In recent years, few things have become more ubiquitous in sports than the phrase “GOAT.” The constant presence of sports talk radio on both radio and television has led to frequent use of the acronym, shortened from Greatest of All Time, in made-for-media debates about the best players in particular sports.
Often, debates about “GOATs” suffer from recency bias, in which younger commenters online do not even think to consider athletes who played before the days of Twitter, YouTube, and viral highlights. But Major League Baseball lost arguably its greatest all-around player on Tuesday, when Willie Mays passed away at age 93.
All-Around Talent
Separate and distinct from the “GOAT” acronym, baseball has a unique term for evaluating position players. Scouts often describe a stellar prospect as a five-tool player, one who displays excellence in all facets of the game: hitting for average, hitting for power, running, fielding, and throwing.
During his two-decade career, primarily with the New York and San Francisco Giants, Mays epitomized the five-tool player.
He had a .302 lifetime batting average and 10 seasons of batting in at least 100 runs. He hit a total 660 home runs, 54 fewer than Babe Ruth. If not for a nearly two-year absence when serving his country in the Korean War, Mays could have broken Ruth’s career home run record before Henry Aaron did.
Mays had the most stolen bases during the 1950s, even though he didn’t play for nearly two seasons during the decade, and was the first
