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Lajoie vs Mays

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
MaysWinner
93.8

Mays wins: Dominance, Longevity, Honours

Lajoie
93.0

Lajoie wins: Peak, Statistics

Candidates
Locked to Baseball

Shareable URL · /compare/nap-lajoie-vs-willie-mays

Time range

Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Willie Mays
93.8

Mays leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories. The most complete player ever: 660 homers and 12 straight Gold Gloves.

1. Willie Mays
93.8
2. Nap Lajoie
93.0

Category breakdown

Season form · Home runs per season

Career timeline · Home runs per season

Cumulative output season by season — the shape of each career against the other.

GOAT pace tracker

Career stage · GOAT pace

Through season 5 · Home runs per season
1. 🇺🇸 Willie Mays5 seasons played · career day 1,825152 home runs
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇺🇸 Nap Lajoie5 seasons played · career day 1,8251.7 home runs
-98.9% vs Mays at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇺🇸 Lajoie000.3260.6871.7263.25
🇺🇸 Mays002024152279

Careers are aligned at debut, so a rookie's first 5 seasons are measured against the same window in a legend's career — Yamal against Messi at the same age-stage, a tour rookie against Tiger Woods in 1996.

MetricLajoieRetiredMaysRetired
Career hits3,2433,293
Career batting average0.338
Batting titles4
Best season average0.426
Seasons played21
Home runs660
MVP awards2
Gold Gloves12
All-Star selections24
World Series titles1
Dominance w25%9294
Peak w20%9894
Longevity w20%9294
Honours w20%8892
Statistics w15%9695

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Mays93.8
Lajoie93.0
The people
Lajoie
Mays

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