriguez, and could fall behind Albert Pujols in the near future.

Griffey never reached the World Series, but he had a memorable playoff run in 1995. The Mariners went down 0-2 to the Yankees in the ALDS, but Griffey turned in one of the best playoff series performances of all time, becoming just the second player ever to hit 5 home runs in a single playoff series, and he capped it off by scoring from first base on a double in the bottom of the 11th inning, sliding into home to win the series. Despite failing to reach the World Series that year, he still had the best overall playoff performance of any player that postseason.

Had his career not been derailed by injuries, there is no telling how high he might have climbed on this list. Still, even with just half a career at full strength, he received a great honor from the Hall of Fame voters, receiving the highest vote total ever in his first season on the ballot, and he definitely deserves his spot on this list.

Top 106 Baseball Players: #95 - Billy Hamilton

Billy Hamilton

Billy Hamilton is the name of a current Major League baseball player, but it is also the name of one of the all-time greats, and this ranking belongs to the old-time Hall of Famer. Hamilton was one of the greatest baserunners of all time, as well as an incredible batter.

Hamilton reached the majors in 1888 with the Kansas City Cowboys, and in his first full season he led all players with 111 stolen bases while also batting .301, which would be the lowest average he would have until his final season, and it would be a sign of things to come.

After his second season, the Cowboys folded, so he was sold to the Philadelphia Phillies, where he led the Majors in 5 categories in his second season, with a .340 average, 141 runs, 179 hits, 102 walks, and another 111 steals, and that wasn't even his best season.

In 1894 he set a record that still stands, scoring 198 runs, a number that no one has even approached, with Babe Ruth's 177 in 1921 the next highest. He also stole 100 bases and walked 128 times, both also tops in the league, while batting .403, which was only good for fifth that year, and was only the fourth-best on his own team.

Over the course of his career, he led the league in stolen bases 5 times, and his career total stood at 937 when he retired, a number that wouldn't be matched until Lou Brock stole his final base in 1979. The number has since been adjusted to 914 after reviewing box scores due to different rules on counting steals in the 1800's, but he is still #3 all time, trailing only Brock and Rickey Henderson.

He is also one of 3 players in history to average more than one run scored per game over his career, and his on-base percentage in #4 in history, behind Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and John McGraw. He was also the first player ever to hit a leadoff and game-ending home run in the same game, something that has happened only 4 times since, and that's even more impressive considering that his biggest season only contained 7 home runs.

While many will try to discount his accomplishments because of the era in which he played, the fact is that Hamilton was a great player for many years, easily the best baserunner of his era, and one of the best ever at getting on base and scoring runs, so he deserves to be included as one of the all-time greats.

Top 106 Baseball Players: #96 - Bill Dickey

Bill Dickey

Bill Dickey was the catcher for the early Yankees dynasty, playing alongside Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio during his 17-year career, and he was a member of 7 World Series champions, and had an important role in many of those wins.

Dickey took over the starting catcher job in New York in 1929, when he was just 22 years old. He steadily improved over his first several years in the league, until he became a bona fide star in the late 1930's, when he finished the decade with 4 straight seasons with at least 140 hits, 20 doubles, 20 home runs, 100 RBI, and an average of .300, and he finished in the top 6 of the MVP voting in each of those seasons.

He was known as a great batter throughout his career, finishing with a .313 average, and his peak came in 1936, when he hit .362, which was #3 in the league and the best recorded for a catcher up to that point, and has only been surpassed once in the 82 years since.

His durability was also one of his key attributes. He caught over 100 games in 13 straight seasons, which is still a record. The streak survived a month-long suspension in 1932 due to breaking an opponent's jaw with a punch, but a shoulder injury in 1942 finally broke the streak.

Dickey was also important in the World Series. He twice hit over .400 for the Series, twice had 5 RBI, and in 1943 hit the home run that won the World Series for the Yankees over the Cardinals at age 36.

He was another great baseball player who took time away from his career to serve his country, joining the Navy in 1944 and missing two Major League seasons as a result. He returned briefly in 1946, serving as manager and part-time catcher, before retiring after the season.

In all, Dickey reached the World Series 8 times with the Yankees, winning it all 7 times, and was one of the greatest batters ever to play his position, and he was the mentor of the next great Yankee catcher, Yogi Berra, whom he coached for the first decade of his great career. He may not have been the biggest star, but he was an important part of what made the Yankees great for so long.

Top 106 Baseball Players: #97 - Charlie Keller

Charlie Keller

The first player of many to spend the majority of his career with the Yankees to make this list is Charlie Keller, who is not well-known, and was often overshadowed during his playing career as well due to sharing the outfield with Joe DiMaggio.

Keller broke into the majors in 1939, and made an immediate impact. He posted an average of .334 that season, and walked 81 times in only 111 games, while the Yankees won the pennant and reached the World Series.

He was the star of the World Series, leading the Yankees in runs, hits, triples, home runs, RBI's, and batting average, and he became the first rookie ever to hit 2 home runs in a World Series game, a feat that has been matched 3 times since. It was probably the best performance by a rookie in World Series history, and the biggest reason he made this list.

In 1941, the Yankees returned to the World Series, with Keller again playing an important role, finishing #2 in the league in home runs and #4 in walks. He again led the team in hits, runs, and RBI's in the World Series, and also had the most doubles, and the Yankees beat the Dodgers in 5 games.

American was getting into World War II at this point, and by 1943 many players had left the league to join the troops, and Keller ended up being the best player in the AL that season, finishing #1 in walks, #2 in home runs, #5 in runs, and #6 in RBI's, and the Yankees made it back to the World Series, which they won despite Keller struggling for once.

He spent the next season and a half in the Marines, returning once the war ended, and though he played several more seasons, he never quite reached the production level he was at before he enlisted.

While his peak period was much shorter than that of most players on this list, he played at the same level as Joe DiMaggio for several years, and outplayed him by far in 2 World Series victories, so he deserves to be remembered for his contributions to the Yankee dynasty.