Another entry from our newly named Sports Editor.
Hey Sports Fans! The Fall Classic is just around the corner of the MLB Baseball Season, yeah boy! I know you all love it because it is a Sports tradition, maybe even the biggest one in all the Sporting World. And that is saying a lot for someone who has seen the ultimate greatness of the FOOTBALL UNIVERSE as I have, being a Sabanite and a member of the SABANATION.
With the World Series coming up in mind, my good friend and big time SBC analyst, Scott Gordon, made a statement about the great Mickey Mantle that caused me to ponder something in the last few days.
Mickey Mantle was great, but was he the greatest? I don’t think so. I think Willie Mays was the greatest baseball player to ever live, hands down.
So let me ask you to chime in, if you will. Who do you think was/is the greatest of all time in the Sport/s you love, or hate for that matter?
My picks are:
Willie Mays – greatest Baseball player to ever play the game.
Bo Jackson – greatest FOOTBALL player to ever play the game (career got cut short because he was so strong and so great his body could not endure his greatness).
Michael Jordan – greatest Basketball player ever was/ever will be. Period.
John McEnroe – greatest tennis (no caps ever used for tennis no matter what) player ever.
Fred Bear – greatest Archer ever. Period.
Wayne Gretzky – greatest Hockey player ever.
On yeah, the greatest FOOTBALL Coach to ever live or ever will live was and is Paul “Bear” Bryant, hands down, forget the rest, don’t ever think about it. Period. The second greatest is/always will be, St. Nick Saban, Coach of the SABANATION.
Make your pick as to the greatest. I bet Dave Miller will select some Yankee for greatest Baseball player. But I guarantee you he will not pick any BUZZARD-EYE as the greatest FOOTBALL player, even someone from Iowa knows better than such foolishness as that.
BTW, do not mention water polo players. That is not a Sport.
Speaking as a some-time SEC fan who graduated from Clemson ( ACC, yes, I KNOW-we are a house divided…) and only really keeps up with real sports (as in the ones that are played without million dollar salaries), this is just funny. Thanks for making my Friday. 🙂
Tiger Woods best golfer ever at one time and will be again when he quits trying to be celibate and starts to enjoy himself again.
Greatest Football Player: Walter Payton
Greatest Basketball Player: Jordan…no one comes close
Greatest Hockey Player: Sidney Crosby…we are currently witnessing greatness
Greatest Baseball Player: Mickey Mantle…had to ask my dad, since he’s actually a baseball fan
Greatest Boxer: Ali…in his prime untouchable
Greatest Fighter: Anderson Silva…google him if you don’t know him
Greatest Golfer: Jack Nicklaus…but I’ll always have a soft spot for Ben Hogan an Tom Watson
Ryan Abernathy,
The greatest boxer ever may well be Ali. No doubt he was amazing. Yet, there is another who was great and maybe as great or better than Ali, but he was cut short in his boxing career due to an accident. That was the Cuban boxer, Teófilo Stevenson. That guy was amazing. His hand speed was something to behold. But, my American heart has to go with you in picking Ali, The Greatest.
Anderson Silva is good, no doubt. He has snake speed as a puncher (striker in UFC lingo). Yet to call him “greatest fighter” is a hard one for me. I think I have known some “pros” who have never been inside a UFC cage who could probably take him completely ‘off the board” in a straight-up fight. Maybe not. I will say he is extremely talented.
CB,
I am sad to admit I have never heard of Stevensen. I will remedy that later today. It bugs me that boxing has fallen on such hard times. I grew up watching the fights with my dad. Boxing has been ruined by promoters and I fear will soon fall completely by the wayside.
I’m glad you have heard of Silva. So many don’t pay attention to MMA which is crazy since it is the only real combat sport worth watching anymore (see my comments on boxing above). My position on Silva has to do with two facts: he can beat you in all three fazes in the octagon and he can fight in multiple weight classes which is more difficult to do in MMA. I’m sure someone out there is better than he is but I have yet to see the guy who can take him right now.
Thanks for starting this discussion. Much more fun than fighting.
The greatest boxer of all time was the original Sugar Ray, Sugar Ray Robinson. Even Ali said so.
Baseball: Although a fan, I’ve never considered who might be the greatest. Williams? Yazstremski? Is has to be a Red Sox.
Football: Not a fan. No idea.
Basketball: Maybe Jordan. I hesitate to vote for him because I don’t like him.
