I was going to say Hank Aaron. Then I google searched a few "greatest baseball player" lists and saw that he's ranked in the top five in a lot of lists.
Which is kind of interesting, as when I was growing up in the 1980s, Hank Aaron would almost never appear in the top 5, which would usually be some variation of Willy Mayes, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, and then either Mantle, DiMaggio, or some other old old timer like Tris Speaker or something.
Hank Aaron was respected as a great player, but NEVER in a top 5, Mount Rushmore level. It's odd that he would move up given 40 more years of ballplayers.
I wonder if it's a combination of:
- backlash of the Barry Bonds steroid era, and the fact that hatred for Bonds elevated the appeal of Hank Aaron.
- fewer people making these lists have the experience of the "eye test" factor. Aaron has great numbers, and great consistency, but was probably at no year in his career the most exciting and compelling player in the game. I'm sure that affected people who were talking about guys like Aaron, Mantle, DiMaggio, Musial, the latter three that won multiple MVP awards to Aaron's one, with the benefit of having watched their careers.
I mean, as great a player as Ovechkin is, and he's great, from the eye test, he's just not in the same building as Gretzky and Lemieux. But maybe 50 years from now when few remember seeing them play, people will look at the numbers and consider him a top 2-3 player.