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| Mickey Mantle played his entire 18-year major-league professional career for the New York Yankees, winning 3 American League MVP titles and playing for 16 All-Star teams. Mantle played on 12 pennant winners and 7 World Championship clubs. He still holds the records for most World Series home runs (18), RBIs (40), runs (42), walks (43), extra-base hits (26), and total bases (123). Beginning in 1997, the Topps Baseball Card company retired the card #7 in its base sets in tribute to Mantle, whose career was taking off just as Topps began producing baseball cards. Mantle's cards, especially his 1952 Topps card, are extremely popular and valuable among card collectors. Though Topps un-retired the #7 in 2006, the number is reserved for cards of Mantle, remade with each year's design. In 1999, "The Sporting News" placed Mantle at 17th on its list "The 100 Greatest Baseball Players." That same year, he was one of 100 nominees for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, and was chosen by fan balloting as one of the team's outfielders. ESPN's SportsCentury series that ran in 1999 ranked him No. 37 on its "50 Greatest Athletes" series. |
| Joe DiMaggio, aka the Yankee Clipper, was a 3-time MVP winner and 13-time All-Star who was widely hailed for his accomplishment on both offense and, as a center fielder, on defense, as well as for the grace with which he played the game. At the time of his retirement at age 36, he had the fifth-most career home runs (361) and sixth-highest slugging percentage (.579) in history. He is also the only player in baseball history to be selected for the All-Star Game in every season he played. A "picture-perfect" player, DiMaggio achieved a 56-game hitting streak (May 15 – July 16, 1941) that has been called baseball's most mythic achievement. After going hitless for one game, Joe DiMaggio hit in the next 16 consecutive games, for a total of 72 out of 73. A 1969 poll conducted to coincide with the centennial of professional baseball voted him the sport's greatest living player. |
| Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Darryl Strawberry was one of the most feared sluggers in the game, known for his prodigious home runs and his intimidating presence in the batter's box with his 6-foot-6 frame and his long, looping swing. During his 17-year career, he helped lead the New York Mets to one World Series championship in 1986 and the New York Yankees to three World Series championships in 1996, 1998, 1999. A popular player during his career, Strawberry was voted to the All-Star Game eight straight times from 1984-1991. |
| Nicknamed "Tom Terrific" and "The Franchise", Tom Seaver had 311 wins, 3,640 strikeouts and a 2.86 ERA during a 20-year career. In 1992 he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He won the National League Rookie of the Year Award and three Cy Young Awards as the league's best pitcher. As the Mets' all-time leader in wins, Seaver is considered to be the greatest player in New York Mets history, as well as one of the best starting pitchers in the history of baseball. Tom Seaver was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on January 7, 1992. He received the highest-ever percentage of votes with 425 of 430 ballots (98.84%), surpassing Ty Cobb's 98.23%. Seaver is the only player enshrined in the Hall of Fame with a Mets cap on his plaque. |
| Broadway Joe Namath is best known for brashly telling the media that he guaranteed that his team would upset Don Shula's NFL Baltimore Colts in the third NFL-AFL Championship Game in 1969, and then delivering on his promise. Namath was the American Football League Rookie of the year in 1965 and became the first professional quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards in a season (1967), a feat which remained a record for the 14-game seasons that were played during that time. He was a four-time American Football League All-Star, in 1965, 1967, 1968, and 1969, although he was plagued with knee injuries through much of his career. On some occasions, Namath had to have his knee drained at halftime so that he could finish a game. |
| "Donnie Baseball" is one of the most popular Yankees in the team's history. Despite not being a member of a World Series winning team, his popularity is comparable to that of Yankee greats like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Joe DiMaggio. Since returning for the annual Old Timers' Game, Don Mattingly has consistently received the loudest ovations. In the only postseason series of his career, Mattingly batted .417 with 6 RBI and a memorable go-ahead home run in Game Two, his final game at Yankee Stadium. In the final game of the series (and of his career), Mattingly again broke a tie with a two-run double. But the New York bullpen faltered and Seattle won in the 11th inning of the decisive Game Five. |
| Doc Gooden was one of the most dominant and feared pitchers in the National League in the middle and late 1980s, but his career declined precipitously, primarily due to injuries and drug abuse. Gooden made his major-league debut on April 7, 1984 with the New York Mets at the age of 19. He quickly developed a reputation with his 98 MPH fastball and sweeping curveball, which was given the superlative nickname of "Lord Charles," in contrast with "Uncle Charlie," a common nickname for a curveball. In 1985, Gooden pitched one of the most statistically dominating single seasons in baseball history. Leading the league with 24 wins, 268 strikeouts, and a 1.53 ERA earned Gooden his league's pitching Triple Crown. He led the National League in complete games (16) and innings pitched (276 2/3). From his second start onward, Gooden's ERA never rose above 2.00. |
| Popularly called "The Iron Horse" for his durability, Gehrig set several Major League records. His record for most career grand slams (23) still stands as of 2008. Gehrig was voted the greatest first baseman of all time by the Baseball Writers' Association. Gehrig was the leading vote-getter on the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, chosen by fans in 1999. A native of New York City, he played for the New York Yankees until his career was cut short by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), now commonly referred to in the United States as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Over a 15-season span between 1925 and 1939, he played in 2,130 consecutive games. The streak ended when Gehrig became disabled with the fatal neuromuscular disease that claimed his life two years later. His streak, long believed to be one of baseball's few unbreakable records, stood for 56 years until finally broken by Cal Ripken, Jr.. Gehrig accumulated 1,995 runs batted in (RBI) in seventeen seasons with a lifetime batting average of .340, a lifetime on-base percentage of .447, and a lifetime slugging percentage of .632. A seven-time All-Star, he won the American League's Most Valuable Player award in 1927 and 1936 and was a Triple Crown winner in 1934, leading the American League in batting average, home runs, and RBIs. |
