OT: Who would you put on your sports Mt. Rushmore. This is harder than it sounds...

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by Louieman

Babe Ruth
Jackie Robinson
Muhammad Ali

The fourth one I'd leave open for the athlete who basically becomes the Jackie Robinson for the LGBT community.

There would be no such thing as a Jackie Robinson for the LGBT community. LGBT is not barred from playing professional sports thus having to play in their own league until they are given the chance.

Every sport has already had a LGBT person play.

If you are worried about inequality in sports look at women. I would love to see if Chelsea Baker ever gets a chance with a pro baseball team.

[Louieman]

Originally Posted by bn2cardz

There would be no such thing as a Jackie Robinson for the LGBT community. LGBT is not barred from playing professional sports thus having to play in their own league until they are given the chance.

Every sport has already had a LGBT person play.

If you are worried about inequality in sports look at women. I would love to see if Chelsea Baker ever gets a chance with a pro baseball team.

What I mean is someone who would have the same impact as Jackie did for African-Americans. Yeah there are LGBT athletes, and none are being barred, but as someone who represents the community on the level that Jackie did, I don't think that person has really been in the public eye like that. Sure, Chelsea Baker would be great, or someone similar. And btw, yes LGBT athletes are not barred from sports, but the general culture of sports sure hasn't done much to encourage LGBT athletes

[HOF Auto Rookies]

Originally Posted by Louieman

What I mean is someone who would have the same impact as Jackie did for African-Americans. Yeah there are LGBT athletes, and none are being barred, but as someone who represents the community on the level that Jackie did, I don't think that person has really been in the public eye like that. Sure, Chelsea Baker would be great, or someone similar. And btw, yes LGBT athletes are not barred from sports, but the general culture of sports sure hasn't done much to encourage LGBT athletes

Unfortunately, Michael Sam didn't work out. His draft reaction was pretty cool to see.

To add, no opinion on whether it compares to Jackie etc. Just commenting on someone who was a huge headliner for not only sports news, but national news.


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[PolarBear]

Eddie Gaedel

[deucetwins]

Secretariat or American Pharoah should get some discussion. Athletes and non-human.

For the backside (busts): Todd Marinovich, Quincy Carter, Sam Bowie (picked before Jordan).

[jbhofmann]

Originally Posted by deucetwins

Secretariat or American Pharoah should get some discussion. Athletes and non-human.

For the backside (busts): Todd Marinovich, Quincy Carter, Sam Bowie (picked before Jordan).

I had a whole paragraph typed up to push Secretariat but deleted it because I thought I'd get laughed at.

There's not a single event that gives me bigger goosebumps than seeing him open up and just run at the Belmont.

[Kalineman]

Ali, Ruth, Jordan and Gretzky

[Vintageclout]

Originally Posted by jbhofmann

I had a whole paragraph typed up to push Secretariat but deleted it because I thought I'd get laughed at.

There's not a single event that gives me bigger goosebumps than seeing him open up and just run at the Belmont.

Fyi, you would be 100% correct by placing Secretariat on that list. What SEC accomplished in the Triple Crown, racings greatest stage, was unprecedented and will never be repeated again. To place his 3 TC wins in perspective, if you put all 3 races together, he would have beat American Pharoah by 57 lengths or 456 yards (1.5 football fields!!!). In fact, when ESPN completed a poll of the greatest 100 athletic accomplishments, Secretariat's Belmont Stakes run was ranked 2nd, only behind Chamberlain's 100 point game. No horse has ever come within 9 lengths of his 1.5 mile dirt track Belmont Stakes record....talk about dominance and separating yourself from your peers. In his Kentucky Derby win he ran each quarter mile fraction faster than the preceding one, accelerating the entire 1.25 mile race, also unprecedented in race horse history. As a final nail in the coffin, he still holds the fastest times for ALL 3 Triple Crown races, covering over 150 years, over 4,000 race horses and approximately 450 races! Bottom line is Secretariat stretched the physical limits of what the standard thoroughbred race horse should be able to accomplish and THAT is what truly defines superiority in sports. It's not just that he won great races, it was the manner in which he won them. As a side note, his iconic stature is likewise monumemtal, and if you are old enough to have been around in 1973, he was the most significant sports personality in the world, even appearing on the front cover of 3 major periodicals in the same week (Time, Newsweek & Sports Illustrated).

That said, my top 4 sports icons are: Ruth, Ali, Jordan and Secretariat. All 4 have the perfect combination of incredible feats for their respective sports, coupled with an "unearthly" stature versus their peers. Whether an animal should be considered an Athlete will always be open for discussion, but for my money, Big Red's unprecedented performances have earned him the right to join this iconic list. If ESPN can classify him as an athlete, that's good enough for me.

Regards,
JoeT