best hitter ever

Has to be the Babe. 714 homeruns, steroid free. He cahnged hitting forever. He also had a good BA.

I totally agree. He hit those homeruns without the controversy of steroids and the **** that ruins baseball today. He was a pure naturaly tanlented guy which made him the best hitter.

Rogers Hornsby. Ruth had more power, but as a pure hitter, Hornsby tops my list. .400 3 times!!! Better than Ruth or Williams.

Don't forget Shoeless Joe the Babe modeled his hitting after him.

wat about Ted he hand an amazing eye and his career was cut short cuz we went and fought in the war for r country

you guys are forgeting Hammering Hank, most homerunes in career than any other mlb player

Home Runs are the most overrated stat on earth. I am really growing to hate them. With that said, Ty Cobb is the greatest ever. Highest Career BA. Says it all.

thats a good point BA is a really important but i dont think HR r overrated cuz those r wat drives in the runs and gets the fans into it... i would rather have a guy hit .400 on my team than a guy who would hit 50 homeruns tho... but the thing about the guys how hit alot of moonshots like barrry bonds they have a decent BA and an extremly good OBP

Barry bonds is also being accusecd of using steriods, so he should not even be mentioned on this topic

i just mentioned bonds because thats the type of player he is... yes he may use steroids but he is still a type of player how will have an extremly high OBP and BA and still jack a lot out of the park

The top hitters, in my opinion, are as follows:

1. Rogers Hornsby
2. Shoeless Joe Jackson
3. Ty Cobb
4. Babe Ruth
5. Ted Williams
6. Joe DiMaggio
7. Lou Gehrig
8. Willie Mays
9. Hank Aaron
10. George Sisler

Mickey Mantle hit 536 homeruns with 18 world series homers. Mick never used steriods and had a .298 batting average.

yankeeclipper,

Just how old are you????

Ted Williams now question, he missed 5 years of his PRIME do to War, if he hits 35 Homeruns in each of those years thats another 175 homers. That along with his batting average would be just insane. Think about what he could have done with those 5 years he lost. Ted Williams Hands down

AHSpitcher17 is right on the money. if teddy ballgame didnt go to war he would have come very close to 700 homers. i'm not sure about hornsby because he didn't play in the modern era of baseball. ruth struck out more than anyone ever. ted williams was way ahead of his time as far as knowledge of the game; just read his book and you will realize this, given that he wrote it in 1970.

I'm a freshman in HS. I just love the game and it's history. Why? My list to historic?

Yes Homeruns put people in seats, but remember the attention Ichiro attracted last year while he was busy setting his record? All you heard about(and steroids). Its like that everytime someone comes close to hitting .400.

if you think that rogers hornsby is a better hitter that babe ruth you are CRAZY. You really dont know what you are talking about. Rogers hornsby did hit for a high average, but nothing out of the ordinary in that age. People were hitting .400 frequently. Its why Ted Williams wonders why people get excited over him hitting .400 when somebody had did it quite recently in his time. And in Rogers Hornsby's time, people were doing that alot, alot more than Teds time. That is a dumb argument, a better one would definatly be he also hit 42 homeruns on route to one of his two tripple crowns. But that still doesnt make him the greatest or even close. Now we have Babe Ruth. Babe more than doubled the previous home run record in a single season. That would be like seeing somebody hit over 150 homeruns today. TWICE IN HIS CAREER HE HIT MORE HOMERUNS IN A SEASON THAT ANY OTHER TEAM IN HIS LEAGUE. are you kidding me. I don't even want to say how many homeruns a player would have to hit to do that, buts its a heck of a lot more that 150. and in the babes day, the 200 homerun club was what the 500 homerun club is today. Please show me a hitter hit over a thousand plus homeruns in his career. please. Rogers Hornsby hitting over four hundred was like a player hit over .350, or .375, in our day in age. A tony Gwynn type accomplishment, except with a lot more power. babe ruth still hit in the .370s, much like a player hitting in the 3.20s or .330s today. And ruth his more rbis, but im a oakland As type man that says RBIs are a very situational statistic. So if the two were playing today, lets check their statistics:

Rogers Horsnby: .375 BA
Babe Ruth: 180 homeruns

are you kidding me

Ty Cobb without a doubt

"Beginning his career in 1905, Cobb played baseball through the period dubbed “the dead ball era.” During this era (1900-1919), players hit marginally fewer homeruns than players from other eras. The reason for this homerun shortage resulted from the baseball used at the time. Indeed, the ball had no life. Loosely wound, one baseball often served throughout an entire game. Moreover, larger ball fields also kept the homerun totals down (“1900-1919”). Legal pitches also included the spitball, a terribly hard pitch to hit, creating an advantage for the pitchers. Williams, on the other hand, played after the period entitled, Baseball’s Rebirth (1920-1945). Williams faced spitball-less pitchers and benefited from frequent baseball changes during a game, keeping the ball fresh and visibly white (“1920-1945”). Homerun totals increased because of these essential changes in the game."

and if you were a pitcher who would you be more afraid of?? TY COBB

Edgar Martinez gets my vote.

I still think Ruth is the best, but Josh Gibson is a close second. Estimated to have 80 HR in one season and he could also hit for every. The people who saw him say he was actually better than the Babe.

ummm kssj9 it doesnt take much creative thought to copy and paste there buddy.
balls were just as dead when ruth played, and there were no new stadiums either. The deadball era was dubbed that because nobody hit homeruns, not becasue the balls were actually that much more dead. Ruth came along and changed baseball in a way that no athlete has ever done. So people started hitting some homeruns.
Your little quote there deals more with the trends of the entire leagues, not one player. How is it possible to compare ruth to cobb. ruth helped his team so much more than cobb offensively its sickening.
Who cares about cobbs batting average??? Ruth got on base more!!! it doesnt matter that he hit less, he was on base more. Which means he cost his team less outs, more chances to score, made pitchers go from stretch, cost the pitcher more pitches, made him throw fastball, etc... which all means that he helped his team score more runs than cobb did. you win baseball games by scoring more runs that the opposing team. Now we are talking only one category that ruth owned cobb in, and he owned cobb in several other more important cattegories, such as slugging %, homeruns (which are vital to succesful teams for reasons that would take a long time to explain) runs scored, etc.
And if cobb was so good at hitting for a high average and is due so much glory, then why were so many toher players doing it in his time?

but all in all yes i believe that edgar martinez is the best hitter. nevermind that it took 3 singles to score him from first. just kidding. but i am a fan of edgar, cause hes a hitters hitter. tho i dont think he deserves the hall, he will be remembered.

You all are forgetting someone, JOE DIMAGGIO. Longest hit-streak ever of more than 50 games, now thats what i call an excellent hitter.

Pete Rose?

Ted Williams, best ever. He hit for average and power.

Dimaggio