History UsefulNotes / HistoricalPeopleToKnowInMLB

* '''Harry Kalas''' was briefly an announcer for the Houston Astros. Shortly after, he became the announcer for the Philadelphia Phillies, which he did until his passing in April of 2009. Kalas's deep, baritone voice was well known not only among Phillies fans, but also from his voiceover work for NFL Films, after the passing of original voiceover artist John Facenda. Kalas was known for his memorable home run calls, and had the catch phrase "Swing... and a long drive, this ball is... outta here!" when calling a home run.

* '''Harry Kalas''' was briefly an announcer for the Houston Astros. Shortly after, he became the announcer for the Philadelphia Phillies, which he did until his passing in April of 2009. Kalas was a well known voice not only among Phillies fans, but also was known for doing voiceover work for the NFL, after the passing of original voiceover artist John Facenda. Kalas was known for his memorable home run calls, and had the catch phrase "Swing... and a long drive, this ball is... outta here!" when calling a home run.

* '''Harry Caray''', pretty much regarded as one of the most colorful {{Large Ham Announcer}}s of all time. He's best remembered for broadcasting Chicago Cubs games on WGN-TV in the 1980s and '90s, although the first and longest part of his career was spent with the St. Louis Cardinals and he worked for the Oakland A's and Chicago White Sox at various points too. Caray, who brought a boisterous, fanlike enthusiasm into the booth with him, is highly quotable to this day, with his frequent calls of "Holy Cow!" and "It might be...it could be...It is! A home run!" Apparently his talent was InTheBlood, as shown by both his son (longtime Atlanta Braves broadcaster Skip Caray, now also deceased) and his grandsons (Cubs/Braves broadcaster Chip Caray and AAA Braves broadcaster Josh Caray). Younger fans may be most familiar with him from Creator/WillFerrell's impressions of him on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''.

[[folder:Announcers]]

* '''Ty Cobb''' was a superlative player in the early part of the 20th century, leading the American League in batting average twelve times. He held the all-time record for most career base hits until it was broken by Pete Rose, held the record for career stolen bases until it was broken by Lou Brock (and subsequently again by Rickey Henderson), and had a career batting average of .366, a record that still stands today. He was also a massive {{jerkass}}. It was said he sharpened his spikes to injure opposing fielders. He once jumped into the stands to beat up a heckler who had no hands. Upon being told that the man had no hands, Cobb is reported to have said "I don't care if he has no feet!" And, most regrettably, he was a raging racist, even by the standards of the time. Despite this, had his own brand of CrazyAwesome, and his legacy has recently been subject to reappraisal and accusations of HistoricalVillainUpgrade from his biographers (in particular, his racism tempered considerably, to the point where he was an early endorser of integrated baseball); there's also been a lot of psychological analysis of his douchebaggery, some of which appears to have been [[FreudianExcuse the result of his father constantly hounding him for]] [[WellDoneSonGuy not being good enough]], and part of which seems to be deep-seated anger issues that we would probably consider mental health problems today. In 2017, his name became more prominent in the news when an [[NamesTheSame identically-named]] distant relative (''not'' a direct descendant) became a prominent member of the White House legal team for Creator/DonaldTrump.

->"It is a haunted game, where each player is measured by the ghosts of those who have gone before."
-->-- Creator/KenBurns' ''Baseball''

* '''Cy Young''' was a pitcher in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who was so awesome, baseball eventually named their top award for pitchers after him. Holds the record for career wins with 511, which is literally in "will never be broken" territory due to differences in the way baseball is played today (Young pitched every third or fourth game or so, which would be unacceptable to today's players)[[note]]Additionally, in Young's heyday of the Dead Ball Era, 20+ wins per season were ''expected'' of good starting pitchers. Today, with 5-day rotations and heavy bullpen usage, it's an anomaly, and a pitcher would have to average 20 wins a year ''for 25 years straight'' to get within reach of the record.[[/note]]

* '''Ty Cobb''' was a superlative player in the early part of the 20th century, leading the American League in batting average twelve times. He held the all-time record for most career base hits until it was broken by Pete Rose, held the record for career stolen bases until it was broken by Lou Brock (and subsequently again by Rickey Henderson), and had a career batting average of .366, a record that still stands today. He was also a massive {{jerkass}}. It was said he sharpened his spikes to injure opposing fielders. He once jumped into the stands to beat up a heckler who had no hands. Upon being told that the man had no hands, Cobb is reported to have said "I don't care if he has no feet!" And, most regrettably, he was a raging racist, even by the standards of the time. Despite this, had his own brand of CrazyAwesome, and his legacy has recently been subject to reappraisal and accusations of HistoricalVillainUpgrade from his biographers (in particular, his racism tempered considerably, to the point where he was an early endorser of integrated baseball); there's also been a lot of psychological analysis of his douchebaggery, some of which appears to have been [[FreudianExcuse the result of his father constantly hounding him for]] [[WellDoneSonGuy not being good enough]], and part of which seems to be deep-seated anger issues that we would probably consider mental health problems today.

* '''Trevor Hoffman''' was a relief pitcher who spent almost all of his career with the San Diego Padres. He became the Padres' closer shortly after joining them, and, somewhat unusually for a closer, held onto it for the next decade and a half (the volatile nature of relief pitchers means that most closers tend to flame out fairly quickly), making a few all-star appearances and generally being consistently able to lock down games for the Padres. As he came into the league right around the same time as Dennis Eckersley codified the current role of the closer as the guy who got all the saves, he got a lot of saves pretty much every year in his career, and because closers with this type of role weren't as common prior to Eckersley's dominant run in the early 90's (''especially'' ones who were closers for almost their entire careers), he managed to completely destroy the all-time career saves record with 601. Shortly after he retired, that record was itself broken by Mariano Rivera, who had similarly been a great closer for a really long time. That Hoffman's career largely overlapped with Rivera's caused him to generally be OvershadowedByAwesome, as Rivera was always considered the slightly better closer and was far more popular. Still, Hoffman was undeniably a great closer, and his 601 saves and 9.36 strikeouts/9 innings pitched ratio (the latter is the highest of any reliever with at least 1000 innings pitched), among other stats, eventually got him into the Hall of Fame on his third try in 2018. Throughout pretty much his entire career, he had the song "[[Music/{{ACDC}} Hells Bells]]" played as his entrance music, which would end up inspiring the Yankees' staff to play "[[Music/{{Metallica}} Enter Sandman]]" whenever Mariano Rivera entered games (in keeping with Rivera's larger popularity, "Enter Sandman" would become far more iconic for Rivera than "Hells Bells" ever was for Hoffman).

* '''UsefulNotes/JackieRobinson''' was an African-American who played in 1947 for the Dodgers after African-Americans had been informally banned from the major leagues for 60 years. After this, the other major league teams slowly integrated. So naturally, he's a pretty big deal, especially since he was an excellent player throughout his 10-year career. His number, 42, was retired across Major League Baseball in 1997, the only player to receive that honor, with two exceptions: First, players who wore 42 at the time were allowed to keep wearing it (Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who retired at the end of the 2013 season, was the last player to wear it),[[note]]Rivera, by the by, is considered to have been a fitting man to wear the number last, as a dark-skinned Panamanian who has devoted himself to many good causes, including better integration of Hispanic players into the league. Jackie's widow Rachel, now in her nineties, strongly approved of Rivera being the last player to wear her husband's number.[[/note]] and second, every player in the game wears it on April 15, the anniversary of Robinson's Major League debut. The number has become associated with Robinson so much that [[Film/FortyTwo a movie about his life]] simply had the number ''42'' as its title. Contrary to what some might say, Robinson did ''not'' refuse to leave Brooklyn when the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. By the end of his career, he had begun to show symptoms of diabetes (and would be diagnosed with the disease mere months after his retirement), and had already planned to retire (to become an executive at the Chock full o'Nuts coffee company) before the rumors that the Dodgers would move came out.[[note]]Robinson was actually ''from'' Southern California, having been raised in Pasadena and attended UCLA before World War II; had he stayed with the Dodgers, he would've probably appreciated the move.[[/note]]

* '''Chipper Jones''', during his 19-year career, was typically considered the best switch-hitter in the game and one of the best of all time.[[note]] Jones is one of only two players with 5,000 or more at bats to have hit .300 from both sides of home plate. The other was Hall of Famer Frankie Frisch.[[/note]] He spent his entire career with the Atlanta Braves, at one point even re-working his contract with them so they would have more money to spend on other players. However, he was never that great of a power hitter, despite consistently putting up solid numbers over the past decade and a half. Given that he was hitting in the era of players such as Bonds, [=McGwire=] and later Pujols, he's basically a case of OvershadowedByAwesome. He retired at the end of the 2012 season, and it's expected that he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on his first try in 2018.
* '''Jim Thome'''[[note]]pronounced TOW-mee[[/note]], who played for six teams in a 22-year career, most notably the Indians in the 1990s and the Phillies in the early 2000s, is something of a forgotten man in recent baseball history—despite being one of only nine players with 600 career homers. A big part of it was his personality. While universally considered one of the nicest individuals in sports, and also beloved everywhere he played (a UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} newspaper poll found him the most popular athlete in the city's history, though that was before UsefulNotes/{{LeBron|James}} came to town), he was noted for his reluctance to promote himself. One of the few power hitters of the steroid era who was never suspected of PED use. He last played in 2012, but didn't formally retire until 2014.