Tennis: Bjorn Borg, hands down.
Archer: Robin Hood, obviously. Although Howard Hill holds the unofficial title.
Hockey: Bobby Orr, without a doubt. Gretzky put up great numbers, but Orr changed the face of the game.
Numbers alone don’t make greatness. The person also has to be a decent human being. That’s why I’m hesitant about Jordan.
Bill Mac,
You are a brave man to name a Red Sox guy as the greatest on a blog that Dave “Hater Of All Things Red Sox” Miller runs. Nonetheless, it is sometimes a toss-up for me between Ted Williams and Willie Mays. But I just have to go with Willie. He had it all.
Obviously, you have some knowledge of Archery in naming Howard Hill as the greatest. I still stand by Fred Bear.
BTW, I graduated from Sherwood Forest High School with Robin Hood. He married my twin sister, Maid Marian.
I have a beautiful Bear recurve that I inherited from my father. It is only 35 lbs, but someday I’d like to hunt with it. I have a shed full of maple, ash, hickory, elm, and ironwood staves that I intend someday to turn into selfbows, when life slows down a little.
Besides, it’s Yastrzemski.
Best fisherman: All around: Al Lindner, Bass, Roland Martin
Greatest Road Racing Cyclist
Miguel Indurain – the untarnished legacy of the greatest cyclist in the history of the sport http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Indurain
David Rogers,
I have never kept up with this Sport, but I just read the link. Obviously, the guy is amazing and no mention of any drug use. That is refreshing. Also, the reference to his favorite personality, seems to hint that maybe he is a man of faith.
Thanks for the info. Now go ahead, make Dave Miller a Sports World enemy and name Ted Williams as the greatest Baseball player ever.
I’m pleasantly shocked to see another cycling fan here.
I’m not sure if I would pick Indurain over Jacques Anquetil. Indurain was great, but he never won any of the classics and never won the Vuelta. They won the same number of Tours and Giros, but Anquetil won the Vuelta, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and won more individual grand tour stages.
I’m curious, why not pick Eddie Merckx? If we’re going by wins, then he’s unquestionably the greatest ever. I’m guessing by your use of the word “untarnished,” though, that it’s for doping reasons?
(It probably goes without saying, but my comment was meant for David as opposed to CB.)
I arrived, together with my wife, and my 7-month-old son, in Spain in 1990. I had very little clue what the Tour de France was. But the Spaniards were following it, so I decided to watch. That year, all the money was on Pedro Delgado to repeat his victory from the year before. Indurain was his teammate, given the assignment of pushing Delgado, and not letting the competition overtake him. By the last stage, Delgado was out of energy, but Indurain was still as strong as ever and dramatically passed up Delgado in order to win the stage. It was evident to all the man cast in the supporting role was the one who should have been given the lead.
The next five years, he won the Tour consecutively. No one had ever done that before (or since, unless you count Armstrong).
Anquetil and Merckx were both before my time, but neither one won 5 consecutive Tours.
Lance Armstrong. Lance Armstrong.
They were all juiced, but he was still the best.
Cricket: Sachin Tendulkar
Perhaps the greatest athlete of all time. 22 years of dominance and still going strong.
Exhibition shooter: Herb Parsons
7 sporting clays, hand tossed by himself, pump shotgun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu9-D9KqR4k
This feat has been surpassed with autoloaders, but never with a pump.
Donald,
Shooting’s greatest is a hard one. No doubt Herb Parsons stands tall among them. And, most certainly, the Winchester Model 12 was/is the best pump shotgun ever made.
It makes the Remington 870 look like a Saturday Night Special. Winchester made a serious mistake when they stopped producing it. Of course, Winchester made a lot of mistakes in messing with good firearms they had produced.
CB,
Rem 870 is still in the top two pump guns ever made. I have one I bought new in 1971, 2 barrels, skeet and full depending on which clay course I was shooting on. An old dove hunting mentor, now in that great millet field in the sky, and I would take 10 shells each into the field and see which one of us could get our limit of 15 birds.
Jake Barker,
I will confess that the 870 is a fine firearm. It is no SNS as I stated. I have owned a few. But, I must say the Model 12 is the very best pump ever made.
The folks at Winchester were just nuts when they messed with the Model 12 shotgun and the Model 70 bolt-action rifle.
+1 on the Model 12. I own a Model 1912 (same arm, but only had this designation for a couple of years before dropping the 19). It probably helped Herb a tiny bit that if you held the trigger, the shotgun fired with each pump.