| Arguably the most beloved baseball player since Babe Ruth, Yogi Berra was one of only four players to be named the Most Valuable Player of the American League three times, and one of only six managers to lead both American and National League teams to the World Series. Berra, who quit school in the eighth grade, has a tendency toward malapropism and fracturing the English language in highly provocative, interesting ways. Simultaneously denying and confirming his reputation, Berra once stated, "I didn't really say everything I said." In 1999, Berra appeared at No. 40 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and fan balloting elected him to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. At the 2008 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, Berra had the honor of being the last of the 49 Hall of Famers in attendance to be announced. He received the loudest standing ovation of the Hall of Famers due to playing and managing both New York ballclubs. |
| Also known as the Babe, the Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth is one of the most celebrated player in American baseball history. He has been named the greatest baseball player in history in various surveys and rankings, and his home run hitting prowess and charismatic personality made him a larger than life figure in the "Roaring Twenties". He was the first player to hit 60 home runs in one season (1927), a record which stood for 34 years until broken by Roger Maris in 1961. Ruth's lifetime total of 714 home runs at his retirement in 1935 was a record for 39 years, until broken by Hank Aaron in 1974. Unlike many power hitters, Ruth also hit for average: his .342 lifetime batting is tenth highest in baseball history, and in one season (1923) he hit .393, a Yankee record. His .690 career slugging percentage, and 1.164 career on-base plus slugging (OPS) remain the major league records. Ruth dominated in the era in which he played. He led the league in home runs during a season twelve times, slugging percentage thirteen times, OPS thirteen times, runs scored eight times, and runs batted in (RBI) six times. Each of those totals represents a modern record (and also an all-time record, except for RBIs). In 1936, Ruth became one of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1969, he was named baseball's Greatest Player Ever in a ballot commemorating the 100th anniversary of professional baseball. In 1998, The Sporting News ranked Ruth Number 1 on the list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players." In 1999, baseball fans named Ruth to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. |
| Reggie Jackson earned the nickname Mr. October for his World Series heroics with both the A's and Yankees. Jackson's hard-hitting, fast-footed style helped him lead two teams to five World Championships in only seven years. Jackson made headlines with his self-centered remarks, hot temper, and colorful manner. In 27 Fall Classic games, he amassed 10 home runs - including four in consecutive at-bats - 24 RBI and a .357 batting average. As one of the game's premier power hitters, he blasted 563 career round-trippers. A terrific player in the clutch and an intimidating cleanup hitter, Reggie Jackson compiled a lifetime slugging percentage of .490 and earned American League MVP honors in 1973. |
| Jackie Robinson was the first African-American major league baseball player of the modern era in 1947. Although not the first African American professional baseball player in United States history, Robinson's Major League debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers ended approximately sixty years of baseball segregation. According to a poll conducted by Jimmie Fidler in 1947, Robinson was the second most popular man in the country, behind Bing Crosby. In 1999, he was named by Time Magazine on its list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Also in 1999, he ranked number 44 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team as the top vote getter for second basemen. Baseball writer Bill James in the "The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract" ranked Robinson as the 32nd greatest player of all time based strictly on his performance on the field, noting that he was one of the top players in the league throughout his career. |
| Phil Simms was drafted in the first round by the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL) with the number seven selection overall in the 1979 NFL Draft. Simms played his entire professional career with the Giants and was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of Super Bowl XXI, after he led the Giants to a 39–20 victory over the Denver Broncos and set the former record for highest completion percentage in a playoff game, now held by Tom Brady, going 22 for 25. He also was named to the Pro Bowl for his performances in the 1985 and 1993 seasons. |
| Lawrence Taylor, aka L.T., is considered to be one of the greatest defensive players in the history of football, and has been called the greatest defensive player of all time by members of the media, former players, and coaches. He is also widely considered to be one of the most feared players to ever step onto the football field. Taylor's explosive speed and power is credited with having changed the position of outside linebacker from a "read and react" type of position to a more attacking, aggressive position. Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs developed the two tight end offense and the position of h-back to prevent Taylor from blitzing into the backfield unhindered. As Gibbs stated, "we had to try in some way have a special game plan just for Lawrence Taylor. Now you didn't do that very often in this league but I think he's one person that we learned the lesson the hard way. We lost ball games." His skills at outside linebacker forced other coaches to retool their offensive schemes to manage his impact. In the late 70's and early 80's, a blitzing linebacker was almost always picked up by a running back. However, these players were usually no match for Taylor. The tactic employed by Bill Walsh in the 1982 playoffs, namely of employing an offensive guard to block Taylor, began to be copied around the league. In addition to the changes in offensive schemes Taylor influenced, he also introduced new defensive techniques to the game such as chopping the ball out of the quarterback's hands rather than tackling him. |
