Without a doubt, Michael Jordan is the best basketball player I've ever seen (I think Russell is better, but of course I never saw him). Who is the best baseball player I've ever seen? I think this is also an easy question.
I refuse to pick a player who used steroids. I will never forgive them for making a mockery of the game. The numbers 61 and 755 were sacred in baseball. Nobody will ever break Barroid's single season record. And the career list is also a joke, but hopefully somebody clean can catch Barroid there (the active leaders don't give me much hope that there's a clean player currently playing that can get there). Eight of the top fifteen played during the steroid era and six of those guys have already been implicated as steroid users. The only two that are left are Ken Griffey, Jr. and Jim Thome. I believe that Griffey was a legitimately supremely talented player who was unfortunate enough to be lumped in with all those steroid guys. Maybe I'm wrong, but I hope not. So I'd put Griffey second on the list of greatest players I've ever seen.
Number 1? Mariano Rivera. He reminds me a lot of Jordan. The first NBA Finals that I can remember is the Bulls beating the Lakers in 1991 when I was in first grade. From first grade to eighth grade, Michael Jordan won the NBA Championship every year except for the two years that he was playing baseball (I know he came back that second year, but I don't count that). Jordan winning was all I knew as a basketball fan. And I hated it. I never liked Jordan or the Bulls. As time went on, I came to respect him. I just knew that every year he was going to win and I was going to be disappointed. He was the best basketball player alive and whoever was the second best just wasn't close. It felt the same way with Rivera. He is by far the best relief pitcher ever. When he came in to close a playoff game, you knew it was over. In 1996, he was amazing as Wetteland's set up man. From 1998 to 2001, you just knew the Yankees were going to win when Rivera came in. I knew the Yankees were going to win Game 7 in 2001 when Rivera came in. And then they didn't. I was as shocked as I would have been if Jordan failed. Rivera was that good.
He's stayed just as good since then, but the Yankees haven't been as good as they were during their run from 1996-2001. Relief pitchers just don't dominate on a yearly basis. A lot of them will be great for a few years, but nobody has lasted the way Rivera has lasted. Sixteen years of dominance is unheard of.
His career might be done now. I hope it's not. If it is, I will never forget him. Unlike all the guys who used steroids, he belongs in the Hall of Fame. Mariano Rivera is the greatest player I've ever seen.
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