We’ll continue with the conversation of the greatest uniform numbers.  Last week, I did 0 - 9, and this week we will continue 10 - 19.  I got a lot of emails in response to the previous posts.  Happy to hear from you guys, but maybe you can post a reply on the blog so the world can see what you wrote! 

Again my full disclosure:  This list will reflect some of my biases in that it will be North American centric, and will probably have some age bias, despite my best attempts to be fair.  Hey - this is for fun.  Brain surgery it ain’t.  

10.  I had trouble coming up with a great number 10, so I first went with Guy Lafleur.  However, I am told that Pele was the greatest soccer player ever and is still considered so decades after his career zenith.  For years, he was the only soccer player I could name, so I go with him.  Sorry, Guy.

11.  Mark Messier or Isiah Thomas?  I thought this would be close, but then I fact-checked Messier’s career. Two world championships (same as Isiah), second all-time scoring, and a jersey retired for two teams (Rangers and Oilers).  Plus, the greatest leader in the history of the sport.  Sorry, Isiah - this was actually not that hard.

12. Tom Brady over John Stockton.  When Brady retires, he will be considered one of the three best QBs ever, if he is not already.  Let’s put it this way, one-helmet catch and one blow to the knee.  If neither of those happened, he is clearly top three, maybe number one.  Stockton is a great player, followed closely by three great quarterbacks from the same era:  Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, and Ken Stabler.  If anyone says Joe Namath, I will find you and hurt you!  Namath was a less-than-mediocre quarterback.

13.)  Very competitive:  Wilt Chamberlain, Alex Rodriguez, or Dan Marino.  Wow…all three are arguably the best to play at their respective positions ever.  Only Wilt has won a championship of the three, and he did it with two of the greatest single-season teams ever  (68-13 76ers and 69-13 Lakers).  Factor in his off the court accomplishments, and I go with him.

14.  Nobody will agree with me, but I go with Don Hutson over some elite competition:  Pete Rose, Ernie Banks, Bob Cousy, and Otto Graham.  Hutson was the greatest receiver who ever lived.  Don’t believe me?  Read this article and tell me if you still don’t.  Check out his 1942 season compared to his peers, and be in awe.  Rose was a great player, and longevity counts, but I don’t think he was ever dominant as much as he was just very good for a very long period of time.  I would put him in the Hall of Fame at this point. 

15.  Bart Starr was the greatest quarterback who ever played the game, making this an easy choice.  I actually had trouble coming up with a prominent #15 other than Starr, and could only come up with Thurman Munson, who was a terrific player but not in Starr’s league.  It seems like this number has not yielded a lot of great athletes, though Carmello Anthony is still you.  Starr wins easily.  And, if you doubt he is the greatest quarterback ever, read this article and tell me if you are unconvinced. 

16.  The greatest quarterback ever followed by the second greatest quarterback ever.  Joe Montana is the best athlete to wear #16 who ever lived.  Four Super Bowl MVPs says it all.  Sorry Brett Hull fans - this one ain’t close.

17.  This belongs to John Havlicek, an 8-time world champion and perhaps the most overlooked superstar in NBA history.  He was a great clutch player - the best of his era after Bill Russell retired - a regular season MVP, and the best 6th man ever.  Plus, he was the NBA’s all-time leading scorer when he retired.  Are you struggling to think of another great athlete who wore 17?  Me, too.  Try Dizzy Dean and Jari Kurri.

18.  As much as I’d like to go with Dave Cowens and have back-to-back Celtic teammates, this one goes to Peyton Manning.  If he did not play in the same conference as Tom Brady, he’d probably have the Super Bowl rings at this point, and when he retires he will own the NFL record book.  Plus, he’s a geniunely good guy who does a lot for charity, and his commercials are the best of any athlete today.

19.  It’s gotta be Johnny U, given Cots quarterbacks back-to-back positions.  Like Manning, he was a bit of an under-performer in the playoffs, but he also owned the record book in his day as did Manning.  Though he was not the QB Bart Starr was, he was great enough to have been selected the best of the last century.  My apologies to Bob Feller, one of the great pitchers ever. Feller pitched three no-hitters, 12 one-hitters, and was thought to throw harder than Nolan Ryan (several players faced both men and most gave the edge to Feller).  He served four years in the military during WW2 (the first pro athlete to volunteer), and in his first full season back won 26 games with 348 strike-outs, and a 2.18 ERA.  Can I change my vote?  I gotta make this one a tie. 

If you are keeping track for generational bias, here goes:

Nine of the athletes achieved their greatness before I was born, or at least before I started following sports.  Seven of the athletes I remember clearly but have retired.  Only three (Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning) are presently playing.  It would make sense that current athletes are under-represented, as their stories are not yet completely written.  If I were to do this list in ten years, undoubtedly a few current players (Albert Pujolos) would make the list.

