Observations while hunting for a Ryan rookie....

[Bigdaddy]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

We are all just primates and we naturally are drawn to the alpha males. In all sports that manifests in the allure of physical power. The 500 foot home run, the slam dunk, a slapshot goal, a knockout. All of the 'overrated' athletes have power in common. My favorite basketball player is Wilt Chamberlain. He holds most of the scoring records in the NBA and is the greatest force of all time by a staggering margin. First in career rebounding % (him and Russell are 25% better than the next leaders). Led the league in Win Shares 8 straight years and is #2 alltime (Russell is 20th). #2 alltime in scoring %. He's Goliath come to life. We had a big debate on the boxing page over Tyson. There are probably 8-10 heavyweights with better resumes than Tyson (he lost to two guys who are better than him by all objective measures, Holyfield and Lewis) yet his card valuations are second to Ali. It's the power. All the collectors who came of age during his reign remember the savage KOs (against mostly tomato cans, but that doesn't seem to bother them). Joe Louis, who was a much better fighter (Louis and Ali are neck and neck for GOAT), is far behind Ali and Tyson in collecting terms. One of the iconic postwar cards is Jim Brown's RC. He was the personification of a smashmouth fullback who led the league in rushing every year of his career except one and still is the alltime record holder for yards per game. At his best he just ran through defenders. There are objectively better backs but none with the aura he has.

When he was on Ryan was the most dominant pitcher I ever saw. I watched him throw a complete game shutout (one of 61 he had) and never saw a pitcher make an entire team look amateurish like that. That ability to dominate your foe is manna to our monkey-minds and makes legends.

I still need the damn rookie card.

Well said and I agree 100%. That's why we also like Mickey and Sandy. Power. Even though Mick struck out a gazillion times and Sandy took a few seasons to learn how to pitch. You came out to the park to see them perform more than all the other players on the field put together. The same for Bo Jackson.

We dig the long ball - and the strikout and knockout. More so than the stolen base, double play or winning a fight on points.