* '''Alex Rodriguez''', best known for his tenure on with the New York Yankees, was baseball's highest paid player from 2001, when he signed a 10-year, $250 million contract with the Texas Rangers, to 2014, when his salary was exceeded thanks to larger contracts given to Clayton Kershaw and Miguel Cabrera. A shortstop in the first half of his career with the Mariners and Rangers, he moved to third base upon being traded to the Yankees in 2004, as the Yankees already had Derek Jeter at shortstop. His status as one of the game's all-time greats has never been in any doubt; he was a prime MVP candidate every year from his age-21 season in 1996 to about 2010 (he won the award three times, and arguably should have won more), when age and injuries started to rob him of some of his skill. His large contract combined with the fact that he used performance-enhancing drugs several times throughout his career make him one of baseball's most passionately disliked figures. His most passionate haters are mostly fans of the Red Sox (for reasons including A) He's a Yankee, B) A failed trade that might have brought him to Boston instead of New York in 2003, and C) A number of in-game incidents, most notably slapping the ball out of Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo's glove in the 2004 ALCS) or the Mariners (because he started in Seattle, then left after the 2000 season and signed the aforementioned massive contract). But even some Yankees fans hate him, for nebulous reasons ranging from "he's cold and distant" to "he hasn't played in a World Series" (not true after 2009) to "he doesn't deliver big hits when you need them" (an assertion not backed up by statistics), to opting out of his contract during the last game of the 2007 World Series (the Yankees weren't playing in it, having been eliminated in the first round of the postseason, but the timing still attracted lots of criticism) to sign a slightly bigger 10-year contract with the Yankees shortly after, to his late-career decline in production, among others. Known by his nickname "A-Rod", but prior to 2009 his lack of postseason performance led to detractors (including within the Yankees locker room) to call him "A-Fraud", and his admission in 2009 to having used steroids earlier in his career while playing for the Rangers inevitably led to him being called "A-Roid". Injuries slowed his production tremendously in his last few years, to the point where he was no longer considered an elite player. He was banned for the 2014 season due to allegedly obtaining (and using) large amounts of [=PEDs=] from Biogenesis, a now-closed South Florida "anti-aging clinic". While he had a bit of a resurgence in 2015, joining the 3,000-hit club and passing Willie Mays to go into fourth on the career home run list along the way, he struggled to produce the next season, leading the the Yankees benching and eventually cutting him from the team to make way for younger prospects (with one year on his contract left to go, this forced them to eat quite a bit of dead money). A-Rod played his last game as a Yankee in the middle of the 2016 season, and officially retired in 2017 (despite being only four home runs away from joining the 700-homer club) to work as a full-time baseball broadcaster.

* '''Roberto Clemente''' was one of the sport's first Latin American stars. He spent his entire 18-year career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and over the course of that career, he became a 15-time all-star, got exactly 3,000 hits, was a part of two teams that won the World Series, and became known as one of the best defensive right fielders of all time. Well-respected for his skills at the game, he was also well-respected for his humanitarian deeds, frequently working in charities in Latin American countries. Sadly, he and his career met an untimely end in 1972, when he was in a plane crash on his way to deliver aid to victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua. After his death, the league named an award after him, which is awarded each year to the player who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team"—generally a player who both plays the game well and gets involved in charities, like Clemente. He was also promptly inducted into the Hall of Fame, setting a precedent that the 5-year retirement period rule does not apply to deceased players.[[note]]The time period is six months, instead[[/note]] Is the subject of two different campaigns advocating him for a) league-wide retirement of the number 21, and b) '' sainthood''.

* '''Ken Griffey''' (Jr.) was one of the best (arguably ''the'' best) players of TheNineties. Well-marketed (even having his own series of baseball games made by Creator/{{Nintendo}} for the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] and the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64) and excelling in all facets of the game, he led the previously pathetic Seattle Mariners out of obscurity and enjoyed tremendous popularity. He's also the first of two players in history (Tim Raines Jr. joining him in 2001) to play on the same team with his father (of the same name), who was a successful if not Hall-of-Fame caliber outfielder. After many good years with the Mariners, he requested a move to his hometown Cincinnati Reds,[[note]]While he was actually born in Donora, Pennsylvania—Stan Musial's hometown—Junior grew up in Cincinnati and graduated from high school there. Incidentally, he was born on Musial's 49th birthday—Bill James once joked that Griffey was the "[[OverlyNarrowSuperlative Second-best left-handed hitting outfielder ever born on November 21st in Donora, Pennsylvania]]"[[/note]] where he would mostly spend the next nine years and last years of baseball injuring his hamstring. Still, he became the 6th player to hit 600 home runs (and, some argue, the first since Hank Aaron to do so legitimately, since the 4th and 5th [Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, respectively- see below] were both linked to performance-enhancing drugs). Elected to the Hall of Fame at his first chance in 2016, getting the highest percentage of votes ever from the writers. Despite having a prodigious Hall of Fame career, many fans consider there to be an element of WhatCouldHaveBeen to his career, because for years he seemed destined to break Aaron's all-time home run record, and if not for constant injuries nagging him for those seasons on the Reds he may well have done so. (His time in Seattle may have been part of the problem—the Kingdome, where the M's then played, was infamous for its concrete-hard artificial turf.) May have had the most beautiful swing in history during his prime. One darker and lesser-known fact about Junior is that he has on occasion been an advocate for suicide/depression awareness, himself having attempted suicide (and nearly succeeding) early in his minor league career.

* '''Vladimir Guerrero''' played for 16 years, mostly for the Expos and the Angels. During his prime, he was considered one of the most feared hitters in baseball, usually hitting for both high average and power. He had a 10-year streak in which he hit at least .300 with 27 home runs and a .900 OPS, and at least 100 RBI's in every season except for one that was shortened by injury. He never hit lower than .290. In 2004, his first year with the Angels, he hit .337 with 39 Home Runs and 136 RBI's and won the AL MVP. He also was a decent base-stealer early in his career, and came just one home run short of the 40-40 club (40 home runs, 40 steals) in 2002. He was also famed as one of baseball's best "bad-ball hitters"; that is, he frequently swung at and got hits off of balls thrown well outside the strike zone—he once even got a hit off a curveball that bounced in the dirt.

* '''Greg Maddux''' Also known as "Mad Dog" or "The Professor", Maddux pitched for the Cubs, Braves, Padres, and Dodgers. He was discovered at a young age when scouts went to see his brother Mike, and his father said "you'll be back later for the little one". Most scouts were turned off by the scrawny kid who had no velocity on his fastball, but Chicago Cubs scout Doug Mapson saw past it saying "I really believe this boy would be the number one player in the country if only he looked a bit more physical". 1987 was his first full year in the majors, and Maddux went 6–14 record and 5.61 ERA, with several people saying "we told you so, he won't make it. Too scrawny and not enough juice on the ball." Then, in 1988 it started (finishing 18–8 with a 3.18 ERA). Gregory Alan Maddux cut a swath of devastation not seen in major league history, going SEVENTEEN seasons with at least fifteen (15) wins. During this time Maddux would often have an ERA lower than his batting average, Gold Gloves (a record 18 in his career), and Cy Young Awards (four). To give an indication of his dominance during this period; "On July 22, 1997, Maddux threw a complete game with just 76 pitches, against the Cubs. Three weeks earlier, he had shut out the defending champion New York Yankees on 84 pitches, and five days before that, he'd beaten the Phillies with a 90-pitch complete game. Maddux allowed just 20 bases on balls in 1997, including six intentional walks. Ignoring those six intentional walks, Maddux only went to a 3-0 count on one batter in all of 1997". He eventually joined the 3000 strikeout club, and passed Clemens in career wins. Maddux's 355 career victories are the most of any pitcher whose career began after World War II, and the second-most (behind Warren Spahn) of any pitcher whose career began after 1920. His mind and ability to read players was uncanny; he once intentionally gave up a homer to Jeff Bagwell so later on in the season Bagwell would look for that pitch again. On another occasion, while sitting on the bench, Maddux once told everyone "watch this, we might need to call an ambulance for the first base coach." The batter then drove the next pitch into the chest of the Dodgers' first base coach. There are several other stories about Greg Maddux, and no one should argue his credentials as one of the greatest of all time. Maddux was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 2014, along with his longtime Braves teammate Tom Glavine; a third member of the Braves rotation of that era, John Smoltz, would be elected the next year.

