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Archive for the ‘Feature Stories’ Category

NFL – Top Five Head Coaches of All Time

08 Jul

Picking the top 5 NFL head coaches of all time was a difficult task, so difficult that what I wound up doing was splitting the list into two categories. There are some glaring names missing from this particular list, but that’s because even though those names, it could be argued, belong on this list, they were included, instead, on a future list of the 5 most innovative coaches of all time. Here are my choices for the best head coaches, in no particular order:

1. Chuck Noll – it’s hard to believe that a coach who guided his team to 4 Super Bowl titles in a decade would be underrated, but Noll never seems to get mentioned a lot when the greatest coaches are discussed. Those 4 Super Bowl wins, by the way, are more than any other coach in league history has. Noll coached the same franchise, the Pittsburgh Steelers, from 1969 until 1991, and the club was a perennial contender almost every year he led them. A lot of people don’t realize that the Steelers were  the losingest team in the NFL when Noll took them over. He completely transformed the culture there, from a team with a rough-and-tumble (some would say dirty) defense but a losing mentality, into the most respected franchise in the NFL.

2. Vince Lombardi – like Noll, Lombardi took a team that was a loser and built them into an NFL dynasty that dominated the decade of the 1960s. Although he didn’t match Noll’s 4 Super Bowl wins, Lombardi’s Packers won the first 2 Super Bowls, and 3 more in the early ’60s before the big game was played. Those Green Bay teams won 5 NFL championships in 7 years. Critics have said that anybody could’ve won with all the great players Lombardi had at his disposal, but I would counter that argument by saying that those players, like Bart Starr, Max McGee, Ray Nitschke, Jim Taylor, Willie Davis, etc. reached greatness BECAUSE of Lombardi.

3. Don Shula – he’s the winningest coach in NFL history, and his teams in Baltimore and Miami were annual contenders. Shula’s 1972 Miami Dolphins are still the only team in league history to complete a regular season and playoffs undefeated. He was a master of molding his teams into winners based on whatever type of roster he had – winning with great quarterbacks like John Unitas and Dan Marino, with journeymen QBs like Earl Morrall and David Woodley, and with a punishing running game coupled with a stifling defense like his two-time Dolphin Super Bowl-winning teams. Former Houston Oiler coach Bum Phillips once paid Shula this down-home tribute: “He can take his’n and beat your’n, and take your’n and beat his’n.”

4. Joe Gibbs – he recently came out of retirement to coach his old team – the Washington Redskins – and that didn’t work out well, but in his original 12-year stint as coach, he guided the ‘Skins to the playoffs 8 times and to the Super Bowl 4 times, winning 3 of them. His legacy is his ability to build winning teams without superstar players. His quarterbacks for the 3 Super Bowl wins were Joe Theismann (a “too short” CFL reject), Doug Williams (a flop in Tampa Bay) and the ultimate journeyman QB, Mark Rypien. Gibbs’ career is a lesson for NFL owners in showing patience, as the ‘Skins started out 0-5 in Gibbs’ first year in 1981.

5. George Halas – “Papa Bear” was much more than just a coach – he was a founder, president, owner – the face of the Chicago Bears franchise for decades. He won 6 NFL championships in 4 different decades, a tribute to his longevity in the game. It was Halas’ record for most career wins that Shula broke late in his career. He was a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963, and actually coached the Bears to the NFL title that year. The NFC Championship Trophy is named for him. Overall, he was a part of the game for 63 years, 40 as a coach.

 
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Posted in Feature Stories, Football

 

NBA – Five Players Who Changed The Game

05 Jul

Professional basketball has evolved more than any other sport over the years – from a game dominated by white, two-handed set shot players to the athletic players of today. The three-point shot altered the game also, as did the outlawing, then re-instituting, the use of zone defense. Here are 5 players who changed the game during their careers:

1. Wilt Chamberlain – if this photo looks familiar, it’s because “Wilt The Stilt” was recently included as one of the top 5 centers of all time also. Like George Mikan before him, Chamberlain was a physical freak who dominated opponents. Because of his domination, the NBA widened the free throw lanes and instituted the three second rule to try to cut down on that dominance. It is also said that league referees called more goaltending violations against him because of his shot-blocking ability.