This argument was inspired by a breakfast argument with an old friend.  The premise of the argument was who was the greatest athlete ever for each uniform number.  It actually became a pretty interesting conversation.  Some are obvious - Babe Ruth at 3, Michael Jordan at 23, Wayne Gretzky at 99.  Others are more fun:  Jim Brown vs. Magic Johnson, Gordie Howe vs. Ted Williams. 

This is the first part of my list:  Numbers Zero through nine.  For this discussion, zero and double zero are considered the same number.  As usual, I am too lazy to completely check my facts, so any corrections would be appreciated.

O or OO:  This game down to two names:  Jim Otto or Robert Parish.  If I could get Bob Cousy to publicly read this list and say “Wobet Pawish” I would give it to the Chief.  Alas, that ain’t gonna happen so I gotta go with Jim Otto by a nose.  We had trouble coming up with another prominent zero, and only considered Gilbert Arenas.  I thought Orlando Woolridge was 0, my buddy thought he was 5.  He wasn’t going to make the list, so I did not bother to check it out.

1:  Oscar Robertson, the 2nd greatest point guard who ever lived in some circles.  He had stiff competition, including Jacques Plante, Sadurah Oh, and Warren Moon.  I don’t think any of them are the 2nd best at what they did, so I go with the Big O.

2.  Moses Malone, basically in a tie with Derek Jeter.  I’ll give it to Moses just because I think Jeter is a bit of a pretty boy.  Plus, I resent that he keeps winning gold gloves that he does not deserve.  I hated Moses when he was playing, and like Jeter, so this pick also proves my integrity.  By the way, my spellcheck tells me to change his name to Derek Jester, for what that is worth.

3.  I thought that this was obvious:  Babe Ruth.  Then Sully pointed out that Babe Ruth only started wearing that number in 1929 (the Yankees did not assign numbers until then), and from that point on, he was merely a very good player, not the dominant force he was in the 20s.  There is a valid argument for Bronco Nagurski.  Good point, but screw it…this is my list.  The Babe it is.

4.)  Bobby Orr, the greatest hockey player who ever lived seems an obvious selection to a Boston sports fan my age (we all worshipped Bobby as a kid).  But, let’s not dismiss Lou Gehrig and Brett Favre, the greatest iron men in their particular sports.  Bobby was more spectacular, and as his best was better than the others, but their longevity has to be considered.  Favre we can eliminate because he threw too many picks and cost his team games.  So it’s Orr vs. Gehrig.  Tough call, I’ll show my regional and generational bias and go with Bobby…but respect anyone who puts Gehrig here.

5.)  Right now, it’s Joltin’ Joe Dimaggio, who has the record that won’t be broken in my lifetime (hits in 56 straight games).  Assuming he is not on the juice, and that he continues for several more years, Albert Pujolos will replace him.  Baseball dominates this number:  Johny Bench, Brooks Robinson, and George Brett all wore #5, and those are just the players off the top of my head.

6.)  Bill Russell, the greatest athlete who ever lived.  No debate.

7.)  John Elway, Mickey Mantle, Phil Esposito, and David Beckham (I am told).  I don’t have the respect for Mantle others seem to.  While Ted Williams did two tours of duty in WW2, Mantle claimed a medical hardship and did not go….but managed to lead the league in homers and steals while on a hardship.  John Elway was burdened by not having a running game most of his career, and teeth larger than those of Ba-Ba-Booey, so I’m going to give it to him.  Sorry, Phil. 

8.)  Kobe Bryant. Gotta give it to him.  Right now, the 2nd or 3rd best scoring guard ever.  Jordan is first, and there is an argument for Jerry West as #2, but Kobe is right there.  Apologies to Cal Ripken and Yogi Bera.  I almost got in a fight with Carl Yastremski a few years ago when he cut me in line at Best Buy, so I don’t apologize to him.

9.)  Ted Williams or Gordie Howe?  I can’t decide, but I suspect I’m going to be accused of being a homer with the Boston athletes, so I’ll go with Mr. Hockey (though, as I pointed out in another post, he was supposed to be a big tough guy, but he’s smaller than me and the Fabulous Moolah).  Nobody tell my dad.

Who did I miss, who did I overlook?  I’ll do 10 - 19 if there is enough buzz to justify the effort.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a list of the most overrated and underrated athletes of all time.  That was easy for me - sports are my comfort zone.  Now, I’ll tackle something I don’t know that much about:  the most overrated and underrated actors of all time.  Starting with underrated…here is my list:

Sally Field.  A two-time Oscar nominee underrated?  Well, it seems people have forgotten how good an actor she is, because of what is perceived as a flaky acceptance speech (”You like me…you really really like me”).  Call me nuts, but when I watched it, I just thought it was genuine and from the heart (though I did think she was a bit odd).  25 or so years later, and it’s still a joke.  That, plus her gigs as Gidget and The Flying Nun tend to obscure that fact that she is amongst the better actors of her generation.

