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The Best You Ever Saw - MLB Edition

KEV said:
I've seen some pretty good players but the one I was not impressed with was Francisco Liriano. He didn't have a very long period of domination because of arm issues but that guy could sling the ball. I think one of the games we went to he had 12 strike outs. You could tell his career wasn't going to last long with that arm action though.
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How could that not be impressive?
 
Being a cardinals fan I've seen many greats. I've seen Ozzie Smith, Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds, Molina during their peak years, all HOF in my opinion. I watched Adam Wainwright throw a complete game 1 hitter, and while memorable, it was pretty boring in person :ROFLMAO:. I saw Griffey in Cincinnati during his twilight years.
 
leftshot said:
Barry Bonds - House of shame. At his peak, he hit a home run every 5 at bats, but it was all an illusion. He was juiced.
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Most of the power hitters from that era were doing the same and very few came close to do what he was doing.
 
Forgot one, but I'm not sure if it counts. As a kid, I saw Willie Mays play in a charity softball game when he was about 60 years old. I don't remember anything about it except that that it was a really hot day, but I'm pretty sure there's an autographed ball still somewhere in my mom's house.
 
On the pitching side, Pedro Martinez. Just absolutely fun to watch when he was on.
 
Qwkz51 said:
Being a cardinals fan I've seen many greats. I've seen Ozzie Smith, Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds, Molina during their peak years, all HOF in my opinion. I watched Adam Wainwright throw a complete game 1 hitter, and while memorable, it was pretty boring in person :ROFLMAO:. I saw Griffey in Cincinnati during his twilight years.
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A bunch of us from work went to a game at Three Rivers and Jim Bibby was staring for the Pirates. Big guy, about 6'6" and the lesser-known brother of hoops star Henry Bibby. The first batter sent a clean single back through the box, and the guy sitting next to me said, "Well! There goes the perfect game." Bibby then proceeded to retire the next 27 batters. It got pretty exciting once fans realized what was going on.
 
I have to go WAY BACK to when I saw the best ever, and hands down it is Willie Mays. My Dad used to take us to Dodger / Giants games at Dodger Stadium when I was a kid, and of course I always rooted for the Giants, and Willie Mays in particular. Of course that also brings me to my second choice, and the best pitcher I've ever seen, Sandy Koufax, in my opinion the best pitcher ever.
 
tequila4kapp said:
I've seen so many games and so many great players, I can't pick one. I'm going to go by position.

C: Johnny Bench
1B: Albert Pujols
2B: Ryne Sandberg
3B: Mike Schmidt
SS: Alex Rodriguez
LF: Ricky Henderson
CF: Ken Griffey, JR
RF: Henry Aaron
DH: Edgar Martinez
RHP: Nolan Ryan
LHP: Randy Johnson
Reliever: Mariano Rivera
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That's a heck of a list, awesome! I'm sure some amazing memories during all those games too!
 
I've seen some pretty good pitchers do some work. My college was across the freeway from Comiskey (US Cellular/Guaranteed Rate bs) and so I got to see Mark Buehrle pitch a number of times. It is foggy, and looking back at the box score etc, I was at Wrigley for Greg Maddux's 3000th strikeout after a 3 hour rain delay, the way he could work a batter without overpowering them was amazing.
 
I missed Halladay’s postseason no hitter by one game! Still got to see my only playoff win by an absolutely stacked Phillies lineup.
 
I'm jealous of a lot of the lists you guys have put together. I didn't go to my first MLB game until high school, so probably around 2003. I saw the Seattle Mariners travel into Cleveland. One of the best balls players I've seen was on the field that day, Ichiro Suzuki. Over his entire professional career, one of the best hitters in the game. Just amazing what he did in so many facets.

I also think that a current Indian might be in the discussion, if he can keep it up. Francisco Lindor. Great hitter, great fielder, and a great ambassador to a new generation of baseball fans. Just love his attitude and the joy he plays the game with. Say him his rookie year, and every year since. We've been lucky to have a player like him come through the organization.
 
Oh man that's a hard one.

I remember seeing Griffey in the early-mid 90s and I thought he was going to end up going down as the best player ever. Then injuries really set his career back, which is sad. Granted he still hit 600+ HRs.

