200 Best Major League Baseball Players Ever - #200 RON CEY

#200 RON CEY 3B Dodgers

1971-87

OPS+ 121

BFW 21.2

WARP3 97.4

In a comment, I noted that Duke Snider is essentially #201; his WARP3 is just a tick lower than is Cey's, with the positional value of 3B outweighing Snider's better bat just a tiny bit. There is almost no statistical distinction among players #200-160 on the list and another dozen or so who didn't make it. That's why, in my initial run at this, the rankings vary from how they will look now, as really, given the nature of equivalency stats and my ham-slamming together the universal theory of everything numbers that I believe are most indicative of value, it's fair to slot the first 40 guys virtually any way one likes.

But, I didn't like my initial slotting and have decided to be as mathematically precise as I can; I am a list junkie, a devotee, and have been literally as far as my memory goes; the lists that made up my earliest childhoos were sports lists, just like this. So, even if it's just to clear up a particularly well worn space in my head - I had to put together what I really do feel is the definitive Top 200 list of ML Baseball players ever.

With that - Cey is 200, he and Reggie Smith are the only Dodger position players from that 70s team to make the list. Cey's forever part of that LA infield, one of the more famous in ML history, here's how the other 3 rate:

Steve Garvey

OPS+ 117

BFW -6.1

WARP3 79.2

Davey Lopes

OPS+ 106

BFW 12.1

WARP3 82.2

Bill Russell

OPS+ 82

BFW 1.0

WARP3 69.7

The moral of the story - there's no debate that Cey had the best career, and there's no debate that Lopes was 2nd. Garvey's the one you know; he was a glamor player at a glamor position in a glamor town; I don't know if there were 5 better known baseball players on the planet in the late 1970s than Steve Garvey. But he had no power, didn't walk, and hurt you with his glove; he was just another guy. He was nice to me in 2000; as a guy, I have nothing bad to say about Garvey, but he wasn't as good as we were led to believe. If you're a baseball fan about my age, in your (gulp) late 30s, and your sense of baseball was formed in the late 70s, to learn that not only was Darrell Evans a better baseball player than Steve Garvey - but that it isn't even close is a transformative experience. That's a good litmus test, actually, for your local beat writer, ask him who was better, Evans or Garvey. If he gets it wrong, literally never listen to another syllable.

Russell couldn't hit at all, his glove wasn't special enough to elevate him; Lopes's, however, was; the high WARP3 reflects a strong showing in the defensive metrics (and his baserunning), given his run of the mill bat.

Top 200 Major League Baseball Players Ever...Additions, Corrections, Absolutions

As mentioned in the most recent post, I did a recalibration recently, and while outside of one or two, I could leave rankings 200-160 as they stand, resting on the idea that the numbers are so close, so tightly packed together in a Bush/Gore type of way, that any statistical separation is really hair splitting.



But let's split some hair.



When I finished the Top 100 movie list of the past quarter-century, I mentioned that I would be willing to warrant my top 100 baseball players on this top 200 list as the definitive, objective, statistically verifiable compilation of the top 100 major leaguers ever.



Instead of that - let's make it the full 200.




So, 5 players already listed as in:



Andruw Jones
Hank Greenberg
Joe Jackson
Mickey Cochrane
Dave Bancroft


...are now out.

Jones is still active, but I'm unwilling to give him the active player nudge, he's better positioned with Giambi, Helton, Hoffman, Posada, Pettitte, Delgado, and Tejada as guys who are just off the list; it's possible that all could be on by season's end, but possible they all continue to miss until sometime next year. Ichiro, Wagner, Berkman, Santana, Oswalt, Hudson, Halladay are on the next couple of tiers below and you could expect all to make the list by decade's end.