Leslie Neilsen.  I know what you are saying:  “Leslie Neilsen on this list.  Surely you cannot be serious.”  To which I say:  “I am serious.  And, don’t call me Shirley.”  I don’t know, but the way he played Lt. Frank Drebin in the Police Squad TV Shows (If you have never seen them get them.  Now.  Right now.  Stop reading this and get the Police Squad episodes on DVD.  You’ll thank me.) and later in the Naked Gun films was brilliant.  I have seen several people try to pull this off…and none of them have remotely been as funny.  So, he’s a one trick pony.  It’s a helluva trick.  By the way, a couple of years ago on Nick at Nite or one of those stations, Leslie was playing a detective.  It was a serious role, but by that point it was no longer possible to take him seriously…it was one of the most unintentionally funny performances ever.

Toni Collette.  In Muriel’s wedding, she played a fat, unattractive desperate single woman.  Not easy to do when you look like Toni!  I literally had no idea that a really attractive woman played that role when I saw the movie, which I have seen three times (hey - it’s my wife’s choice).   She was also terrific in the Sixth Sense, Dinner with Friends, and Little Miss Sunshine.   I have no idea if she’s ever been nominated for any Oscars or other awards…but one day she will be. 

Kevin Bacon:  A good guy, who has been married to the same woman for 20 years, pretty rare in Hollywood.  Putting that aside - he was great in the HBO Miniseries “Taking Chance.”  I understand that he has never been nominated for an Emmy or an Oscar.  If this is true - and I am too lazy to verify it - then that will certainly end with this performance.  He’s also been consistently good in some of the biggest movies of my lifetime: Animal House, Diner (okay, not a hit, but a very good movie), JFK, A Few Good Men, Apollo 13,  and Mystic River.  He was terrific in all of them.

Robert Duvall.  He has certainly won his share of awards - an Oscar and two Emmy’s - so critics appreciate him.  I think he’s underrated with the viewing public.  And, he may just be the best American actor alive today.  Certainly top seven.  His Oscar was for a little movie called “The Godfather Part II.”  I know people who have seen that movie trilogy five times and don’t know he was in it!  People remember Brando, Pacino, DeNiro, Shire, and Keaton.  But they don’t remember him.  He was great, but that was not his best role. If you ever want to see great acting - rent the Apostle.  Do it soon - right after you get the Police Squad tapes.

Peter Sellers.  There are very few people and characters who can make both my father and me laugh.  Peter Sellers is atop that list.  “Comedy is never taken seriously,” as somebody has said.  Sellers’ performances as Inspector Clouseau were brilliant.  Brilliant.  Steve Martin - one of the great comedians ever - has tried to duplicate that role, and he is nowhere near as funny as Sellers was.  But, Sellers was not a one-trick pony like Leslie Neilsen.  His performance in Being There, which he completed shortly before dying, was Oscar-worthy.  Perhaps most impressively, a fairly average looking guy manged to snag Britt Ekland, in what must have been the role of a lifetime.  But, it is Clouseau for which Sellers will be remembered.  Thank you, Peter.  Thank you.

We are coming upon the one-year anniversary of the economic meltdown.  None of us predicted this, or at least none of us prepared for this, but we’ve survived almost a year and need to start preparing for greater prosperity.  What have we learned, and what are the things CFOs should be doing now to strengthen their organizations to be best positioned when things improve? Please note, I don’t want to say get back to normal…what we thought of as normal was an illusion. We weren’t as wealthy as we were living, but we’re not as poor as we feel now.  Any way, these are the things I think we should do:

1.)  Buy, buy, buy!  What an amazing buying opportunity we were presented with!  Did it make sense to expand to Asia a year ago.  It probably still does…but it’s 40% cheaper today than it was then.  Can your firm benefit from an infusion of world class talent?  It’s out there - and you can get it without recruiting fees and for less than ever.  Go get ‘em!  Remember the startup who was as annoying as a pimple on your butt as they seduced your customers?   Well their valuation fell dramatically, if they survived at all.   Snap them up while the price is good.   Don’t wait…the time is now…or perhaps was six months ago.  Fortunte to the bold or something like that.

