Who would you say was the best of the three in your opinion between Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider?

It depends on what you mean by "best" if you mean who has the most impressive stats post career than it's Mays hands down. He was a fantastic player and one of few to hit 600 home runs. But for my money Mantle was the best player. Consider this Mays has a career .302/.380/.557 lifetime slash line with just short of 12500 games played very impressive, but Mantle had a triple slash of .298/.421/.557 and could not for the life of him stay healthy only playing 9909 games in his career. The man was an OBP machine.

I love Mays for that matter I love the Duke, though in my opinion he doesn't belong in this conversion, but in a direct comparison during their peak years Mantle is the best of the three. At least in my estimation.

He also has a career 123.1 WAR compared to Mays 163.2, but Mays never posted a WAR over 11.5 and Mantle topped 12 twice. All in all they are all three great, but Mantle sets himself apart with the ability to get on base even when he was hampered by serious injuries. In that respect he helps the team win more, and is the best player of the three.

I am a life long Giants fan and I saw Mays play.No one before him or in his time or

after him could do as many things as well as he did.I only saw Mantle and Snider play

on TV but they were both gifted Center Fielders also.I do honestly believe though that

if Mantle had been healthy his whole career he might possibly have out done Willie.

Mickey was regarded(and I am not making this up)as being the fastest player in history

going down the line to first base.Of course that was early in his career before all the leg

problems beset him.From what I have read and heard they all liked and respected each

other and were all amused at the comparisons the media and fans and their peers

bestowed upon them.So anyway I have to go with Mays.

Willie Mays

In his prime, Mickey Mantle was considered by Ted Williams and virtually everyone else who saw him play to be the best whole ballplayer ever. Still, Mays lasted longer and was just maybe a little scratch below him anyway. What people don't realize these days is that the Duke, while third here, was one of the best center fielders in the game ever. It was fun to argue back then.

all 3 were great but I would go with Mays because he could do it all and his statistics proved true.

If Mantle had stayed healthy I think he could have challenge Mays anfd then the Bambino . Snider had great numbers in the World Series and 407 HR so I would be proud to have any one of the three

Willie Mays.

For an entire career - Willie Mays

I say Mays, here are some stats.

24× All-Star selection (1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1959², 1960, 1960², 1961, 1961², 1962, 1962², 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973)

World Series champion (1954)

12× Gold Glove Award winner (1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968)

2× NL MVP (1954, 1965)

1951 NL Rookie of the Year

2× MLB All-Star Game MVP (1963, 1968)

1971 Roberto Clemente Award

Hit 4 home runs in one game on April 30, 1961

San Francisco Giants #24 retired

Major League Baseball All-Century Team

Member of the National

Baseball Hall of Fame

Induction 1979

Vote 94.7% (first ballot)

The Catch: Willie Mays hauls in Vic Wertz's drive at the warning track in the 1954 World Series.The Giants went on to meet the New York Yankees in the 1951 World Series. Mays was part of the first all African-American outfield in major league history, along with Hank Thompson and Hall of Famer Monte Irvin in Game One of the 1951 World Series.[20] Mays hit poorly, while the Giants lost the series four games to two. The six-game set was the only time that Mays and the aging Joe DiMaggio would play on the same field.[21]

hitting for a league-leading .345 batting average and slugging 41 home runs. Mays won the National League Most Valuable Player Award and the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year. Mays went on to perform at a high level each of the last three years the Giants were in New York City. In 1956, he hit 36 homers and stole 40 bases, being only the second player and first National League player to join the "30-30 club". In 1957, the first season the Gold Glove award was presented, he won the first of twelve consecutive Gold Glove Awards. At the same time, Mays continued to finish in the NL's top five in a variety of offensive categories. Mays, Roberto Clemente (also with twelve) , Al Kaline, and Ken Griffey, Jr. are the only outfielders to have ten or more career Gold Gloves. 1957 also saw Mays become the fourth player in Major League history to join the 20–20–20 club (2B,3B,HR). No player had joined the "club" since 1941. George Brett accomplished the feat in 1979; and both Curtis Granderson and Jimmy Rollins joined the club in 2007. Mays also stole 38 bases in 1957; Mays was the second player in baseball history (after Frank Schulte in 1911) to reach 20 in each of those four categories (doubles, triples, homers, steals) in the same season. Both Jimmy Rollins and Curtis Granderson achieved the feat in 2007.[24]

[edit] San Francisco Giants (1958–72)The Giants were not one of the top teams in the National League between 1955 and 1960; they never finished higher than third place or won more than 83 games in a season. After the 1957 season, the Giants franchise and Mays relocated to San Francisco, California. Mays bought two homes in San Francisco, then lived in nearby Atherton.[25][26] 1958 found Mays vying for the NL batting title, down to the final game of the season, just as in 1954. Mays collected three hits in the game, to finish with a career-high .347, but Philadelphia Phillies' Richie Ashburn won the title with a .350 average. In 1959 the Giants led by two games with only eight games to play, but could only win two of their remaining games and finished fourth, as their pitching staff collapsed due to overwork of their top hurlers. The Dodgers won the pennant following a playoff with the Milwaukee Braves.[27]

Willie Mays. hands down no doubts about it. 5 tool player. He could do it all, and better than most. Hit for average, hit for power, had speed, had a cannon arm and could field. He possibly could have passed Ruth on the HR list if he didn't lose 2 years to military service.

I would have to go with Willie Mays; and he was my favorite player when I was growing up. He would be the HR Champion today had the Giants stayed in New York.