* '''Trevor Hoffman''' was a relief pitcher who spent almost all of his career with the San Diego Padres. He became the Padres' closer shortly after joining them, and, somewhat unusually for a closer, held onto it for the next decade and a half (the volatile nature of relief pitchers means that most closers tend to flame out fairly quickly), making a few all-star appearances and generally being consistently able to lock down games for the Padres. As he came into the league right around the same time as Dennis Eckersley codified the current role of the closer as the guy who got all the saves, he got a lot of saves pretty much every year in his career, and because closers with this type of role weren't as common prior to Eckersley's dominant run in the early 90's (''especially'' ones who were closers for almost their entire careers), he managed to completely destroy the all-time career saves record with 601. Shortly after he retired, that record was itself broken by Mariano Rivera, who had similarly been a great closer for a really long time. That Hoffman's career largely overlapped with Rivera's caused him to generally be OvershadowedByAwesome, as Rivera was always considered the slightly better closer and was far more popular. Still, Hoffman was undeniably a great closer, and his 601 saves and 9.36 strikeouts/9 innings pitched ratio (the latter is the highest of any reliever with at least 1000 innings pitched), among other stats, should ensure his eventual Hall of Fame selection. Throughout pretty much his entire career, he had the song "[[Music/{{ACDC}} Hells Bells]]" played as his entrance music, which would end up inspiring the Yankees' staff to play "[[Music/{{Metallica}} Enter Sandman]]" whenever Mariano Rivera entered games (in keeping with Rivera's larger popularity, "Enter Sandman" would become far more iconic for Rivera than "Hells Bells" ever was for Hoffman).

* '''Harry Caray''', pretty much regarded as one of the most colorful {{Large Ham Announcer}}s of all time. He's best remembered for broadcasting Chicago Cubs games on WGN-TV in the 1980s and '90s, although the first and longest part of his career was spent with the St. Louis Cardinals and he worked for the Oakland A's and Chicago White Sox at various points too. Caray, who brought a boisterous, fanlike enthusiasm into the booth with him, is highly quotable to this day, with his frequent calls of "Holy Cow!" and "It might be...it could be...It is! A home run!" Apparently his talent was InTheBlood, as shown by both his son (Braves broadcaster Skip Caray, now also deceased) and his grandsons (Cubs/Braves broadcaster Chip Caray and AAA Braves broadcaster Josh Caray). Younger fans may be most familiar with him from Creator/WillFerrell's impressions of him on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''.

* '''Harry Caray''', pretty much regarded as one of the most colorful {{Large Ham Announcer}}s of all time. He's best remembered for broadcasting Chicago Cubs games in the 1980s and '90s, although the first and longest part of his career was spent with the St. Louis Cardinals and he worked for the Oakland A's and Chicago White Sox at various points too. Caray, who brought a boisterous, fanlike enthusiasm into the booth with him, is highly quotable to this day, with his frequent calls of "Holy Cow!" and "It might be...it could be...It is! A home run!" Apparently his talent was InTheBlood, as shown by both his son (Braves broadcaster Skip Caray, now also deceased) and his grandsons (Cubs/Braves broadcaster Chip Caray and AAA Braves broadcaster Josh Caray). Younger fans may be most familiar with him from Creator/WillFerrell's impressions of him on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''.

* '''Sandy Koufax''' is widely held to be one of the finest pitchers in the history of the game, despite having serious control difficulties in his early career. He actually was far more interested in basketball than he ever was in his own sport, and had it not been for the fact that he could throw a 100-mile-an-hour fastball, might have ended up in ''that'' sport than baseball. He is said to have studied the "art and science" of pitching, to the point that he became one of the finest technicians in that position in the game. Mickey Mantle once pointed out that Koufax always signaled his pitches before his windup. "If Koufax was going to throw you a fast ball, his elbows would be out away from his body; if it was gonna be a curve, his elbows would be in close to his body. Every batter who ever faced Koufax knew precisely what he was about to get, but it didn't matter because the pitches were so good you couldn't hit them anyways." He was the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award three times—and did so in an era when there was only one Cy Young winner for all of MLB.[[note]]Separate AL and NL Cy Young Awards were not presented was 1967, the year after his retirement.[[/note]] Koufax was also the first to pitch four no-hitters, and the eighth pitcher in MLB to pitch a perfect game. He had a higher career strikeout total than a career innings-pitched total, the first starting pitcher to accomplish that feat with a minimum of 1000 innings pitched. (Among players who played most of their career before the 2010s, the only other starters to achieve that are Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, and Pedro Martínez. Many relief pitchers have done this over short periods, but the only ones to do that while meeting the 1000-inning minimum are Trevor Hoffman and Kerry Wood. In recent years, with the rise of strikeout rates, the feat has become much more commonplace.) He left the game when he was only 30 due to arthritis in his left (throwing) elbow, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame five years later (becoming the youngest player ever so honored).

* '''Sandy Koufax''' is widely held to be one of the finest pitchers in the history of the game, despite having serious control difficulties in his early career. He actually was far more interested in basketball than he ever was in his own sport, and had it not been for the fact that he could throw a 100-mile-an-hour fastball, might have ended up in ''that'' sport than baseball. He is said to have studied the "art and science" of pitching, to the point that he became one of the finest technicians in that position in the game. Mickey Mantle once pointed out that Koufax always signaled his pitches before his windup. "If Koufax was going to throw you a fast ball, his elbows would be out away from his body; if it was gonna be a curve, his elbows would be in close to his body. Every batter who ever faced Koufax knew precisely what he was about to get, but it didn't matter because the pitches were so good you couldn't hit them anyways." He was the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award three times, the first to pitch four no-hitters, and the eighth pitcher in major league baseball to pitch a perfect game. He had a higher career strikeout total than a career innings-pitched total, the first starting pitcher to accomplish that feat with a minimum of 1000 innings pitched (Among players who played most of their career before the 2010s, the only other starters to achieve that are Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, and Pedro Martínez. Many relief pitchers have done this over short periods, but the only ones to do that while meeting the 1000-inning minimum are Trevor Hoffman and Kerry Wood. In recent years, with the rise of strikeout rates, the feat has become much more commonplace). He left the game when he was only 30 due to arthritis in his left (throwing) elbow, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame five years later (becoming the youngest player ever so honored).

* '''Roger Clemens''' pioneered the modern concept of the "power pitcher" with the Red Sox in the 1980s. Nicknamed "The Rocket", Clemens threw harder than almost anyone else at the time, and had a dominant, macho personality that intimidated hitters and made him almost synonymous with Boston at the time. Clemens set a then-record in 1986 by striking out 20 batters in one game and very nearly won Boston the infamous "Game Six" of the World Series that year. Clemens has won a total of seven Cy Young awards in his career, a record for any pitcher. Unfortunately, his personality translated into a long, long, ''long'' record of {{Jerkass}} behavior over the years that tarnished the public's perception of his career more and more. Split acrimoniously from the Red Sox in 1996 (but not before tying his own single-game strikeout record--which still stands, though it's been tied twice more since) and went on to play for the Blue Jays, Yankees and Astros, winning two World Series with the Yankees. Opinions vary of the man, but these days he is almost universally despised in Boston. Although acquitted of charges of lying under oath to Congress about using illegal performance enhancing drugs, he is still widely believed to have used them.
* '''Dennis Eckersley''' was one of the first pitchers to be a closer in the current sense of the word, and more than any other was the one who defined the position as a ninth inning specialist. He was a good but generally unspectacular starter for the first half of his career, highlighted by getting two all-star selections and throwing a no-hitter in 1977. He was switched to being a closer when he joined the Oakland A's in 1987, and had several ridiculous years during the A's dominant run in the late 80's and early 90's. His best year was probably 1990, when he had an ERA of ''0.61'', a ridiculously low ERA (even for a relief pitcher) that would go unmatched until Rays closer Fernando Rodney finished the 2012 season with an ERA of 0.60 (A record that lasted all of 4 years- in 2016, Orioles closer Zach Britton did even better, with an ERA of just 0.54). In 1992, he became one of the few relief pitchers to ever win both the Cy Young and the MVP Award. Though he's a Hall of Famer and generally considered an all-time great, his skills fell off a bit after 1992, and he was never nearly that good again. His most famous moment is probably giving up a walk-off home run to Kirk Gibson in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. He's also one of only two pitchers with both 20-win and 50-save seasons in his career, the other being fellow Hall of Famer John Smoltz.