2. Julius Erving – “Doctor J” entered pro ball with the fledgling ABA and helped create excitement for the new league with a dazzling style that promoted athleticism, leaping ability and tremendous body control. His dunks throughout his career were legendary and still are shown on highlight shows. Erving evolved into a consummate team player and helped the 76ers win a championship, and his play was so much more than just the dazzling dunks he is remembered for. He is considered the player who launched the modern-day style of playing above the rim into the NBA.

3. Drazen Petrovic – Petrovic, along with the Lakers’ Vlade Divac, ushered in the era of the dominating European players. He helped blaze the trail for other Europeans, ironically starting his NBA career with the Portland Trailblazers. He was an outstanding shooting guard and eventually became a serviceable player with the Nets. Unfortunately, he died in a car accident in 1993, cutting his NBA career to only 5 years. Although his full potential was never realized, there’s no denying his contribution of helping bring European players to the pro game.

4. Magic Johnson – “Magic” entered the NBA along with Larry Bird in 1979, and their rivalry throughout the 1980s helped revive interest in the game. He teamed with Kareem Abdul Jabbar and a talented Laker team to win 5 NBA titles during the decade, and was a 3-time league MVP. The thing that puts him on this list, however, is his unique style of play. He was a 6’9″ point guard, unheard of in the game back then, and displayed tremendous athleticism for his size. Magic got all his teammates involved in the game and made the players around him better – even star players like Jabbar, James Worthy and Jamaal Wilkes. A defining moment in his career was in the 1980 Finals, when he started at center in place of an injured Jabbar and played a great game. He was Finals MVP that year, his rookie season.

5. Michael Jordan – like both Dr. J and Magic before him, Jordan entered the NBA with high expectations, and wound up exceeding those expectations. Early in his career, amazingly, Jordan was going through the same thing LeBron James is now. His Bulls’ teams couldn’t get past the bad boy Detroit Pistons and critics began to say he couldn’t win the big ones. Jordan didn’t run off to join a team with better players to try to help him win – he stayed in Chicago and lifted those Bulls’ teams to 6 NBA titles, and is arguably the most talented, and most exciting player of all time.

 
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Posted in Basketball, Feature Stories

 

Top 5 Baseball Managers of All Time

24 Jun

My top five baseball managers of all time will not include legends like Joe McCarthy, Connie Mack or even Casey Stengel. McCarthy and Mack don’t qualify since they managed way before my time, and Stengel doesn’t make the list because I only remember him as manager of the hapless expansion Mets in the early 1960s (“Can anybody here play this game?”). My only other recollection of him is his being fired after the Yankees lost the 1960 World Series to Pittsburgh, and that must have been a good decision since his replacement, Ralph Houk, won the next 2 Series titles. I didn’t include any active managers – that might make a good future “list” post. Those who deserve mention but didn’t make the cut include Lou Piniella, Earl Weaver, Tommy Lasorda, Bobby Cox, Whitey Herzog  and Gene Mauch. Here are my choices, again, in no particular order:

1. Walter Alston – this guy is the reason why the Dodgers, from their Brooklyn days on into the move to Los Angeles and beyond, were always one of the most stable franchises in baseball – at least they were up until the last couple of years. He managed the club for 23 years and won 7 pennants and 4 World Series titles. He managed the NL to victories in the all star game 7 times. His long tenure as manager of the same team is even more remarkable when you add in the fact that he worked on one-year contracts for the entire 23 years. Alston was elected into Cooperstown in 1983.

2. Sparky Anderson – like Alston, Anderson’s longevity was his trademark, as he managed in the major leagues for 26 years. The difference is he did it with 2 different teams – the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers. Anderson guided the vaunted “Big Red Machine” to 2 World Series titles in Cincinnati, then won another title with the Tigers in 1984, becoming the first manager to win a World Series in both leagues. Anderson was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2000.

3. Billy Martin – there was much more to Martin’s managerial career than his celebrated feuds with owner George Steinbrenner and animated arguments with umpires. His stints with the Yankees became almost comical, as he was hired 5 different times as manager there, but he also helped revive a once proud franchise and returned them to glory in the mid-1970s, winning 2 pennants and a World Series. His best attributes as a manager were being a genius on strategy and turning losing teams into instant winners, which he pulled off not only with the Yanks but in Minnesota, Detroit, Texas and Oakland. Martin would probably be considered the best manager of all time had he not battled alcohol problems his entire career, which got him fired at almost every stop.

