The late 1900s. What a time it was. Ancient curses held remarkable staying power. Chicks dug the long ball. The Montreal Expos were a thing. Nobody’d ever heard of a sweeper or a splinker. Elly De La Cruz, Julio Rodríguez and Bobby Witt Jr. hadn’t even arrived on the planet.
At the end of that century, Major League Baseball asked fans to vote for the greatest players of the last 100 years. Somehow, fans forgot to include Christy Mathewson, Stan Musial and Honus Wagner. MLB found spots for them, but not for Jimmie Foxx, Satchel Paige or Tom Seaver.
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It’s really tough to distinguish among the best of the best — and even with just a quarter century to examine, the task is hard. But that’s what we’re asking you to do, folks, because we trust your baseball acumen and we’re fascinated to see what you think.
The Athletic’s Jayson Stark cast the first ballot. Now it’s your turn.
Yes, we’re aware of the technicality that the year 2000 was actually the end of the previous century, not the start of this one. But can we all agree that 1999 was the end of the 1900s, and 2000 was the beginning of the 2000s? Great. It’s right there in the numerals, after all.
For this exercise, we’re asking you not to consider achievements prior to 2000. We’re also not disqualifying anyone for chemical dalliances; it’s up to each voter to determine what to do about players with ties to steroids.
Naturally, hundreds of players crossed over from one century to the next. And plenty of today’s superstars have a long way to go. We had to come up with some kind of minimum, and conveniently enough, one multi-time MVP (Barry Bonds) played in the first eight seasons of the 2000s, and another (Shohei Ohtani) has played in the last eight seasons of the 2000s.
It didn’t seem right to exclude Bonds or Ohtani. So — with apologies to the Pete Alonso, Brad Radke, Tarik Skubal and Bernie Williams fan clubs — we’re going with eight years as the minimum. Write-in candidates are allowed, as long as they meet the eight-year requirement.
We’ll keep the polls open until Tuesday, May 27 at 9 p.m. ET, then reveal and discuss the results in a future story.
Make your picks for each position below. For first base, second base, shortstop, third base, catcher, left field, center field, right field and DH, select one player from the eight choices at each position. For the starting pitchers, select a five-man rotation from the 30 pitchers listed. For the relievers, pick two from the eight choices. If you encounter technical difficulties, try taking the survey here.
(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Top photos: Jonathan Daniel, Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