2.)  Sell, sell, sell.  That underperforming division - hasta la vista baby.  You have to think of survival of the entire enterprise.  Find somebody dumber than you (a great challenge for an over-weight, under-privledge bald-headed guy like me), and sell that division…this is not the time for sentimentality.   Want to go on a global expansion expansion?  Need money just to to survive?  Raise some capital.  Don’t obsess over valuation…get what you can at the best price you can.  You’ll be glad you did eventually.  Finally - come up with an intelligent, coherent plan (or at least one that you can trick others into thinking is intelligent and coherent) and sell it to everyone - investors, emloyees, customers, suppliers, the business communtiy.

3.)  Smile, smile, smile. The soft skills -leadership and communication - are the difference between the competent CFOs and the great ones. You need to project a sense of credible confidence in all of your plans.  If you don’t believe in yourself and your vision - nobody else will, and nobody will follow.  If you don’t believe in the vision you have formulated….maybe you should step aside.  In the words of Marky Mark, “If you ain’t in to win, then get the hell out.”

Before the baseball season started, I ran a little experiment.  I am a casual baseball fan at most, and I made my predictions on all the division winners and both league’s wild card winner.  For the heck of it, I compared my predictions to those of Sports Illustrated team of experts, as well as my four year old son Hunter.  In the case of Hunter, who has never seen a baseball game, I asked him to point to the teams icons, and I disregarded his choice if he picked a team that finished more than ten games out of first place last year.  Heck, he is four…give him a break!

The results at the mid-point of the season?  Basically, a three-way tie!  This may of course change, before the season ends, but I thought it would be interesting to check in at mid-season.  Well, I thought it would be mildly interesting but the real reason I am doing it is because Beth wants me to do some yard work, and I am doing this while pretending to be doing something more important.  But, I digress.

Of the eight possible seletions (three division winners and a wild card in both the American and National leagues), all three of us got a whopping two correct. In the AL East, only Hunter had the Red Sox in first place.  None of us have the Tigers winning the Central, nor did any of us pick the Yankees to be the wild card team as they would be if the season ended today.  We all predicted the Angels to win the AL West.

In AAA, er, the National League, I alone predicted the Phillies to win the NL East, and SI alone had the Dodgers to win the AL West.  Nobody predicted the Cardinals to win the NL Central, nor did anyone think the Giants would win the wild card.

Keep this in mind next time you hear a sports prediction from a so-called expert.  You could literally almost predict the division winners at random and your predictions would be as accurate as people who do this thing for a living!

Gordie Howe:  Howe is an interesting figure.  Many will tell you he was a big tough man.  Reality check: he was 6’1”, 205 pounds, the same size as the Fabulous Moolah.  I am bigger than Gordie Howe, and I am not even big for an accountant.  He does own various career records, but that is primarily because he played until he was 137 years old, the same age as the Fabulous Moolah.  Only once in his career did he score more than 100 points (in 1964, when he was 84 years old and played with a walker instead of skates).  His teams often contended for the Stanley Cup, but he won only four despite playing in just a six team league.  He was  a goon and a cheap shot artist who had almost as many penalty minutes as he did points. You do have to respect the fact that he played for 12 decades, and that his shirt was worn by Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  Those are his two greatest career accomplishments.

Actually, I am only having fun with Gordie.  For my money, he is the 3^rd best hockey player ever, right after the Great Gretzky, and Bobby Orr.

Michael Jordan:  I am certainly not going to dispute that Jordan is amongst the greatest athletes ever.  He was.  I just believe that his greatness has been dramatically over stated by people who should know better.  I have heard some people say that he was the greatest athlete of the 20^th century.  He was not…Babe Ruth was.  Others have said that he was the greatest basketball player ever.  Again, he was not.  That honor goes to Bill Russell, who only won 11 NBA championships.  Others have said he was amongst the handful of greatest players in the history of college basketball, which is absurd.  He was certainly a very good player at the college level, but was not even the second  best player on his own team for most of his career.  If you Google his biography, undoubtedly it will claim that he lead North Carolina to the NCAA title in 1983.  He did no such thing…he was only the 3^rd best player on that team, after James Worthy and Sam Perkins.  Others have said he was by far the best player of his generation.  This is kind of true.  He was the best player of his own generation, but he was not head and shoulders above everyone else.  He was a little bit better than Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.  Between those two they won eight NBA championshsips.  While Jordan won more than either of them (six), the reality is that he did not face elite competition during his title years.  He did not win his first title until Johnson and Bird were slowed by age.  This is not a coincidence.  His Bulls teams could not have beaten the Magic Lakers teams or the Bird Celtics teams consistently.  The teams he defeated in the finals were not elite teams.  He defeated a past its prime Lakers team, and then a series of mediocre conference champions, including the Portland Trail Blazers, Phoniex Suns, Seattle Supersonics, and Utah Jazz twice.  All good teams…none of them as good a the Celtics, Lakers, or Pistons teams of the 1980s.  It is telling that when Jordan took his two year hiatus, the NBA titles were won by the Houston Rockets, who were simply not very good.  Had Jordan and his Bulls teams played five years earlier, Jordanmight be remembered like George Gervin:  A guy who scored a lot of points, but was not a winner.

