Editor’s Note: Initially, we published one essay a day to count down to Opening Day — but with the start of the season pushed back, we’ll be counting down the last 13 by publishing an essay on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week.



Welcome to the Baseball 100, an absurd thing that I am doing here at The Athletic. Over the next 100 days, I will be counting down the 100 greatest baseball players in history, each with an essay. In all, this project will contain roughly as many words as “Moby Dick.”



Yes, this is a nutty thing to do.



Well, to be fair, it is my third try. A few years ago, when I had a job and a family and something of a life, I decided it would be interesting and fun to rank the 100 greatest baseball players ever. At the time, I imagined writing just a few words on each player — a paragraph or two — and spreading it out over a baseball offseason.



But it didn’t work out that way. The...