The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has one of the richest baseball histories of any state in the Union. It is home to two of the oldest franchises in the National League. the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates. Plus, many legends of the game hail from Pennsylvania, as it’s always been one of the more populous states. There is no shortage of great Pennsylvanian players to list, but for the sake of this top 10, it has to be boiled down somehow. WAR is the great equalizer when it comes to baseball stats, so sorting these top 10 by that metric will give us a laundry list of greats. Nine are Hall of Famers, and a few others were left off, showcasing how many big names hail from the state. Without further ado, here are the top 10 Major League Baseball players born in Pennsylvania.
The Best Baseball Players from Pennsylvania
10. Ed Walsh
Born: Plains
Career WAR: 65.85
Kicking off our list of the best Pennsylvania baseball players is Chicago White Sox legend Ed Walsh. A Hall of Fame hurler from the dead-ball era, Walsh made his debut for the South Siders in 1904 and stayed with them for all but his last season in 1917. He twice led the American League in strikeouts (269 in 1908, 255 in 1911), and for five straight seasons (1906-1910), he had an ERA under two. Piling up these sterling numbers year after year, Walsh is still the all-time leader in career ERA (1.82) and career FIP (2.02). His career WHIP stands at a nice round 1.000. Walsh was lucky enough to get out of dodge before the Black Sox scandal of 1919. He was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1946.
9. Buddy Bell
Born: Pittsburgh
Career WAR: 66.31
Up next, we have the only player on this list who’s not in the Hall of Fame. Still, Buddy Bell had a long, outstanding career. The son of former outfielder Gus Bell, he made his major league debut for the then-Cleveland Indians in 1972. After seven seasons in Cleveland, he went to the Texas Rangers, with whom he won six straight Gold Gloves from 1979 to 1984. Bell made four All-Star teams during that span. While he was a defensive whiz at shortstop, he also provided plenty of offense. A career .279 hitter, Bell knocked 201 career homers and had 425 doubles, including a career-high 42 in 1979. After his playing days, Bell managed three different teams between 1996 and 2007.
8. Reggie Jackson
Born: Abington
Career WAR: 73.93
Arguably the first household name on the list, Reggie Jackson’s many postseason heroics earned him the moniker of Mr. October. Hailing from the Philadelphia suburbs, Jackson got his start with the Kansas City Athletics in 1967, one year before the team moved to Oakland. He helped the team find quick success in their new home, as they won three consecutive World Series from 1972 to 1974.
After the 1976 season, Jackson became the first high-profile player to take advantage of the new free agency system. He joined the New York Yankees in what would become the next major chapter of his career. Jackson won a title in his first two years in New York. He played hero in the 1977 World Series, as he homered three times in the deciding Game Six to tie a World Series record. It remains one of the most memorable single-game performances in postseason history, and it earned Jackson World Series MVP honors.
New York #Yankees star Reggie Jackson becomes “Mr. October” when he blasts 3 HRs on 3 consecutive pitches vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series at Yankee Stadium! #MLB #Baseballpic.twitter.com/DF1WHX0qNB
— Baseball by BSmile (@BSmile) November 29, 2022
After 1981, he headed to the California Angels, with whom he collected his 500th career homer in 1984. Jackson retired after returning to the A’s in 1987, finishing with 563 career homers. The 14-time All-Star was voted into Cooperstown in 1993.
7. Bobby Wallace
Born: Pittsburgh
Career WAR: 76.40
Continuing on with our list of the best Pennsylvania baseball players, we now turn to another somewhat obscure name. Bobby Wallace was an infielder from the dead-ball era who also briefly dabbled in pitching. Starting in the National League with both the Cleveland and St. Louis franchises, he enjoyed a career year in 1897, hitting .335 and driving in a career-high 112 runs. Wallace later went to the St. Louis Browns, where he remained a durable infielder for over a decade. Retiring after 1918, he compiled 1,121 RBI in a 25-year career. He lived to enjoy his Hall of Fame induction in 1953.
6. Mike Mussina
Born: Williamsport
Career WAR: 82.81
Hailing from the home of Little League Baseball in Williamsport, Mike Mussina grew up in nearby Montoursville. In an 18-year career, “Moose” developed a reputation as one of the more reliable starting pitchers in the American League. Starting out with the Baltimore Orioles in 1991, he finished in the top five for the Cy Young Award on five different occasions in his tenure there. This included a runner-up finish in 1999.
In 2001, Mussina joined the Yankees as a free agent. The second half of his career in the Bronx would be just as successful. While he didn’t get as much love in the Cy Young realm, he made the World Series twice, in 2001 and 2003, with the Yanks falling short both times. In all but his first season, Mussina won at least 10 games, but he had never reached the magic number of 20 wins. That is until his final season in 2008, when he went 20-9 with a 3.37 ERA. Mussina was one of the better fielding pitchers of his time, winning seven career Gold Gloves. He never won a championship, as his Yankees tenure happened to coincide exactly with their eight-year title drought. However, his 270 career wins eventually got him into the Hall of Fame in 2019.
