I was watching the MLB Network for a while after the Rangers game last night, and they were showing some of Ken Burns’ documentary—which is obviously going to be a major staple for the fledgling network. It was a lengthy show about Babe Ruth and his contribution to the game of baseball as the person most responsible for it becoming such a big piece of Americana.

At the end, Burns claimed that Ruth is still the greatest player in baseball history. You can argue whomever you want after him: Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Barry Bonds, he said, but Ruth is No. 1.

I noticed that all of those guys are/were outfielders. So a question for a slow and snowy day: If you had to pick a starting outfield from all the players in the history of baseball, which three would you choose?

There are obviously others, notably Hank Aaron, and to a lot of bandwagon-jumping Yankees fans from the late 1990s, Paul O’Neill. But it’s an awesome group, one in which magnificent Hall of Famers like Frank Robinson or Ken Griffey Jr. or Roberto Clemente or Reggie Jackson (or for that matter, Mantle) aren’t even really in the argument.

I’ll start it off with mine: Bonds in LF, Mays in CF, Ruth in RF. I’m not taking steroids or HGH into account here. Just who was the best, simple as that.

Who would you pick?

10:45 a.m., Sam says:

Great, great question, Carp. Absolutely perfect for a day where everyone should stay inside, drink something hot and think about the world of sports with us. FACEOFF: We’re the snow-day remedy!

Anyway, it’s hard to argue with your three but off the top of my head, I’d probably go with this:

Aaron, Mays, Ruth. While I can respect the pick of Bonds, I think Aaron was the embodiment of the slugging outfielder and his consistency was even greater than Bonds; Aaron is the only player to hit 30 or more homers in a season 15 times.

Let me also put in a plug for Ty Cobb. If we’re ignoring off-the-field issues (like Bonds’ alleged steroids use) than we can also ignore Cobb’s raging racism and hideous temper. Although Cobb didn’t hit homers like Ruth, he was as good a hitter as Pete Rose or, in modern times, Ichiro. Cobb had almost 4200 hits and held the single-season hit record for 84 years. Not bad. Who just misses out on your list?

CARP SAYS:

Teddy Ballgame. My dad always goes on and on about DiMaggio, and I assume he was the best centerfielder ever behind Mays, and what he did in cavernous old Yankee Stadium, where a right-handed batter faced 460-foot outs or doubles, is incredible.

But if you look at Ted Williams numbers, then figure that he missed out on five full seasons because of military service, Wow! He’d have hit more than 600 homers to go with his BA that was sometimes over .400. Probably the greatest pure hitter the game has ever seen.

And of course, my fave all-time was The Mick, and if he’d stayed healthy maybe he’d have been in there instead of Mays because when he was a young man he was not only the most powerful slugger, but a great hitter and, they say, the fastest player home to first, people had ever seen.

Can’t argue with Hammerin’ Hank, though. Nice pick, Sam.

11:25 a.m., Sam says:

Johnny Pinstripes makes an interesting point in the comments about the place of the modern player in these types of discussions (and, Johnny, as to your idea of ranking the top three at every position: I like it. Let’s see how many of these snowy days we get!).

In the outfielder discussion, you’d have to consider Manny Ramirez. I know he’s hardly a defensive wizard, but Ramirez will go down as one of the greatest pure hitters of all time. He’s a better hitter than Reggie for sure, and same with Griffey. Junior was clearly a better fielder, but at the plate I think it’s not even close.

Ichiro is another one – unbelievable fielder and, if he’d played in America his whole career, would probably have broken Rose’s hits record. That’s hard to ignore. Who am I leaving out?

 CARP SAYS:

 I mentioned Frank Robinson and Clemente. You could add Stan “The Man” Musial, Al Simmons, Yaz, Cobb, Hack Wilson, Al Kaline, Tony Gwynn, Wee Willie Keeler, Mel Ott, Paul Waner, Rickey Henderson.

Endy Chavez. Melky Cabrera.