Who Was The Greatest Baseball Player You Saw Play Live?

For those of us that grew up loving baseball, and still get that feeling at the start of baseball season.


The summer between my junior and senior years of high school I had a close friend (RIP) that was the biggest baseball fan I ever knew. The KC Royals had a AA team in Memphis called the Memphis Chicks, short for Chickasaws. You could sit in the left field bleachers at Tim McCarver stadium for $2 a game, and we bought a lot of $2 tickets that summer. They didn't care how old you were and we could buy beers in the stands as well. You just couldn't get stupid about it.


That summer the Chicks had a left fielder named Bo Jackson. Most people think of football when you mention Bo. And he was great at football too. But I have never seen anyone do what that man could do on a baseball field. Batting, running, fielding, throwing, he was amazing at all of it. He didn't last the whole summer, about 2 months, and got called up to KC pretty quickly. But that's mine. That's the greatest baseball player I ever saw play live.


I know some of you that grew up in MLB cities have probably seen too many to count. And I have gotten to see some great players come through since the Cardinals put their AAA club there. Who are the greatest you remember seeing?

 

I did enjoy Bo Jackson's career. Wish it was with Pittsburgh. I can't remember the guys name but he was a star defensive guy in the NFL and Bo ran right over him for a TD.

I'm guessing any old Pittsburgh Pirate fan is going to give the answer I am going to give. The Great One, Roberto Clemente.

The greatest MLB Pitcher I ever saw was Steve Carlton. I had the joy of seeing him twice and both times he mowed down the Pirates. I was rooting against him both times but as it became obvious the Pirates were going to lose I enjoyed him mowing my team down.

 

Hard to argue with Bo or Roberto. As far as underdogs, I like Tim Wakefield's 1992 season. Mid -season call up who went 8-1 and helped the Bucs get to the NLCS final. We know how that turned out but he was lightning in a bottle that summer and fall. Greatest single game performance witnessed was live at Dodger Stadium - Fernando Tatis Sr hitting 2 grand slams in the same inning off of Chan Ho Park. Harvey Haddix's 12 perfect inning loss to Milwaukee in 1959 (on the radio) was right up there as well against Aaron and Adcock. Another I saw live was Roberto hitting a cruise missile HR to dead center over the batting cage (457 ft) well into Schenley Park, probably a 500+ footer when it finally landed.

 

Too many to decide and the subject is so very subjective. Jim palmer, brooks robinson, Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddox, cal Ripken, Eddie Murray, Barry bonds, McGuire…

 

That was Brian Bosworth. He was a great player in college, merely solid in the NFL.

 

In '63, when I was almost 6, my dad drove us from San Diego to LA so we could watch Sandy Koufax pitch! Been a Dodger fan since.
Also saw Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman several times.

 

Barry Bonds easily sits atop the list. I was in Three Rivers for his first home game in MLB.

 

I saw Bonds late in his career in San Diego against the Padres. Unless the ball was hit right to him, he didn't make an effort.

 

He should have been a DH those final seasons of his career, but he was a brilliant defender for most of it. Bonds is not a nice guy and PED accusations are fair, but he was an incredible player.

 

This guy (Ron Necciai) never amounted to much but is the only pitcher to ever strike out 27 batters in a professional game. It was with a Pirates Class D team. Here's a long but interesting and funny read about him and that amazing game in 1952.

https://www.mlb.com/news/the-man-who-struck-out-27-batters

 

Agree about Sandy K. And for Pirate fans, and even Koufax admitted it, Clemente was one of the best hitters against Koufax batting nearly .300 lifetime while most other big stars of that era struggled mightily against him, many below the Mendoza level.

 

I remember Wakefield said he'd have been able to come into that game 7 in ATL. We'd have probably went on to the WS.

 

As a Pirate fan I loved him on the team. We had him pre-steroids. Funny that the SFG became World Series winners after he retired.

 

But the NL didn't have the DH then. From old footage I've seen, he looks like he was a great player when he was younger.

 

He was a hof’er before becoming a cheating *******

 

I'm a huge Tony Gwynn fan.