The best Major League Baseball career for a player with Alabama roots belongs to Willie Mays. Or Hank Aaron.

How can two of the greatest careers in baseball history be separated into 1 and 1A, let alone 1 and 2?

For the Terrific 22 – the players with Alabama baseball roots who have had the best careers in Major League Baseball – Mays came out No. 1 and Aaron No. 2 not through a subjective evaluation of the ability of the players, but an appraisal of the distinction and durability of each player’s MLB career with points awarded for longevity and accomplishment.

The Terrific 22 provides a fuller picture of Alabama’s baseball history than it could have just a few years ago.

In December 2020, Major League Baseball retroactively designated as Major League-quality a selection of seasons from seven Negro Leagues that existed during the game’s segregated era. That gave MLB status to dozens of Alabama-produced players from those leagues.

On May 29, Major League Baseball incorporated statistics from those Negro League seasons into its record book, providing those players with the numerical biographies so important to the game that already belonged to their counterparts in the American and National leagues (as well as the defunct Major Leagues – the American Association, Union Association, Players League and Federal League).

As one researcher put it: “Instead of comparing apples to oranges, we can compare Cortland apples to Gala apples. They may not be exact, but at least they are in the same fruit group.”

Four of the members of the Terrific 22 spent their entire careers in the Negro Leagues and another did almost all of his Major League work there.

Mays’ first MLB season came in the final year of the Negro Leagues as Major Leagues. At 6:15 p.m. CDT Thursday, the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals will play in a National League game on Mays’ home field for the 1948 Birmingham Black Barons in “MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues.”

In the tabulation for the Terrific 22, players received points for MLB experience, All-Star Game selections, awards (such as MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year), World Series victories, league-leading statistics and National Baseball Hall of Fame membership.

Ten of the players are Hall of Famers, but they don’t include Monte Irvin, Ozzie Smith and Don Sutton. The three players are natives of Alabama and members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but each grew up in the game in other states – Irvin in New Jersey, Smith in California and Sutton in Florida.

The Terrific 22 is limited to players who honed their games at Alabama high schools and colleges or, from a different era, state industrial leagues and semi-pro teams.

The Terrific 22 is 135 years in the making, since Mobile’s Charlie “Home Run” Duffee debuted with the American Association’s St. Louis Browns on April 17, 1889, and went on to strike out more times than any batter in the league as a rookie.

The Terrific 22 includes:

1. Willie Mays

Birmingham Black Barons 1948, New York Giants 1951-1952, 1954-1957, San Francisco Giants 1958-1972, New York Mets 1972-1973

A Westfield native, the center fielder excelled in all facets of the game. At one point, he had the second-most MLB home runs in history and had led the National League in stolen bases in four seasons. Selected for 24 MLB All-Star games, Mays won the NL MVP awards for the 1954 and 1963 seasons. His fielding prowess was such that he owns more putouts than any other center fielder in MLB history, won 12 Gold Gloves and made a play in the 1954 World Series that’s simply known as “The Catch.” Mays was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility.

2. Hank Aaron

Milwaukee Braves 1954-1965, Atlanta Braves 1966-1974, Milwaukee Brewers 1975-1976

A Mobile native, the right fielder broke the most sacrosanct record in baseball 50 years ago when he hit his 715th home run to pass Babe Ruth at the top of the MLB career list. Aaron now ranks second in that stat while remaining MLB’s all-time leader in RBIs and total bases. Selected for 25 MLB All-Star games, Aaron was the National League MVP for the 1957 season, when his Milwaukee Braves won the World Series. Aaron was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, his first year of eligibility.

3. Early Wynn

Washington Senators 1939, 1941-1944, 1946-1948, Cleveland Indians 1949-1957, 1963, Chicago White Sox 1958-1962

Wynn signed with the Senators after a tryout camp while still attending Geneva County High School and two years later appeared in the first of his 23 big-league seasons. Wynn went on to record 300 pitching wins, built with five campaigns with 20 or more wins. Selected for nine MLB All-Star games, the right-hander’s most decorated season came at age 39 in 1959, when he helped pitch the Chicago White Sox to the American League pennant and was selected as The Sporting News Major League Player of the Year. Wynn was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.

4. Willie McCovey

San Francisco Giants 1959-1973, 1977-1980, San Diego Padres 1974-1976, Oakland Athletics 1976

From Central High School in Mobile, “Stretch” was the National League Rookie of the Year even though he played in only 52 games in 1959, the NL MVP in 1969 and tied with Ted Williams for eighth on the all-time home run list when he retired in 1980. Selected for six MLB All-Star games, McCovey led the National League in slugging percentage in 1968, 1969 and 1970, part of the nine times in 10 seasons that a player from Alabama topped the NL in that category. McCovey was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986, his first year of eligibility.

5. Frank Thomas

Chicago White Sox 1990-2005, Oakland Athletics 2006, 2008, Toronto Blue Jays 2007-2008

Thomas went to Auburn to play football, but he left the Tigers as the seventh selection in the 1989 baseball draft. The next year, he was in the big leagues for a 19-season stay. Thomas won the American League Most Valuable Player Award in 1993 and 1994, the first two seasons of a five-year run as an AL All-Star selection. Over the five-year stretch, Thomas had a .334 batting average, .455 on-base average and .631 slugging percentage. He finished with the same number of home runs as Willie McCovey – 521 – although when Thomas retired that was 18th-most in MLB history. Thomas was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014, his first year of eligibility.

6. Satchel Paige

Birmingham Black Barons 1927-1930, Cleveland Cubs 1931, Pittsburgh Crawfords 1933-1934, 1936, Kansas City Monarchs 1940-1941, 1942-1943, 1944-1947, New York Black Yankees 1941, Memphis Red Sox 1943, Cleveland Indians 1948-1949, St. Louis Browns 1951-1953, Kansas City Athletics 1965

The Mobile native was the Negro Leagues’ most famous player, but he was two days past his 42nd birthday when he became the first Black pitcher in American League history and helped the Cleveland Indians win the AL pennant and the World Series in 1948. But nobody was really sure of that number at the time, and Paige’s indeterminate age added to his lore through his “6 Rules for Staying Young.” Paige’s baseball journey is unparalleled in its variety, with his now-MLB record only a part of his story in the game. But he was a six-time selection for the East-West All-Star Game in the Negro Leagues and a two-time pick for the MLB All-Star Game. Paige was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971, the first player honored primarily for his performance in the Negro Leagues.

7. Billy Williams

Chicago Cubs 1959-1974, Oakland Athletics 1975-1976

“Sweet Swinging Billy Williams” went from the Mobile community of Whistler to a place in the Chicago sports pantheon as an almost constant presence in left field for the Cubs for 13 straight seasons. The best of those came in 1972, when he won the National League batting title, led the league in slugging percentage and finished second in the voting for the NL MVP Award for the second time in three seasons while winning The Sporting News Major League Player of the Year Award. Before being selected for six MLB All-Star games, Williams had shown his promise as the NL Rookie of the Year in 1961. Williams was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987.

8. Mule Suttles

Birmingham Black Barons 1924-1925, St. Louis Stars 1926-1929, 1930-1931, Chicago American Giants 1929, 1933-1935, Detroit Wolves 1932, Washington Pilots 1932, Newark Eagles 1936-1940, 1942-1944, New York Black Yankees 1941

Suttles came out of the Edgewater Coal Mining Camp just west of Birmingham to play for the Black Barons and was on the team when it joined the Negro National League in 1924. In 1926, Suttles had a Triple Crown season when he led the NNL in home runs, RBIs and batting average in one of the top statistical seasons in baseball history – a batting average of .425 and a slugging percentage of .877. Selected for five East-West All-Star Games, the first baseman played in only 28 league games in his final three seasons – the last two as Newark’s manager – before winding up his career three years before Jackie Robinson integrated the National League. Suttles was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.

9. Craig Kimbrel

Atlanta Braves 2010-2014, San Diego Padres 2015, Boston Red Sox 2016-2018, Chicago Cubs 2019-2021, Chicago White Sox 2021, Los Angeles Dodgers 2022, Philadelphia Phillies 2023, Baltimore Orioles 2024

From Lee High School in Huntsville and Wallace State in Hanceville, Kimbrel is pitching with the Baltimore Orioles in 2024 in his 15th MLB season. The right-hander won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 2011 as he kicked off four consecutive seasons as the league leader in saves. Selected for nine MLB All-Star games, Kimbrel has amassed the fifth-most saves in MLB history while being The Sporting News’ pick as the Reliever of the Year in 2013, 2014 and 2017.

