h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This 1990 book by William Poundstone has a chapter on "The Best Baseball Player of All Time". After 25 pages of discussing the various ways of measuring performance, the conclusion is that "Going by career achievement, there can be no doubt that Babe Ruth was the best player of all time. He played longer than Mantle or Williams. He played at near peak level a lot longer than Mantle did."

But, there is "The distinct question of who was the best at his peak ... the evidence favors Mantle's 1957 season. He is barely ahead of Ruth and Williams by the most reasonable measures of hitting power. Defensive stats rate Mantle over Ruth, and the historic increase in the size and skills of athletes tends to favor Mantle over Ruth as well."

I grew up in Mickey Mantle's home state of Oklahoma, where we heard him described as a million dollar body on dime store legs. But Mantle's defensive stats for 1957, at least, were phenomenal.
____

Personally, I think Babe Ruth was overrated. Certainly great, but not the best.

in his youngest days, the babe was a good athlete--even held a WS record in pitching--much more of a complete player than in shown on the existing newsreel kinescope films.
what he did with the existing home run records made him a legend among sportswriters, which were the only 'media' at the time.

In his book, Poundstone mentions an earlier book by sportswriter Maury Allen, "Baseball's 100", 1981: "But Willy Mays is really the best player of this century ... Allen thinks Ruth is good, but kind of overrated."