New York baseball exists in an eternal present of a sort. Although fans decreasingly find themselves sitting at the ol’–or more accurately new–ballpark with someone who can wax poetic about seeing Dimag (or Ruth or Gehrig) play, walk into any sports bar on a snowy Saturday in February and you’ll hear talk not only of Kelvim Escobar’s bum shoulder or the battle for the Yanks’ fifth starter slot, but also, quite likely, an argument over who was better Gooden, Ojeda and Darling or Raschi, Reynolds and Lopat (hint: one of the trios had two 20 game winners, the other had none), or, that hearty perennial: Mantle vs. Mays?
I was thinking about the Say Hey kid today after reading in the NYT Book Review Pete Hamill’s frankly slight and perfunctory review of James Hirsh’s new Mays biography, and spending the week listening to the increasingly cranky and bullying Mike Francesca on WFAN continually dismiss any talk of Mays as a better offensive player than Mantle.
Now, I never saw either play, or rather I was a wee child of 6 when Mantle retired and 10 when Mays finally hung up his spikes so I have no meaningful memory of either. That gives me some disadvantages in trying to gauge the relative merits of the two great NY centerfielders of the 1950s–I’m left to fly by instruments only–but it also gives me some significant advantages–my view of the two players is not fogged over by romantic nostalgia, and I’m unburdened with the presumptions about race that dogged perceptions of both players for fans in the 1950s and 1960s.
Some points then to consider: For Mays and Mantle their averge 162 games are nearly identical:
Mays: .302 BA, 36 HR, 103 RBI, 18 SB
Mantle: .298 BA, 36 HR, 102 RBI, 10 SB
Mantle won 3 MVPs, Mays 2 (plus a ROY). Each led his league in HRs four times, batting average once. Each scored a ton of runs but Mantle, perhaps surprisingly drove in 100 runs or more only 4 times, Mays did it 10 times (including 8 season in a row in SF). Neither, interestingly, ever had 200 hits, though Mays did lead the NL in hits once (with 190), Mantle never led the AL. And Mays, of course, was the much better outfielder (and struck out, on average, half as often as Mantle).
Mantle advocates point to his triple crown season, and argue that statistical comparisons are skewed somehow by the brevity of Mantle’s career and the length of Mays as if May’s greater durability and longevity were negative characteristics. But on the basis of the statistics I’d take Mays ahead of Mantle and I’m a Yankee fan.
Now, if you really want to know who was the best centerfielder in New York, dig this average 162 game season:
.325 BA, 34 HR, 143 RBI, 3 SB, 207 Hits….
