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Inspired by some of the "Ranking" debate, here is a quick list of star players (all but Dick Allen and Rickey Henderson now in the Hall of Fame) allocated to categories Stories, Images, and No Stories or Images.
Images is an afterthought. Don't take the allocation too seriously but do take it as a hint that we don't tell as many stories as we once did, partly because pictures have replaced words.
This is "quick" without reference to any lists of greatest players or HOF members. Some of the stories are negative. Only Anson and Kelly are listed from before the 1890s; everyone else is no stories or images, I think. I have not counted "stories" about innovation as stories (Cummings, throwing curves; Comiskey, playing off first base; Bresnahan, wearing shin guards; Bench, catching with one hand). Maybe they should be counted, for crediting star players with innovations is a leitmotif of baseball storytelling. I have not included stories about managers except to qualify the listing of Jim Palmer. McGraw, Mack, and Stengel would all be among the top twenty, I suppose. Nor does this include stories about particular mlb game events alone (eg, Mazeroski's home run.)
-- stories --
Paige, Gibson, Bell
Jackie Robinson
Matty, Johnson, Alexander, Grove, Dean, Feller
McGinnity, Waddell
Anson, Kelly, McGraw
Delahanty
Wagner
Cobb
Jackson
Ruth
Maranville
Hornsby
Foxx
Waner
Williams
DiMaggio
Berra
Mays
Mantle
Dick Allen
Rose
Boggs
Palmer, but it's Palmer & Weaver
-- images (partly replaced stories in the television age?) --
Marichal
Gibson
Brooks Robinson
Clemente
Yaz
Morgan
Reggie
Ozzie
Rickey
-- no stories or images --
Charleston, Lloyd
Doby, Campanella
Young
Lajoie
Collins
Speaker
Gehrig
Cochrane, Hartnett, Dickey
Musial
Mathews
Aaron
Kaline
Schmidt
Gwynn
Images is an afterthought. Don't take the allocation too seriously but do take it as a hint that we don't tell as many stories as we once did, partly because pictures have replaced words.
This is "quick" without reference to any lists of greatest players or HOF members. Some of the stories are negative. Only Anson and Kelly are listed from before the 1890s; everyone else is no stories or images, I think. I have not counted "stories" about innovation as stories (Cummings, throwing curves; Comiskey, playing off first base; Bresnahan, wearing shin guards; Bench, catching with one hand). Maybe they should be counted, for crediting star players with innovations is a leitmotif of baseball storytelling. I have not included stories about managers except to qualify the listing of Jim Palmer. McGraw, Mack, and Stengel would all be among the top twenty, I suppose. Nor does this include stories about particular mlb game events alone (eg, Mazeroski's home run.)
-- stories --
Paige, Gibson, Bell
Jackie Robinson
Matty, Johnson, Alexander, Grove, Dean, Feller
McGinnity, Waddell
Anson, Kelly, McGraw
Delahanty
Wagner
Cobb
Jackson
Ruth
Maranville
Hornsby
Foxx
Waner
Williams
DiMaggio
Berra
Mays
Mantle
Dick Allen
Rose
Boggs
Palmer, but it's Palmer & Weaver
-- images (partly replaced stories in the television age?) --
Marichal
Gibson
Brooks Robinson
Clemente
Yaz
Morgan
Reggie
Ozzie
Rickey
-- no stories or images --
Charleston, Lloyd
Doby, Campanella
Young
Lajoie
Collins
Speaker
Gehrig
Cochrane, Hartnett, Dickey
Musial
Mathews
Aaron
Kaline
Schmidt
Gwynn