Probably should have posted this at the start of the '70 election. A long-time lurker pointed his absence out to me.

By my reckoning he was thrice the best 1B in the AL by WS: 1955, 1958, 1959. Not saying much, though, since he led the position with 26, 22, 19 WS those years.

First, just to get this out of the way: a first basemen with a career 97 OPS+ has no place on anyone's ballot.

That said, Power is always on the short list of great fielding first basemen. So, we could use this thread for interesting discussion about whether he was indeed the greatest. He was before the age of highlight films unfortunately, so I have no idea how he attained such a lofty reputation.

Unlike many other great fielding firstbasemen, he threw right handed. That means two things. First, he had a slight handicap holding runners and turning the 3-6-3. Second, he wasn't trapped at 1B by his handedness like many other great 1B-men.