4. Dick Williams – this is one of baseball’s most under-rated managers. Williams won 2 consecutive World Series titles with the Oakland A’s in the early 1970s, and also had successful runs as a manager prior to that in Boston and after his Oakland years in San Diego. In Boston in 1967, he guided the underdog Red Sox to their first pennant since 1946 and although they lost the World Series to the heavily-favored St. Louis Cardinals in seven games (3 of the 4 losses were to Bob Gibson), it was considered a great job of managing by Williams. He led the talent-laden A’s to their titles, proving he could win with both underdogs and talented players. He managed the Montreal Expos for a short stint, turning that franchise into a winner also, and in 1984 led the Padres into the World Series with another ragtag roster, but they lost the Series to Anderson’s Tigers.

5. Joe Torre – Torre was a good but not spectacular manager in earlier jobs with the Mets, Braves and Cardinals, but found his niche when Steinbrenner hired him to lead the Yankees. His hiring wasn’t popular with the NY media, as they dubbed him “Clueless Joe”, but in 12 seasons as manager, he guided the Yanks to the playoffs every season and restored the Bronx Bombers to prominence, winning 4 World Series titles. It’s possible that Torre’s managing career may not be over, which would mean he’d have to be moved to the “active” list of great managers. If that happens, it would probably be Herzog who replaced him on this list.

 
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Posted in Baseball, Feature Stories

 

“Is This Heaven?, No, it’s Iowa.” My Five Favorite Sports Movies

20 Jun

Rocky, Remember The Titans, Safe At Home, Pride of  The Yankees, Rudy, Brian’s Song, Bull Durham, Bad News Bears, Hoosiers and League Of  Their Own. These are all films that get honorable mention on my list of favorites when it comes to sports movies. The 2 toughest to eliminate were Pride Of The Yankees, with Gary Cooper’s great portayal of Lou Gehrig, and League Of Their Own, based on the true story of a women’s professional baseball league that existed during the war years, a film that included Tom Hanks’ classic line “There’s no crying in baseball!” Here are the five sports films that made the cut – my favorite sports movies of all time, in no particular order:

1. Slapshot – a 1970s classic comedy about a minor league hockey team, starring Paul Newman as  aging veteran Reggie Dunlop, who is trying to hang on with the Charlestown Chiefs, a motley group that included the goonish and unforgettable Hanson Brothers (above). The Chiefs are a perennial loser and a financial mess, and are scheduled to fold at season’s end. Dunlop, actually the team’s player/coach, has the Chiefs start playing “goon” hockey and turns them around. The team’s final game, in which they play the Syracuse Bulldogs and their rookie goon – Ogie Ogilethorpe – is a hoot. The film came out in 1977, right around the time the old Philadelphia Flyer “Broad Street Bullies” were dominating the NHL using a style just a little less violent than the Chiefs.

2. Paper Lion – this 1968 classic chronicled author George Plimpton’s foray into pro football. Alan Alda played Plimpton, who had earlier pitched in a baseball all-star game and boxed 3 rounds against Sugar Ray Robinson, then written about his adventures. Plimpton has a hard time finding a team to buy into his idea, and my favorite scene in the movie is pictured above. Plimpton (Alda) is unsuccessful in convincing Green Bay coach Vince Lombardi to let him try out for the Packers, and as he escorts him to the door, with a sly grin Lombardi asks Plimpton “have you tried the AFL?”  When the film was made Lombardi’s Packers had demolished the AFL champs in the first 2 Super Bowls so the line was a real “shot”. Plimpton eventually gets the Detroit Lions to agree to let him try out, and the actual Lion players used in the film turned out to be pretty good comedic actors, especially Alex Karras, who went on to enjoy a decent acting career. The film is not an Academy Award winner, but I love it because it takes place in the golden era of NFL football that I grew up following in the 1960s.

3. The Natural – this movie was panned by some critics when it came out for being too hokey, but those critics didn’t get it. The movie was made from an old book, and was  intentionally made in the sappy, storybook style of the author, Bernard Malamud. Robert Redford was terrific as the movie’s hero, Roy Hobbs, who attempts a comeback after mysteriously disappearing from the game. Robert Duvall, one of my favorite actors of all time, plays an impish sportswriter trying to figure out Hobbs’ story. Hobbs reunites with an old flame, played by Glenn Close, and in the end discovers that he is the father of her young son. Hobbs’ game-winning home run at the end, which breaks the scoreboard and sets off an electrical fireworks display (see picture above) is a little over the top, but again, it’s a fantasy movie with a fantasy ending.

4. Major League – any movie that ends with the Cleveland Indians winning the pennant is going to be on my all-time favorites’ list. This film may be the best comedy sports movie ever made however. It is filled with great comedy moments, like Bob Uecker’s radio play-by-play (“juuuuust a bit outside”) and Pedro Cerrano’s locker room voodoo ceremony designed to help him hit a curve ball.  There  are memorable characters, like Wesley Snipes’ portrayal of the cocky Willie Mays Hayes, crusty manager Lou Brown and of course, Charlie Sheen as the “Wild Thing”, pitcher Rickie Vaughn. The team is inherited by a rich widow who wants to move it to the warmer climate of Miami, and she orders the general manager to field the worst team he can so they’ll lose and make it easier for her to relocate from Cleveland. Tom Berenger, as washed-up catcher Jake Taylor, and Corbin Bernsen, as highly-paid prima donna Roger Dorn, battle throughout the movie but ultimately they all come together in the end. The movie spawned 2 sequels, but those never lived up to the original.

5. Field of Dreams – “Is this Heaven?”  No…it’s Iowa.” A classic line from this fantasy film about baseball and its’ timeless place in people’s lives. Kevin Costner, who has starred in numerous sports films, plays Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella, who hears voices in his cornfield telling him “if you build it he will come”. To the dismay of his family, he then builds a baseball diamond in the cornfield, and eventually the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson shows up with a squad of old deceased ballplayers who begin playing on the field. Kinsella then is compelled to go out and find author Terence Mann, played by James Earl Jones, after the “voices” tell him to “ease his pain”. After picking up Mann in Boston in his van, the pair both see a vision on the scoreboard involving a “Moonlight” Graham, another player of the past who played one inning in the major leagues but never got a chance to bat. Graham, in his later years after he became Doctor Graham, is played by Burt Lancaster in his final movie role. Obviously, with the plot of the movie involving ghosts, voices and even time travel (Kinsella finds the older Graham when he leaves his motel room and suddenly it’s 1972), this film is total fantasy, but it is a great film that has a lot of life lessons to be found. The movie received 3 Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture, a rarity for sports movies.

 
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Posted in Feature Stories, General

 

NFL – Five Players Who Changed The Game

13 Jun

This particular list is not a “best of” or a list ranking anything or anybody. It is a list of 5 NFL players whose contributions to the game of professional football were so unique that they actually changed the sport. There were 4 players considered but not included that deserve mention. Two of them are quarterbacks – Slingin’ Sammy Baugh and Joe Montana. I never saw Baugh play so he wouldn’t have made the list anyway, but he deserves credit for being an innovator in the passing game. He basically introduced the forward pass as a major weapon in the game. Montana perfected the offense that is a major part of today’s game, the West Coast offense.  Montana’s San Francisco teammate, Jerry Rice, revolutionized the wide receiver position, and Chuck Bednarik, as the last of the great two-way players, deserve mention also. Here are the five players, in no particular order, who changed the game of pro football:

 

1. Joe Namath – Broadway Joe did a couple of things to move the game into the modern era. He signed a $400,000 contract with the upstart AFL, which pushed the 2 leagues into merger talks, then solidified the credibility of the new league by first guaranteeing, then delivering, a shocking upset win over the Colts in Super Bowl III.

2. Deacon Jones – David “Deacon” Jones revolutionized the way defense was played in pro football during his career. He was the first to use the term “sack” to describe tackling the opposing quarterback for a loss while attempting to pass. During his playing days, the “sack” wasn’t kept as an official statistic, but in the 1967 and 1968 seasons he recorded 50 of them, an unbelievable total never matched since the stat has been kept officially. Jones, nicknamed “The Secretary of Defense”, also used the “head slap” on opposing offensive linemen trying to block him, a tactic that has since been outlawed from the game. He is, in my opinion, the greatest defensive player in the history of the game.

3. Jim Brown – Brown, as an NFL running back in the late ’50s and ’60s, was a physical freak of nature. His combination of size and speed had never been seen before, and he was a dominant force in the pro game during the 9 seasons he played, changing the way the game was played. Brown actually played the fullback position, which in today’s game is pretty much relegated to nothing more than a blocking back. Brown, with his size, is one player from his era who, if transported through time and dropped into today’s NFL, could easily not only thrive, but dominate. There is no question that he changed the game.