Tiger Woods:  I have heard many people say that Tiger Woods is the greatest athlete today.  Those people are over-looking one important fact: GOLF IS NOT A SPORT, AND GOLFERS ARE NOT ATHLETES.  If you are going to count Tiger Woods as an elite athlete because he a great golfer, I want to know who the best croquet, lawn darts, bowling, and billiards players are, because those activities take about as much athletic skill as does golf.  Golf was invented by wealthy middle-aged out-of-shape men in Scotland, to avoid spending time with their families eating Scottish pudding, listening to their seven year old play the bagpipes, and wearing a kilt.  Golf takes no athleticism whatsoever.  Gosh, Bob Hope was good at it.  I believe Tiger is a good athlete, but I also believe that there are a few guys in my gym who are better all around athletes than he is. 

Phil Rizutto:  This career 273 hitter was an above average shortstop who had the good fortune to have  played on many great teams. He had one terrific season (1950) in which he won the MVP and that was it.  He was elected to the Hall of Fame 38 years after he retired only because of the influence of the New Yorkmedia, which worked hard to get him elected because they liked him and because he was a Yankee.  His mediocrity as a player was more or less overlooked due to the success of the teams he played on.  It’s like KC Jones being elected to the NBA Hall of Fame, which he was:  a nice role player who won a lot of championships because of the talent around him.  Rizutto was certainly a very good player, an entertaining broadcaster, and a fine gentlemen.  But, he was not amongst the 25 best shortstops ever to play the game.

The Pittsburgh Steelers Offense of the 1970s:  The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s are arguably the greatest dynasty in NFL history. They were lead by a dominant defense –  the greatest ever assembled.  The offense was above average…but nothing great.  Despite this, the offense produced five hall of famers, and the defense only produced four.  People who grew up watching this team like I did will be shocked to hear this.  Perhaps this unit’s over-rated status was exemplified by Lynn Swann, who was nothing more than an above average receiver throughout his career.  People have glorified him because of a handful of spectacular catches in two Super Bowls.  But in a nine-year career, he made three pro bowls and only one AP All Pro Team.  Let’s ompare his career to that of Stanley Morgan, who played in approximately the same era but would never be seriously considered for a the hall of fame. 

Swann:  336 catches, 5,462 yards, 16.3 YPC, 51 touchdowns.

Morgan  557 catches, 10,716 yards,19.2 YPC, 72 touchdowns.

This is not even close.  Morgan had 65% more catches, almost twice as many yards, and 40% more touchdowns, playing on a much worse team than did Swann (Swann also had a hall of fame quarterback throwing to him).  And Swann is in the Hall of Fame and Morgan is not. Ridiculous.  And, the reputations of almost the entire offense of that era is viewed through the same unrealistic prism, all because they had the good fortune to be teamed with the greatest defense that ever was.

Bo Jackson:  Many have called Bo Jackson the greatest athlete ever, supposedly because he was great in two professional sports.  A more accurate description would be that he was mediocre in two professional sports.  He played professional baseball from 1986 – 1994.  During this time he batted less than 250 with 141 home runs and 415 RBIs, and was a one-time all star.  He hit 30 home runs and 100 RBIs only once each, and, despite making the occasional spectacular play on defense, was a below average fielder.  In four seasons in the NFL, he accumulated for 2,812 all purpose yards, and 16 touchdowns.  He was useless as a blocker and rarely caught a pass. Marshall Faulk had similar numbers in one season as Jackson accumulated during a career.  Perhaps he would have been better had he stayed healthy, but that’s the point:  he was never able to stay healthy, in high school, college, or the pros.  While he may have been one of the most talented athletes ever, he was not one of the best ever.  Eventually, you have to produce.  Jackson never did.