* '''Greg Maddux''' Also known as "Mad Dog" or "The Professor", Maddux pitched for the Cubs, Braves, Padres, and Dodgers. He was discovered at a young age when scouts went to see his brother Mike, and his father said "you'll be back later for the little one". Most scouts were turned off by the scrawny kid who had no velocity on his fastball, but Chicago Cubs scout Doug Mapson saw past it saying "I really believe this boy would be the number one player in the country if only he looked a bit more physical". 1987 was his first full year in the majors, and Maddux went 6–14 record and 5.61 ERA, with several people saying "we told you so, he won't make it. Too scrawny and not enough juice on the ball". Then, in 1988 it started (finishing 18–8 with a 3.18 ERA). Gregory Alan Maddux cut a swath of devastation not seen in major league history, going SEVENTEEN seasons with at least fifteen (15) wins. During this time Maddux would often have an ERA lower than his batting average, Gold Gloves (a record 18 in his career), and Cy Young Awards (four). To give an indication of his dominance during this period; "On July 22, 1997, Maddux threw a complete game with just 76 pitches, against the Cubs. Three weeks earlier, he had shut out the defending champion New York Yankees on 84 pitches, and five days before that, he'd beaten the Phillies with a 90-pitch complete game. Maddux allowed just 20 bases on balls in 1997, including six intentional walks. Ignoring those six intentional walks, Maddux only went to a 3-0 count on one batter in all of 1997". He eventually joined the 3000 strikeout club, and passed Clemens in career wins. Maddux's 355 career victories are the most of any pitcher whose career began after World War II, and the second-most (behind Warren Spahn) of any pitcher whose career began after 1920. His mind and ability to read players was uncanny; he once intentionally gave up a homer to Jeff Bagwell so later on in the season Bagwell would look for that pitch again. On another occasion, while sitting on the bench, Maddux once told everyone "watch this, we might need to call an ambulance for the first base coach." The batter then drove the next pitch into the chest of the Dodgers' first base coach. There are several other stories about Greg Maddux, and no one should argue his credentials as one of the greatest of all time. Maddux was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 2014, along with his longtime Braves teammate Tom Glavine; a third member of the Braves rotation of that era, John Smoltz, would be elected the next year.

-->-- KenBurns' ''Baseball''

* '''Ken Griffey''' (Jr.) was one of the best (arguably ''the'' best) players of TheNineties. Well-marketed (even having his own series of baseball games made by Creator/{{Nintendo}} for the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] and the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64) and excelling in all facets of the game, he led the previously pathetic Seattle Mariners out of obscurity and enjoyed tremendous popularity. He's also the first of two players in history (Tim Raines Jr. joining him in 2001) to play on the same team with his father (of the same name), who was a successful if not Hall-of-Fame caliber outfielder. After many good years with the Mariners, he requested a move to his hometown Cincinnati Reds,[[note]]While he was actually born in Donora, Pennsylvania—Stan Musial's hometown—Junior grew up in Cincinnati and graduated from high school there. Incidentally, he was born on Musial's 49th birthday.[[/note]] where he would mostly spend the next nine years and last years of baseball injuring his hamstring. Still, he became the 6th player to hit 600 home runs (and, some argue, the first since Hank Aaron to do so legitimately, since the 4th and 5th [Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, respectively- see below] were both linked to performance-enhancing drugs). Elected to the Hall of Fame at his first chance in 2016, getting the highest percentage of votes ever from the writers. Despite having a prodigious Hall of Fame career, many fans consider there to be an element of WhatCouldHaveBeen to his career, because for years he seemed destined to break Aaron's all-time home run record, and if not for constant injuries nagging him for those seasons on the Reds he may well have done so. (His time in Seattle may have been part of the problem—the Kingdome, where the M's then played, was infamous for its concrete-hard artificial turf.) May have had the most beautiful swing in history during his prime. One darker and lesser-known fact about Junior is that he has on occasion been an advocate for suicide/depression awareness, himself having attempted suicide (and nearly succeeding) early in his minor league career.

* '''Pete Rose''' broke Ty Cobb's career hits record, and somewhat coincidentally, is about as well-liked as Cobb was. (He's still revered in his hometown of Cincinnati, where he played for most of his career and also managed, but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone from another city who likes him.) He gambled on baseball (as a player and manager), which caused him to be banned from the sport and made ineligible for the baseball Hall of Fame when he would have been elected easily for his achievements. He was proven to bet on his own team, though he swears to this day that he always bet on them to win. Since the original ban on gambling was made to prevent players from intentionally losing games, whether or not Pete Rose's ban is a fair judgment remains one of baseball's open debates. (Before [=PEDs=] came along, gambling was considered the single biggest scourge of the sporting world. Going back to the Black Sox scandal, betting on baseball in any way is prohibited, with a lifetime ban for betting on games you have a role in, so it's academic if your name isn't Bill James.) While Cobb sharpened his spikes, Rose is well known for once running over opposing catcher Ray Fosse in a run into home plate, separating the catcher's shoulder. This would have been acceptable play had it not happened in the All-Star Game, which at the time was a meaningless exhibition. (While the incident did not end Fosse's career as is often reported - he stayed in the lineup during the second half of the season, and played eight more seasons, three as a starter and one as an All-Star - he was never again as good as he was prior to the injury.)
** Rose's reputation wasn't helped by his litigiousness: when the Commissioner (see the "Others" folder below) started an investigation against him for his gambling, he filed suit in Ohio state court against the Commissioner, the Reds, and MLB asking the court to stop the Commissioner's investigation. The case is famous for all kinds of amazing dick moves on Rose's part (well, technically his lawyers', but frankly they're such fantastic dick moves that it's hard not to see how he wasn't involved in the decision to make them), and as a result, Civil Procedure law casebooks often include his case in the introduction to show wet-behind-the-ears first-year law students how bizarre their profession can get...and reinforce baseball's universal agreement that Pete Rose is an ''asshole''.

* '''Rogers Hornsby,''' also known by his nickname "Rajah," was perhaps the greatest right-handed hitter to play the game and one of, if not the, greatest hitter of all time. Hornsby batted a lifetime .358 average (second only to Ty Cobb's .366), won the Triple Crown in the National League twice (one of which was also an MLB triple crown), was a two-time MVP, and batted .400 or higher ''three'' times. He actually collectively hit .400 over a ''five-year period'' from 1921 to 1925 (a period including his 3 seasons hitting .400 or above, a season with a .397 average, and a down year where he "only" hit .384), and he ''also'' hit 144 Home Runs over that period, more than anyone else not named Babe Ruth. Hornsby's .424 batting average in 1924 has never been matched in the modern era- nobody since Ted Williams in 1941 has even hit .400. Hornsby was also famous for a mean disposition and dislike of younger players; despite excellent offensive statistics, he was often traded because nobody else on the team could stand him. In one incident while assessing prospects for the New York Yankees, the nicest analysis he could muster was that one of the prospects only "looks like a Major League ball player" (the player in question? Mickey Mantle). Rajah was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1942, but the Hall held no induction ceremony during U.S. involvement in World War II, and never bothered to include (among other players) Gehrig or Hornsby in later ceremonies. The Hall finally rectified that error in 2013, when Gehrig, Hornsby, and nine other figures voted in during the war years were part of the induction ceremony.