Duke Snider, Juan Marichal, Bob Elliott, Dizzy Trout join the other 4 players who were removed from my first attempt at this list as being just the slightest tick outside the top 200, not too far behind would be George Sisler, Bill Terry, Jim Kaat, Kenny Lofton, Wes Ferrell, Kevin Appier, Cupid Childs, Norm Cash, Omar Vizquel, Fred Dunlap, Dave Steib, Roy Campanella, Eppa Rixey, Charlie Bennett, Kirby Puckett, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Red Faber, Billy Pierce, Ed Walsh, Jose Canseco, Lance Parrish, Dutch Leonard, Cesar Cedeno, Rube Waddell, Nomar Garciaparra, and Pee Wee Reese.

Just a little below are Bob Caruthers, Three Finger Brown, Carl Mays, Clark Griffith. Pete Browning, Urban Shocker, Hughie Jennings, John Franco, Gene Tenace, Brian Downing, Tim Salmon, Stan Coveleski, Jim Fregosi, Thurman Munson, Bucky Walters, Lenny Dykstra, Lee Smith, Rollie Fingers, Rocky Colavito, Darryl Strawberry, Sandy Koufax, Dizzy Dean, Charlie Keller, Kent Tekulve, Harry Stovey, Minnie Minoso, Ed Konetchy, Chuck Klein, Wally Berger, Ernie Lombardi, Vern Stephens, Eric Davis, Darrell Porter, Wally Schang, Ken Caminiti, Eddie Stanky.

Okay - so, when I gear up again, we'll have The Top 200 Major League Baseball Players Ever, version 2.0.

Revelation 23 - A Movie Worth Seeing is A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar

It's a documentary about people studying for the California Bar Exam. I took that exam in the summer of 1995, when I was 24 years old. Mysteriously, perhaps through a clerical error of some type, I passed.

It was a thing; I haven't practiced law in years; more than occasionally I will question...well, all of the decisions I've made in my life; I'm uncertain there's a great argument that law school was the right choice for me, all things considered. Nonetheless, it's nice to recall accomplishments. I would have preferred the film to focus more on the applicants for the Bar and less on the contextual question of "do we have too many lawsuits" as I'd suggest that corporate wrongdoing is exponentially a greater ill than the occasional plaintiff recovery. However, if anyone ever wanted to know how I spent the summer of 1995, it felt a lot like this movie.

Entertainment Weekly Ranks the Top 100 TV Shows of the Past 25 Years

In case you missed it.

The parameters are that shows which began from '83 on were eligible, earlier shows, meaning those which started before '83 but were still airing into the time frame were not.

I don't think of television as a lesser art form than film; either in content or in its revelatory nature; in an earlier post, I compared George Carlin to Mark Twain; let me suggest that if we're fortunate enough to still consider such things 50 years from now, academia will have properly found a way to fully allow the study of television to stand shoulder to shoulder with the study of other forms of art. There have been a few hundred (I'm assuming) writers for The Simpsons and that makes it difficult for us to endow one person with traits of greatness in the way that we can look at The Sound and the Fury and say "Faulkner - genius" - but were one to stack two decades of the Simpsons end to end and measure its artistic value against the most revered books in the Western canon, it's silly to dismiss the former because its words were primarily said and not read. Hamlet is a production, written and conceived as a production, and yet we have obviously demonstrated a readiness to treat it as substantial, as signficant, as genius - wouldn't it still be the same play if it weren't written by "one great man", Shakespeare, but instead by a collection of a few hundred writers? Would a rose by any other name still smell as sweet?

Regardless.

My point here is that I think about television critically and will offer...not my top 100, I don't think, but maybe my top 25 television series of the past 25 years...and I think I'll do it in order.

But not tonight. I have a job and whatnot.

Here's a spoiler....I think my number one show...is not on the EW list.

Here is that list, in case you did not see it.