I shoot this shotgun weekly for skeet/trap. 99 years old and going strong, just like you CB!
BTW, I do own a Rem 870 that my daughter uses…
Quick Draw: Bob Munden
Watch this clip @ 11:00. Two shots, on target, less than 1/10th of a second.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thCl_mYIUBE
CB,
Glad to be an instigator yet again!
BASEBALL—I’m already on record…The Mick.
BASKETBALL—Jordan.
FOOTBALL—Barry Sanders…what records would he still have if he’d actually played for a good team.
SOCCER—Pelé…made the Brazilian national & NY Cosmos stellar clubs.
NCAA FOOTBALL DONOR—T Boone Pickens…hands down, he’s definitely a player!
GOLF—Arnold Palmer.
TENNIS—John McEnroe…yes, I am serious.
Is Soccer a sport? I thought it was a European riot generation tool. My theory is that soccer is so boring that fans have absolutely no outlet for their energy and emotion, so they riot instead.
Scott Gordon,
“Once instigator, always instigator.”
I have never played golf, but it seems to me that Arnold Palmer was a classy guy always. But, I did get hit in the back of the head once by a “lady” using a golf club who did not want me to “apprehend” her husband in his backyard.
I have always been thankful she was not a lumberjack and partial to axes.
Drag Racing: Don Garlits.
All-Around Racer: Tazio Nuvolari
Bob,
I can go with you on Big Daddy Don Garlits, but the greatest Red Sox guy was Williams, not Yastrzemski. And, my beloved brother, Willie Mays was just simply the greatest ever to suit up in in a Baseball uniform.
BTW, I thought “Tazio” was a Saturday morning cartoon character from back in the days when cartoons were funny.
Bob,
Ditto on Big Daddy (definitely not ‘the snake’)
NASCAR DRIVER—The King, Richard Petty
INDY CAR DRIVER—AJ Foyt
CB: Surely, it is obvious that only Arkansas could produce the greatest football coach of all time. 🙂
James,
As always, we of the SABANATION, take them from wherever we can buy…. No, not buy, I mean “find” them. Yeah, that’s right. We take them from wherever we can “find” them.
Gonna list several for baseball and football because of the differences between positions and offense and defense. So for MLB: best pitcher would be Walter Johnson. Would be Sandy Koufax if his arm lasted. Best batter would be hard because of the different eras of play, but I think Babe Ruth or Ted Williams would be worthy candidates. Best of my lifetime until his health went down the tubes would be Ken Griffey, Jr. Best pitcher of my lifetime that wasn’t on PEDs would be Greg Maddux.
For football. Greatest QB of all-time is hard, but Joe Montana and Peyton Manning would be worthy picks. Greatest RB would be Walter Payton, but Bo Jackson was insanely talented, as was Barry Sanders—both with shortened careers. Greatest WR is Jerry Rice—hands down. As for defense, dudes like Lawrence Taylor, Ray Lewis, Deion Sanders, and Dick Butkus would make great picks.
NCAA football is harder, but few have carried a team for 3 years as did Tim Tebow.
Basketball is MJ—and it’ll be hard for anyone to come close, ever. It’s possible to make the argument that Shaq is the greatest big man of all-time. For NCAA—I don’t know—maybe Pistol Pete, Lew Alcindor, or Ralph Sampson?
Coaches. For NFL I would pick Walsh or Lombardi. MLB is hard because I don’t think managers are the key to success, but since I’m a Braves fan, I have to pick Bobby Cox. NCAA football and basketball (men’s, women’s) I would pick: Bear Bryant, John Wooden (second Coach K), and Pat Summitt (with Geno in the picture if UConn keeps up their domination for 5–10 more years).
I’ll throw a few more in for fun: (1) Greatest NCAA football program: Alabama. (2) NCAA Men’s Hoops: I think I would pick Kentucky. (3) Women’s High School Basketball: consider Canyon High School, Canyon, TX.
Craziest Bama fan ever: CB Scott.
Those are good football picks. I actually considered Montana for greatest ever. I would have to rate Brady over Manning however, more titles with less offensive talent around him IMO.
As far as greatest HS football teams go, gotta give it up to Odessa Permian and Jenks, OK.
Greatest coach has to go to Wooden hands down. The man was and is untouchable.