* '''Ken Griffey''' (Jr.) was one of the best (arguably ''the'' best) players of TheNineties. Well-marketed (even having his own series of baseball games made by Creator/{{Nintendo}} for the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] and the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64) and excelling in all facets of the game, he led the previously pathetic Seattle Mariners out of obscurity and enjoyed tremendous popularity. He's also the first of two players in history (Tim Raines Jr. joining him in 2001) to play on the same team with his father (of the same name), who was a successful if not Hall-of-Fame caliber outfielder. After many good years with the Mariners, he requested a move to his hometown Cincinnati Reds,[[note]]While he was actually born in Donora, Pennsylvania—Stan Musial's hometown—Junior grew up in Cincinnati and graduated from high school there.[[/note]] where he would mostly spend the next nine years and last years of baseball injuring his hamstring. Still, he became the 6th player to hit 600 home runs (and, some argue, the first since Hank Aaron to do so legitimately, since the 4th and 5th [Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, respectively- see below] were both linked to performance-enhancing drugs). Elected to the Hall of Fame at his first chance in 2016, getting the highest percentage of votes ever from the writers. Despite having a prodigious Hall of Fame career, many fans consider there to be an element of WhatCouldHaveBeen to his career, because for years he seemed destined to break Aaron's all-time home run record, and if not for constant injuries nagging him for those seasons on the Reds he may well have done so. (His time in Seattle may have been part of the problem—the Kingdome, where the M's then played, was infamous for its concrete-hard artificial turf.) May have had the most beautiful swing in history during his prime. One darker and lesser-known fact about Junior is that he has on occasion been an advocate for suicide/depression awareness, himself having attempted suicide (and nearly succeeding) early in his minor league career.

* '''Dennis Eckersley''' was one of the first pitchers to be a closer in the current sense of the word, and more than any other was the one who defined the position as a ninth inning specialist. He was a good but generally unspectacular starter for the first half of his career, highlighted by getting two all-star selections and throwing a no-hitter in 1977. He was switched to being a closer when he joined the Oakland A's in 1987, and had several ridiculous years during the A's dominant run in the late 80's and early 90's. His best year was probably 1990, when he had an ERA of ''0.61'', a ridiculously low ERA (even for a relief pitcher) that would go unmatched until Rays closer Fernando Rodney finished the 2012 season with an ERA of 0.60 (A record that lasted all of 4 years- in 2016, Orioles closer Zach Britton did even better, with an ERA of just 0.54). In 1992, he became one of the few relief pitchers to ever win both the Cy Young and the MVP Award. Though he's a Hall of Famer and generally considered an all-time great, his skills fell off a bit after 1992, and he was never nearly that good again. His most famous moment is probably giving up a walk-off home run to Kirk Gibson in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.

* '''Greg Maddux''' Also known as "Mad Dog" or "The Professor", Maddux pitched for the Cubs, Braves, Padres, and Dodgers. He was discovered at a young age when scouts went to see his brother Mike, and his father said "you'll be back later for the little one". Most scouts were turned off by the scrawny kid who had no velocity on his fastball, but Chicago Cubs scout Doug Mapson saw past it saying "I really believe this boy would be the number one player in the country if only he looked a bit more physical". 1987 was his first full year in the majors, and Maddux went 6–14 record and 5.61 ERA, with several people saying "we told you so, he won't make it. Too scrawny and not enough juice on the ball". Then, in 1988 it started (finishing 18–8 with a 3.18 ERA). Gregory Alan Maddux cut a swath of devastation not seen in major league history, going SEVENTEEN seasons with at least fifteen (15) wins. During this time Maddux would often have an ERA lower than his batting average, Gold Gloves (a record 18 in his career), and Cy Young Awards (four). To give an indication of his dominance during this period; "On July 22, 1997, Maddux threw a complete game with just 76 pitches, against the Cubs. Three weeks earlier, he had shut out the defending champion New York Yankees on 84 pitches, and five days before that, he'd beaten the Phillies with a 90-pitch complete game. Maddux allowed just 20 bases on balls in 1997, including six intentional walks. Ignoring those six intentional walks, Maddux only went to a 3-0 count on one batter in all of 1997". He eventually joined the 3000 strikeout club, and passed Clemens in career wins. Maddux's 355 career victories are the most of any pitcher whose career began after World War II, and the second-most (behind Warren Spahn) of any pitcher whose career began after 1920. His mind and ability to read players was uncanny; he once intentionally gave up a homer to Jeff Bagwell so later on in the season Bagwell would look for that pitch again. On another occasion, while sitting on the bench, Maddux once told everyone "watch this, we might need to call an ambulance for the first base coach." The batter then drove the next pitch into the chest of the Dodgers' first base coach. There are several other stories about Greg Maddux, and no one should argue his credentials as one of the greatest of all time. Maddux was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 2014, along with his longtime Braves teammate, Tom Glavine.

* '''Kerry Wood''', was a starting pitcher turned reliever for the Chicago Cubs, where he pitched one of the greatest games of all time, yielding just one hit and no walks while striking out a record-tying 20 batters... at age 20, making him one of only two pitchers in MLB history to strike out the same number of players as their age. He, along with Cubs teammate Mark Prior, are among the poster children for promising careers derailed by injuries (which are believed to have been exacerbated by overwork).

* '''Pete Rose''' broke Ty Cobb's career hits record, and somewhat coincidentally, is about as well-liked as Cobb was. (He's still revered in Cincinnati, which is also his hometown, but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone from another city who likes him.) He gambled on baseball (as a player and manager), which caused him to be banned from the sport and made ineligible for the baseball Hall of Fame when he would have been elected easily for his achievements. He was proven to bet on his own team, though he swears to this day that he always bet on them to win. Since the original ban on gambling was made to prevent players from intentionally losing games, whether or not Pete Rose's ban is a fair judgment remains one of baseball's open debates. (Before [=PEDs=] came along, gambling was considered the single biggest scourge of the sporting world. Going back to the Black Sox scandal, betting on baseball in any way is prohibited, with a lifetime ban for betting on games you have a role in, so it's academic if your name isn't Bill James.) While Cobb sharpened his spikes, Rose is well known for once running over opposing catcher Ray Fosse in a run into home plate, separating the catcher's shoulder. This would have been acceptable play had it not happened in the All-Star Game, which at the time was a meaningless exhibition. (While the incident did not end Fosse's career as is often reported - he stayed in the lineup during the second half of the season, and played eight more seasons, three as a starter and one as an All-Star - he was never again as good as he was prior to the injury.)

* '''Curt Flood''' was a defensive center fielder who played for the St. Louis Cardinals. However, when he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1969, he vehemently did not want to go there, so he refused to report, then wrote a letter to Bowie Kuhn requesting to be made a free agent, in circumvention of the league's Reserve Clause (which said that the team that a player played for keeps his rights, meaning that he could not sign with another team even after his contract expired.) When Kuhn refused, Flood sued under the Sherman Antitrust Act for the right to be a free agent. His case went to the Supreme Court, where Flood was denied the right (in an opinion penned by baseball aficionado Justice Harry Blackmun, which opened with a [[AuthorFilibuster seven-page essay on how awesome baseball is]] and how many great players had been screwed by the Reserve Clause, but went on to say, in effect, "MLB has gotten some special exceptions under the Sherman Act in the past that apply to the Reserve Clause, and we're not in a position to change them at this time; sorry."[[labelnote:*]]When presented with Blackmun's opinion, Chief Justice Burger noted, "[[DeadpanSnarker I concur in all but Part I.]]"[[/labelnote]]). Flood's rather ill-advised comparison of the Reserve Clause to slavery probably didn't help. However, Flood's action strengthened the Major League Baseball Players Association such that the reserve clause would be struck down in 1975, creating the "free agency" era in Major League Baseball.

* '''Jim Bouton''' is mostly an obscure pitcher who had a couple of good years for the Yankees. He is famous, however, for writing the 1970 book ''Ball Four'', which was a controversial "tell-all" book about the [[HookersAndBlow "behind the scenes"]] life of the sport while he was playing for the Seattle Pilots for their only season in existence[[note]] the next season they moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers[[/note]]. Was blacklisted for this, and the commissioner at the time tried to get him to disown the book. He was also the co-creator of Big League Chew bubble gum, with fellow ballplayer Rob Nelson.

* '''Lou Gehrig''' - The "Iron Horse" played for the NY Yankees at around the same time as Babe Ruth, giving the Bronx Bombers two of the best hitters in the game's history for ten years. Was the consecutive-game record holder before Ripken. His streak ended because of a rare disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is now also known (in North America) as, wait for it, Lou Gehrig's disease. Before his retirement he gave a famous speech at Yankee Stadium which is generally considered a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming[=/=]TearJerker for baseball. Less well known is that no complete recording of the speech exists, only the newsreel highlights of it. Probably the most universally beloved baseball player in the history of the game[[note]]with the exception of Stan "The Man" Musial[[/note]]; despite his team affiliation, to this day not even a member of the Red Sox Nation will say anything against him.

