Greatest Yankee Catchers of all time

based on defense or defense and hitting?

Let me take another crack at this, minus the numbers I had posted. I think the Berra/Dickey/Munson/Posada consensus with Elston Howard at five and the unjustly forgotten Wally Schang at six is pretty accurate. The only reason Schang isn't smack dab in the middle of the conversation is that he only spent five seasons with the Yankees.

I fully concur with GF's earlier statement that Posada isn't far behind Munson, if he is behind at all. Jorge was slightly ahead on OPS+ and well ahead on OBP, while Thurman had a significantly higher BA and a higher WAR despite a much shorter career. I think I still tilt toward Thurman for his superior defensive play and hard-to-quantify leadership skills, but it's close.

Berra and Dickey are two of the greatest catchers in the history of baseball. I also think that you could flip them without losing much if anything. The numbers might lead you to Dickey, but Bill himself claimed Yogi was better. I know, just being gracious and all that. Yogi did note that Dickey "learned me all of his experiences" and like most things Yogi said, it's hard to argue with that.

Despite what he looked like, Berra was very quick behind the plate and an excellent defensive catcher. Dickey was a master at pulling the ball down that short right field line.

There's a great photo floating around out there of Dickey, Berra, Howard and Munson taken at an old timer's day in the late 1970s.

Here's how blessed the Yankees have been with catchers. Between 1936 and 1965, a Yankee catcher was on the All Star team every year but one, 1945, when Dickey was in the military and Yogi had not yet emerged. Even in 1944, when Dickey was also in the military, aged fill-in Rollie Hemsley was named to the team.

There was a few years gap in the late 60s, and then Thurman proceeded to make the team seven times in his brief career.

To be the greatest I would expect you would have to be the best combination of all things possible, Pipps. BTW, your list is about the same one I found on the old Scout site, once again from the 2006 (I think) season, and by Grandforks, of course. Obviously, it’ll come down to the same players, though maybe a surprise at the back of the list, or a re-ordering of the list, but it’s just a nice chance for discussion and some terrific nostalgia.

Still, I would like to be able to quantify and add our opinions. The situation with Schang reminds me a bit of the last one with Gordon, where his 6 years was the shortest tenure. Darned dead ball players are so hard to extrapolate into modern players...

Here you go Pipps:

For anyone under the age of about 60, the most vivid image they have of Elston Howard is as the guy in the dugout trying to make sure Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin didn't come to blows when Billy pulled Reggie from the game in the middle of an inning.

Elston was no speed burner, but he was very nimble behind the plate and a good glove guy. He played a decent left field as well.

Chi is always here, always consistent. I can imagine him being the same way at work. With his wife and kids. Mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges and Christmas tree. A great friend and poster who is surely a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame that Kaybli will be building for us someday...First ballot stuff, 100 percent of the vote, unless Russ can find some fault in his game that the rest of us don’t see.

Russ: “I would have voted for him, but I found out he overslept by 12 minutes on December 13th, 1996 and was grumpy until past noon”...

All take note that Kaybli has agreed with my post and has now promised to build us a multi-billion dollar structure for our Hall of Fame... (: