This is one outlet's own report from Yahoo Sports — the article as it was filed.
AIPROPX ReportYahoo Sports · 1h ago
Baseball's Greatest Players: The Artists and 10 numbers that define them
Baseball's Greatest Players: The Artists and 10 numbers that define them originally appeared on The Sporting News .
Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
They rendered baseball an art form. We swung like them, fielded like them, pitched like them, and ran like them. Few matched their production; none matched their signature style.
From 1508 to 1512, Michaelangelo worked meticulously to transform the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel into one of the history's most celebrated works of art. A true master of his craft, the combination of creativity, vision and skill resulted in a finished product unlike any the world has ever seen, depicting 343 distinct individual figures.
Since conception of this Baseball's Greatest Players project over 10 years ago, I always imagined fans walking into a baseball cathedral built to celebrate the greatest players in the history of sport. Themed rooms, each featuring a unique group of players inextricably linked by a distinct shared identity.
14 rooms. 10 players per room. 140 players.
If we commissioned Michaeangelo to paint the ceiling of baseball's Sistine Chapel, those are the faces, batting stances, windups and catches that would visually depict baseball's beautifully imperfect and majestic history.
Among the 140 stands a special group who treated the diamond as a blank canvas with incontrovertible greatness defined by a signature style equally as much as objective output. Think of them as the van Goghs and Picassos of the sport.
“I would like to be a great artist. I would quit pitching if I could paint like Monet or Rousseau. But I can't. What I can do is pitch, and I can do that very well.”
- Tom Seaver
Make no mistake, at its core this is a research project. Beneath each player's “inscription,” think of it as a Hall of Fame plaque, you'll find a number, or series of numbers, that captures the greatness of his career on the field.
Welcome to The Artists.
BASEBALL'S GREATEST PLAYERS How we picked 140 players | The Immortals
(Editor's note: Each hyperlinked name takes you to that player's page within the digitized SN Archive. Once registered (it's free!), readers have instant access to every article and cover related to each player, as they originally appeared in print.)
Baseball's Greatest Players: The Artists
Tony Gwynn
Tony Gwynn embraced the use of video to perfect his craft, trademarked the “5.5 hole” as his signature hit location, and became the face of a Padres franchise elevated by his ability to perform baseball’s most fundamental task - putting bat to ball.
On April 14, 1986, in his 460th major-league game, Tony Gwynn did something for the first time in his career: he struck out three times. He went on to play 1,980 more games without ever doing it again.
SN
Rod Carew
Rod Carew's trademark swing was conceived in the streets of Panama, nourished on high-school ballfields in New York City, and celebrated for 19 years by mesmerized fans in Minnesota and Anaheim.
Rod Carew's .359 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) ranks first among players to debut in the live-ball era (min. 3,000 PA).
Ozzie Smith
"I think of myself as an artist on the field,” Ozzie Smith said . “Every game I look for a chance to do something that the fans have never seen before."
Ozzie Smith led his league in assists eight times, most all-time by a shortstop and totaled an MLB-record 8,415 SS assists for his career.
Tom Seaver
“I would like to be a great artist,” Tom Seaver said . “I would quit pitching if I could paint like Monet or Rousseau. But I can't. What I can do is pitch, and I can do that very well.”
Tom Seaver is the all-time leader in career strikeouts (3,640) among those with a sub-3.00 ERA.
SN
Brooks Robinson
Brooks Robinson's lightning-quick first step, vacuum-like hands, and shortstop-like range made him the premier maestro of the hot corner.
Brooks Robinson recorded 6,213 assists, 2,680 putouts, and turned 623 double plays, each of which remains the all-time record among third basemen.
Roy Halladay
Roy Halladay believed every pitch should move precisely as intended, and devoted his career to making the baseball comply.
Roy Halladay threw 42 complete games from 2007-11; only three teams recorded more during that span, two of which he pitched for (Blue Jays, Phillies).
Yadier Molina
The back of Yadier Molina's baseball card fails to capture the qualities that made him great: the fear he instilled in opposing baserunners and the trust he inspired in his pitchers.
Cardinals opponents attempted 1,300 stolen bases from 2005-21, Yadier Molina's span as everyday catcher. The Diamondbacks registered the 2nd-fewest over that span, with 1,767.
Lou Brock
Lou Brock studied pitchers as obsessively as he outran them, helping restore the stolen base to prominence and usher baseball into a new age of speed.
There are five instances in which a 35-or-older player exceeded 55 stolen bases in a season, and Lou Brock accounts for three of them (1974-76).
Eddie Collins
Few players ever possessed a greater baseball mind than Eddie Collins , whose mastery of bunting, slap hitting, and base stealing catalyzed six pennant-winning teams.
Eddie Collins is 1 of 3 position players (Tris Speaker, Barry Bonds) to accumulate 50+ WAR on multiple franchises ( Athletics , White Sox).
SN
Warren Spahn
Employing a high leg kick, efficient mechanics, and diverse pitch mix, Warren Spahn stymied opposing hitters all the way to 363 wins, more than any southpaw in major-league history.
Warren Spahn achieved 20 wins 13 times; no other live-ball pitcher has more than 8 such seasons.
Our process for Baseball's Greatest Players
Every week through the end of the World Series, we'll unveil one room at a time — 10 players along with the numbers that define them — culminating in the Inner Circ...
BaseballGreatest PlayersThe ArtistsFewThe Sporting NewsAdd The Sporting NewsPreferred SourceFromMichaelangeloSistine ChapelSinceThemed
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.