However, you are dead wrong on greatest NCAA football program. That would be the one and only Oklahoma Sooners. No one else comes close.
“You are dead wrong on greatest NCAA football program. That would be the one and only Oklahoma Sooners. No one else comes close.”
This Longhorns fan just threw up a little bit in his mouth.
Ryan Abernathy and kschaub,
Gentlemen, let me kindly remind you that neither the SOONERS nor LONGHORNS are the greatest NCAA FOOTBALL program ever.
There is only one FOOTBALL NATION within the NCAA that can rightfully be called the greatest ever. That is the CRIMSON TIDE.
We have won 14 national titles (15 coming up this year) and we have played in more Bowl games than any other Nation on earth, 54 and won 30 of them.
The SABANATION is Goal post and stadium above the rest.
ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!
No doubt, kschaub is a Sports World genius.
BTW, Dick Butkus and that bunch who played defense through the years in a Bears uniform may be the greatest defensive players ever.
If Dick Butkus had played for “The Bear” in ’65-’67, the Bear would have been elected as president of the United States in ’68 by proclamation (maybe even king), made Butkus Secretary of Defense in the same year and we would have won the war in Southeast Asia and every Marine, Soldier, Sailor, Airman, and Merc would have been home for Christmas dinner at their momma’s house before Jan.1, 1969. A-Men and A-Men.
Hear, hear on Scott Gordon’s NASCAR and Indy picks.
F1–Ayrton Senna
Golf–Jack though Bobby Jones deserves mention
Basketball–Bill Russell’s 11 NBA Championships under Red Auerbach and 2 NCAA Championships with USF speak loudly.
Women’s Basketball–I like Diana Taurasi for the combination of 2 NCAA Championships under Geno, 2 WNBA Championships with the Mercury, and three Olympic Golds representing the US. Cynthia Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes deserve mention with their shared, 4 back-to-back-to-back-to-back WNBA Championships. Cynthia also had two NCAA Championships and an Olympic Gold so it’s really a tossup between her and Taurasi. Sheryl had three Olympic Golds.
Baseball–I’m a traditionalist and Babe Ruth not only went 94-46 as a pitcher early in his career (remember when pitchers pitched the WHOLE GAME?) but had two WS titles and, of course, the number 714. Now you can quibble that Ruth introduced the live ball era and that is a fair comment. But it was a time when training was downplayed and natural talent triumphed.
Boxing–I can’t give it to Teófilo since he only fought as an Olympian back when only Communist countries–the home of rabid socialism–got away with paying their athletes. Muhammed Ali gets my nod because of what he did for the sport internationally. In fact, in Indonesia I watched most of his most prominent fights live because the Muslim-majority nation carried them on national TV.
Football? I’m a lifelong Cowboy fan who was born during the first season not so far away in Brownwood. So for coach I’d pick Tom Landry and for player I’d pick Roger Staubach.
Both are a bit character choices as much as championship ability, but both depend on their SB victories in SB VI and SB XII to seal the deal.
But as a game-changing player, Bullet Bob Hayes is the most important NFL player.
Wooden’s UCLA program deserves him both the best college coach nod and the best program with 10 championships in the 1964 to 1975 (12 year) time period including 7 in a row from 1967 to 1973.
I may be biased, but if you look at the stats, both offense and defensively, and add in his off the field behavior. Stan “the Man” Musial is the best baseball player in history. When he retired, he held 17 major league records, he still is in the top 10 in most. He was an All-Star 24 times, being not elected only 2 times which were his first two. He took a pay cut a year after he had dismal numbers. He never was thrown out of a game. He was still married to his high school sweetheart until the day she died earlier this year (72 years of marriage). I could go on, but simply put, Stan…is the man!
Hockey…Gordie Howe. And as a Blues fan, I think you all should note how big it is for me to point to a Red Wing as the best hockey player ever. And when Bobbie Orr even says Howe is the best player ever…You got to take notice.
(Fake american) Football…Jim Brown. The guy set nearly every record for RB in only 9 seasons of playing. Then retired, forgoing money and even more fame.
(Real) Football…Easy one…Pele.
svmuschany,
Your “bias” for Stan the Man Musial is highly appreciated in this thread for in the Sports World, “bias” is a necessary part of “fandom.” Therefore, I applaud your excellent statement claiming the greatness of Musial.
Then there is the matter of your blasphemous statement about “real” and “fake” FOOTBALL. Such a breach of ethics is almost worthy of a 20 year stretch in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola or to have to become a member of a Water Polo team in the next Summer Games of the Olympics.
