Mount Rushmore of Team Sports

It is my assertion that among American cities, Boston has the most outstanding Mount Rushmore of Team Sports.

baseball: Ted Williams
His batting stroke was the physical manifestation of the theoretical ideal.
He is the all time major league career leader in on-base percentage.
If we look at career slugging average and career OPS, he falls all the way down to #2--behind Babe Ruth.

basketball: Bill Russell
He played thirteen seasons with the Boston Celtics, leading them to the NBA Championship ELEVEN times.

hockey: Bobby Orr
For this Mount Rushmore, this is the eye test selection. You had to actually see him play, and if you did, you remember it.

football: Tom Brady
He led his team to six Super Bowl appearances, winning four. By the way, he's not finished yet.

AND, if you wish to leave the team sports to choose a fifth man, Heavyweight Boxing Champion Rocky Marciano produced a career record of 49-0, 46 wins by knockout.

OK, sports fans from other cities. Match that.

Baseball: Babe Ruth, Baltimore

Pro Football: Johnny Unitas, Baltimore

Basketball: Who gives a shit?

Hockey: See "Basketball".

Mongrel wrote:Baseball: Babe Ruth, Baltimore

Pro Football: Johnny Unitas, Baltimore

Basketball: Who gives a shit?

Hockey: See "Basketball".

If there's a Mount Rushmore for crabcakes, I'll give you that. Otherwise, Fugetaboutit!

Alas, my crab eating days are over. Purely voluntary, understand. All crustaceans and shelled seafood are prime producers of gout-inducing compounds as is pork and lots of other stuff. So I get around pain-free but at a heavy price since I love bacon, sausage, shrimp, scallops and crabs. However, most crabs and crabcakes here in Baltimore are not local. Louisiana, Thailand, Vietnam et al. are the prime producers.

Sometimes I get all misty-eyed remembering the original Bookbinders seafood restaurant in Philly where I learned to love their New England clam chowder and snapper soup. Also bid no-no's for the purine family.

I only spent a couple of days in Boston in my entire life. It was a winter weekend in 1966 partly in the Heminway Street apartment of one of the Remains, a '60's band that opened for the Beatles and managed to get a gig on the Ed Sullivan show. All I remember was the excellent hashish which I assume was imported.

Baseball: Rod Carew, only guy other than Ty Cobb to win the batting championship 4 times in a row.

Football: Alan Page, first defensive player to win the NFL MVP.

Basketball: George Mikan, first big man to dominate the game. Because of him, the lane was widened and the shot clock was introduced.

Hockey: Herb Brooks and the Miracle on Ice team. 12 of the 20 players on the roster were from Minnesota.

jt1135 wrote:Baseball:  Rod Carew, only guy other than Ty Cobb to win the batting championship 4 times in a row.

Football:  Alan Page, first defensive player to win the NFL MVP.

Basketball:  George Mikan,  first big man to dominate the game.  Because of him, the lane was widened and the shot clock was introduced.

Hockey:  Herb Brooks and the Miracle on Ice team.  12 of the 20 players on the roster were from Minnesota.

That's actually a pretty damned good Mt. Rushmore for a small market town. By the way, Ted Williams played for the Minneapolis Millers in 1938. Thought I'd throw that in.

Mongrel wrote:I only spent a couple of days in Boston in my entire life. It was a winter weekend in 1966 partly in the Heminway Street apartment of one of the Remains, a '60's band that opened for the Beatles and managed to get a gig on the Ed Sullivan show. All I remember was the excellent hashish which I assume was imported.

Nifty I's daughter lived on Hemingway Street for a short time in the 90s. I used to run into Barry Tashian and Chip Damiani fairly often in those much earlier days of which you speak. Hell, I could very well have run into you!

Trom, noticed I didn't say anything about boxing. In my lifetime it would have been Duane Bobick or Scott Ledoux. Enough said about those two.

trombettista_vecchio wrote:

Mongrel wrote:I only spent a couple of days in Boston in my entire life. It was a winter weekend in 1966 partly in the Heminway Street apartment of one of the Remains, a '60's band that opened for the Beatles and managed to get a gig on the Ed Sullivan show. All I remember was the excellent hashish which I assume was imported.

