Folks, I am sorry that I hav enot blogged in several weeks. The pressures of a new job, family obligations and just plain being lazy have all contributed. But, I want to blog, so blog I will. I thought for the next few weeks, I would blog on the topics of most over-rated and most under-rated of all time. I’m thinking athletes, movie stars, Papal Decrees, TV shows, sex symbols, historic events, etc…. Send me an email on any topics you want covered.
Tonight I start with one that I actually have some knowledge of - the most under-rated athletes of all time. Let me start out by saying that this list will be decidely a North American focused list. Why? Because I am an ingoramous on athletes outside of North America. As I shoud be. I have a wife and kids, a mortgage, and a career. I have better things to do than determine the most under-rated cricket player in India, or the long forgotten rugby player in New Zealand. Only a loser would know such stuff. I would not expect many people from South Africa to know who Sonny Jorgensen is, either.
On with the list.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He was not under-rated during his career…but since his retirement, people seem to have forgotten just how great he was. Like Holmes, he followed some of the greatest – perhaps the greatest – centers ever to play, in Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. And, during the 1980s he won five championships with a teammate who was more or less his equal, but who was far more charismatic and beloved, Magic Johnson. Finally, he probably hung on a few years too long, and people who only saw him at the end of his career witnessed a so-so player at best. So, it is understandable that he has been somewhat forgotten since he retired. Abdul-Jabbar was the greatest college player of all time, earning three NCAA championships (freshmen were not allowed to play varsity at that time, otherwise it would have been four), and compiling a record of 88-2. One of the losses occured when he was injured. He was so dominating that the NCAA banned dunking specifically to prevent him from ruining competition. As a pro, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer won (ho-hum) six world championships, six MVP awards, and was a 19-time all star, amongst other awards. I will submit that no athlete in any professional sport was more dominant for a five-year period than Abdul-Jabbar was from 1969 – 1974, except Babe Ruth.
The Fabulous Moolah: How about a world champion who defended held her title over 1000 times, and held that title for almost three decades? Although exact records are not kept, it appears that Moolah first won the women’s world championship in 1956, and kept it for all but a few months until 1984, when she was defeated by Wendy Richter. In Moolah’s defense…she was 61 years old at the time! She won the title back from Richter several months later. The loss to Richter was a pivotal moment in wrestling history, as part of the “Rock and Wrestling Connection” that promoted professional wrestling and Hulk Hogan into the American mainstream.
Ivan Lendl. Lendl was clearly amongst the most dominant players in tennis history, with 8 grand slam titles, and winning over 80% of his matches. He is one of the few players talented and versatile enough to have won three different the grand slam titles at least twice, and reached the finals of the Slams finals an amazing 19 times. In 1982 he won 44 consecutive matches. His career stacks up favorably to that of both John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, and Lendl has the superior record in their head-to-head matchups. History has under-rated Lendl, probably because he was not exactly the life of the party during his career.
Anna Kournikova. Kournikova was not one of the elite tennis players in history. Neither was she a pathetic joke. What she was one of the best players in the game for a short period of time. Her legacy as player focuses on her beauty and her off-court life. She was not, however, the punch line she was made out to be and in fact compiled a very respectable career. She made her Grand Slam debut at the age of 15 at the US Open where she was defeated in the 4th round by eventual champion Steffi Graff. That year she represented Russia in the Olympics, and had a world ranking in the top 50. Not bad for 15. Before her career ended, she would be ranked for a period of time as the 8th best female tennis player in the world (would you say that Eli Manning, as his best, has ever been one of the eight best quarterbacks in the world). She was also one of the best doubles players of her era, earning two Grand Slam titles and 16 overall titles, while frequently being achieving the number doubles ranking in the world along with Martina Hingis. Was she a hall of fame caliber tennis player? No. But, what she was was one of the better players of her era, despite critics who think she was just another beautiful young woman with a flamboyant personal life.
