Job Discussion Forums

[JosephP]

Make that Richard Campbell...sheesh!

[china_sk8er]

Everyone knows who all these people are and everyone knows what they have done for their sport. They talk about the greatest people that everyone has referred to as the greatest. I am talking about Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretsky, etc...

But what about the underrated players that are great? Nobody talks about them.

I found this article on the most underrated players of all-time and I thought that I would add them to the list. There are ten of them but I am sure that people will add more...sorry for the length but their achievements need to be known

Truly great players of their sport and in no particular order...

1. Stan Musial
Current MLB players didn't rank Stan the Man as among the top six living ballplayers in a recent SI survey. But they're not alone in their ignorance. In 1999, Musial, No. 4 all time in hits, seventh in slugging, and near the top of the all-time leaderboard in just about every major batting category, wasn't voted by fans onto MLB's all-century team (he was added as a special pick). In 22 Major League seasons, Musial was an All-Star 20 times, an MVP three times, a batting champ seven times.

Lenny Moore
As Eddie Epstein, author of "Dominance, the Best Seasons of Pro Football's Greatest Teams" says about Moore, "He was Marshall Faulk before Marshall Faulk." And the numbers back it up. In 12 seasons with the Colts (1956-67), Moore ran for 5,174 yards, averaging 4.8 yards per carry. That's all good. But add to that 6,039 receiving yards -- an average of 16.6 yards a catch. That's all great. Moore, who played both flanker and running back, scored 113 touchdowns, led the Colts to NFL titles in 1958 and 1959, was a seven-time Pro Bowler and once scored TDs in 18 straight games, still an NFL record.

3. Arky Vaughan
Approach any baseball fan, and chances are that if they've heard of Vaughan, they don't know anything about him. Here's the first thing you need to know: he was one of the greatest shortstops of all time, playing from 1932-43 with the Pirates and then in 1947-48 for the Dodgers. He was an NL All- Star nine straight years. In 1935, he set Pirates team records with a .385 batting average and .607 slugging average, records that still stand. And he led the NL in on-base percentage for three straight years, from 1934-36.

4. Rod Laver
Rocket Rod is the only tennis player to sweep all grand slams twice (1962 and 1969), and won 11 Grand Slam tourneys in all, tied for third on the all-time list. If he hadn't been barred from 21 Slam tourneys after turning pro (before the Open era began), he would have won even more. Powerful and fast, Laver won a remarkable 17 singles titles in 1969.

5. Lefty Grove
Maybe the best pitcher ever, Grove, who spent the first half of his career with some great Philadelphia A's clubs, won 20 games seven years in a row, led the league in ERA nine times (most of any pitcher in history), retired with a 300-141 record and 3.06 ERA in a hitter's era. Everybody knew how great he was when he was playing, but he has absolutely no name recognition among today's fans.

6. Bob Hayes
The world's fastest human -- Hayes won the Olympic 100 meters title in 1964 while tying the world record -- made himself into one of the NFL's best wide receivers. Hayes remains, to this day, the only man to win both Olympic gold and a Super Bowl ring, which he picked up when the Cowboys won it all in 1972. He has HOF stats, HOF respect from his peers, and practically created the zone defense on his own, because nobody could cover him man-on.

8. Goose Gossage
Between 1975 and 1985 he was the best relief pitcher in baseball (making the All-Star team nine times during that stretch), and certainly ranks among the greatest relievers of all time. He pitched for 22 years, was the saves leader three times and among the top six in saves nine times. Five times he was also among the top six vote-getters for the Cy Young award. 124 wins, 310 career saves (during a time when saves meant a whole lot more than they do today), but still, Goose isn't in the Hall of Fame. That's an injustice.

9. Adrian Dantley
Maybe it's because he never got a ring. Maybe it's because he played for seven teams during his 15-year career. For some reason, Dantley, twice an All-American at Notre Dame, an Olympic gold medalist, the NBA rookie of the year in 1977, a six-time All-Star during the 1980s, one of the NBA's all-time leading scorers (his 24.3 points per game is 14th on the all-time list), rarely gets mentioned when folks talk about the greatest of all time, or even of his time.

10. Ray Guy
The NFL named Guy the punter on its all-time team, for good reason: he was a key to Oakland's Super Bowl winning teams of 1976, 1980, and 1983. In 14 seasons (1973-86), he punted 1,049 times and averaged 42.4 yards with lots of super hang time (one of his punts hit the video screen on the Superdome's ceiling). He didn't have a single punt blocked. And Guy was noted for being an excellent all-around athlete (he was the Raiders' emergency QB), a player who could have done more than punt if he hadn't been so valuable as a punter.

[jpvanderwerf2001]

Thought you had a good thing going until I saw the punter on the list. I mean, c'mon.

[matttheboy]

Football-Maradona, the only man to win the world cup single handed (so to speak, the dirty cheat). Pele won the world cup with class players all around him, Maradona won it with a bunch of sugar cube fed donkeys on his side. It really pains me put him as number 1, being English, but at least he'll be kicking it for the last time very soon, an event i'm looking forward to very much seeing as i live in Buenos Aires!!

Rugby-Johny Wilkinson, still only 25 and clearly the best fly-half ever seen

Athletics-Daley Thompson, the decathalon being the ultimate test and Thompson being the ultimate athlete

Baseball-yaaaawwwwwwwnnnnnnn

US football-bang, the sound of head hitting the table after passing out through sheer boredom

Greatest team ever-West Brom with Robson, Regis, Cunningham and Batson, a joy to watch even after 25 years (i'm 26)!

[matttheboy]

By the way, people that go on about Ali being a 'great man' seem to be overlooking his days as a black supremacist when he made comments (regularly) along the lines of 'black women who marry white men should be killed'.

He talked a good fight but a lot of the time his views were simply a mirror image of the KKK supporting bigots he was fighting against. His association with severely right wing black activists is a major blot on his copybook and something which is almost always airbrushed out of his life. It wasn't even touched on in the film with Will Smith...He certainly helped the civil rights movement and should be highly commended for that but his life is not as black and white as some believe.

Great fighter, always. Great man, sometimes...

[donfan]

[Gordon]

[donfan]

[jpvanderwerf2001]

[JosephP]

"I have played rugby and American football, and they are both tough sports. However, the possibility for injury is much greater in American football for a variety of reasons, like the set plays from scrimmage, receiving patterns, and proximity of huge lineman at the line of scrimmage (and these are but a few). Knee and neck injuries are very prevalent (you would understand if you have ever been trap blocked). Not only this, but the players in American football are much bigger (overall) than rugby and Aussie rules."


I almost kacked my pants laughing when I read this. Following this logic being the bull in a Spanish bullfifht is desirable because, hey -- it's tough being the bull. Imagine having horseriders sticking sharp objects in your back. Cool, eh? Then some git in tight pants irritates the crap out of you and then thrusts a sword through your back into your heart. Effing brilliant.

[jpvanderwerf2001]