Baseball's Historical Figures
From Twitter: If you were teaching a class on the history of baseball and had to assign 10 players a student needed to learn about, who would be on that list?
Not favorites but historically significant.
1. King Kelly
Pre-1900 star.
2. Rube Foster
Founded the Negro Leagues
3. Babe Ruth
He was so far ahead of every other player in his day.
4. Josh Gibson
Legendary Negro League player.
5. Ted Williams
Great, great player, military hero in two wars.
6. Jackie Robinson
Really this one should be to learn about the first black player for each team.
7. Roberto Clemente
Great player, insightful man, great humanitarian.
8. Curt Flood
Essentially sacrificed his career so that free agency could happen.
9. Pete Rose
Notorious, so great and so flawed as a human being.
10. Barry Bonds
Also notorious, probably no better exemplification of the steroid era. Crazy thing is how great he was before the steroids. 3 MVP's in his 20's WAR of 66 before 30, 259 HR before 30, insane OPS+ numbers in his 20's.
11. Bonus, non player would be Marvin Miller
His role in creating free agency.
