Why Aren't There More Great Third Basemen?

There are, in my opinion, two positions in baseball in which there is an easily identifiable candidate for the greatest of all time. The first is catcher, where Johnny Bench was debatably better on both sides of the ball than any other receiver in the history of baseball. Still, players like Ivan Rodriguez, Gary Carter and Yogi Berra all at least present ripples in this debate, even if most would still land on Bench as being superior.

The second position, though, is third base, and this one is much less debatable. There is Mike Schmidt, long time third baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies, and then there is a list of players who were great but not great enough. Sure, George Brett was at times indescribably great. And sure, Wade Boggs is far better than history for whatever reason remembers him. Chipper Jones was pretty good. And hell, if you’re a really advanced baseball fan, you might even recognize the greatness of Frank “Home Run” Baker or Jimmy Collins.

Still, no other position in the sport has as much trouble calling to mind the greatest to play it quite like third base. As we mentioned, there are plenty of Hall of Fame catchers whose greatness persevere within the baseball history zeitgeist, and that’s despite being the most physically demanding position by a long shot. Second base, which is largely considered the easiest to position to field, has Joe Morgan, Rogers Hornsby and Eddie Collins (the last of which may not be especially remembered, but he should be. Just look at his baseball-reference page for crying out loud).

Third base, though, simply doesn’t have the fire power. There are only 13 players in the National Baseball Hall of Fame to have played more than half of there games at third. Of those thirteen, there are three deadfall era guys, one of whom retired in 1889. Fred Lindstrom, Pie Trainor, and George Kell all played in the era after that, and their careers are really hardly worth remembering compared to typical members of the Hall. Ron Santo played much later, but he played on such low profile teams that baseball history tends to wash over him as well. That really only leaves six guys who a typical baseball fan should have any hope of remembering; the aforementioned Schmidt, Brett, Jones and Boggs, plus the great Eddie Mathews and Brooks Robinson. Four of these players played after the year 1980, and while the other two are certainly highly regarded ball players, but not exactly the first guys to come to mind when you think of the great players of their respective eras.

This has all been an incredibly long introduction to a question that I was obviously going to ask; why aren’t there more great third basemen?

Part of this has to be how there are a number of third basemen whose greatness is simply overlooked. Graig Nettles, Ken Boyer and Sal Bando are some of the most overlooked players in history. All three had extremely important roles on teams that won multiple championships. All three were extremely good hitters.. All three were highly respected fielders. They all had careers that typically lead to an induction into the Hall of Fame, and yet not a single one of them has really gotten particularly close. While their position may not be directly the cause of their being overlooked, but it is weird that all three played at approximately the same time (most of Boyer’s career happened before the other two really got going, but there were still a few years where all three played), had remarkably similar careers and have been equally overlooked in the decades after.

Still, there is more to the lack of great third basemen than a weirdly large sampling of overlooked players. The WAR leaderboard shrinks much faster than any position other than catcher, which is an unfair comparison because of how difficult it is for catcher’s to collect WAR. It is not just perception that causes the position to feel less full than others; there really just aren’t as many legendary third sackers as it feels like there should be.

It is especially noteworthy that there are basically no great third basemen from the 1930’s and 40’s. Trainor and Kell are the only Hall of Famers to play third during that time, and as I mentioned, they don’t particularly stand out relative to other players from that era. I genuinely don’t know why there aren’t more. Maybe managers had more of a tendency to move players with stronger arms, a necessity for the position, into the outfield. Maybe some players who could have been great at third were considered too big or bulky, which wouldn’t be a problem now, and were forced to move to first. Maybe it just wasn’t considered a desirable position, and the greats of the day elected to play elsewhere. Maybe it;s a combination of all three.

It does at least seem as though there is hope for the position. At least one great third basemen, Scott Rolen, is finally getting some national recognition as the fantastic player he was. Adrián Beltré will surely become the fourteenth third basement to enter the Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible next year. Alex Rodriguez had a fantastic late career at third after being shifted from short-stop when he joined the Yankees (he still played more than half his games at short overall so he hasn’t counted until now). Miguel Cabrera, until injuries and age forced away permanently, had several years of being arguably the greatest offensive third basemen in history.

Even better, there is a slew of fantastic players who are handling the hot corner right now. Nolan Arenado, Manny Machado, Matt Chapman, Josh Donaldson, and Anthony Rendon are all unbelievably talented players, making up by far the greatest era of third basemen in the history of the game. It appears the pendulum if finally swinging the other way. Still, one can’t help but wonder why it took so long for this position to receive the talent it deserves.