* '''Mickey Mantle''' The other name along with Willie Mays that most often comes up in greatest ever debates. An incredible power hitter with lumberjack-like arms, Mantle was also once considered the fastest man in the sport, and one of its greatest fielders. He hit the longest documented home run in baseball history, which became the first homer to be known as a 'tape-measure' home run due to a team official (allegedly) using a tape measure to record its distance. Baseball historians agree that he almost certainly would have broken the career home run record had injuries not hampered him for a large part of his career; the bones of his particularly injury-prone left leg had been weakened by a case of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteomyelitis osteomyelitis]] contracted playing football in his youth, and late in his rookie season, he suffered a serious injury to his right knee that was most likely a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anterior_cruciate_ligament_injury torn ACL]] (which couldn't have been repaired in his day). It should be noted that with all of his achievements, the first line on his Monument Park plaque reads "A great teammate", which Mantle was far more proud of than any other accomplishment. He was one of the most beloved of all Yankee greats, and one of the few Yankees to be well-liked by fans of other teams.

* '''Jose Canseco''' was the other half of the "Bash Brothers" (along with Mark McGwire) who was for a while one of baseball's most notorious and disliked figures. After his career, he wrote a book called ''Juiced'' where he not only admitted that he used steroids during his career, but also "outed" a number of prominent players as steroid users. However, sportswriters and baseball experts regard him as a shameless scandal-monger who merely lobbied blind accusations at players who he suspected might have been "juicing" and by chance happened to be right about a few. (Mark [=McGwire=], for instance, admits to using steroids, but flatly denies Canseco's account of events.) During Canseco's career, he was known for his speed and power; in 1988, the year he won the MVP award, he became the first player to both hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season (Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Alfonso Soriano have since accomplished the same feat). On the other hand, he was commonly lampooned for his defense; he once had a ball bounce off his head for a home run, a mainstay of "blooper" reels. In recent years, he has occasionally made headlines for various other reasons, most notably for a few reality show appearances and for accidentally shooting off one of his fingers while cleaning a gun. He wrote a second book, ''Vindicated'', but a third book that he'd teased would reveal a "juicer" ''already in the Hall of Fame'' [[VaporWare does not seem to have materialized]].

* '''Rickey Henderson''', as mentioned above, holds the major league record for both career Stolen Bases and stolen bases for one season. He also holds the records for career runs scored (2,295) and unintentional walks (2,129), and is among the few players in baseball history to amass 3,000 hits. All of these skills combined to make him not only arguably the best leadoff hitter of all time, but one of the greatest ''all around'' players of all time[[note]] Once asked if he thought Henderson was a future Hall of Famer, statistician Bill James replied, "If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers."[[/note]]. Though he's often cast as a singles hitter like most leadoff hitters, he had a decent amount of power, too, sometimes hitting as many as 28 home runs, a large total for a leadoff hitter, especially one who played most of his career in the pitcher's era of the 1980's. He played for 25 years and for a lot of teams, but is best remembered for his 5 years with the Yankees and many stints with the Athletics, with whom he won one of his World Series rings in 1989 and his only MVP Award in 1990. Also known for being extremely eccentric, in particular for his ThirdPersonPerson tendencies.

* '''Ken Griffey''' (Jr.) was one of the best (arguably ''the'' best) players of TheNineties. Well-marketed (even having his own series of baseball games made by Creator/{{Nintendo}} for the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] and the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64) and excelling in all facets of the game, he led the previously pathetic Seattle Mariners out of obscurity and enjoyed tremendous popularity. He's also the first of two players in history (Tim Raines Jr. joining him in 2001) to play on the same team with his father (of the same name), who was a successful if not Hall-of-Fame caliber outfielder. After many good years with the Mariners, he requested a move to his hometown Cincinnati Reds,[[note]]While he was actually born in Donora, Pennsylvania—Stan Musial's hometown—Junior grew up in Cincinnati and graduated from high school there.[[/note]] where he would mostly spend the next nine years and last years of baseball injuring his hamstring. Still, he became the 6th player to hit 600 home runs (and, some argue, the first since Aaron to do so legitimately, since the 4th and 5th [Bonds and Sammy Sosa, respectively] were both linked to performance-enhancing drugs). Elected to the Hall of Fame at his first chance in 2016, getting the highest percentage of votes ever from the writers. Despite having a prodigious Hall of Fame career, many fans consider there to be an element of WhatCouldHaveBeen to his career, because for years he seemed destined to break Aaron's all-time home run record, and if not for constant injuries nagging him for those seasons on the Reds he may well have done so. (His time in Seattle may have been part of the problem—the Kingdome, where the M's then played, was infamous for its concrete-hard artificial turf.) May have had the most beautiful swing in history during his prime. One darker and lesser-known fact about Junior is that he has on occasion been an advocate for suicide/depression awareness, himself having attempted suicide (and nearly succeeding) early in his minor league career.

* '''Josh Gibson''', speaking of whom, he was another one of the greatest players ever who, on account of being black, couldn't play in the Majors for the prime of his career, and unlike Paige, he never got the chance to play at all, since he died of a stroke a few months before the 1947 season. A catcher, his prodigious power led to him being called "The Black Babe Ruth"--although some said (and Ruth himself is reported to have been willing to admit) that Ruth should have been called "the White Josh Gibson." Like Babe Ruth, he hit a huge number of home runs- it's hard to say exactly how many because of the sketchiness of Negro Leagues records and the large number of unofficial games Negro League teams tended to play, but some sources credit him with as many as ''800,'' which would be more than any Major League player ever hit. He was the subject of numerous tall tales about his power, the most famous being that he once hit a home run in Pittsburgh that came down in another city the following day, in another ballpark, in a game that Gibson was playing against the same team. It was caught by an outfielder, leading the umpire to exclaim, "You're out, yesterday in Pittsburgh!"

* '''Christy Mathewson''' was another Pennsylvania working-class boy of the same era who achieved great fame, although in his case it was as a pitcher with the New York Giants. Mathewson was, like Wagner, a very kind and polite man off the field, noted for his devoutness (he refused to play on Sundays[[note]]Mathewson's decision had much less of an impact on the Giants than a modern observer would think. During his career, only three teams in the then eight-team National League—the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds (for whom he played the final three seasons of his career), and St. Louis Cardinals—played home games in states that allowed Sunday baseball, and as a pitcher, he would of course not have been expected to play in every game, or even most games; it just meant that the pitching schedule would have to work around Mathewson.[[/note]] and one of his nicknames was "the Christian Gentleman"). ''On'' the field, he was a devastating pitcher, and the first major leaguer to use what is now called the "screwball"--a breaking pitch that breaks the ''opposite'' of the pitcher's other breaking pitches (Mathewson himself called it a "fadeaway;" legend has it that he learned it from the Black pitcher Rube Foster, who also called it that). He was one of the first wholesome "all-American" baseball stars, and his appearance in baseball in 1900 was one of several around that time convincing Americans that baseball was no longer the sport of ruffians it had been in the 1890s. Mathewson's pitching carried the Giants to many wins for nearly 20 years, but in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI he joined the military, where he was a captain in the Chemical Warfare Service (serving, incidentally, alongside Ty Cobb)--and was exposed to poison gas in a training accident. Mathewson had to quit baseball, and although he tried to make himself useful where he could (he served on the team that investigated the 1919 "Black Sox" scandal), the gas got the better of him in the end; his weakened respiratory system was vulnerable to tuberculosis, and he caught the disease, dying of it in 1925. Eleven years later, he was one of the first five men to be inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the only one of the five inducted posthumously.

* '''Bob Gibson''' One of the most dominant pitchers of all time, Bob Gibson was a 9-time All Star, won nine Gold Gloves, two Cy Young awards, pitched one no-hitter, set records with 35 strikeouts in a World Series and 17 K's in a single World Series game, threw 255 complete games, and holds the single-season record for ERA with a 1.12 mark set in 1968. In fact Gibson's 1968 performance (combined with other dominant pitching performances that year) changed the game of baseball, by leading Major League Baseball to lower the mound by five inches and reduce the size of the strike zone. Gibson was also famous for his fierce intensity on the mound, and earned a reputation for knocking down and hitting batters (102). In addition to his pitching, Gibson also possessed great skill with the bat, and is one of only two pitchers since WWII with a career line of a .200+ batting average, 20 or more home runs, and over 100 runs batted in. He also played for the Harlem Globetrotters before turning to baseball full-time.

