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Men's hockey / Greatest of All Time
« on: December 03, 2014, 11:11:32 pm »
With the passing of Jean Beliveau (and unfortunately seemingly the imminent passing of Gordie Howe), I wanted to raise a question. Who is the greatest of all time?
To me, it probably comes down to only three names, but with such different skills that I can't compare them. "The Great One" Wayne Gretzky, "Mr. Hockey" Gordie Howe, and Bobby Orr (if he had a nickname, I'm, unfamiliar with it). There are a number of others on the cusp, but IMO these are the only three on the final ballot.
Gretzky is without doubt the greatest scorer ever and made everyone around him better (the joke went that Gretzky and 4 fire hydrants would still be a formidable team), Howe was a formidable scorer and everything else (he was his own enforcer!), and Orr was not only a wonderful defender, he was also the best scoring defender ever. With such different skills, I leave it to others to debate who was the greatest ever.
To me, it probably comes down to only three names, but with such different skills that I can't compare them. "The Great One" Wayne Gretzky, "Mr. Hockey" Gordie Howe, and Bobby Orr (if he had a nickname, I'm, unfamiliar with it). There are a number of others on the cusp, but IMO these are the only three on the final ballot.
Gretzky is without doubt the greatest scorer ever and made everyone around him better (the joke went that Gretzky and 4 fire hydrants would still be a formidable team), Howe was a formidable scorer and everything else (he was his own enforcer!), and Orr was not only a wonderful defender, he was also the best scoring defender ever. With such different skills, I leave it to others to debate who was the greatest ever.
, Drew Smyly threw all of two pitches. (I'm totally p.o.ed at Leyland's underuse of Smyly, who I think may be the most valuable member of the bullpen, but that is a different rant. 
) The batter he faced reached base on a rare error by Jose Iglesias; later scored on Victorino's season-ending grand-slam. Smyly was charged with an earned run - how can that be? (If Iglesias makes the play, that would have only been the second out - no realistic chance of a DP - if that matters.) Since the error did not avoid ending the inning, I understand the runs being earned - except shouldn't it be 3 earned runs, 1 unearned on the Grand Slam? Seems totally bizarre that Smyly could be charged an earned run for a guy who reached base on an error (though if all 4 runs are earned, who else could it be given to?); can anyone clarify?
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), but this is a whole different animal. For a coach to pay for injuring opponents makes him no better than a mafia don. Where are the prosecutors?
). Since football has a much larger number of participants than any other sport, the result (to balance number of participants by gender) has been the dropping of many (minor