Hey, Babe

ESPN has been counting down its picks for the greatest baseball players of all-time, no doubt to spark arguments and draw traffic, which it has already done (speaking for myself).  You can go to their site and see the criteria, which involved some combo of stats and "expert" opinion (i.e., weighted to the modern day thanks to living people and players of recent eras casting their votes).  There's been plenty of bones to pick, such as Don Drysdale being anywhere in the top 150, Randy Johnson topping Christy Mathewson, and on and on.  Barry Larkin?  Ozzie Smith?

But they finally got to their top 10 today and they got them (mostly) right.  Of course, the Babe had to be #1 for all sorts of reasons--including the fact that he was also one of the greatest pitchers of all time (that's him pictured, in his hurling days). Was pleased and surprised to see my boyhood idol Willie Mays at #2--this was no slam dunk since he had to beat out Hank Aaron, Ted Williams and Ty Cobb (and therefore, something other than stats had to be judged).  Yes, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were both in the top 7, as ESPN had ruled that cheating should not be considered.  So: ARod also ranks high.