However, as great as the "SportCentury" series remains, the resulting list was, and still is, misleading. I say this because the list is titled "50 Greatest Athletes" but includes Ted Williams and Jack Nicklaus in the top twenty. How could either of them be considered a better 'athlete' than Carl Lewis? They both played a sport that required a high degree of skill and hand eye coordination, but golf and baseball do not require participants to be either fast runners, great leapers, or to even have much endurance. Don't get me wrong, I am perfectly fine with Jack (#9) and Ted (#16) being in the top 50 because I know this list should really be called the "50 Most Dominant Athletic Performers Ever"....translated, this means "which athlete dominated his or her respective sport more if compared to all of the other dominant performers in their respective sports, over the course of sports history?"
With that in mind, and since ten years have given us additional information and options, it's time for a new list. Here is ESPN's "Top Ten Greatest Athletes" as published in late 1999:
- Michael Jordan
- Babe Ruth
- Muhammad Ali
- Jim Brown
- Wayne Gretzky
- Jesse Owens
- Jim Thorpe
- Willie Mays
- Jack Nicklaus
- Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Now here is my list:
"Most Dominant Athletic Performer in Sports History"
- Tiger Woods
- Jim Brown
- Muhammad Ali
- Michael Jordan
- Wayne Gretzky
- Babe Ruth
- Michael Phelps
- Wilt Chamberlain
- Lawrence Taylor
- Sandy Koufax
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9 comments:
Agree! Good Insight!
Looking at the old list (Greatest Athlete) may be too generalized and outdated. Changing the title to (Most Dominant) could evaluate the athletes based on the multi versed skills they have -within a sport- to indentify those Top Athletes.
Shouldn't Serena Williams be part of this updated greatest athlete list?
IF the list include tennis players, Serena wouldn't be above Martina, Pete Sampras, Rod Laver...or for that matter Chris Everett...
Athlete is a tricky word. Obviously golf requires endurance as does baseball. Players are given days off because of fatigue. Golfers cannot ride in carts and must walk for a long period of time while in deep concentration. If someone participates in a sporting event they should be grouped with all the rest. Dominance could be misconstrued because an inferior athlete could be fantastic at one thing and dominate (Field goal kicker, closing pitcher). Do we leave Mariano Rivera off the list of greatest athletes because he is out of shape. He is a specialist and an athlete. I am a Met fan and think he is lucky more often than not but there is a case to be made. Comparing it to music, would you consider Beach Boys a top band even though there music sucked, NO.. Would Donna Summer be a Superstar, despite her lack of talent without the Disco years to have made her a star. My opinion is just that, but I am right.
I'm not sure what to say about the anonymous post I just read. Mariano River-out of shape?? Brian Wilson's music sucked? Of all the 'best bands ever' lists published in the last ten years. which one left the Beach Boys off the top twenty??? And I'm sorry but is Donna Summer on the list of most dominant athletes, or is this person confusing her with Serena Williams? I am speechless....
Who is this anonymous clown? Reveal thyself, Spider in hiding. To quote Tommy DeVito: You're not okay, Spider. You gotta lot of f*ckin' problems.
That's right...
ESPN listed Secretariat 35th of the 100 greatest athletes of the 20th century, the highest of three non-humans on the list (the other two were also racehorses: Man o'War #84, Citation #97). Secretariat was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1974, the year following his Triple Crown.
In 2005, Secretariat appeared once more in ESPN Classic's show Who's No. 1?. In the list of "Greatest Sports Performances" (by individual athletes), the horse was the only non-human on the list, his run at Belmont ranking second behind Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game.
The horse was named the greatest athlete wearing #2 (the saddle cloth number he wore in the Belmont Stakes) by Sports Illustrated.
On May 2, 2007 Secretariat was inducted in the Kentucky
Sorry we have to respectfully diagree. Sports Illustrated had it correct to whom the greatest athlete was this century be it human or non Human.
Nice -- I had no idea. Good post, man.
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