* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

HITS

Pete Rose - 4256*
Ty Cobb - 4191**
Hank Aaron - 3771***
Stan Musial - 3630****
Tris Speaker - 3514*****

*Total jerk, admitted to using greenies, banned for life for betting on baseball, cusses in front of kids, curses Marge Schott for not leaving him money in her will.

**Total racist jerk, played in the segregation era, sat out final games of the 1910 season so he could win the batting title (for which a car was awarded as prize), treated his good friend Shoeless Joe like crap near the end of the 1911 season to psyche him out so Cobb could win the batting title, assaulted a heckler in the stands who had no hands in 1912, stabbed a black watchman in a fight after a dispute with an elevator operator, grew jealous of Babe Ruth and went 6-6 with 3 homers on May 5-6, 1925 after telling a reporter he was going to "swing for the fences" to show he was just as good as Ruth, was coerced into retirement by Commissioner Landis for betting on a Detroit-Cleveland game (couldn't be proven, and Cobb was let back into baseball), ended his friendship with Ted Williams when Williams said Rogers Hornsby was a better hitter than Cobb.

***Played in an era of bad pitching and short fences.

****Played during wartime. Replacement pitchers, stress of apocalyptic warfare.

*****Played most of his career in the Dead Ball Era.

WINS

Cy Young - 511*
Walter Johnson - 417**
Grover Alexander - 373***
Christy Matthewson - 373****
Jim Galvin - 365*****

*Pitched his entire career in the Dead Ball Era with teams such as the Cleveland Spiders, Boston Americans, Boston Pilgrims, Cleveland Naps, and Boston Rustlers. Spit balls were allowed, and the same ball was used in a game until it began to unravel. In his days, pitchers made 40-50 starts a year and nearly always completed a game. He still gets his name on the best pitcher award, however.

**Played 13 of his 21 seasons in the Dead Ball Era. Major league batting averages hovered between .240 and .255 during the era. The lack of power in the game also meant lower slugging averages and on-base percentages, as pitchers could challenge hitters more without the threat of the long ball.

***Dead Ball Era

****Dead Ball Era

*****Played for teams like the Pittsburgh Burghers, Buffalo Bisons, and St. Louis Brown Stockings from 1875-1892, even before the Dead Ball Era.

LOSSES

Cy Young - 316*
Jim Galvin - 310**
Nolan Ryan - 292***
Walter Johnson - 279****
Phil Niekro - 274*****

How'd so many of the same names for top winners also show up in the top losers? Hmm...

STRIKEOUTS

Nolan Ryan - 5714*
Roger Clemens - 4653 and counting**
Randy Johnson - 4616 and maybe counting***
Steve Carlton - 4136****
Bert Blyleven - 3701*****

*Pre QuestTech Era
**Suspected steroid use
***Unfair advantage because is second tallest pitcher in MLB history
****Pre QuestTech Era
*****Pre QuestTech Era

ERA

***Only two players in the top 50 for ERA - Whitey Ford and Sandy Koufax - played after 1950. Tells you something about baseball eras (no pun intended), doesn't it?

Statheads don't even use ERA as a measurement for good pitching anymore, the game has changed that much.

HOMERUNS

Barry Bonds - 756 and counting*
Hank Aaron - 755**
Babe Ruth - 715***
Willie Mays - 660****
Sammy Sosa - 604 and counting*****

*Suspected of using the cream" and "the clear" when it was not against MLB rules and when many, many players, including pitchers he hit against, were also using said products.

**Played in an era of bad pitching and short fences.

***The Yankee Stadium fence was 295 down the rightfield line, where the lefthanded Ruth hit most of his home runs. Balls that bounced over the fence were counted as home runs. Ruth did not play against black players.

****Ahh, Willie Mays would have been the greatest no matter what era he played in!

*****Also suspected steroid user in the Steroid Era.

Congratulations, Barry. You, like ALL baseball players, are a product of your era.
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