10. Heinie Manush

Detroit Tigers 1923-1927, St. Louis Browns 1928-1930, Washington Senators 1930-1935, Boston Red Sox 1936, Brookly Dodgers 1937-1938, Pittsburgh Pirates 1938-1939

The Tuscumbia native was tutored in hitting by Hall of Famer Ty Cobb, his first big-league manager and, in his fourth season, won the American League batting crown with a .378 average on his way to a .330 career mark. Manush finished second in the AL MVP voting in 1928 and 1929 and third in 1932 and 1933. Manush was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964, the first player from Alabama to be inducted.

11. Sam Bankhead

Birmingham Black Barons 1932, Louisville Black Caps 1932, Nashville Elite Giants 1932-1934, Pittsburgh Crawfords 1935-1938, Homestead Grays 1939, 1942-1945, 1946-1948, Cleveland Buckeyes 1945

The oldest of five brothers from Empire who all reached the Negro Leagues, Bankhead was renowned for his throwing arm, and he played five positions during his nine East-West All-Star games. A four-time league leader in stolen bases, Bankhead played shortstop more than any other spot. Bankhead played on some of the best teams in Black baseball during his era as a member of the 1935 Crawfords and Homestead’s Negro World Series winners in 1943, 1944 and 1948.

12. Joe Sewell

Cleveland Indians 1920-1930, New York Yankees 1931-1933

From Wetumpka High School, Sewell played football and baseball at Alabama and came back to coach the Crimson Tide baseball team. In between, he had 14 big-league seasons during which he earned the reputation as the hardest batter to strike out in baseball history. In 8,333 regular-season trips to the plate, Sewell struck out 114 times. Sewell became Cleveland’s shortstop as a rookie after Ray Chapman was killed by a pitch, and he helped the Indians win the 1920 World Series in seven games over the Brooklyn Robins. In 1932, Sewell was the New York third baseman when the Yankees swept the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. As with the other players whose careers predate the MLB All-Star Game, Sewell is hurt in the tabulations by his era. But the Society for American Baseball Research, in selecting retroactive all-star teams for the seasons before 1933, placed him as the American League starter at shortstop every season from 1921 through 1929. Sewell was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977.

13. Jake Peavy

San Diego Padres 2002-2009, Chicago White Sox 2009-2013, Boston Red Sox 2013-2014, San Francisco Giants 2014-2016

The right-handed pitcher went from St. Paul’s Episcopal in Mobile to pro ball, bypassing his opportunity to play at Auburn. In 2007, Peavy won the Triple Crown of pitching when he led the National League in wins, earned-run average and strikeouts, and he was a unanimous choice for the Cy Young Award. Peavy suffered a rare and serious injury in 2011, but he was back for his third MLB All-Star Game in 2012 and went on to pitch for two World Series winners and win a Gold Glove for fielding excellence.

14. Jimmy Key

Toronto Blue Jays 1984-1992, New York Yankees 1993-1996, Baltimore Orioles 1997-1998

A left-handed pitcher from Butler High School in Huntsville, Key was selected for five MLB All-Star games and was the American League starter in three. Although Key never won the Cy Young Award (with two runner-up finishes in the voting), he was The Sporting News American League Pitcher of the Year in 1987, when he had the AL’s lowest earned-run average, and 1994, when he led the league in wins. Key picked up two wins in the Blue Jays’ six-game victory over the Atlanta Braves in the 1992 World Series and got another win in the 1996 World Series, when the Yankees beat the Braves in six games. Key won Game 6 in both series.

15. Larry Brown

Indianapolis ABCs 1923, Memphis Red Sox 1924-1925, 1927-1929, 1938-1947, Detroit Stars 1926, Chicago American Giants 1927, 1929, 1933-1935, Philadelphia Stars 1936-1938

A Pratt City native, Brown was discovered while playing for the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company team in Birmingham. He went on to earn selection for seven East-West All-Star games while appearing in 22 Negro League seasons now designated as Major League-quality. Brown was a player-manager is six of those seasons. With a .260 career batting average, Brown was not a star at the plate. Behind the plate was different story as his catching technique, throwing arm and ability to handle a staff were considered second-to-none. Because of his long career in winter ball in Cuba, Brown told researchers he was twice approached by Major League teams of the time to see if he would pose as a Cuban to circumvent the big leagues’ segregation barrier.

16. Amos Otis

New York Mets 1967, 1969, Kansas City Royals 1970-1983, Pittsburgh Pirates 1984

From Williamson High School in Mobile, Otis became a fixture in center field for the Royals for more than a decade, helping the franchise rise from an expansion team to pennant contender to American League champion in 1980. Selected for the MLB All-Star Game five times in a seven-season span in the 1970s, Otis won three Gold Gloves. He got 52 of his career total of 341 stolen bases in 1971, when he led the American League.

17. Josh Donaldson

Oakland Athletics 2010, 2012-2014, Toronto Blue Jays 2015-2018, Cleveland Indians 2018, Atlanta Braves 2019, Minnesota Twins 2020-2021, New York Yankees 2022-2023, Milwaukee Brewers 2023

An All-State baseball and football player at Faith Academy in Mobile, Donaldson was a catcher at Auburn when the Chicago Cubs picked him 48th in the 2007 draft. He reached the big leagues with the Athletics at that position in 2010, but it was after he returned as a third baseman in 2012 that his career took off. Selected to the MLB All-Star Game annually from 2014 through 2016, Donaldson was the American League MVP in the middle season of that set, when he led the league with 122 runs and 123 RBIs. After the 2017 season, three of Donaldson’s remaining six seasons were affected by injury, but he still had a 37-home run outburst in 2019 on his way to a career total of 279.

18. Ted Radcliffe

Detroit Stars 1928-1929, 1931, Chicago American Giants 1929, 1934, 1943, St. Louis Stars 1930, Homestead Grays 1933, 1946, Columbus Blue Birds 1933, Brooklyn Eagles 1935, Cincinnati Tigers 1937, Memphis Red Sox 1938-1939, 1941, 1942, Kansas City Monarchs 1941, 1945, Birmingham Black Barons 1943-1945

Like Satchel Paige, Radcliffe’s newly designated Major League record doesn’t capture the flavor of his baseball journey as he followed the money across North America for two decades. Radcliffe already had played for the Mobile Black Bears when he left the Port City for Chicago at age 17. Nicknamed Double Duty for his ability to work at catcher and pitcher, he also was a manager and guided the Memphis Red Sox to the Negro American League pennant in 1938. Selected for six East-West All-Star games, Radcliffe’s best season might have been in 1930, when he had a 10-2 pitching record, the league’s lowest ERA and a .284 batting average for the St. Louis Stars, who won the Negro National League pennant.

19. Jorge Posada

New York Yankees 1995-2011

Like Craig Kimbrel, Posada is a member of the Alabama Community College Conference Hall of Fame. Posada played two seasons at Calhoun Community College in Tanner before leaving for the Yankees, who developed the infielder into a catcher. With Posada behind the plate, New York played in six World Series and won four in 12 seasons. Selected for five MLB All-Star games, Posada won the Silver Slugger Award as the American League’s best hitting catcher five times.

20. Luis Gonzalez

Houston Astros 1990-1995, 1997, Chicago Cubs 1995-1996, Detroit Tigers 1998, Arizona Diamondbacks 1999-2006, Los Angeles Dodgers 2007, Florida Marlins 2008

The former South Alabama standout had been a regular outfielder for three teams in eight seasons when the Detroit Tigers traded him to the Arizona Diamondbacks after the 1998 campaign. Over the next eight seasons, Gonzalez became a franchise icon, a status cemented when he delivered a game-winning hit off New York Yankees relief star Mariano Rivera with two outs in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. Selected for five MLB All-Star games while with Arizona, Gonzalez recorded five consecutive 100-RBI seasons and hit 57 home runs in 2001 for the Diamondbacks.

21. Dixie Walker

New York Yankees 1931, 1933-1936, Chicago White Sox 1936-1937, Detroit Tigers 1938-1939, Brooklyn Dodgers 1939-1947, Pittsburgh Pirates 1948-1949

From the Birmingham industrial leagues, Walker went on to become “The People’s Cherce” as a popular outfielder across nine seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Although he was traded to Brooklyn during his 10th big-league season, all five of Walker’s MLB All-Star Game selections came with the Dodgers, as did his two trips to the World Series and his 1944 batting title, when he hit .357.

22. Tim Hudson

Oakland Athletics 1999-2004, Atlanta Braves 2005-2013, San Francisco Giants 2014-2015

From Glenwood School to Chattahoochee Valley Community College to Auburn University, Hudson went on to pitch in 17 MLB seasons. The first of his four selections for the MLB All-Star Game came in his second season, and the fourth came in his next-to-last season. A 20-game winner for Oakland in 2000 on his way to 222 pitching wins in his career, Hudson won a World Series ring in 2014 with the Giants.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.