* '''Dennis Eckersley''' was one of the first pitchers to be a closer in the current sense of the word, and more than any other was the one who defined the position as a ninth inning specialist. He was a good but generally unspectacular starter for the first half of his career, highlighted by getting two all-star selections and throwing a no-hitter in 1977. He was switched to being a closer when he joined the Oakland A's in 1987, and had several ridiculous years during the A's dominant run in the late 80's and early 90's. His best year was probably 1990, when he had an ERA of ''0.61'', a ridiculously low ERA (even for a relief pitcher) that would go unmatched until Rays closer Fernando Rodney finished the 2012 season with an ERA of 0.60. In 1992, he became one of the few relief pitchers to ever win both the Cy Young and the MVP Award. Though he's a Hall of Famer and generally considered an all-time great, his skills fell off a bit after 1992, and he was never nearly that good again. His most famous moment is probably giving up a walk-off home run to Kirk Gibson in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.

* '''Greg Maddux''' Also known as "Mad Dog" or "The Professor", Maddux pitched for the Cubs, Braves, Padres, and Dodgers. He was discovered at a young age when scouts went to see his brother Mike, and his father said "you'll be back later for the little one". Most scouts were turned off by the scrawny kid who had no velocity on his fastball, but Chicago Cubs scout Doug Mapson saw past it saying "I really believe this boy would be the number one player in the country if only he looked a bit more physical". 1987 was his first full year in the majors, and Maddux went 6–14 record and 5.61 ERA, with several people saying "we told you so, he won't make it. Too scrawny and not enough juice on the ball". Then, in 1988 it started (finishing 18–8 with a 3.18 ERA). Gregory Alan Maddux cut a swath of devastation not seen in major league history, going SEVENTEEN seasons with at least fifteen (15) wins. During this time Maddux would often have an ERA lower than his batting average, Gold Gloves (a record 18 in his career), and Cy Young Awards (four). To give an indication of his dominance during this period; "On July 22, 1997, Maddux threw a complete game with just 76 pitches, against the Cubs. Three weeks earlier, he had shut out the defending champion New York Yankees on 84 pitches, and five days before that, he'd beaten the Phillies with a 90-pitch complete game. Maddux allowed just 20 bases on balls in 1997, including six intentional walks. Ignoring those six intentional walks, Maddux only went to a 3-0 count on one batter in all of 1997". He eventually joined the 3000 strikeout club, and passed Clemens in career wins. Maddux's 355 career victories are the most of any pitcher whose career began after World War II, and the second-most (behind Warren Spahn) of any pitcher whose career began after 1920. His mind and ability to read players was uncanny; he once intentionally gave up a homer to Jeff Bagwell so later on in the season Bagwell would look for that pitch again. On another occasion, while sitting on the bench, Maddux once told everyone "watch this, we might need to call an ambulance for the first base coach." The batter then drove the next pitch into the chest of the Dodgers' first base coach. There are several other stories about Greg Maddux, and no one should argue his credentials as one of the greatest of all time. Elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 2014.

* '''Mariano Rivera''', a closer for the New York Yankees, is baseball's all-time saves leader with 652 saves and believed by many to be the best relief pitcher in baseball history. He is particularly known for his many clutch postseason performances, often working up to two innings for a save. (Saves lasting more than one inning had become extremely rare by the time Rivera began pitching.) Just to give you an idea of his postseason dominance, more men have walked on the moon than scored an earned run on him in the playoffs. [[note]]12 men walked on the moon during the Apollo Missions, Rivera allowed 11 earned runs in his entire playoff career, though he also allowed 2 unearned runs.[[/note]] His signature pitch, the cut fastball or "cutter" (a fastball thrown with a slightly off-center grip to give it extra lateral movement), has been compared by opposing batters to a {{chainsaw|Good}}, because its late, fast movement breaks bats off in batters' hands. A torn ACL early in the 2012 season could have brought his career to an end, but he said that he didn't want his career to end like this and would try his best to recover in time for the 2013 season. He then announced he would retire at the end of the 2013 season, and came back as if he hadn't had a day off, much less a year. In his final All-Star Game appearance in 2013, he was named MVP. Pretty much a mortal lock for first-ballot induction to the Hall of Fame in 2019. As noted above, he is also the last player ever to wear jersey number No. 42 in MLB.

* '''Jose Canseco''' was the other half of the "Bash Brothers" (along with Mark McGwire) who was for a while one of baseball's most notorious, and disliked figures. After his career, he wrote a book called ''Juiced'' where he not only admitted that he used steroids during his career, but also "outed" a number of prominent players as steroid users. However, sportswriters and baseball experts regard him as a shameless scandal-monger who merely lobbied blind accusations at players who he suspected might have been "juicing" and by chance happened to be right about a few. (Mark [=McGwire=], for instance, admits to using steroids, but flatly denies Canseco's account of events.) During Canseco's career, he was known for his speed and power; in 1988, the year he won the MVP award, he became the first player to both hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season (Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Alfonso Soriano have since accomplished the same feat). On the other hand, he was commonly lampooned for his defense; he once had a ball bounce off his head for a home run, a mainstay of "blooper" reels. In recent years, he has occasionally made headlines for various other reasons, most notably for a few reality show appearances and for accidentally shooting off one of his fingers while cleaning a gun. He wrote a second book, ''Vindicated'', but a third book that he'd teased would reveal a "juicer" ''already in the Hall of Fame'' [[VaporWare does not seem to have materialized]].

* '''Ken Griffey''' (Jr.) was one of the best (arguably ''the'' best) players of TheNineties. Well-marketed (even having his own series of baseball games made by Creator/{{Nintendo}} for the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] and the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64) and excelling in all facets of the game, he led the previously pathetic Seattle Mariners out of obscurity and enjoyed tremendous popularity. He's also the first of two players in history (Tim Raines Jr. joining him in 2001) to play on the same team with his father (of the same name), who was a successful if not Hall-of-Fame caliber outfielder. After many good years with the Mariners, he requested a move to the Cincinnati Reds, where he would mostly spend the next nine years and last years of baseball injuring his hamstring. Still, he became the 6th player to hit 600 home runs (and, some argue, the first since Aaron to do so legitimately, since the 4th and 5th [Bonds and Sammy Sosa, respectively] were both linked to performance-enhancing drugs). Elected to the Hall of Fame at his first chance in 2016, getting the highest percentage of votes ever from the writers. Despite having a prodigious Hall of Fame career, many fans consider there to be an element of WhatCouldHaveBeen to his career, because for years he seemed destined to break Aaron's all-time home run record, and if not for constant injuries nagging him for those seasons on the Reds he may well have done so. (His time in Seattle may have been part of the problem—the Kingdome, where the M's then played, was infamous for its concrete-hard artificial turf.) May have had the most beautiful swing in history during his prime. One darker, and lesser-known fact about Junior is that he has on occasion been an advocate for suicide/depression awareness, himself having attempted suicide (and nearly succeeding) early in his minor league career.

* '''Barry Bonds''', a former San Francisco Giant, considered one of the best all-around players in baseball history. He holds the record for both the single-season and career record for home runs, which is even more impressive when you consider that he also holds the career records for both walks and [[TheDreaded intentional walks]]. He has won 7 MVP awards, more than any other player (his closest competitor in this department has 3). Despite the fact that he holds these feats, he failed to gain entry to the Hall of Fame when first eligible, receiving only 34% of the vote. Why? [[CheatersNeverProsper Steroids]]. Bonds was one of the central figures in the performance-enhancing drug scandals that rocked baseball in TheNineties and [[TurnOfTheMillennium early 00s]], going from a wiry rookie as a Pittsburgh Pirate to an imposing hulk in his later years. While [=PEDs=] were widely used throughout MLB, [[OldShame even before the "Steroid Era,"]] Bonds has become the [[DesignatedVillain face of the scandal]], aided by his [[ArrogantKungFuGuy frigid relationship]] with the media. Despite his tarnished legacy and the inability of any of his teams to win a World Series, Bonds remains the owner of some of baseball's most cherished records, and simply the most dominant player of his generation.