1. The Simpsons, Fox, 1989-present



2 The Sopranos, HBO (1999-2007)



3 Seinfeld, NBC (1989-98)



4 The X-Files, Fox (1993-2002)



5 Sex and the City, HBO (1998-2004)



6 Survivor, CBS (2000-present)



7 The Cosby Show, NBC (1984-92)



8 Lost, ABC (2004-present)



9 Friends, NBC (1994-2004)



10 Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The WB (1997-2001); UPN (2001-03)



11 The Wire, HBO (2002-08)



12 South Park, Comedy Central (1997-present)



13 Freaks and Geeks, NBC (1999-2000)



14 The Daily Show, Comedy Central (1996-present)



15 The Oprah Winfrey Show, Syndicated (1986-present)



16 Arrested Development, Fox (2003-06)



17 The Office (U.K. version), BBC2 (2001-03)



18 American Idol, Fox (2002-present)



19 ER, NBC (1994-present)



20 Beverly Hills, 90210, Fox (1990-2000)



21 Roseanne, ABC (1988-97)



22 The Real World, MTV (1992-present)



23 The West Wing, NBC (1999-2006)



24 Star Trek: The Next Generation, Syndication (1987-94)



25 Miami Vice, NBC (1984-89)



26 Chappelle's Show, Comedy Central (2003-06)



27 Law & Order, NBC (1990-present)



28 The Larry Sanders Show, HBO (1992-98)



29 The Shield, FX (2002-present)



30 Late Show With David Letterman, CBS (1993-present)



31 The Civil War, PBS (1990)



32 Gilmore Girls, The WB (2000-06), The CW (2006-07)



33 My So-Called Life, ABC (1994-95)



34 24, Fox (2001-present)



35 CSI, CBS (2000-present)



36 thirtysomething, ABC (1987-91)



38 Beavis and Butt-head, MTV (1993-97)



39 Six Feet Under, HBO (2001-05) 4



0 Mr. Show, (HBO, 1995-98)



41 Frasier, NBC (1993-2004)



42 L.A. Law, NBC (1986-94)



43 Late Night With Conan O'Brien, NBC (1993-present)



44 Jeopardy!, Syndicated (1984-present)



45 Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO (2000-present



) 46 Homicide: Life on the Street, NBC (1993-99)



47 30 Rock, NBC (2006-present)



48 Ally McBeal, Fox (1997-2002)



49 Twin Peaks, ABC (1990-91)



50 Baywatch, NBC (1989-90), Syndicated (1991-2001)



51. Melrose Place, Fox (1992-99)



52. Felicity, The WB (1998-2002)



53. Will & Grace, NBC (1998-2006



)54. Moonlighting, ABC (1985-89)5



55. Pee-wee's Playhouse, CBS (1986-90



)56. Desperate Housewives, ABC (2004-present



)57. The Amazing Race, CBS (2001-present)



58. The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, NBC (1992-present)



59. Battlestar Galactica, Sci Fi (2003-2008)



60. Xena: Warrior Princess, Syndicated (1995-2001)



61. The Office (U.S.), NBC (2005-present)



62. House, Fox (2004-present)



63. Mystery Science Theater 3000, Comedy Central (1989-96), Sci Fi (1997-99)



64. The Osbournes, MTV (2002-05)



65. Family Guy, Fox (1999-2002, 2005-present



)66. Grey’s Anatomy, ABC (2005-present)



67. Planet Earth, Discovery Channel (2007



)68. Jackass, MTV (2000-02)



69. The Colbert Report, Comedy Central (2005-present)



70. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS (1996-2005



)71. Friday Night Lights, NBC (2006-present)



72. NewsRadio, NBC (1995-99)



73. Oz, HBO (1997-2003)



74. Wiseguy, CBS (1987-90)



75. Project Runway, Bravo (2004-present)



76. In Living Color, Fox (1990-94)



77. The Golden Girls, NBC (1985-92)



78. I'll Fly Away, NBC (1991-93)



79. The Comeback, HBO (2005)



80. King of the Hill, Fox (1997-present)



81. Murphy Brown, CBS (1988-98)



82. The Hills, MTV (2006-present)



83. Absolutely Fabulous, BBC2 (1992), BBC1 (1994-2004)



84. Northern Exposure, CBS (1990-95)



85. The Kids in the Hall, HBO (1989-92), CBS (1992-95)



86. Prime Suspect, ITV (1991-2006)



87. Deadwood, HBO (2004-06)



88. Malcolm in the Middle, Fox (2000-06)



89. SpongeBob SquarePants, Nickelodeon (1999-present)



90. Dawson's Creek, The WB (1998-2003)



91. Mad Men, AMC (2007-present)



92. The Ben Stiller Show, Fox (1992-93)



93. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Bravo (2003-07)