4. Pete Gogolak –  when he entered the pro game by joining the AFL’s Buffalo Bills in 1964, no one had any idea how much of an impact the Hungarian-born Gogolak would have on the future of the game. He was pro football’s first soccer-style placekicker. Before he arrived on the scene, kickers in pro ball were straight-on kickers, and usually played another position on the team, like George Blanda (quarterback) and Lou Groza (tackle). Gogolak introduced specialization to the placekicker position, and the game was changed forever.

5. Steve Tasker – in the late 1980s, Tasker joined the Buffalo Bills, became a terror on kick coverage teams, and revolutionized the “gunner” position on those teams. Tasker’s coach, Marv Levy, was a former special teams coach and made special teams just as important of a unit on those Bills’ teams as the offense and defense. It’s because of how Tasker revolutionized playing the “Bomb Squads” that today, a special teamer is added to the Pro Bowl teams every year, and for the first time ever, special teamers are being discussed seriously as Hall of Fame-worthy players.

 
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NBA – Top Five Centers of All Time

09 Jun

In pro basketball the “big man” in the middle has always been a key component of any winning team. There have been many great ones over the years, so picking a top 5 was difficult. The center position has been played differently by some players, for instance – Wes Unseld of the old Washington Bullets would be on the list if you considered rebounding and defense. Bob McAdoo of the Buffalo Braves was a scorer and left the “dirty” work to the power forward. There were a couple of players who were tough to leave out – Hakeem Olajuwan, who would definitely be in any top 10 list, and George Mikan, a trailblazer in the game in the early days. I never saw Mikan play so in keeping with my policy on compiling these lists, he wasn’t included. Also, Dave Cowens was another player considered. He did everything well, and was a winner. Here are my top 5 NBA centers of all time:

1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – this was an easy pick. In my opinion, Kareem is not only the top center of all time, but, with apologies to Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic, Dr. J., etc., is also the greatest basketball player of all time. He entered the NBA in 1969 (as Lew Alcindor) and within a year guided the expansion Milwaukee Bucks to a championship. He played 20 years in the league, and won a total of 6 titles and 6 MVP awards. He was a 19-time all star, was voted to the all-defensive team 5 times, and when he retired held the league record for points scored, games played, defensive rebounds and blocked shots. His signature “sky hook” shot was basically unstoppable.

2. Bill Russell – without a doubt, Russell was the greatest defensive center of all time. However, his game was much more than that. He was a great rebounder, clutch scorer and all-around unselfish player. Russell played for the Boston Celtics from 1956 until 1969, serving as player/coach for his last 3 seasons. He won 11 NBA titles in his 13 year career, and was MVP 5 times, and was a 12-time all star. His legacy is really that he could have easily compiled better career numbers, but sacrificed personal stats for the good of his team, a team that was a total dynasty during his stay there. He is the most unselfish superstar of all time, in any sport.

3. Wilt Chamberlain – “Wilt the Stilt” was one of the greatest professional athletes of all time, a player who changed the game and was so dominant he forced rule changes by the sport to slow him down. He winds up on this list in a spot he spent a lot of time in during his playing days, one spot behind Russell. However, that doesn’t diminish the greatness this man displayed over the 15 years he played. He was one of the most durable players of all time, and put up tremendous numbers. He won 7 league scoring titles, led the league in rebounding 11 times and even led the league in assists once. He is the only player in NBA history to average more than 40 and 50 points for a season. He once scored 100 points in a game. Also called “The Big Dipper”, Chamberlain’s career was dotted by his failures in head-to-head matchups against Russell, but he was a winner. He was 13-time all star, league MVP 4 times and played on 2 NBA championship teams.

4. Shaquille O’Neal –  “Shaq” recently retired from the game after an outstanding career. Like Wilt, he is a physical phenomenon who changed the game. He was a dominant force in the middle for every team he played on, and forced opposing teams to use a unique strategy to try to stop him – taking advantage of the one weakness in his game, poor foul shooting, by running bench players into the game to foul him intentionally. In his career, he was a 15 time all star, won 4 NBA titles and was Finals MVP 3 times, and retires as the 5th highest scorer in league history.

5. David Robinson – this is probably the only surprising name on this list. “The Admiral” attended the Naval Academy, and served 4 years in the Navy, so his NBA career didn’t start until he was 24 years old. Still, he managed to play 15 seasons, was an NBA all star 10 times, and played on 2 championship teams in San Antonio. Like Russell, his game wasn’t about stats, and he was a tremendous all-around center, with high career numbers in scoring, rebounds and blocked shots. He was NBA all-defensive team 8 times.