* '''Carlton Fisk''' is another Hall of Fame catcher, born in the same month as Bench (December 1947). A New England native, he had cups of coffee with the Red Sox in 1969 and 1971 before coming up to stay in 1972. In that season, he followed in Bench's footsteps by winning AL Gold Glove and Rookie of the Year honors (though without Bench's added milestones). He suffered a knee injury in 1974 so severe that doctors told him he'd never come back. He proved them wrong, coming back the next year to hit .331 for the pennant-winning Bosox. That season saw Fisk end perhaps the most famous game in World Series history with his famous "stay fair" walk-off homer in the 12th inning of Game 6... though the Series would go to Bench's Reds. After seven All-Star appearances with Boston, he had something of a falling-out with the team's general manager, and left as a free agent when the GM missed a deadline to send him a new contract. Fisk joined the White Sox, where he would play for 13 seasons (longer than he did in Boston), making four more All-Star rosters. He ended his career with the most homers ever as a catcher (since surpassed by Piazza) and the most games ever played at the position (a record now held by Iván Rodríguez). Fisk entered Cooperstown on his second try in 2000.

* '''Carlton Fisk''' is another Hall of Fame catcher, born the same year as Bench (1947). A New England native, he had cups of coffee with the Red Sox in 1969 and 1971 before coming up to stay in 1972. In that season, he followed in Bench's footsteps by winning AL Gold Glove and Rookie of the Year honors (though without Bench's added milestones). He suffered a knee injury in 1974 so severe that doctors told him he'd never come back. He proved them wrong, coming back the next year to hit .331 for the pennant-winning Bosox. That season saw Fisk end perhaps the most famous game in World Series history with his famous "stay fair" walk-off homer in the 12th inning of Game 6... though the Series would go to Bench's Reds. After seven All-Star appearances with Boston, he had something of a falling-out with the team's general manager, and left as a free agent when the GM missed a deadline to send him a new contract. Fisk joined the White Sox, where he would play for 13 seasons (longer than he did in Boston), making four more All-Star rosters. He ended his career with the most homers ever as a catcher (since surpassed by Piazza) and the most games ever played at the position (a record now held by Iván Rodríguez). Fisk entered Cooperstown on his second try in 2000.

* '''Ted Williams''' is one of the best hitters in history, and was the last person to have a batting average (hits divided by at-bats) of over .400 in a season, batting .406 in 1941. (No player since 2000 has hit over .372.) Well loved in Boston (where he played) and San Diego (where he was from), and there are highways named for him in both cities. After he died in 2002, he received a lot of media attention over the bizarre battle that took place within his surviving family; his son and daughter claimed that the three of them were to be cryogenically frozen together. At Fenway Park, there is a single seat in the right field bleachers painted red to mark the landing spot of one of his home runs, the longest in the park's history. The home run ball actually hit the guy sitting in the seat while he was taking a nap, and broke his straw hat. [[RidingIntoTheSunSet Hit a homerun in the last at-bat of his career.]] Oh yeah, and he had his incredible career while serving his country ''twice'' (WWII & Korea) as a ''combat pilot'' in the ''[[SemperFi United States goddamn Marines]]''. He was somewhat of an ArrogantKungFuGuy with an almost unhealthy focus on just being the best hitter in history (Mickey Mantle had a story of trying to have an ordinary conversation with Williams, but Williams was only interested in talking about hitting styles), and had a reputation of seemingly not appreciating the fans (he held a serious grudge against them and the local media for booing him and saying less than pleasant things early in his career). He did get over it though, with a truly heart warming moment at the 1999 All-Star game where he tipped his cap to the Fenway crowd, an act he had refused to do almost his entire playing career. In his Hall of Fame induction speech he called for Negro League greats to be inducted into the Hall, regardless of whether they had met the "10 years in the majors" rule since many failed that standard solely because Major League Baseball had been segregated.

* '''Johnny Bench''' was the catcher for the Big Red Machine, the powerful Cincinnati Reds teams of the 1970s, and named by Creator/{{ESPN}} as the greatest ever at that position. He came up to the majors in late 1967; although he got off to a slow offensive start, he impressed everyone with his defense and throwing ability, with none other than Ted Williams predicting he would be "a Hall of Famer for sure!" In his rookie season of 1968, he became the first rookie ever to win the NL Gold Glove for catchers, and the first catcher ever to be named NL Rookie of the Year. Two years later, he became the youngest-ever NL MVP, an award he won again in 1972. Bench went on to win 10 consecutive Gold Gloves, make 14 All-Star teams, and hit the most homers ever by a catcher (a record since surpassed by Carlton Fisk and later Mike Piazza). He stopped regularly catching after the 1980 season, playing his last three seasons at first or third until retiring in 1983. Williams' prediction came true, as Bench was easily elected to the Hall of Fame at his first chance in 1989. Bench is also notable for popularizing the hinged catcher's mitt (though he wasn't the first player to use it), which is now standard equipment for the position.
* '''Carlton Fisk''' is another Hall of Fame catcher, born the same year as Bench. A New England native, he had cups of coffee with the Red Sox in 1969 and 1971 before coming up to stay in 1972. In that season, he followed in Bench's footsteps by winning AL Gold Glove and Rookie of the Year honors (though without Bench's added milestones). He suffered a knee injury in 1974 so severe that doctors told him he'd never come back. He proved them wrong, coming back the next year to hit .331 for the pennant-winning Bosox. That season saw Fisk end perhaps the most famous game in World Series history with his famous "stay fair" walk-off homer in the 12th inning of Game 6... though the Series would go to Bench's Reds. After seven All-Star appearances with Boston, he had something of a falling-out with the team's general manager, and left as a free agent when the GM missed a deadline to send him a new contract. Fisk joined the White Sox, where he would play for 13 seasons (longer than he did in Boston), making four more All-Star rosters. He ended his career with the most homers ever as a catcher (since surpassed by Piazza) and the most games ever played at the position (a record now held by Iván Rodríguez). Fisk entered Cooperstown on his second try in 2000.

* '''Carlton Fisk''' is another Hall of Fame catcher, born the same year as Bench. A New England native, he had cups of coffee with the Red Sox in 1969 and 1971 before coming up to stay in 1972. In that season, he followed in Bench's footsteps by winning AL Gold Glove and Rookie of the Year honors (though without Bench's added milestones). He suffered a knee injury in 1974 so severe that doctors told him he'd never come back. He proved them wrong, coming back to hit .331 for the pennant-winning Bosox. That season saw Fisk end perhaps the most famous game in World Series history with his famous "stay fair" walk-off homer in the 12th inning of Game 6... though the Series would go to Bench's Reds. After seven All-Star appearances with Boston, he had something of a falling-out with the team's general manager, and left as a free agent when the GM missed a deadline to send him a new contract. Fisk joined the White Sox, where he would play for 13 seasons (longer than he did in Boston), making four more All-Star rosters. He ended his career with the most homers ever as a catcher (since surpassed by Piazza) and the most games ever played at the position (a record now held by Iván Rodríguez). Fisk entered Cooperstown on his second try in 2000.

** Rose's reputation wasn't helped by his litigiousness: when the Commissioner (see immediately below) started an investigation against him for his gambling, he filed suit in Ohio state court against the Commissioner, the Reds, and MLB asking the court to stop the Commissioner's investigation. The case is famous for all kinds of amazing dick moves on Rose's part (well, technically his lawyers', but frankly they're such fantastic dick moves that it's hard not to see how he wasn't involved in the decision to make them), and as a result, Civil Procedure law casebooks often include his case in the introduction to show wet-behind-the-ears first-year law students how bizarre their profession can get...and reinforce baseball's universal agreement that Pete Rose is an ''asshole''.

[[folder:Other]]

* '''Roy Halladay''', who last played for the Philadelphia Phillies, was arguably the best pitcher in the game in the late 2000's and early 2010's. He began his career with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998, but in 2000 became so bad that he was demoted all the way down to the Blue Jays' Single-A team to relearn how to pitch. It worked: he had a breakout season in 2002 and won the AL Cy Young award in 2003. In December 2009, he was traded to the Phillies, giving him a shot at pitching in the postseason. [[note]]During his time in Toronto, The Blue Jays were generally mediocre, only once finishing higher than 3rd in the tough AL East, and made no postseason appearances between 1993 and 2015[[/note]] During his first season with the Phillies, he threw a perfect game against the Florida Marlins, and in his first-ever postseason appearance, he threw a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds - only the second postseason no-hitter in baseball history, following Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Halladay won the NL Cy Young in 2010, one of only six pitchers to do so in both leagues (the others are Gaylord Perry, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, and Max Scherzer). Sadly, injuries over the next few years severely impacted his ability to pitch, and ultimately forced him to retire after the 2013 season after signing a ceremonial contract with the Jays.