[Malleus Dei]

Originally Posted by DamnYankees

The prime example of this is Hal Chase. Everyone who ever saw him play almost universally hailed him as the greatest first baseman ever. Cobb said it. Ruth said it. Everyone said it. But he wasn't.

Interesting case you bring up there. Chase threw games every now and then - and got banned for it eventually - but when he was on and playing at his best everyone who saw him play agreed that he WAS the best first basemen ever. Baseball people in Gehrig's era who had seen Chase play were still stating that Chase was the best first baseman ever.

Chase's stats, which include times when he wasn't trying, or was trying the other way, simply don't show that...and if you think about it, you can see why they don't. The eyewitnesses, on the other hand, saw what he was capable of. The people calling Chase the best ever included Walter Johnson, Baseball News, Babe Ruth (who saw a lot of really outstanding first basemen in his career) and The Sporting News, which wrote in 1913: "That he can play first base as it never was and perhaps never will be played is a well known truth. That he will is a different matter." Bill James on Chase: "No other player in baseball history was so richly praised for his defensive skill - no one. His brilliance with the glove is easier to document than Ty Cobb's temper, Hack Wilson's drinking or Walter Johnson's fastball; it is all over the literature of the sport."

Likewise, anyone who ever saw Koufax pitch when he was on knows just what Gil and Rogmax and I are writing about.