Maybe Bob Costas Is Wrong About The Greatness Of Barry Bonds, Pre-Turn Of The Century

On the MLB network, while talking about Bonds' reputation before the turn of the century, Costas said:

"Is he, absent steroids, even remotely close to the best player since Babe Ruth? Nonsense."

Here is the top 10 players all-time in WAR through age 34. Bonds was 34 in his 1999 season.

Rk	Player	WAR	Games
1	Babe Ruth	122.5	1791
2	Willie Mays	120.3	2005
3	Rogers Hornsby	120	2027
4	Ty Cobb	119.7	2169
5	Hank Aaron	111.3	2279
6	Alex Rodriguez	109.4	2303
7	Lou Gehrig	108.3	1999
8	Tris Speaker	104.2	2033
9	Barry Bonds	103.4	2000
10	Mickey Mantle	103.1	2113

So only Mays and Aaron had more WAR since Ruth. Mays (9.72) had about 1.34 more WAR per 162 game season than Bonds (8.38). But Bonds has more WAR per 162 games than Aaron (7.91) and Mantle (7.90). So being the 2nd or 3rd best player since Ruth is pretty impressive.

Ted Williams had 86 WAR through age 34 in 1464 games. That is 9.52 WAR per 162 game season. He missed alot of time due to military service. If he hadn't, Bonds might drop to 3rd best since Ruth. Still great.

DiMaggio had 7.67. Musial 8.36.