94. Married...With Children, Fox (1987-97)



95. Designing Women, CBS (1986-93)



96. The Arsenio Hall Show, Syndicated (1989-94)



97. Party of Five, Fox (1994-2000)



98. MacGyver, ABC (1985-92)



99. The Bachelor, ABC (2002-present)



100. Saved by the Bell, NBC (1989-93)

Revelation 22: So, the Best 100 Movies of the Past 25 Years are...

For those of you who are reading the baseball list, understand that my warrant about that Top 100 is distinct from this list. I have only rudimentary knowledge of film, really limited to the United States; I feel stronger on documentaries than fiction, stronger on the quality of sports films than other types of fiction - this list is a product of multiple posts deconstructing the Entertainment Weekly list of the Top 100 movies since 1983. I think my list is better than theres, but, honestly, that's all the warrant I'll give it.

I'm currently at 159 on my baseball list. When I get to the top 100, I am flat going to say that is the definitive list of the best 100 major league baseball players who ever lived.

With that - this isn't in any order outside of the top 10; perhaps I'll rank them beyond that at some point, that point will not be today.

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Do The Right Thing
3. Boogie Nights
4. Raising Arizona
5. Adaptation
6. Say Anything
7. JFK
8. Clerks
9. Silence of the Lambs
10. Fahrenheit 9-11.

And the rest, again, in no particular order.
-Blue Velvet
-True Romance
-Philadelphia
-Saving Private Ryan
-Platoon
-Waiting for Guffman
-Hannah and Her Sisters
-Crimes and Misdemeanors
-Goodfellas
-Full Metal Jacket
-Swimming to Cambodia
-Die Hard
-Bull Durham
-Dangerous Liaisons
-Midnight Run
-A Fish Called Wanda
-This is Spinal Tap
-Barton Fink
-Millers Crossing
-Bob Roberts
-Election
-Ferris Bueller's Day Off
-The Color of Money
-Crumb
-Hearts of Darkness
-Bowling for Columbine
-American Movie
-Hoop Dreams
-Roger&Me
-When We Were Kings
-Why We Fight
-Murder on a Sunday Morning
-The Thin Blue Line
-Magnolia
-Swingers
-Shawshank Redemption
-Rushmore
-Lost in Translation
-Heathers
-Memento
-Lone Star
-Stop Making Sense (yeah, I know this is the 12th doc. and I said I'd limit it to 10, I lied)
-Better off Dead
-What Happened Was
-Breaking the Waves
-When Harry Met Sally
-Wag the Dog
-American Beauty
-Fight Club
-Three Kings
-Pleasantville
-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
-Being John Malkovich
-The Spanish Prisoner
-House of Games
-Glengarry Glen Ross
-Death of a Salesman
-You Can Count on Me
-Dazed and Confused
-Leaving Las Vegas
-The Player
-Short Cuts
-Rain Man
-The Accidental Tourist
-Broadcast News
-Reservoir Dogs
-The Princess Bride
-The Usual Suspects
-The Truman Show
-Risky Business
-The Big Chill
-The Right Stuff
-L.A. Confidential (I think this is #100, were I to make a change, this is the film that loses its spot. In my head, Brazil, Donnie Darko, The River's Edge all all sitting just outside the list, I could probably be convinced to swap any of them in this spot)
-Prizzi's Honor
-Sex, Lies, and Videotape
-No Country for Old Men
-Fargo
-Natural Born Killers
-The Grifters
-Donnie Brasco
-Boyz n the Hood
-The Fisher King
-Unforgiven
-Thelma and Louise
-Quiz Show
-The Departed
-In the Company of Men
-Go
-Sideways
-The 40 Year Old Virgin