Then there is the worst punishment of all; Move to Iowa and become a BUZZARD-EYE fan who also cheers for the Yankees.
As you can see, my brother, your future is very questionable at this point. Hopefully, you will see the error of your ways and recant.
I say fake football because in American Football, only 3 position players have the ability to touch the ball legally with their feet. The place kicker, the punter, and the QB (but the drop kick ability for an FG is rarely used…1 time in the past 40 or so years). So why is it called “FOOT”ball. Compare this to real football, where only one player on the team is allowed to touch the ball with their hands, and then only in a designated area. Now I love, “fake”ball. I am a Tide fan too! But we need to call it something else.
Being a “TIDE” Fan is sufficient to free you from the terrible prospects of your future. Nonethess, you need to get alone somewhere and reflect upon this strange position you have as to what constitutes FOOTBALL.
Be easy on me…I am a new convert to the Tide family. I have been no for about 5 years ever since my cousin started attending Alabama. Her sorority was LITERALLY right across the street. And there is a chance I will be getting tickets to the game between Alabama and my other top team, MIZZOU! At the very least we will be having a big family get-together for the game which will be fun!
It’s called football because it evolved from Rugby Football. Soccer came a century later than Rugby Football and was called Association football. Folks at Oxford started calling it soccer (from the word association) and that name is used in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.
College Football was played over here at about the same time the rules of Association Football were codified.
Actually you are a bit incorrect on that. The FA (Football Association…the governing body of English football) was formed in 1863. Then in 1872, with the first FA cup, rules were completely standardized, and from then until now, the rules have changed very little. The first college American Football game, the one between Rutgers and Princeton, was not until 1869. Further, it was not until Walter Camp during the late 1870’s and early 1880’s, that what we now know as American Football really came into being, with rules such as the line of scrimmage, downs/10-yards, ext. Shoot, the first legal forward pass was not until 1906 with Brad Robinson back when Saint Louis University still had a football team.
Now I like both sports, but when it comes to which is older…Associational football simply wins…
Greatest ever in baseball? Babe. Why have this discussion?
And this is about sports. Why even mention hockey and archery?
Hanging out with some Georgia boys this weekend watching the GEORGIA BULLDOG NATION induct the MIZZOU NATION into the SEC was fun.
But, as the song goes, “My heart’s in Alabama” as I checked from time-to-time as St Nick and the SABANATION provided a lesson in FOOTBALL in T-Town to one of the Lesser Nations, Western Kentucky. The Hill Toppers of WKU do hold a soft spot in my heart because one of my little brothers played Baseball there, but not that soft. The CRIMSON TIDE washed WKU back over the “hill top” and did not even come near to playing up to a good game for the SABANATION.
My gang better shape up because they will be in Fayetteville to face the RAZORBACK NATION next Saturday. The HOGS got caught off guard by those heathen pagans from LOUISIANA-MONROE as did the SABANATION a few years back.
Therefore, I know the pain the HOG Fans are feeling right now, having suffered a similar humiliation in the past from such a despicable bunch of Lessers as are those reprobates and SWAMP-LIZARD rejects, LOUISIANA-MONROE.
My fear is that the folks in Fayetteville might be worked up so bad that the RAZORBACKS might not take their whuppin from the SABANATION like they should and play beyond their ability against St. Nick and the boys of the homeland, Alabama.
I know that none of you fine Sports Fans out there don’t want the HOGS to play beyond themselves and beat the SABANATION just like your Ole Buddy, cb here, so this is what I want you all to do.
Email all the folks in the RAZORBACK NATION and tell them you know that their loss to the likes of LOUISIANA-MONROE was just a fluke and they should not take it personal. Tell them that to make a good showing this coming weekend is fine and as it should be. But to actually beat the SABANATION because of loosing to such a sorry bunch as LOUISIANA-MONROE to regain their self-respect is not a proper motivation among SEC NATIONS.
Oh yeah, ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!
And give it up now and then for the GEORGIA BULLDOGS if you want to, because, after all, they are part of the SEC as they thrash another Lesser who is unworthy of the field we call the gridiron, FLORIDA-ATLANTIC.
Peyton Manning has to be in the Greatest Ever conversation.
Fred Bear best archer????????????? No way, Look up a guy from Wilsonville, Alabama named Howard Hill…….