The Greatest Athlete of All-time

[FreshFish]

I'm not touchy. I just don't suffer fools gladly. Like fools who equate pool and chess with hitting major league pitching. Rudolph Wanderone, Bobby Fisher and Henry Aaron, all the same.

Either you lack nuance or you are deliberately obtuse.

[bigblue_dl]

The next region is up. 3 more to do after this.

[Old Pio]

Either you lack nuance or you are deliberately obtuse.

Actually neither, grass hopper. I just have a well developed bovine excrement detector and it goes off like h*ll when it detects b*ll sh*t, expecially self-satisfied poseur b*ll sh*t. You're the one who compared pool and chess with major league baseball. And suggested chess players are "athletes." Not me.

[bigblue_dl]

The next region is up. That makes 6 out of 8, I will get the last 2 posted as soon as I have time. It takes longer than it looks to get that done! All of the polls are capped at 14 days, so they all last the same amount of time, but will just end on different days, which shouldn't be a problem.

So far, the polls are going pretty much as I expected, no real big surprises.

[ericredaxe]

I know I'm too late to the party for nominations... but as food for thought, in addition to my rowing nominations i posted yesterday, i would throw out this name: Sheila Taormina. The only woman ever to compete in 3 different sports in 3 different olympics. Might be hard to argue as the best athlete ever having "only" won one gold metal but an impressive reusme either way: http://sheilat.com/career.php

[bigblue_dl]

I got one more posted this morning, I haven't gotten descriptions in there yet, but the wikipedia links are there. I will work on the descriptions and the last region later today.

[bigblue_dl]

The last region is now posted, again without summaries. I am hoping to have those done for both of these last 2 regions sometime tonight.

[ericredaxe]

Where are you posting the regions?

[bigblue_dl]

Where are you posting the regions?

They're in the polls section of the cafe. Click on that section and you'll see all 8 of them listed, they're all named after US cities: New York, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, and Los Angeles.

[FreshFish]

Here is a suggestion, based on soccer pool scoring, that also would make your life easier, and I think it also would make the contest more interesting for us voters as well.

You said "top 4 advance from each region" and also "there will be a separate run-off election in case of ties."

How about, you take all of the ties into one pool, and then have however many you need to advance come from that one pool?

So if two people tie for 4th in Atlanta, and 3 people tie for 4th in Chicago, and two people tie for 4th in Boston, you take those seven into one pool and the top three advance from it.

Since you have eight regions and it's looking like 4 or 5 might have ties, this would make it a lot easier for you and a lot fairer for the "participants" especially those in a "group of death" region....both of the tied athletes from a "group of death" might advance, while no one from another region might advance.

[bigblue_dl]

Here is a suggestion, based on soccer pool scoring, that also would make your life easier, and I think it also would make the contest more interesting for us voters as well.

You said "top 4 advance from each region" and also "there will be a separate run-off election in case of ties."

How about, you take all of the ties into one pool, and then have however many you need to advance come from that one pool?

So if two people tie for 4th in Atlanta, and 3 people tie for 4th in Chicago, and two people tie for 4th in Boston, you take those seven into one pool and the top three advance from it.

Since you have eight regions and it's looking like 4 or 5 might have ties, this would make it a lot easier for you and a lot fairer for the "participants" especially those in a "group of death" region....both of the tied athletes from a "group of death" might advance, while no one from another region might advance.

That was my plan.

[Old Pio]

That was my plan.

Thanks from all of us for a remarkable piece of work. I'm just kicking myself I didn't nominate Georg Hackl, the greatest luger ever.

[bigblue_dl]

Thanks from all of us for a remarkable piece of work. I'm just kicking myself I didn't nominate Georg Hackl, the greatest luger ever.

Heh, I had him on my list, and he ended up being one of the last cuts. Sorry about that.

[Old Pio]

Heh, I had him on my list, and he ended up being one of the last cuts. Sorry about that.

I was not serious. I believe Georg proved the superiority of East German engineering, the way their women's swim team proved the superiority of East German "nutrition." No way I'd want to fly down that hill at that speed (remember the kid who was killed last Olympics) it definitely takes b*lls, but I have a problem classifying him as an "athlete."

[bigblue_dl]

I was not serious. I believe Georg proved the superiority of East German engineering, the way their women's swim team proved the superiority of East German "nutrition." No way I'd want to fly down that hill at that speed (remember the kid who was killed last Olympics) it definitely takes b*lls, but I have a problem classifying him as an "athlete."

That was ultimately my reasoning for not including him, it seemed like the luge is more about having massive balls than being an athlete. Of course, the same argument could be made for race car drivers, which I included.

[Old Pio]

That was ultimately my reasoning for not including him, it seemed like the luge is more about having massive balls than being an athlete. Of course, the same argument could be made for race car drivers, which I included.

I know that if I took a lap at full speed, on an otherwise empty track, with Dale Jr. at the wheel, I'd be screaming like a middle school girl at a Justin Bieber concert. And would certainly mess myself. It's helpful for those guys to be in shape and pretty athletic, but not a requirement.

[bigblue_dl]

I know that if I took a lap at full speed, on an otherwise empty track, with Dale Jr. at the wheel, I'd be screaming like a middle school girl at a Justin Bieber concert. And would certainly mess myself. It's helpful for those guys to be in shape and pretty athletic, but not a requirement.

I think that would be a helluva lot of fun. I've gone as fast as 160 in a 454 Corvette Stingray, and that was on the road, and it was pretty **** scary.

[Old Pio]

I think that would be a helluva lot of fun. I've gone as fast as 160 in a 454 Corvette Stingray, and that was on the road, and it was pretty **** scary.

I've driven the Autobahn in a big BMW sedan. There's nothing quite like having some dude come up behind you honking his horn and flashing his lights to force you into the right hand lane when you're already doing 130.

[DrDemento]

I think that would be a helluva lot of fun. I've gone as fast as 160 in a 454 Corvette Stingray, and that was on the road, and it was pretty **** scary.

We clicked off a mile in 24 seconds (150 mph) on a road that had just opened down here in NJ years ago in my 911. The car would have easily gone faster but I was getting a bit scared of hitting something that could have either been in the road or running across. In those days i was one of the State Police physicians and had a police escort that was not able to keep up with me. And yes it was scary.

[FreshFish]

So if I understand the workings of the poll correctly, today is the last day to vote in round one? and then in the next few days you post the run-off slate?