Babe Ruth
Honus Wagner
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Babe Ruth leads 2 of 2 categories. Our all-time ranking places Babe Ruth at #1 and Honus Wagner at #9.
Head-to-head FAQ
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The case for Babe Ruth
The gap between Ruth and his contemporaries remains the largest any team-sport athlete has opened. His 182.6 career WAR leads all players, and the shape of it is absurd: before becoming a full-time hitter he went 94-46 as a pitcher with a 2.28 ERA, led the AL with a 1.75 ERA in 1916, and threw nearly 30 consecutive scoreless World Series innings. Then he invented modern offense. His 54 home runs in 1920 exceeded the total of every other American League team; his 60 in 1927 out-homered each AL rival again. His career .342 average, .474 on-base percentage, and 1.164 OPS — still the all-time record — came with a slugging percentage (.690) no qualified career has matched. He faced a segregated talent pool, which the debate must acknowledge, but dominance relative to environment is the fairest cross-era test, and by that test Ruth has no peer.
The case for Honus Wagner
The Flying Dutchman was the best all-around player of the dead-ball era and, by wide agreement, the greatest shortstop who ever lived. Wagner won eight National League batting titles — a record for the position — hit .328 for his career with 3,420 hits, and stole 723 bases while playing the most demanding defensive spot at an elite level for the Pittsburgh Pirates. His 130.9 WAR trails only a handful of position players despite a game built for singles and steals rather than the home runs that inflate modern totals. He led Pittsburgh to the 1909 World Series title, outdueling Ty Cobb head to head. Bowlegged, barrel-chested, and improbably fast, he fused power, average, speed, and defense in a way the term 'five-tool player' would later be coined to describe. His scarce 1909 tobacco card, one example selling for millions, made his the most valuable name in the entire hobby of baseball collecting.