The Greatest Athlete of All-time

[burgie12]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Also, before I fill it out all the way to 128, can I actually have a poll with 16 choices?

Max of 20.

ETA:
What about Keith Hernandez for baseball?

Also, would you consider Pujols?

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Dana Torres

Isn't it Dara Torres?

I'll add her. I'm just trying to get to 128 now, going for the more fringe sports to get more variety, I really don't think we need more football/basketball/hockey/baseball guys, unless someone finds someone obvious that I missed.

Also, I'm adding Jennie Finch as well.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

For Tennis, please add arguably the # 1 woman's player of all time, Steffi Graf.

For wrestling, please add Cael Sanderson

I'll add them, but, please, Martina Navratilova was the best ever.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Max of 20.

ETA:
What about Keith Hernandez for baseball?

Also, would you consider Pujols?

Ah, yes, if I have A-rod on there, I should have Pujols also.

I don't think Hernandez is good enough, but if others agree that he should be there, I'll add him. I just think there are others in baseball that I've left off that I'd put ahead of Hernandez.

[DrDemento]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

A couple more I added:
Shawn White
Bodacious
Chris Evert
Man O War

Does Lindsey Vonn belong on this list? She is pretty much the most successful downhill skier ever.

Also, before I fill it out all the way to 128, can I actually have a poll with 16 choices?

Loved Bodacious!! I know a few got to stay on for 8 seconds but almost everyone else who tried paid a big price for the ride of their life.

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Put Billie Jean King in there for tennis, too.

[jmh]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

John Mayasich

If you're going to include athletes who are pretty good for a rube in addition to athletes who might legitimately be the greatest of all time, I would like to reiterate my nomination of Hoven in the category of forklift driving.

Seriously though: I love Keith Hernandez, but he doesn't really belong on this list.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

If you're going to include athletes who are pretty good for a rube in addition to athletes who might legitimately be the greatest of all time, I would like to reiterate my nomination of Hoven in the category of forklift driving.

"He was the Wayne Gretzky of his time. And today if he were playing pro hockey, he would simply be a bigger, stronger, back-checking Gretzky.

[FreshFish]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

I also suggest for US-centric sports like baseball, football, men's pro basketball, you have an upper limit of the number of athletes, maybe even have a playoff for those sports before you fill out your 128.

I appreciate the amount of work you've undertaken, and at the same time it appears that all of us are far too US-centric, and most of us are also weighting our choices "too much" toward modern times.

Of course, a simpler approach would be to narrow the thread title, to be the greatest US athletes of the 20th and 21st century......


Finally, how about announcing a cut-off date, say before the puck drops next week for the first game of the Frozen Four?

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

I also suggest for US-centric sports like baseball, football, men's pro basketball, you have an upper limit of the number of athletes, maybe even have a playoff for those sports before you fill out your 128.

I appreciate the amount of work you've undertaken, and at the same time it appears that all of us are far too US-centric, and most of us are also weighting our choices "too much" toward modern times.

Of course, a simpler approach would be to narrow the thread title, to be the greatest US athletes of the 20th and 21st century......


Finally, how about announcing a cut-off date, say before the puck drops next week for the first game of the Frozen Four?

The cutoff date is when I get to 128
I'm at 110 right now. I don't think it is a problem for it to be US centric, we're (mostly) all in the US, I want to keep it as mostly names we know and recognize. It wouldn't be as much fun if we have a bunch of X Cricket player from India vs. Y Rugby player from Australia matchups. I want a few representatives from those sports, the best of the best, and the rest to be generally household names in the US, mostly to make it interesting for us.

edit: think of it like the bouncyball tournament. The ACC and the Big East get a bunch of teams (major US sports), but the top schools from the mid-majors get their shot also (Cricket, Swimming, Wrestling, Auto Racing, etc.)

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

I found a great list online and added some more, including some big ones I missed:

Joe DiMaggio
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Red Grange
Johnny Unitas
Wilma Rudolph
Eric Heiden
Bobby Jones
Rocky Marciano
AJ Foyt
Oscar Robertson

There are more on that list, but that brought me up to 120, which is where I wanted to get before taking suggestions

[Priceless]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Melankomas

[jmh]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

"He was the Wayne Gretzky of his time. And today if he were playing pro hockey, he would simply be a bigger, stronger, back-checking Gretzky.

Well, if one guy from the Iron Range says something extremely positive about another guy from the same town in the Iron Range, we should definitely take it at face value and ignore the possibility that there might be any hometown bias or exaggeration going on.

Seriously though - why didn't more of those guys from the 1960 Olympic team get a shot in the NHL? I know the league was basically all Canadian players at that point (I picked the 1963-64 Rangers at random, and not a single player on that team was from outside Canada), but the talent pool couldn't have been so deep that the gold medal didn't catch anyone's eye at all. And yet, Tom Williams was the only guy from the team to have an NHL career of any consequence. USA goalie Jack McCartan, who was one of the stars of the tournament, had an undistinguished cup of coffee with the Rangers in 1960-61 and then bounced around the minors for 15 year, much like Mayasich did.

[Priceless]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Eating:
Takeru Kobayashi

Seriously? Eating is a sport?

How about Doyle Brunson for Texas Hold 'Em poker then?

[FreshFish]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

There are more on that list, but that brought me up to 120, which is where I wanted to get before taking suggestions

OK then, I'll narrow my suggestions down considerably from that list I added earlier only to include Bob Mathias (seriously, two decathlon gold medals!), Diana Taurasi, Edwin Moses, and Al Oerter as you added Sanderson and Graf already.