 
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Posted in Basketball, Feature Stories

 

MLB – Top 5 Left-Handed Pitchers of All Time

08 Jun

One of the most valuable commodities for any major league baseball team to have is good left-handed pitching. Today I am listing my choices for the five top left-handed starting pitchers of all time. I did not include players from baseball’s old “dead ball” era like Eddie Plank and Lefty Grove, since their stats are somewhat skewed. My choices are therefore limited to players that I’ve actually seen pitch. Here are my picks for the 5 greatest “southpaws” of all time:

1. Sandy Koufax – Koufax has been called a “Supernova” because he played 12 seasons in the majors, but his best work was compressed into 6 years, from 1961 to 1966, when he was the most dominant pitcher in the game. He won 3 Cy Young Awards, and was voted the award unanimously all 3 times. He was a seven time all star, won 4 World Series and was Series MVP twice. He pitched 4 no-hitters in his career, and in 1963 was voted NL MVP, an award rarely given to a pitcher. My personal memory of Koufax, which pushed him to the top of this list, is the 1965 World Series when his Los Angeles Dodgers met the Twins. He refused to pitch the opening game because it fell on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, and the Twins won the first 2 games. After the Dodgers battled back to tie the Series, Koufax pitched a complete game shutout in Game 5, then after the Twins won to force a game 7, he came back on 2 days rest and pitched a 3-hit shutout to clinch the title for the Dodgers.

2. Whitey Ford – it amazes me how little respect this guy gets when people discuss the greatest all-time pitchers in baseball history, and that probably is due to the fact that he played on New York Yankee teams, for 16 years, that were loaded with marquee players. Still, to his teammates and Yankee fans, Ford is “The Chairman of The Board”. He was a 10 time all star and pitched for 6 World Series-winning teams in New York. He won the Cy Young Award in 1961, when only one Cy Young was awarded, not one in each league, and was also World Series MVP that year. Ford was a dominant post-season pitcher, with 10 World Series wins. He started Game One in a World Series for the Yanks 8 times. The one year he didn’t, in 1960, the Yanks lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games, and Ford only was able to start twice, winning both times.

3. Warren Spahn – if this list were based on longevity alone, Spahn would be at the top. He pitched for 21 years, and was a 20-game winner 13 times, including a 23-7 season when he was 42 years old. His 363 career wins are the most of any left-hander in baseball history. Baseball awards the “Warren Spahn Award” annually to the the game’s top southpaw. Really, you could rearrange the top 3 on this list in any order and get no argument from me. A story that best describes Spahn – on July 2, 1963, at age 42, he was involved in an epic pitchers’ duel with the Giants’ 25-year old ace, Juan Marichal. Both hurlers threw complete games in a battle that lasted 16 innings, finally decided, 1-0, by a Willie Mays solo homer in the bottom of the 16th off Spahn. Marichal threw 227 pitches that day, Spahn 201 in the loss.

4. Steve Carlton – Carlton’s career ended in 1988, and one stat he possesses is an indictment of today’s pitchers. He is the last pitcher from any team to throw 300 innings in a season. Also on his resume are 4 Cy Young Awards, 10 all star appearances, 2 World Series titles, a plaque in the Hall of Fame and even a Gold Glove Award for his fielding. In 1972, pitching for the last place Phillies, “Lefty” won 27 games, a remarkable feat considering his team won a total of 59 games all season. 

5. Randy Johnson –  “The Big Unit” was clearly not only one of the top southpaws of all time, but one of the top pitchers period. He won more Cy Youngs (5) than the others on the list, had more career strikeouts, and threw 2 no-hitters, including a perfect game. He is third on the all-time list for hit batsmen, so he was a throwback intimidator who used his 100+ MPH fastball and cutting slider to his advantage. Johnson was also a 10-time all star, and not only won a World Series (with the Arizona Diamondbacks) but was MVP of the Series. The stat that landed him at the #5 spot is his paltry 100 complete games in his 22-year career. By comparison, Spahn had 382, Carlton 254, Koufax 137 in 12 seasons, and Ford 156 in 16 seasons.

