re: Barry Bonds is the GOAT Baseball Player

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Only reason Mantle persevered was that he was blessed with tremendous spirit & determination and gifted with extra-thick muscularity which compensated for the lack of knee cartilage.

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Yeah, there was a longtime athletic trainer with the Yankees who had given hundreds of athletes training massages and he swore that Mantle's muscles felt completely different from everyone else's, like they were double knitted or something.

And before he tore his knee up as a rookie, he was lightning fast. But all of the wear and tear eventually took their toll. All the men in his family died young so he was determined to pack as much hard living in as he could which didn't help.

Mantle was just different and everyone knew it. Same was true for Bonds, Cobb and Williams but they didn't have his (or Ruth's) natural charm and likeability.