Muhammad Ali.  “The Greatest” was anything but.  While he was certainly one of the greatest heavy weights of all time, he was not the greatest ever and may not have even been the greatest of his era.  He had three fights against Joe Frazier.  History records that he won two of them; reality suggests that he lost all three. In his first fight against Frazier, Frazier won by unanimous decision.  In the second fight Ali won by decision.  However, Ali cheated throughout the match by pulling down on Frazier’s head during clinches (over the course of a lengthymatch this paralyzes the neck and is illegal).  Frazier’s corner complained about this throughout the fight, and the referee acknowledges that this cheating happened.  The referee gave a rather puzzling explanation for why he allowed Ali to cheat so blatantly throughout the match:  Frazier himself did not complain, only his corner men did.  Failure to complain, in his eyes, meant that the illegal tactics we acceptable.  In the 3^rd fight, Ali beat Frazier when Frazier’s corner stopped the fight after the 14^th round.  Unbeknownest to Frazier, Ali had already instructed his corner to stop the fight (this was confirmed by Ali’s doctor).  Ali quit, and Frazier wanted to keep fighting but was not allowed to (he was seen standing and arguing with his team at the end of the 14^th round).  History records Ali as the winner, but he was the one who quit and was too exhausted to continue fighting.  Ali also lost other fights, including to Ken Norton and Larry Holmes.  He also fought a so-so fighter named Jimmy Young, and won by decision.  However, this was an awful fight, but one most thought Ali lost. Young literally stepped leaned outside the ring to avoid contact on more than one occasion during the bout, a la a WWF wrestler.  Ali barely beat Chuck Wepner, who may have lost to the Fabulous Moolah had they fought (interesting footnote:  in this fight Wepne was the inspiration for Rocky Balboa and Ali for Apollo Creed).  While Ali was a great fighter, George Foreman who fought in the same era was arguably more dominant.  Ali’s career records was 56-5 with 37 knockouts.  Foreman’s record during the same era was 69-2 with 65 knockouts, fighting largely the same fighters (Foremen lost a couple of matches in the 1990s, but the 69-2 mark is more relevant in comparisons with Ali since those fights happened in roughly the same time frame as Ali’s career span). The fact that Ali beat Foreman in their only head to head bout is not persuasive.  Foremen beat Frazier and Norton easily withearly round knockouts, and both of those fighters defeated Ali. 

Joe Namath:  The most over-rated athlete in the history of western civilization.  He has attainted a place in football history because his was the first AFL team to win a Super Bowl, and because he had predicted it in advance against all odd.  In the case of Namath, the reality never lived up to the hype.  People have overlooked the fact that he had just an okay game in the Super Bowl, his supposed shining moment.  Namath threw for 208 yards, no touchdowns, and a passer rating of 83 while his team scored just 16 points.  It was the Jets defense who carried the day, limiting the Colts to only one touchdown.  For his career, Namath completed only 50% of his passes (not good even during the era in which he played), with 173 touchdowns and 220 interceptions.  His career QB rating was 65.5, a full ten points lower than that of Roman Gabriel, a contemporary of Namath who is considered a mediocre player.  Of the 150 players who have enough career attempts to qualify for career passer ranking consideration, and only 17 have a lower quarterback rating than Namath.  Namath is a case of a guy who is not even a mediocre quarterback…he is actually a bad NFL quarterback whose one shining moment has changed his image forever. 

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 4^th 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 8^th 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 3^rd player to score 700 goals, and still ranks 4^th 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.

When one thinks of California, there are certain things that inevitably come to mind:  the entrepreneurial spirit of the Silicon Valley, beautiful beaches, the movie industry, and silicon enhanced body parts certainly top anyone’s list.  I think it is time to add incompetent government as part of the culture.  And, the rest of us now have to bail them out.

I’m not going to get partisan here, and I don’t know all the nuances of California state government, but it appears that the state has fallen apart before our eyes under the leadership of – wait for it – Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Undoubtedly the state legislature is his partner in incompetence.

Don’t get me wrong – I love Arnold.  I love almost everything about him.  I love his work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit.  I love his love for America, which I am certain is genuine.  I love that he is one of the few Hollywood stars to be made to another celebrity (Maria Shriver) and has a normal marriage and family life.  I even like some of his movies (Running Man was quite under-rated). 

What I most love about Arnold:  He has to be the most famous person whose name is frequently misspelled, at least in the United States.  Off-hand, if I were to make a list of celebrities whose names are most difficult for Americans to spell, I would have to include:

• Dan Aykroyd (but he is married to Donna Dixon; what does he care)
• Nick Buoniconti (part of the Miami Dolphins’ “No Name Defense.”  If all his teammates names were so hard to spell, you can understand why they’d call themselves that.
• Warren Buffett (frequently misspelled as if a breakfast buffet).
• Snoopp Doggy Dogg
• Brett Favre.  Rhyme with carve.  As in “carve out my coach’s heart every time I throw a bone-headed interception and cost my team the game.” 
• Dianne Feinstein.  I’d question the judgment of her parents for doing this, but it worked out okay for her.  She married a billionaire, and he bought her a seat in the US Senate.
• Mike Krzyzewski.  Called “Coach K” by all.  Nobody would call him “Plumber K” or ”Attorney K.”  He is lucky to be a coach with a nickname like. If he were a special assistant to the coach, would he be “Special K?”
• Kay Bailey Hutchison (not Hutchinson). 
• Barack Obama (it’s not like he is in the news much)
• Condoleezza Rice, probably the only name with two e’s followed by two zs in the history of western civilization.
• Jon Stewart (my bet – people occasionally misspell both his first and last names)
• Barbra Streisand (no a between the b and the r). Think how successful she’d be if she had parents who could spell.
• Carl Yastrzemski (I almost got into a fight with him a few years ago when I would not let him cut me and 50 or so other people at Best Buy a week before Christmas).