I saw Clemens pitch in 97 for Toronto when he was so so damn good. Believe he led the league in Wins, ERA, and IP that season.

Pedro in 2000 when he had a sub 2 era. Even though he lost a 2-1 game to Cleveland.

Saw Rivera pitch many times and he was the best closer/relief pitcher Ive ever seen.
 
Having been to 169 Red Sox games since 1989 I've seen some greats but, the last game I went to I had the chance to talk to Mookie, amazing human and so much is like you see on TV, just a big kid happy to be playing ball.
 
I’ll change it up a bit. The most interesting player I ever saw was Jim Abbott. What that guy could do with one hand was incredible and something we may never seen again.

The most fun player...Darryl Strawberry. Hearing 30,000 fans chanting Darrrrrryyyyllllll Darrrrryyyyylllll hahaha
 
Mine is Albert Pujols, one of the best hitters of my generation, and frankly, that the game has ever seen.

I was fortunate enough to watch him MANY times, including when he tied Reggie Jackson's record for 3 Home Runs in a World Series game against the Rangers in 2011.
 
In person would be a toss up between Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens (the Red Sox version of both, of course). David Ortiz is probably the best position player I have seen in person. Before people start screaming that he was only a DH, I saw in in Atlanta for an interleague game and he played First Base without a hitch.
 
Reframmellator said:
No, he hit them all right, but as DuPont used to say, it was Better Living Through Chemistry.
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There were a lot of players juicing during that era. Average to below average players became stars for a brief time. Barry Bonds gave us a glimpse of what happens when an all time great player juices....and it was pretty amazing to watch.
 
I was fortunate to see a lot of great players and Hall of Famers play with the Texas Rangers:

1B-Rafael Palmiero/Will Clark
2B-Michael Young/Julio Franco
SS-Alex Rodriguez
3B-Adrian Beltre
RF-Vladimir Guerrero/Nelson Cruz
CF-Josh Hamilton
LF-Juan Gonzalez
C-Pudge Rodriguez
P-Nolan Ryan

How do you choose between Alex, Pudge, and Nolan? I'm going with Pudge since he played there most of his prime. If either Josh Hamilton or Juan Gonzalez could have stayed healthy they would be in the conversation too. Juan had over 100 rbi's at the All-star break one year. Juan Gone was gone too soon and Hamilton's troubles were well known but I'll never forget that home run derby at Yankee Stadium.
 
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Since I'm a Cubs fan my memories will gravitate toward them. The first one would Ken Holtzman's first NO-NO against the Atlanta Braves in 1969. In the 9th inning Holtzman faced Hank Arron and he hit a deep fly ball to left that on any other day would have left the ball bark and landed on Waveland Ave. But the wind was blowing in that day and Billy Williams caught the ball in the well in left field with his back against the ivy. The other one would have to be the 23-22 games between the Phillies and Cubs on May 17, 1979. Mike Schmidt hit 4 home runs for the Phillies and Dave Kingman for the Cubs hit 3 home runs, The wind was blowing out that day at over 25+ at times.
 
I've been to a lot of Royals games over the years, so I've seen a lot of great players on opposing teams roll through.

So I'm sure I'm biased, but the best I've ever seen is Hall of Famer George Brett.
 
I’ve seen a lot of great players recently living in a major sports city but I take the fondest memories from seeing stars before they made it. I grew up watching AAA ball and I saw Halladay, Carlos Delgado, Harper, and Strasburg coming up and it was fun.
 
Molten said:
I’ve seen a lot of great players recently living in a major sports city but I take the fondest memories from seeing stars before they made it. I grew up watching AAA ball and I saw Halladay, Carlos Delgado, Harper, and Strasburg coming up and it was fun.
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I saw Strasburg his rookie year against Cleveland. It was quite the show and he pitched a great game. You could feel the excitement, even though he was pitching for the away team.
 
Ken Griffey Jr . The kid was amazing to watch moved the Mariners during the Griffey Martinez era. And of course Joe Carter,Devon White, Roberto Alomar just to name a few when I lived in Toronto
 
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