Marcel Dionne: One of the greatest hockey players ever, but one who played on some terrible teams. Dionne’s name is not well known outside of hard-core hockey fans, and he is under-rated even amongst such fans. In his first year he won the NHL’s Rookie of the Year award, and set a record for most points ever by a rookie. In 1979-1980, he totaled 137 points to win the Art Ross trophy for the league’s leading scorer (he was actually tied for total points with Wayne Gretzky, but Dionne had more goals and so was given the award). He was the 3rd player to score 700 goals, and still ranks 4th in NHL history amongst all time goal scorers, and and fifth in overall points. Probably because he never went passed the second round of the playoffs, he is often not considered amongst the great players of all time.
Larry Holmes. His career had the misfortune of coming between that of two of the most colorful boxers in history: Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. Plus, he had a rather bland personality, but in and out of the ring. This should not obscure the fact that Larry was one of the most ruthlessly efficient boxers in ring history. The 1970s was dominated by some of the great heavyweights ever, including Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, and Ken Norton. Not one of these fighters would ever fight Holmes during their period of dominance, as he was not a big money draw, and they were probably afraid of losing to him. After many of these fighters retired, Holmes finally got his chance and beat Ken Norton in one of the greatest heavyweight title matches ever. At one point, his record was 48-0, with 20 successful title defenses, including victories over Ali, Ernie Shavers, and Bone Crusher Smith. Only the great Joe Louis had more successful title defenses amongst heavy weights; nobody else had more than 15.
Bart Starr. Bart Starr is recognized as one of the greatest quarterbacks who ever lived, and he is the greatest winner in the history of the NFL. So, why is he under-rated? Because, he is not one of the greatest quarterbacks who ever lived. He is THE greatest quarterbacks who ever lived. And, some don’t even think he’s the best QB on his own franchise, preferring the choke artist Brett Favre. History portrays Starr as a bit of a game manager who avoided mistakes, kind of like, say Bob Griese of Bernie Kosar, a guy who won because of his team’s great running game and superior defense. And, there is some truth to this, but the fact is that the Packers were a below average running team when they won the first two Super Bowls with Starr at the helm. History has forgotten that he was amongst the 3 or 4 best passers in history. He is not the only QB ever to win five NFL championships without being great. Consider that 40 years after his retirement Starr remains the best post-season passer in NFL history, with an amazing rating of 104.8, despite playing in an era where a rating of 80 would make you a star. Starr led the NFL in passing rating five times. His contemporary, Johnny Unitas, only twice. Joe Montana only twice. Regression analysis shows that the one statistic for a quarterback most closely related to winning is yards per attempt. Starr averaged greater than 8.2 YPA six times during the 1960s; nobody else during that time did it even twice, and the great Peyton Manning has only done it twice despite playing in an era when passing statistics are consistently higher than they were 40 years ago. Bart Starr, the greatest winner, the greatest clutch player, and the greatest passer in NFL history.
Satchel Paige: If you ask people who the greatest pitcher who ever lived was, you get varied answers including Cy Young, Bob Feller, Walter Johnson, Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, and Bob Gibson. Those are good answers, but they are wrong. The greatest pitcher who ever lived was Satchel Paige. Paige played in the “Negro Leagues” (and I am uncomfortable using that term, it was what the league was called) so exact records of his greatness were not kept. In one month, he started 29 games, and in that season started a total of 105 (his teams supposedly won 104 of these games). Reliable sources claim that he won more than 1,000 games in his career; for comparison, Young is MLB’s all-time leader with 511. Paige finally made it to Major League baseball at the age of 42, at which age he became a two-time all star while compiling a record of 28-31, with a 3.29 ERA, before retiring at the age of 50. Yes, 50. Imagine how great he was in his 20s and 30s. Confidence? In one game, Paige intentionally walked two batters to face Josh Gibson in the ninth inning with the bases loaded. Gibson, you may know, had more than 800 career homers. Paige told Gibson that he was going to give Gibson three fastballs. Gibson saw the fastballs, but couldn’t hit them, striking out to end the game. In the 2932 season, Paige won 63 games. The great Joe DiMaggio called him the greatest pitcher he ever faced. And he was correct.