Any way….Arnold was elected Governor in a special recall election when the voters of California decided to recall the aptly named Gray Davis, who was simply too dull to be the governor of such a dynamic and important state.  The recall election attracted some of California’s leading intellectuals, including Gary “Whatchoo talkin’ bout Willis” Coleman and adult film star Marey Carey (another hard to spell name).  Against all odds, Arnold beat this group of cerebral heavy weights and was elected governor of the great state of California.  With hind sight, they may have been better off with the porn star.

From a purely fiscal standpoint, Schwarzenegger has been a disaster.  He has been called the best governor that the states contiguous to California have ever had, because businesses have been flocking to those states in droves during his time in office. Massachusetts experienced a similar phenomenon under Governor Dukakis, when businesses and tax payers fled to New Hampshire in unprecedented numbers to avoid his oppressive taxation and anti-business policies.  Naturally we almost elected him President.  Since Schwarzenegger’s election, more Americans have moved out of California than have moved in for the first time in that state’s history. California’s business costs are more than 20 percent higher than the average state’s.  If, since 1990, state spending increases had been held to the inflation rate plus population growth, the state would have a $15 billion surplus instead of a $42 billion budget deficit, which is larger than the budgets of all but 10 states. You got that:  California’s budget deficit is larger than the budget of 40 states.  Since 1990, the number of state employees has increased by more than a third. In Schwarzenegger’s less than six years as governor, per capita government spending, adjusted for inflation, has increased nearly 20 percent.  He makes Mike Dukakis look competent and fiscally responsible.

In normal times, I would not really care. We don’t live in normal times.  California is inevitably going to get tons of bailout money and, its voters will be rescued from their own incompetence and irresponsibility.  And why?  Why should voters in, say, Kansas, have to pay increased taxes to bail out California.  Kansas lived within its means, does not offer its citizens any where near the government services California does…and is being punished for its maturity and responsibility.  When Katrina hit Louisiana in 2004, nobody griped when we bailed that state out.  Those folks were victims.  California is going to get a much bigger bail out…and they cannot claim victimhood, unless repeatedly voting in the same incompetent politicians year after year makes you a victim.  The state that has elected such great leaders as Pat Brown, Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson is reduced to mendicancy.   Who’da thunk it?

Questions:

• What celebrity names do you find it most challenging to spell?
• If it were your decision, would you have the other 49 states bail out California, or would you force the citizens to pay more taxes, cut government services, and start to elect competent leaders?
•  Did you ever think you’d see a blog that mentioned Mike Dukakis and Snoop Dog in the same post?

I had lunch today with a VC friend of mine, whom I will call Obi-Wan. His role is largely recruiting for his firm’s portfolio companies, so he has a really good perspective on the job market for financial and other executives. Here are some of Obi-Wan’s observations:

* He has never seen so few CFO jobs since he has been a VC…including right after the dot.com crash. And, he’s not sure that the job market for CFOs will pick up any time in 2009.
* Expects A-round funding to continue to be slow for a while…but also thinks 2010 will be a better year to raise money than 2009 will have been.
* Compared to historic averages, VCs will be putting a higher % of their $$ into existing portfolio companies than into new ventures. Obi Wan’s theory is that they want to keep their current investments strong rather than pursue new and riskier ventures. Naturally they won’t be pouring money into under performing companies….but if you are making your milestones, you should be able to keep the investors in the fold.
* Management teams of venture-backed companies should get used to tighter scrutiny from their investors than in years past. This will elevate the importance of competent financial and accounting professionals in these firms…though the role will be a bit more of a watch dog and less of a strategist than it had been in recent years.  Well, that’ no fun!
* To that end…Obi-Wan thinks you’ll see more venture-backed companies hire solid controllers rather than full-time CFOs, and may hire a part-time CFO to come in a few days per month and do some of the transactional stuff (e.g., equity events, bank debt negotiations, complex revenue transactions). So, the $175K per year CFO might be replaced by the $115K per year controller supported by a $60K per year
PT consultant. I pointed out the flaw in his analysis, but I lost the argument!   Hey, I nickname the guy Obi-Wan for a reason!
* More and more they will allow companies to skip an annual audit as a short-term money saving tactic…again reducing the need for a CFO.  Since I work for a CPA firm, you can imagine I was thrilled with this.
* Presently, he is very skeptical of the number of folks who are doing part-time or interim work. If you have done that kind of work for years and have a track record, you are golden. If you had more traditional employment for the last several years, lost your job and are now doing the part-time CFO stuff, you may struggle a bit convincing investors that you are not just doing it until you get a “real job.” You may be better off joining an established firm vs. going alone.  But, if you are really going to do it, his suggestion was to put some money into proving your seriousness of purpose: get a website, get real business cards, get some marketing material, etc….
* CFOs who talk about helping grow revenue and have a history of doing this will be in demand. And, yes, I too, noticed that this contradicts his theory that the role is more of a watch dog than in the past.
* IPO Experience - over-rated, M&A experience under-rated. If you have been able to do an M&A in this market that gets all of the VCs a reasonable ROI, you have done something special.