Nifty I's daughter lived on Hemingway Street for a short time in the 90s.    I used to run into Barry Tashian and Chip Damiani fairly often in those much earlier days of which you speak.  Hell, I could very well have run into you!

Small world ding in my brain. My college roommate had transferred from BU where he was in a four year pre-med program. He was the manager of a band Chip was in prior to the formation of Barry and The Remains. Another connection: my twin first cousins who are several years older than me (if they are still alive) lived on Heminway Street sometime in the '60's. They were hard to miss-- about 5' or a little taller and each over 300 pounds. Their combined IQ probably exceeded 400.

Besides Ted, Willie Mays and The Yaz played here also. Before my time.

San Francisco:

Joe Montana is the greatest QB of all time. Tom Brady lost two Superbowls. Montana has lost none.

Barry Bonds: Home run king, ahead of Babe Ruth.

Harvey Milk: First queer to get elected to office.

Joe Montana. Yes, we'd put Joe's face up on the mountain twice. He be that good.

FamousDavis wrote:San Francisco:

Joe Montana is the greatest QB of all time.  Tom Brady lost two Superbowls.  Montana has lost none.  

Barry Bonds:   Home run king, ahead of Babe Ruth.  

Harvey Milk:  First queer to get elected to office.  

Joe Montana.  Yes, we'd put Joe's face up on the mountain twice.  He be that good.  

Joe Montana was born and raised in Pennsylvania.

Barry Bonds took drugs that bulked up his muscles and made him a really good baseball player. The drugs also gave him a very squeaky voice. If you heard him speak and did not know who it was, you might think you were listening to a queer. In that vein...

Harvey Milk was shot and killed by Dan White. Mr. White also shot and killed the mayor of San Franscisco, Moscone. I forget Moscone's first name but do not think that it was "Willie". Willie Moscone was one of a handful of men who occupy the Pantheon of pool players. Dan White rid the world of a queer public official and a liberal mayor. He took a plea for manslaughter and did five years. All in all, a pretty cheap price to pay for what was accomplished.

Montana was a very good quarterback. But it was back in the days when there was not the parity there is now. I've watched a bunch of NFL in my life and think that given the same era, Brady would be better than Montana. Brady was born and raised in California.

FamousDavis wrote:San Francisco:

Joe Montana is the greatest QB of all time.  Tom Brady lost two Superbowls.  Montana has lost none.  

Barry Bonds:   Home run king, ahead of Babe Ruth.  

Harvey Milk:  First queer to get elected to office.  

Joe Montana.  Yes, we'd put Joe's face up on the mountain twice.  He be that good.  

So San Fran is noted for a decent quarterback, a cheater and a cochsucker?

jt1135 wrote:

FamousDavis wrote:San Francisco:

Joe Montana is the greatest QB of all time.  Tom Brady lost two Superbowls.  Montana has lost none.  

Barry Bonds:   Home run king, ahead of Babe Ruth.  

Harvey Milk:  First queer to get elected to office.  

Joe Montana.  Yes, we'd put Joe's face up on the mountain twice.  He be that good.  

So San Fran is noted for a decent quarterback, a cheater and a cochsucker?

On the plus side, there will always be:

Grateful Dead

Quicksilver Messenger Service

Sons of Champlin

Big Brother and the Holding Company

FamousDavis wrote:San Francisco:

Joe Montana is the greatest QB of all time.  Tom Brady lost two Superbowls.  Montana has lost none.  

 

Tom Brady got his team into six super bowls. Joe Montana only got his team into four.

Far more importantly, Joe Montana played as a scab while the NFL Players Association was striking in...what was it, '86 or '87?
I wouldn't piss on a scab who was on fire. A scab is the moral equivalent of a child molester in my eyes.

I completely lost respect for local hero Doug Flutie for that very reason. I enjoyed his making that successful drop kick in his last game, the first one in the league since 1941, but I can't get past the scab thing.