 
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Posted in Baseball, Feature Stories

 

NHL – Top Five Goaltenders of All Time

06 Jun

Television today is loaded with various reality shows. They are everywhere and range from the interesting to the ridiculous. Another type of show that has become popular is the “list” show, where topics like “Best TV Moms Of All Time” or “Greatest One Hit Wonders of the ’80s” are covered, usually by a group of washed-up celebrities. I find these shows interesting since they stir up debates over whatever topic they are listing, and I’ve decided to begin doing the same thing on this blog with sports topics. I’ll start today with a list of the 5 greatest NHL goaltenders of all time. This was a tough list to compile, since there have been so many great ones over the years. I’ve left off the list a couple who are probably a bit underrated because they played on talent-laden teams – Billy Smith of the New York Islanders and Grant Fuhr of Edmonton. There are a couple who will be on most people’s list but didn’t make the cut on mine – Gerry Cheevers and Dominik Hasek. Bernie Parent was a tremendous goalie but doesn’t have the longevity of the others. The one man who was toughest to eliminate from the final list was Johnny Bower, who helped Toronto win 3 Stanley Cups in the 1960s. He was one of the best and played for many years, but in my opinion was one of the guys who “hung around” during the expansion days long past his best years. Despite leaving Bower off the list, 3 of my top 5 are old school guys from the 1950s and ’60s who played a lot of their careers without masks and without the advantage of the modern equipment and padding that today’s goalies have. Here are my choices:

1. Terry Sawchuk – I featured the photo above on an earlier post where I proclaimed Sawchuk as the greatest goalie of all time. He played most of his career in the pre-mask era and his face shows the effects. During his career, he won 4 Stanley Cups and 4 Vezina Trophies, and despite not being technically sound, he stopped nearly everything and was known as a great competitor. He had 103 shutouts in his career, the most in history until Martin Brodeur surpassed him. In my opinion, he deserves the top spot on this list for courage alone.

2. Patrick Roy – if this were a top ten list, it would probably have 4 Montreal goalies on it. Roy is the best goaltender on a franchise that defines the sport. He won 4 Stanley Cups, 2 with the Canadiens and 2 in Colorado, and was the Conn Smythe Trophy winner 3 times. Roy was one of the greatest clutch performers at the position of all time.

3. Martin Brodeur – although my list favors the old-timers, you can’t ignore excellence no matter what era it was achieved in. Brodeur has won 3 Stanley Cups and 4 Vezinas, and is the only active goalie on my list, so his stats are still fluid. As stated above, Brodeur surpassed Sawchuk for all-time career shutouts, and like Roy did in winning his 2 Cups in Montreal, he backstopped teams that had no business winning championships in New Jersey. Like Roy, he was the difference in his team being championship calibre and being average.

4. Jacques Plante – another old school Montreal goalie makes the list. When you look at his career numbers, you have to figure that he should be higher – he backstopped the Habs to 5 CONSECUTIVE Cups in the late ’50s, won 7 Vezina Trophies and even garnered a Hart Trophy as league MVP once. Those Montreal teams did have some of the greatest players of all time on their roster however. Plante was an innovator also – he was the first to don a mask (after taking a shot to the nose).

5. Glenn Hall – another of the greats from hockey’s golden age. Hall won 2 Cups and 2 Vezinas, but his greatest career achievement may be this – he started 502 consecutive games in goal. There is no way any of today’s pampered players ever touch that mark, which obviously is an NHL record.

 
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Posted in Feature Stories, Hockey

 

Happy Birthday, Yogi Berra!

12 May

When you’re a sports fan, over the years you develop a “love” for the teams you follow in each sport, and almost as much of a “hate” for the teams that are their rivals. As more and more time goes by, however, you come to realize that that “hate” grows into what is more of a respect – respect that the “hated” team gave you a lot of aggravation because your team just couldn’t beat them. My “hatred” for coach Don Shula was monumental during the years that his Miami Dolphin teams dominated the Buffalo Bills, but looking back, there was no way those Bills’ teams were going to compete with Shula’s Miami teams. So the “hatred” becomes respect once you have the perspective of realizing that the guy was one of the best, arguably THE best, NFL coach of all time.

