The Atlanta Braves

#253,826
#253,826
005 said:
I'm too young to properly evaluate this but I sometimes think no athlete has ever benefited more from "folks saw the utterly amazing version and projected from there forevermore."

There's my hot, unfounded take.
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Won the Heisman. Played in the NFL. Homered to lead off an All Star Game. Dude really was that big of a freak.
 
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#253,830
#253,830
YankeeVol said:
He is the only professional athlete in history to have been named an All-Star in two major American sports. I'd say that's pretty good.

Jackson also qualified for the NCAA nationals in the 100-meter dash in his freshman and sophomore years.
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Bo Jackson would likely have been a HOFer in football had he just focused on football. In baseball, he was good obviously, but not the nearly as amazing as he was in football.

Deion's sports career might be more impressive, considering his baseball career was also fairly decent, but in football he is arguably the GOAT at the CB position.

I would also present the original GOAT athlete, Jim Thorpe, who set a world record in the decathlon while wearing mismatched shoes that weren't even his size.
 
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#253,832
#253,832
Dave Winfield could have went pro in 3 sports, decided on baseball and is in the HOF.

Jim Brown is one of the best of all time in football and lacrosse.

Arguments are fun but they can never be definitive
 
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#253,837
#253,837
Bo Jackson was so fast he successfully stole bases at a 70% clip which translated to today’s terms… would mean exactly zero franchises would even let him attempt a stolen base.
 
#253,839
#253,839
Unfortunately I was too young to see Rickey Henderson in his prime. How many bases would he be stealing in today's game with bigger bases and limits on pick off attempts? 150? More? He stole 130 in 1982.
 
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#253,840
#253,840
Carp said:
Unfortunately I was too young to see Rickey Henderson in his prime. How many bases would he be stealing in today's game with bigger bases and limits on pick off attempts? 150? More? He stole 130 in 1982.
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One thing I always lose sight of with him (his prime years were before my time too) is how good of a hitter he was. When his name gets brought up in conversation today people talk about the base stealing, and rightly so, but he routinely had OPS+ numbers in the 140s and 150s. The year he won MVP it was 189. He hit 28 HRs and walked 97 times that year.

He played in an era where BA mattered more, and he hit at least .300 in 7 seasons and .289 or better in another 4.
 
#253,841
#253,841
05_never_again said:
One thing I always lose sight of with him (his prime years were before my time too) is how good of a hitter he was. When his name gets brought up in conversation today people talk about the base stealing, and rightly so, but he routinely had OPS+ numbers in the 140s and 150s. The year he won MVP it was 189 (also hit 28 HRs and walked 97 times that year).

He played in an era where BA mattered more, and he hit at least .300 in 7 seasons and .289 or better in another 4.
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Genuine case for the most underrated ballplayer ever, I think.
 
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#253,842
#253,842
005 said:
Genuine case for the most underrated ballplayer ever, I think.
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Maybe him or Stan Musial?

I don't think Musial did anything of note defensively, but I've never thought it was as well known as it should be how good of a hitter he was. Overshadowed by Yankees teams and their stars, plus Ted Williams maybe?
 
#253,843
#253,843
05_never_again said:
One thing I always lose sight of with him (his prime years were before my time too) is how good of a hitter he was. When his name gets brought up in conversation today people talk about the base stealing, and rightly so, but he routinely had OPS+ numbers in the 140s and 150s. The year he won MVP it was 189. He hit 28 HRs and walked 97 times that year.

He played in an era where BA mattered more, and he hit at least .300 in 7 seasons and .289 or better in another 4.
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I didn't realize he posted 111 bWAR. That's better than any non-steroid hitter of the last 50 years. Even Pujols barely cracked 100 bWAR.
 
#253,847
#253,847
05_never_again said:
Maybe him or Stan Musial?

I don't think Musial did anything of note defensively, but I've never thought it was as well known as it should be how good of a hitter he was. Overshadowed by Yankees teams and their stars, plus Ted Williams maybe?
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I think before sabermetrics, Rickey had a case. But over the last 15 years he has really started to get his due as one of the greatest baseball players of all-time and top 10 hitters post integration.

Musial is tough because he started his career before WWII. He's an icon. I think he's just too old to get brought up in discussions and passed away 13 years ago.

I actually think the most underrated player post-integration is Frank Robinson. Everyone remembers him as the first black manager in MLB and then the grumpy old manager before the Expos moved. He's maybe the best RH hitter since integration behind Mays and Aaron. He also played his prime in the 60's when offense cratered in baseball. Unlike Mays, he didn't have the dazzling defense/SB numbers. Unlike Aaron, he didn't quite have the astounding longevity numbers. But he's a career 153 wRC+. And because he split his prime in 2 cities that are not major markets, he rarely gets mentioned.
 
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#253,849
#253,849
zjcvols said:
I think before sabermetrics, Rickey had a case. But over the last 15 years he has really started to get his due as one of the greatest baseball players of all-time and top 10 hitters post integration.

Musial is tough because he started his career before WWII. He's an icon. I think he's just too old to get brought up in discussions and passed away 13 years ago.

I actually think the most underrated player post-integration is Frank Robinson. Everyone remembers him as the first black manager in MLB and then the grumpy old manager before the Expos moved. He's maybe the best RH hitter since integration behind Mays and Aaron. He also played his prime in the 60's when offense cratered in baseball. Unlike Mays, he didn't have the dazzling defense/SB numbers. Unlike Aaron, he didn't quite have the astounding longevity numbers. But he's a career 153 wRC+. And because he split his prime in 2 cities that are not major markets, he rarely gets mentioned.
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Every time the Braves played the Expos when I was a kid, and they showed Frank Robinson in the dugout (always agitated looking or about to fall asleep), my dad would mention what a great player he was. I always laughed and thought he was kidding; you couldn't just look him up in those days like you can now.
 
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