Honestly, I wish I had taken notes during the conversation, because he’sa fascinating and brilliant guy…and more opinionated then almost anyone I’ve ever met. I got all of the above simply by asking him what he thought of the CFO job market, as I know a few great CFOs who are job hunting. I am not sure that any of the above will come as a shock to many of you, but I thought I’d share it just the same.

I recently started a job with a CPA firm on Portland Street, which is several hundred yards from the TD Banknorth Garden (“the Gah-den”).  I park my car in the Gah-den’s underground garage.  The first few two weeks that I worked there were interesting because the Bruin and Celtics were both involved in playoff series (sadly both losses), making leaving the parking lot at the end of the work day a bit of an adventure.  And, believe it or not, the maximum daily rate to park there is (I kid you not) $58.  My first suit out of college did not cost that much.

During my first two weeks, I was a victim of a new and insidious form of hatred, which I will call “follicle profiling.”  That’s right – I was harassed for the crime of parking while bald!  The Bruins and Celtics combined to play four home games at times I was in the office.  During those four games, three different times I was approached by the police and taken to the security office, where security personnel went through my personal belongings.  All three times I feel that I looked professional, dressed in a suit and tie, carrying my laptop back to my car.  Something about my appearance attracted security’s attention:  my hair – or lack thereof.  You see, I am a bald who shaves his head.  This makes me a criminal in some people’s eyes.

I do not believe that the security guards were bad people or baldists.  But clearly, they do have subtle prejudices against bald men.  How can I, a respected and well-educated business person simply trying to go home the end of the work day, be considered a threat, just because I am bald?  And, there are other, more subtle forms of baldism.  Are you aware that since the advent of television, the United States has not elected a non-incumbent President who was bald?  Lyndon Johnson was re-elected in 1964…but he became President only because of the assassination of President Kennedy.  This pairing in and of itself was a form of subtle baldism – many feel Kennedy had the nicest hair of any President in US history, and he was elected President largely on the basis of this hair.  A bald man like Johnson, despite being far more experienced and capable than Kennedy, had no shot at being elected President because Americans simply don’t want a bald man as their leader.  If you look at every presidential election since 1968, in every case the candidate with the nicer hair won except George W. Bush, who arguably defeated two men with nice hair than his own (Al Gore and John Kerry).  John Edwards in 2004 was picked as a vice presidential candidate primarily for his thick, lustrous hair.  And, it is nice hair.

In the United States, the government does not have the right to conduct searches based solely on follicle profiling. The 4^th Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the right to be safe from unreasonable search and seizure without probable cause. Since the majority of people of all hair styles are law-abiding citizens, merely having a hair style which a police officer or security official believes to be more likely to commit a crime than another is not probable cause. In addition, the 14^th Amendment requires that all citizens be treated equally under the law. I would argue that this makes it unconstitutional for a security official to make decisions on what people pose a security threat based on hair style. Follicle profiling involves police use of hair style as a factor in decisions to stop and interrogate people. I found on source that defined it as “the practice of constructing a set of characteristics or behaviors based on hair style and using that set of characteristics to decide whether an individual might be guilty of some crime and therefore worthy of investigation or arrest.”  In airports men of Middle Eastern descent claim with credibility that they are more likely to be stopped and searched thoroughly than, say, a blonde female of European ancestry. As a bald man, I feel that I suffer a similar indignity, and a similar violation of my civil rights, as these Middle Eastern men.

Questions:

• If you are a bald man, have you ever been the victim of discrimination in a hiring or a promotional opportunity?
• To the women reading this, would you prefer to date an  intelligent, nice and successful bald man, or an unemployed sociopath with a history of violence with hair like John Edwards?
• When you see a man with a shaved head dressed in a suit and tie, carrying a laptop bag, do you automatically think he might be a terrorist?