Here's the B list
Ted Williams was a much better hitter, obviously, but a very pedestrian defensive player while Joe Dimaggio shined in that category .....
Mickey Mantle was a better hitter than Joe Dimaggio ever thought about being despite being hampered by his serious knee issues and though Dimaggio was an exceptional defensive player, Mantle had the speed to run down balls Joe Dimaggio would never have gotten to, including that backhanded running catch off the bat of Gil Hodges that preserved Don Larsen's perfect game. Dimaggio's arrogance and ego helped contribute to Mantle's knee issues when, as a rookie, Mantle backed off a ball he was tracking because Dimaggio insisted he didn't want anyone "violating his space in centerfield" and got his cleats stuck in a storm drain, seriously tearing up his knee. As you can tell, although a staunch Yankee fan, I've never had a liking for Dimaggio though I respected his abilities.
Give me Maya Moore any and every day and twice on Sunday .... Maya never was anything but terrific and Stewie was a no show for a big part of her freshman year... The one advantage Stewie had was her length both in height and wingspan but she wasn't as saavy and skilled as Maya was .... Stewie had more blocks but she was the center on the team and rarely does anyone on a team block as many shots as the center, even on ordinary teams .... How many more steals did Maya have and she was more an integral part of the offense, handling the ball appreciably more than Stewie ever did .... Maya was the Magic Johnson type of player who did a whole bunch of everything and one of the classiest ladies, if not THE Classiest, to ever done a Huskie uniform.
Since this discussion on UConn's all-time top ten has morphed to also include an interesting back and forth on Williams vs. DiMaggio, Q for you baseball aficionados: Which is the greater record, Williams' 406 season batting average in '41 or DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak? And which record do you feel is more unbreakable? Thanks."Stuffing stats."
Or, you know, contributing to the offense.
Anyway, rings don't determine a player's worth. That's not how that works.
Maria Conlon has 3 rings. Ann Strother has 2. Barbara Turner has 2. Jessica Moore has 2. Ashley Battle has 2. Jamelle Elliot has 1. Carla Berube has 1. Paige Sauer has 1. Kara Wolters has 1.
Kerry Bascom has 0 rings. Kerry Bascom is better than all of those players.
But.
If you're ready to say that DiMaggio is better than Williams because of rings, you have to be ready to say the same thing about D and Stewie. No ifs, ands, or buts about D's teammates in 2003 and 2004.
Well hitting .400 for a season certainly isn't a statistical oddity. 20 players have done it. Three did it three times.
Moriah and Lindsey Harding are the only players to win a Lieberman Award and National Defensive Player of the Year award. Mo, Tuck, and KML were all overshadowed by Stewie. Moriah was good enough to win POY in a normal season.
Well you're correct--batting .400 is not a record per se, but I do consider something that hasn't been done in baseball for nearly 80 years, a "statistical oddity"; and am skeptical of the records kept in the 1800s and early 20th century... So to me, since the Splendid Splinter is the last to hit .400, it is kind of his record in the truly modern game...
Personally a comparison between Williams and Rose is an apples to oranges comparison, or at least apples to pears because they played in entirely different eras, for the most part. Williams played mostly in an era where there were no night games, little or no relief pitching and most importantly, for much of his career in the American League, Williams played in era of segregation where there were no black or Latino players. So for much of his career, unlike Rose, Williams didn't have to face pitchers like Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, or bat against outfields with a Mays, Aaron or Clemente in it like Rose did. Both great players, but they played in entirely different eras...
She, and we, got jobbed.
