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I never compared Wagner to Ripken. I only stated Wagner was the undisputed #1 SS in history of baseball.
Yount played 10 years at SS and 10 in OF (Ripken was better overall anyway even if you just consider RY a SS), Ernie played more years at 1st than SS he spent less than half his career at SS. His peak and best years were when he was at SS but he had to be moved to 1st.
Either way Ripken was a great and underrated defensive SS. That's what cements him as #2 on all time SS list behind Wagner. He was good offensively and even better defensively
Career WAR:
Honus (21 years) 131
Ripken (21) 95.5
Yount (20) 77
Ozzie (19) 76.4
Jeter (20) 71.8
Trammel (20) 70.4
Larkin (19) 70.2
Ernie (19) 67.5
If I was ranking them it would go: Wagner, Ripken, Banks, Jeter, Ozzie
SS's are a real good discussion because there weren't a lot of great ones at everything. After the obvious Wagner people can put Ripken, Yount, Jeter, Banks and maybe even Larkin in any order and they'd have an argument.