The Atlanta Braves

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.
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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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.
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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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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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.
 
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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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.
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.
 
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.
Genuine case for the most underrated ballplayer ever, I think.
 
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Genuine case for the most underrated ballplayer ever, I think.
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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