Good job

Thanks Bart! Hope you liked the picture too.

I'm 0 for 4
I had :
Oliver Perez
Dick Stuart
Rafael Santana
John Rocker
and Oliver Perez again

I'd go Ruth, Williams, Mays, and Bonds. Bonds very well may have cheated at the end, but even if he hadn't, he would've put up unprecedented numbers. Disappointing that he did, but also a near given in the era he played. They were all cheating. There's no disputing what he did between the late 90s and early 2000s, before his PED use appeared to begin, was out of this world, too.

I like what you did, Matt, in not just necessarily choosing the best four baseball players; but matching the impact to the Presidents.

Here's my list (choosing the best four):
1. Ruth - far and away. Heck, he would've been a hall of fame pitcher if he chose to stay at that position.

2. Mays - One of the best hitters ever. THE best centerfielder ever. One of the best base runners ever. One of the best throwing arms ever. One of the savviest ever. Add it all up and he's easily number 2 on my list.

3. Ted Williams - Other than the Babe, the best hitter of all time. .482 career on-base percentage. .482!! .482!!!

4. Cy Young - Tremendous body of work. Most ever 511 career wins, with 417 being the distant second most (Walter Johnson). At the turn of the century, he showed the sport what an ace pitcher is supposed to be.

Why no pitchers? If we were going to have one, who would it be?

Cy Young
Walter Johnson
Nolan Ryan
Randy Johnson
Turk Wendell

Babe Ruth
Ty Cobb
Willie Mays
Ted Williams
(Open to "trading" Ted Williams for Walter Johnson if u want a pitcher :) )

Babe Ruth
Ted Williams
Willie Mays
Pete Rose

I believe you need to consider Alexander Cartwright. He was the actual "father" of baseball and did play on the NY Knickerbockers. Cartwright is given credit for designing the baseball diamond and the first set of rules, I think.

Babe Ruth, Cy Young, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron.

id go for ziad , jerry , marc & david . ( 4 councilmen from Springfield ...after all someone has to make this post political LOL).

Thanks everyone for all the great comments. This is the most comments I have ever gotten on a blog post for the Patch. I do like all my picks for Mount Rushmore, but if I was going to have a pitcher, it would have to be Denton T. "Cy" Young.

Some of the best comments in a while here. Good work, everyone.

Great timing for this post, as we're all celebrating R. A. Dickey, Mets Cy Young Award winner. Thank you!

Branch Rickey

How about Abbott & Costello? :)

If you pick Barry Bonds
for Mt Rushmore
what would be cheaper
the steroid head or the non steroid head?

In my opinion, Tom Seaver should be front and center in any conversation discussing the greatest baseball players of all time.

There's no way to compare hitters and pitchers. Post dead-ball era, the Mount Rushmore for hitters is Ruth, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, and Mickey Mantle.

For pitchers: It's Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan, Greg Maddux, and Walter Johnson (I hestiate to mention Johnson, as great as he was, because he goes back to an era that is completely impossible era to compare)

People are saying "Bonds" ? His head got so big from the steriods it wouldn't fit on Mount Roushmore! lol

Never for Bonds...You can't ever honor a guy ever for doing Steroids, regardless when he started doing them. Givin him a pass because he had Hall of Fame numbers before he started taking them?. Does anyone know what year he stated taking steroids? I DONT

My "Met" Rushmore: Tom Seaver, Keith Hernandez, Mike Piazza, David Wright.

Sorry man, but Willie Mays does not belong there. Someone like Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Larry Doby, Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Satchel Paige or Josh Gibson all belong there more than "Say Hey"...

Ted Williams had a reputation as being surly with the media and that was true. But he was one of the greatest hitters of all time and he was a terrific teammate as well as a real American war hero, a strong supporter of the Jimmy Fund (cancer fund), and a teacher of the game to young players. I had the fortune of playing on his summer camp travel team in 1967 at Lakeville, Massechusetts. He took time to talk with the players and teach us some of the things that only a great ballplayer could teach. Yogi Berra thought highly enough of him that he also sent his sons to play there that summer, and Yogi has always been a good judge of players and people.

For the old guys:
Yogi
Whitey Ford
Duke Snider
Pee Wee Reese
Roy Campanella

P.S. Please don't carve this Rushmore on Indian land...

How about Pete Rose, Billy Martin, Darryl Strawberry and A-Rod? It's fine to enjoy the game, but to put these guys on the same pedestal of some of our greatest politicians is a crime. Most athletes are overpaid, not particularly smart, and (with very few but notable exceptions) are not good role models. They just happen to be talented athletes...it's time that we stop celebrating them