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Former Texas Rangers pitcher Nolan Ryan in 2019.© Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Before his death Tuesday, Willie Mays was widely viewed as Major League Baseball's greatest living player.
Mays hit 660 career home runs and had numerous iconic plays, including "The Catch" in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, placing him among the game's best.
On Wednesday, the Boston Globe's Bob Ryan pondered this question:
With that in mind, here are our five picks:
Sandy Koufax | Age: 88
Koufax is the only pitcher in MLB history to lead the league in wins, earned run average and strikeouts three times in his three Cy Young Award-winning seasons. For the final five years of his 12-year career, he was the best pitcher in baseball, posting a 1.95 ERA in 181 games (176 starts) from 1962-66.As good as he was during the regular season, Koufax fortified his legacy with legendary postseason performances. In leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to World Series titles in 1963 and 1965, Koufax went 4-1 in five starts. In all, he had a 0.86 ERA, struck out 52 in 42 innings and allowed 33 runners in 155 at-bats.
On two days' rest during the 1965 World Series, Koufax led the Dodgers to a Game 7 win over the Twins with a second consecutive complete-game shutout.
Pete Rose | Age: 83
MLB's all-time hits leader with 4,256, Rose has on-field credentials that can't be ignored. But he'll always be inextricably linked to his betting scandal as Reds manager, which led to his ban from the league. However, Rose was among the game's greatest players before becoming persona non grata.Batting leadoff for "The Big Red Machine," he was MVP in Cincinnati's seven-game World Series win over the Boston Red Sox in 1975. Like him or not, Rose is a huge part of baseball's history and one of the sport's greatest living retired icons.
Nolan Ryan | Age: 77
Ryan finished his 27-year MLB career with record-holding seven no-hitters and is the league's all-time strikeout king (5,714).Ryan's consistency and longevity stand out. From 1968-92, he never posted an ERA above 4.00, and he also led the league in strikeouts from 1987-1990, his age 40-43 years.
On Aug. 4, 1993, he cemented his tough-guy rep by pounding Robin Ventura of the Chicago White Sox.
Rickey Henderson | Age: 65
Most people point to Cy Young's win total (511) as baseball's most unbreakable record, and while you won't hear any arguments from us, another one we think likely will stand the test of time is Henderson's stolen base record.During a 25-year career in which he starred for the A's and New York Yankees, Henderson stole 1,406 bases, 468 more than Lou Brock, who ranks second. (The active player with the most stolen bases is the Mets' Starling Marte, 35, who has 350 through Tuesday's games.)
For his career, Henderson batted .279 and posted a .401 on-base percentage. He led the league in walks four times (1982-83, 1989, 1998). Per Baseball Reference, he scored a run 39 percent of the time he reached base, well above the MLB average (31 percent).
Barry Bonds | Age: 59
Like Rose, Bonds has a legacy that is tricky to deal with, but if we're simply looking at what he achieved as a player, he might be baseball's greatest living player.Already on his way to a Hall of Fame career by the time he left the Pittsburgh Pirates in free agency in 1993 to join the San Francisco Giants, Bonds hit another stratosphere in the Bay Area.
But while he starred for the Giants, Bonds was dogged by stories he used performance-enhancing drugs. Arguably, he is the face of baseball's steroid era.
For the Giants, Bonds hit a record 73 home runs in 2001 and posted the highest on-base percentage for a season in 2004 with an absurd .609. Of his 2,935 career hits, 49.1 percent went for extra bases.
Trending slideshow: Who are the 24 MLB pitchers who have thrown a perfect game? (Provided by Yardbarker)
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Who are the 24 MLB pitchers who have thrown a perfect game?©Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images
The perfect game is one of the greatest and rarest accomplishments in Major League Baseball, having only occurred 24 times in history. Here's a look at all 24 pitchers who finished their starts with 27 up and 27 down.
