One of our longtime colleagues messaged us the other day about listening to some old timers complain that Roberto Clemente was better than Rickey Henderson and not getting his due. We did a whole “thing” on the NFL’s GOAT, so perhaps it’s time for us to do the MLB GOAT candidates now. We will take the next handful of Sundays to do this, starting today. We have some reservations, however, which are obvious.

Unlike football which has fewer demarcation lines (basically, just the AFL/NFL merger in 1970 and then the passing-rule change in 1978 in modern times), professional baseball has too many: the Dead Ball era, the Ruth era, the Robinson era, the Expansion era, the Free-Agency era, the Stadium-Building era, the PED era, and now the Sign-Stealing era. How do we find common ground between players from each era, together?

We can’t, and we won’t really try too hard. What we will do it take on each era on its own to find the best position players at each position and the best pitchers. Once that is all done, then we will do some light/mild comparisons between eras, which will probably prove fruitless. After all, you cannot compare a Dead Ball hitter like Ty Cobb to a PED hitter like Álex Rodríguez. It’s just not fair, of course. Everything is different.

(And no, our use of A-Rod for the image above does not reflect any opinion we have of him as a GOAT.)

So, to recap, here is our editorial plan along the lines of the different eras:

This will take us through the sweet spot of summer, where only MLB dominates the professional-sports headlines. The NBA Finals and the NHL Stanley Cup Finals will both be over soon, and both college and pro football don’t really matter until Labor Day—despite all the pimping and promoting that goes on all summer long. This will be a fun ride, so hang on for it, folks.