The Greatest Athlete of All-time

[Old Pio]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

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]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

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]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

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]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

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]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

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?

[SteveP]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

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.

Jersey cops should be more discreet with their need for speed!

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office suspended two state troopers without pay and transferred a third following what has been called “Death Race 2012.”

On March 30th, witnesses saw a group of about 30 luxury cars speeding down the Garden State Parkway with a police escort and filed a complaint.

Attorney Charles Sciarra says his client, Sergeant First Class Nadir Nassry, was part of the group in his cruiser. But Sciarra insists the incident is being blown out of proportion.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

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?

Some polls end today, but they're all set to end 14 days after they were started. They end throughout this week. I'll post the tie breakrrs next week.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

All of the polls are closed for the first round!

There was only one tie, so there will be a head-to-head poll between Hank Aaron and Joe Louis, to determine who makes it into the round of 32. I will post it sometime soon. In the meantime, here are the matchups for the next round:

1 Michael Jordan vs. 32 Jerry Rice
2 Gordie Howe vs. 31 Secretariat
3 Jim Thorpe vs. 30 Roger Federer
4 Muhammad Ali vs. 29 Lawrence Taylor
5 Wayne Gretzky vs. 28 Jackie Robinson
6 Ted Williams vs. 27 Sugar Ray Robinson
7 Bobby Orr vs. 26 Sandy Koufax
8 Carl Lewis vs. 25 Jackie Joyner-Kersee
9 Jim Brown vs. 24 Mark Spitz
10 Babe Ruth vs. 23 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
11 Jesse Owens vs. 22 Joe Louis/Hank Aaron
12 Pele vs. 21 Cy Young
13 Michael Phelps vs. 20 Walter Payton
14 Lance Armstron vs. 19 Barry Sanders
15 Wilt Chamberlain vs. 18 Willie Mays
16 Bo Jackson vs. 17 Mario Lemieux

[FreshFish]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

All of the polls are closed for the first round!

There was only one tie, so there will be a head-to-head poll between Hank Aaron and Joe Louis, to determine who makes it into the round of 32. I will post it sometime soon. In the meantime, here are the matchups for the next round:

1 Michael Jordan vs 32 Jerry Rice

8 Carl Lewis vs. 25 Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Oh, those are unfortunate match-ups....too bad both from each set can't move on.

Too late to ask you to reconsider putting up 8 rounds of 4 people each and have the top two move on? Then start the brackets with final 16?

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

The tie breaker closed a few days ago, and the winner is Hank Aaron. I am going to post 4 matchups today, to last 1 week total, and stagger the poles so they overlap, but don't all start on the same day and end on the same day. I will try to do 4 per day, for 4 days straight, but due to some work travel and weekends, it may be more drawn out than that.

edit: The first 4 matchups in the round of 32 are posted. Including one that I didn't expect to see this early, a heavyweight battle between Babe Ruth and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

The next four polls for round 2 have been posted.

[JF_Gophers]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

If singing were a factor, Carl Lewis would have no chance!

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Ok, everyone, the next 4 polls are posted, and the first 4 of this round are closing in the next 30 minutes. If you haven't voted yet, get to it!

[FreshFish]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Ok, everyone, the next 4 polls are posted, and the first 4 of this round are closing in the next 30 minutes. If you haven't voted yet, get to it!

thanks!

are you going to re-seed for the next round?

or are brackets already fixed through to the finals?


(I'd prefer the former and understand the latter).

[walrus]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Anybody who votes for a baseball player as the greatest athlete never read Ball Four