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Classic Sports Card of The Day

13 Jun

1972 Topps football card of a player mentioned in a recent post on this blog as one of the biggest NFL draft busts ever, former Philadelphia Eagle Leroy Keyes. Keyes was a highly-regarded safety out of Purdue and was the third player selected overall in the 1969 draft, behind O.J. Simpson and George Kunz. Keyes wound up playing 5 seasons in the league with the Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, but never really panned out. Perhaps his “bust” status is amplified by the fact that with the choice right after he was taken by Philly, the Steelers picked Hall of Fame defensive lineman and Steel Curtain anchor  “Mean Joe” Greene.

 
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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

 

Classic Team Logo of The Day

09 Jun

Logo of the Chicago Stags, who played in the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball Association from 1946 until 1950. They had a fairly successful team in their short existence, compiling a winning record in each season. Some of their notable players were Max Zaslofsky, Gene Vance and Stan Miasek. They also once owned the draft rights to Bob Cousy, but never signed him.

 
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Classic Sports Card of The Day

09 Jun

1961 Fleer basketball card of former Boston Celtic star K.C. Jones, courtesy of www.CheckOutMyCards.com . Jones joined his college teammate Bill Russell in the NBA and played 9 seasons, all with the Celtics, winning 8 championships. Known as a tenacious defender (as most of the Celtic players of that era were), Jones was an eight-time NBA All Star and was elected to the basketball Hall of Fame in 1989. After his playing days ended, he embarked on a successful coaching career, and won 2 NBA titles as coach of the Celtics in the 1980s.

 
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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

 

Classic Team Logo of The Day

08 Jun

Logo of baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies, used from 1950 until 1969. This era included the 1950 “Whiz Kids” team that won the National League pennant, led by stars like pitchers Robin Roberts and Curt Simmons and hitters like Del Ennis, Willie Jones and Richie Ashburn. It also included the infamous 1964 season when the club, managed by Gene Mauch, held a 6 1/2 game lead in the National League with 12 games to play, then proceeded to lose 10 in a row in a historic collapse known as “The Phold”. That team, despite the collapse, included some of the Phils’ best players in their long history, such as Dick Allen, Jim Bunning, Chris Short, Tony Taylor, Bobby Wine and Johnny Callison. The pitching staff also included a man who would go on to manage the Phils to a World Series title – Dallas Green.

 
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Classic Sports Card of The Day

08 Jun

1962 Topps baseball card of one of the premier power hitters of all time, Harmon Killebrew, who passed away recently. Nicknamed “Killer”, he is second on the all-time American League list of total career home runs, trailing only Babe Ruth. Killebrew played 22 seasons in the majors, for the AL Washington/Minnesota franchise and the Kansas City Royals, mostly in an era when the game was dominated by pitchers, which makes his power numbers even more impressive. He was an eleven time All Star and was voted AL MVP in 1969, when he clubbed 49 HRs and drove in 140 runs. His jersey # 3 has been retired by the Twins, and he was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1984.

 
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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

 

Classic Team Logo of The Day

06 Jun

This is a special logo of one of the National Hockey League’s “original six” franchises, the Boston Bruins, who are currently competing in the Stanley Cup Finals. It signifies the 25th anniversary of the team – in 1949. The team’s original colors were brown and yellow, patterned after owner Charles Adams’ grocery store chain colors, and was changed to the current black and gold in 1939. The Bruins are without a doubt one of the NHL’s most storied teams, and in their first quarter century of existence had some of the game’s most historic figures associated with them. Their original general manager was Art Ross, whose name is on the league’s trophy for annual scoring champion. Hall of Fame players from this era include Dit Clapper, Babe Pratt, Milt Schmidt, Tiny Thompson, Harry Oliver, Eddie Shore, Bobby Bauer, Roy Conacher and Frank Brimsek.

 
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Classic Sports Card of The Day

06 Jun

Courtesy of www.CheckOutMyCards.com , a 1985 Opeechee hockey card of former NHL player Ray Sheppard, who played 14 years in the league. He started his career with the Buffalo Sabres but played for 6 different teams , and was known as a “sniper”, a guy with a knack for scoring goals. His best season stastically was in 1993-94 when he scored 52 goals for the Detroit Red Wings. He holds the unfortunate status of having been sold by the Sabres, in 1990, to the New York Rangers, for a dollar. Sheppard is an avid golfer, and was named the 2nd best golfer, among athletes who aren’t professional golfers, by Golf Digest magazine.

 
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