5. Ken Griffey Jr.
Born: Donora
Career WAR: 83.84
It shows the strength of this list of the best Pennsylvania baseball players that Ken Griffey Jr., one of the most iconic players of the last half-century, only ranks fifth. “The Kid” was born with baseball in his blood. His father, Ken Griffey Sr., was a key member of the “Big Red Machine” dynasty in the 1970s. Growing up around the game helped Junior become one of the most highly anticipated players of all time. Bursting onto the scene with the Seattle Mariners in 1989, he did not disappoint. He got to join his dad at the tail end of the latter’s career, as Senior finished up in Seattle. They were the first father-son duo to be major-league teammates. In an iconic moment on September 14, 1990, they hit back-to-back home runs against the Angels.
Griffey’s first stint in Seattle was filled with accolades. He led the American League in home runs four times, won the 1997 AL MVP, and won 10 straight Gold Gloves for his elite defense in center field, sweeping the entire 1990s decade. He scored the winning run in the deciding Game Five of the 1995 ALDS against the Yankees. The Mariners’ unlikely playoff run that year is commonly credited with saving baseball in Seattle, and Junior was the heart and soul of that team.
Griffey later joined the team he grew up watching his dad play for, the Cincinnati Reds. Unfortunately, his tenure in Cincy was marred by several injuries. Despite eventually reaching the 600-homer plateau, he likely missed out on several milestones he otherwise would have reached easily. Griffey returned to Seattle to end his career, spending his final two seasons with the M’s. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2016, garnering a then-record 99.3 percent of the vote.
4. Eddie Plank
Born: Gettysburg
Career WAR: 90.77
This list of the best Pennsylvania baseball players would not be complete without some more elite pitchers. Eddie Plank was one of the more dominant hurlers of his day. Starting out with the Philadelphia Athletics at the turn of the 20th century, Plank routinely compiled double-digit wins, including seven 20-win campaigns during his tenure in Philly. Like many of that generation’s best starters, he often finished what he started, hurling 410 career complete games. Plank is the all-time leader among left-handers with 66 career shutouts. He finished with a career record of 326-194, good for a sterling .627 winning percentage. The southpaw joined the elite of Cooperstown in 1946. he is one of two players on this list to play the majority of his career in his home state. Stay tuned for the other…
3. Christy Mathewson
Born: Factoryville
Career WAR: 106.47
We now come to the best pitcher on this list, the great Christy Mathewson. Mathewson spent all but one game of his career (his last, with the Reds) as a member of the New York Giants. He spent the better part of that tenure mowing down opposing teams and often coming out on top. Mathewson compiled 373 career wins, tied for third all-time with Grover Cleveland Alexander. He had four seasons of 30 or more wins, including three straight from 1903 to 1905. In his last of these campaigns, 1908, he won a career-high 37 games. He won two World Series titles and pitched two no-hitters.
Mathewson often led the National League in several categories, including wins four times, ERA five times, shutouts four times, strikeouts five times, WHIP four times, and FIP eight times. This, along with his career ERA of 2.13, shows that he wasn’t just lucky, he was one of the best pitchers of his era and of all time. Mathewson’s premature death from tuberculosis due to being exposed to chemical weapons during his World War I service remains a tragedy. He didn’t live to see himself join the inaugural class of Hall of Famers in 1936.
2. Stan Musial
Born: Donora
Career WAR: 128.56
We’ve already set a high bar on our list of the best Pennsylvania baseball players, which must mean we’re about to close out strong. Next up is one of the greatest pure hitters to ever live, Stan Musial. In a legendary 22-year career (1941-1963) for the St. Louis Cardinals, “Stan the Man” was known around the baseball world as a hitting machine. He won a whopping seven batting titles, including a career-high .376 average in 1948, a year in which he fell one homer short of the Triple Crown.
Musial led the NL in hits six times, runs scored five times, RBI twice (although he had ten seasons with 100 or more), doubles eight times, triples five times, and OPS seven times. From 1943 on, he was an All-Star in every season he played. Musial retired with a .331 career average and set several National League career records. He remains fourth all-time in hits with 3,630. A three-time NL MVP (1943, 1946, 1948) and three-time World Series champion (1942, 1944, 1946), he was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1969.
1. Honus Wagner
Born: Chartiers
Career WAR: 130.97
We’ve finally reached the end of our list, and one Pennsylvanian stands above all the legends mentioned already: The Flying Dutchman. Honus Wagner was one of the foremost players of the dead-ball era, particularly among position players. After spending his first three seasons with the Louisville Colonels, Wagner would return to his home state and the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he’d stay for his last 18 seasons. During his tenure in the Steel City, Wagner won eight batting titles, a record only equaled later by Tony Gwynn. He led the NL in doubles seven times, triples three times, RBI four times, and stolen bases five times. Despite only hitting 101 career homers, Wagner led the league in OPS on eight separate occasions, largely thanks to his plentiful extra-base hits.
Wagner’s 3,430 hits rank seventh all-time. He is often considered the greatest shortstop ever, and his prowess on both sides of the ball made him one of the more iconic players of his day. His T206 baseball card is well-known for its rarity and fetching record prices when auctioned off. Wagner, like Christy Mathewson, was one of the five inaugural inductees to the Hall of Fame in 1936. Over a century after his retirement, he remains a baseball icon and the greatest Pennsylvanian player of all time.
Photo Credit: Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports
Players Mentioned: Ed Walsh, Buddy Bell, Gus Bell, Reggie Jackson, Bobby Wallace, Mike Mussina, Ken Griffey Jr., Ken Griffey, Eddie Plank, Christy Mathewson, Stan Musial, Honus Wagner, Tony Gwynn
