Dunlap has been rated by some contemporary and modern sources as the greatest overall second baseman of the 19th century. In his 1910 book on the history of baseball, Alfred Henry Spink, the founder of "The Sporting News", was unequivocal: "I have seen all the great second basemen ... I am free to say that Dunlap was far and away the greatest second baseman that ever lived." Stanley Robinson, who owned and managed major league teams in St. Louis and Cleveland, went even further: "He was not only the greatest second baseman, but take him in all the departments of the game, he was perhaps the greatest player that ever lived." Another of Dunlap's contemporaries, Sam Crane, also picked Dunlap as the greatest second baseman in a newspaper column published in 1912. Crane wrote: "Fred Dunlap was acknowledged to be the best second baseman of his day, and was excellent from every angle. I think he excelled Fred Pfeffer." In 1910, John Montgomery Ward, a Hall of Fame inductee who played from 1878 to 1894, published an article about the greatest infielders in baseball history. While picking Fred Pfeffer as a shade better than Dunlap", Ward observed: "Fred Dunlap was the king. Dunlap had the record average of .953 in 64 games with the Detroit club in 1887, and was the personification of ease and grace. He was something of a grandstand player, because of his tendency to make one-handed catches and stops but he got there just the same and was a big favorite wherever he showed."