The Great NY Debate - 1952

 1952 was supposed to be the year all 3 NY icons had their proper battle for supremacy, buy military service came calling for Willie Mays. Meanwhile, Mantle took over for a now DiMaggio-less Yankees and Snider was helping lead his Dodgers back to the fall classic after a two year absence.

Mays did what he could in the weeks he had before the military, and the XBH potential on his chart is unique, but he needed a full season to fill out the rest of his chart and on-base. All three men have solid homer potential, but Snider and Mantle have the advantage of an 11 on-base, with Mantle getting the slight edge overall with his slightly better XBH and hits in general.

Perhaps because Mays was missing (they were in first place when he left, then slowly fell off), the Dodgers were able to reach the World Series and meet the Yankees. Mantle would help prove the difference in the series, homering in Games 6 and 7 to help the Yankees stand atop the baseball world for a 4th straight year.

Elsewhere in baseball was "Stan the Man" Musial. Musial was an all star almost every full season he played, and while the NY teams were hogging all the world series fun, Musial managed to land himself a few rings in his career, including splitting a couple of years with the Yankees, but in 1944 he was a champion in the only St. Louis vs St. Louis world series against the Browns. So Stan knew a thing or two about what the NY version of a city rivalry was about.