Article:Mantle Ruth DiMaggio what was the difference.

I am sure a lot of people, particularly Yankee fans, have debated that question for years now. Mantle was better than DiMaggio and Ruth or DiMaggio was better than Ruth and Mantle.....Well  since I can only give an opinion on 2/3's of it I have had to rely on my father's opinion and experiences for his take on Ruth as bias as it maybe he is the only one around this family that has seen all three of them play at their peaks. Mickey Mantle was a far better athelic than DiMaggio ever was, but they were two different types of body styles and playing styles. If Mickey came close to anyone it would be Ruth when he was only 185 lbs and 6'3" and could run like a deer.  Pop use to talk about seeing him later as he got heavier but he remembers him the first time he saw him in the 1924 world series at 6 years old as being overweight but not huge as some of the movies have pictured him.  My grandfather was the one who use to tell all us kids that when the Babe was younger and just starting to pitch and play in the outfield you couldn't see a better player anywhere and that included Cobb, Hornsby, Ott and according to him even matching Jackson, whom grandfather was great friends with. There are a lot of DiMaggio fans everywhere in their late 70's and 80's who remember him running in the outfield at Yankee Stadium.  I just barely remember seeing him in 1950's before he retired and compared to Mantle well, not even close, Mantle covered twice the ground that DiMaggio did and my Pop and grandfather both said so many times that DiMaggio was smooth and one of the better hitters of his day but wasn't a switch hitter and didn't have near the power of Ruth or Mantle and for that reason always placed him last of the three. Not having seen Ruth but hearing about him from people that did I think he must have been as good or better than Mantle with the one exception that he didn't switch hit, but on the other hand Mantle didn't pitch so maybe it is a close push here. Mickey Mantle did some wonderful things in the outfield and on the bases and so did Ruth and DiMaggio. All stole bases throughout their careers and their lifetimes averages are extra ordinary at the least. So one positive thing I can truly say about the three is that all of them are Hall Of Famers and deserve to be there. But if I  had to make a final pick on the question of who was a better ballplayer it would have to go with my father and grandfathers ideas. Mantle was hurt a great deal in his career and played hurt but doing this hurt his numbers and later resulted in shortening his life, his lifestyle much like Ruth caused both of them to die earlier than they should have. DiMaggio was like them unbelievable on and off the field and lived a long and friutful life until his late 80's and there is nothing that can be said about him that isn't positive with the only exception being that he was very hard to get to know personally because he wanted his private life separate from his playing life. It worked for him but he wasn't the personality that either Mickey or Babe was both bigger than life and lived it the same bigger than life. But I can't think of any three players I wouldn't want to have in my outfield on any given day in any given situation. How would you pitch to DiMaggio then Mantle and then the worst case scenio  the Babe.