Babe Ruth
Mickey Mantle
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Babe Ruth leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Babe Ruth at #1 and Mickey Mantle at #11.
Head-to-head FAQ
Who leads more shared metrics?
How do the published ranks compare?
Are these live stats?
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 Mickey Mantle
The greatest peak of the 1950s and the best switch-hitter ever. Mantle won the 1956 Triple Crown (.353, 52 home runs, 130 RBI), took three MVPs and finished second three more times, and posted a career .977 OPS with 536 home runs despite playing his entire career on a right knee shredded in the 1951 World Series — famously, teams could hear the training-room tape being unwrapped. His speed before the injuries was mythic (3.1 seconds home to first bunting left-handed), and his power produced the term 'tape-measure shot' after a 1953 blast in Washington was measured at 565 feet. He played in 12 World Series in his first 14 seasons, winning seven, and his 18 World Series home runs remain the record. His 110.2 WAR in 18 seasons, on ruined legs, leaves the sport's greatest what-if: a healthy Mantle plausibly challenges Mays for the number two spot on this list.