Ken Griffey Jr. and the 5 Most Impactful Players in MLB History

No. 5 comes in at five on this list. The Yankee Clipper was probably America's first celebrity professional athlete. In the prime of his career, most households in America had a television set. A three-time MVP, it's a wonder how much more DiMaggio could have accomplished if not for his selfless act of serving his country in WWII for three full years. After the game passed Joe by, he was known for his torrid love affair with icon Marilyn Monroe.

The ageless southpaw played well into his 40s. But it was the revolutionary surgical elbow procedure pioneered on him that paved the way for countless players after him being able to take on lasting and successful careers that would normally have been extinct. In fact, many pitchers nowadays show prolonged health post-Tommy John surgery, a somewhat peculiar thing. John compiled 164 of his 288 career wins after going under the knife in 1975.

Love or hate him, Canseco's legacy is written in stone. He claims to be the guy who married steroids and baseball. He was certainly the guy who tore the two apart. The first 40-40 player in MLB history, his tell-all 2005 book "Juiced" exposed a number of superstar players to be cheats and liars. Home-run mania was an exciting time in history, but Canseco's actions brought about new policies that ended the biggest scandal baseball has ever seen.

Chances are, people with almost zero knowledge of American sport would still be able to associate the name Babe Ruth with the game of baseball. Or maybe, they would associate it with a chocolate bar name after him. That's just how legendary the man is. Ruth's "Curse of the Bambino" was a lasting legacy in MLB for nearly a century. Arguably the greatest player of all time and a polarizing figure, he was the game's first unofficial ambassador.

It is not the numbers or statistics of Robinson's career that place him first, but rather the bravery of actions he embodied throughout his days in pro baseball. He shaped the culture of sports today, changed civil rights in America for the better and can definitively be called an international hero. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962 only six years after his last game, Robinson's 42 jersey number was universally retired league wide in 1997.