I’ve been a Cleveland Indian fan my whole life, and my “hatred” for the New York Yankees goes back a good 45 years, since the Indians have been consistent losers most of those years while the Yankees have been dominant. I still catch myself checking out the baseball scores and being momentarily upset when I see that the Yankees beat say, the Twins or the Tigers, then realize – “wait, that’s a good thing for the Indians.” Old habits die hard. In the case of the old Yankee teams I grew up despising, I really have a great deal of respect for them now. Looking back, the 1950s/’60s dynasty was winding down in the first few years I remember following baseball, and in actuality they struggled for most of the decade of the ’60s. I have the utmost respect for the Yankee players of that era now – guys like Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Clete Boyer, Elston Howard, Moose Skowron, Tony Kubek, Bobby Richardson and especially Roger Maris. In my mind, Maris’ single-season home run record of 61 still deserves an asterisk, only now the asterisk should be followed by the statement – “the REAL non-chemically enhanced single-season record.”

Out of all those old Yankee players, the guy you can’t help but love is Lawrence “Yogi” Berra, whose birthday is today. Yogi was nearing the end of the line when I remember him playing, but I do remember him being a tremendous clutch player, even at the end of his playing days. With apologies to Johnny Bench and Carlton Fisk, Berra is the greatest major league catcher of all time. He may also be the greatest ambassador for the game that baseball has ever had. I don’t know if there has ever been a person born on the planet who loves baseball more than Yogi, and any time I catch a show that includes him telling old baseball stories or giving a tour of his museum, I can’t help but stop and watch. Thank you, Yogi, for being a part of an era in baseball when I learned to love the game, even though at the time I thought I “hated” you. And Happy Birthday, Yogi! Here’s wishing you many, many more birthdays too, even though, as you would say – “the future ain’t what it used to be.”

 
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NFL – A History of Draft Busts

26 Apr

The National Football League’s annual player draft is scheduled for later this week, and despite the fact that the league and its’ players are locked in a labor dispute, there is still plenty of excitement among fans as their teams add what are hopefully the missing pieces to becoming a competitive championship contender. Inevitably, some of the most hyped players in this year’s draft will turn out to be busts. Finding a franchise quarterback has been a hit and miss thing over the years. For every Peyton Manning and Phillip Rivers, there is a Ryan Leaf, Tim Couch or JaMarcus Russell. Teams like the Cincinnati Bengals, Arizona Cardinals and Buffalo Bills regularly blow it on high draft picks, so it’s not an accident that those teams are perennial losers. Look at the names over the years for these teams – for the “Bungles”, there’s Ki-Jana Carter, Peter Warrick, Akili Smith, Dan Wilkinson and David Klingler. The Cardinals have chosen Matt Leinart, David Boston, Eric Swann, Kelly Stouffer and Steve Pisarkiewicz. Buffalo’s picks have included Walt Patulski, Tom Ruud, Erik Flowers, J.P.Losman, Mike Williams and Tom Cousineau. When the Bills picked O.J. Simpson first overall in 1969, it turned out to be a pretty good pick. The second pick that year, made by the Philadelphia Eagles, was defensive back Leroy Keyes. Leroy who?

So when the NFL teams begin choosing college players this Thursday and then do interviews praising their picks as the greatest athletes ever, remember these names – Ryan Leaf, Brian Bosworth, Tony Mandarich, Todd Marinovich, Rick Mirer, Andre Ware, Jeff George, “Pacman” Jones, Art Schlichter, Lawrence Phillips and Todd Blackledge. This list of draft busts includes a combination of players who were over-hyped, self-promoted (remember “The Boz”?), chemically enhanced, emotionally immature and even prone to criminal activity.

ESPN has been running a series of programs titled “Jon Gruden’s QB Camp” and “Jon Gruden’s Rookie Camp” in which Gruden, a former Super Bowl-winning NFL coach and current Monday Night Football analyst, puts this year’s draft prospects through the paces, both on the field and in a meeting room/interview atmosphere where he looks at game film of each player, with that player, and asks for explanations of why they made a certain decision, on both good and bad plays. He asks tough questions about the player’s character, and how they’ll handle the media scrutiny when they are in the NFL. The programs offer terrific insight into the personalities and mindsets of each player, and changed my opinion of some players, both positively and negatively. The quarterback programs were especially enlightening, and showed me that some of these guys are a little too much style and not enough substance, while others who are considered second or third round picks might be getting short-changed. ESPN also ran another special that detailed the drafting of Tom Brady and the six quarterbacks who were drafted ahead of him. It included footage of Brady’s combine workouts, where he looked like a skinny, gawky junior high kid who had no business trying to pass himself off as a pro football prospect. It just goes to show you how hard it is to measure a potential player’s heart.

 
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