Help Me Determine the Greatest Kansas City Monarch of All-Time

I go with “both”, but not in an even split… more like 70/30 on-field/off

Then bullett , jackie and buck. Jackie didn’t play here long enough and buck just wasn’t very good god rest his soul. Check out the Satch mem at paige k8 sometime.

By just about all accounts, he was the best Negro League pitcher of all time. If given the opportunity to play in MLB for his entire career, he likely would have been remembered as one of the best pitchers of all time.

same reasons as NYRoyal. BUck is the sentimental favorite, and that’s fine. Robinson didn’t play long enough for KC to be the best Monarch…

In 1965, 60 years after Paige’s supposed birthday, he took the mound for the last time, throwing three shutout innings for the Kansas City Athletics.

Being old has its privileges. I remember that well. There’s probably not another resume in pro baseball that comes close. Ruth was great, but he wasn’t doing it at 60.
http://www.satchelpaige.com/bio2.html

…a lot fewer people would know about the Monarchs in particular- and the Negro Leagues in general.

Was Paige a better player? He was. When all is said and done, did he have the impact Buck O’Neil did in terms of keeping the memory of the Negro Leagues alive? He did not.

If you go purely as a KC Monarch it’s rather obvious how the list should go:

Bullet Joe
Satchel
Buck
Jackie

If you want greatest baseball player that happened to be a Monarch at some point:

Satchel
Jackie
Bullet Joe
Buck

If you want contributions to the game of baseball, legacy, ambassador for baseball, etc.:

Jackie
Buck
Satchel
Bullet Joe

I mean it really just depends on how you personally view the question. Quite honestly, I would probably neither care nor have knowledge of the Monarchs without Buck, so while he obviously isn’t the greatest Monarch ever, he helped keep the memories alive, and has forever enshrined them in KC baseball lore.

I think I’d give them all the #1 position. 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D.

He could very well be the greatest pitcher of all time. Not only did he dominate the Negro Leagues, but he also tore up Major leave talent in exhibitions. I love Buck. His autographed 8×10 is my favorite piece in my bar. But, Satchel was the man. Even Buck would tell you that.

He could very well be the greatest pitcher of all time. Not only did he dominate the Negro Leagues, but he also tore up Major leave talent in exhibitions. I love Buck. His autographed 8×10 is my favorite piece in my bar. But, Satchel was the man. Even Buck would tell you that.

He’s probably my favorite Negro League player of all-time though, so I’m biased. But he was terrific as a Monarch, easily the best pitcher in the Negro Leagues, and probably one of the top ten pitchers in baseball history. He also was a fixture in Kansas City long after his playing days much like Buck O’Neil was, even winning an election as Sheriff and he is currently buried in KC.

I think “on the field stuff” should dominate. The only reason you wouldn’t give it to Satchel is because he wasn’t a Monarch for so much of his career. However, the Monarchs are the team he is “most” associated with, and he has to go somewhere, so I say declare him the best Monarch of all time. I wondered if the Monarch logo was on his hat on his Hall-of-Fame plaque, but I found an image of it, and the logo is conspicuously out of view. That would have sealed the deal.

After that, I think it has to go Rogan and then O’Neil. I’m not sure Robinson is even 4th. He’s not well-known as a Monarch.

Was a better pitcher than Satch in his prime. Satchel Paige was like a wide receiver in football today. He got talked about more because he talked about himself more. He then cemented his legacy by pitching well in his 40’s in the majors. There was no doubt that he had great talent as a pitcher, but The best player on the monarchs was Bullet Joe Rogan, and there is really no question. Throw in the managing and you have a #1. Paige 2nd, Buck 3rd. Jackie not in the top ten.

I meant to mention that Rogan was the best 2 way threat in history. I know Ruth was a very good pitcher and greatest hitter, but they only overlapped for a couple of years. But Rogan was a fantastic pitcher who was also Joe Morgan as a hitter.

What happened to the dual-threat players? The DH rule has all but eliminated pitchers hitting at nearly every level of baseball. Personally, I’m not a big fan of the DH… not a discussion to get into here, and I know it’ll never go away now… but it’s not like NL pitchers are hitting the cover off the ball these days either. There are some who are okay, like Wainwright with St. Louis, Carlos Zambrano with the Cubs, D-Train back when he was with the Marlins. Those guys aren’t even in the neighborhood of guys like Ruth and Bullet Joe, though. So what happened? Did ballplayers get less athletic? Are they too focused on one aspect of their game to try and learn to branch out? Are the best athletes going to other sports like football and basketball? Are contracts so high now that everyone is paralyzed with fear about injuries and so ballplayers are not allowed to experiment with things deemed out of their expertise?