Quote :

"Anyone that has the ability to play at the top professional level in 3 different sports is one hell of an all around athlete."

Yeah, until they only play one of them and prove to be mediocre at best at it.

12/12/2008 1:26:13 PM

Quote :

"Jim Brown is the correct answer."

Exactly. To the OP, Deon Sanders or Charlie Ward might be of our generation, but not ever.

A lot of people argue Brown is the greatest football player ever, so he has that. And now I'll just use Wikipedia to prove the rest of my point(not playing this off as my own thoughts at all)

At Manhasset High School, Brown earned 13 letters playing football, lacrosse, baseball, basketball and running track.

College Football AA, Then in the Cotton Bowl, he rushed for 132 yards, scored three touchdowns and kicked three extra points.

He was an All American Lacrosse player in college, ran track, and led the basketball team in scoring one year.

Thorpe would be a close second, his accomplishments were great and at the time amazing, but I go Brown

12/12/2008 2:22:03 PM

OJ?

12/12/2008 2:25:51 PM

Quote :

"but I go Brown"

thats what she said

12/12/2008 2:38:22 PM

Quote :

"thats what she said"

Count it!

12/12/2008 2:56:12 PM

Quote :

"packboozie All American 10666 Posts user info edit post Quote : "I know you just googled this list, but anyone who only plays baseball should be automatically disqualified as being the greatest all around athlete." "

What are you rolling your eyes at? Any sport where a lardass like CC Sabathia is one of the best is disqualified from any discussions about the best all-around athlete.

That's not to say someone who plays baseball AND has some other notable accomplishments as an athlete can't be included.

12/12/2008 3:38:58 PM

carl lewis

12/12/2008 4:09:14 PM

Quote :

"jim thorpe > jim brown"

charlie ward 2nd or 3rd

i'd go

Thorpe
Jackson/Ward
Brown
Robinson
Sanders/Hayes
Elway
Dave Winfield

Quote :

""I know you just googled this list, but anyone who only plays baseball should be automatically disqualified as being the greatest all around athlete.""

agree

12/12/2008 4:19:57 PM

LBJ was the#2 football recruit in the state of ohio in 2002....behind Maurice Clarett

12/12/2008 4:28:37 PM

Quote :

"I know you just googled this list, but anyone who only plays baseball should be automatically disqualified as being the greatest all around athlete."

I have to kind of agree. Not that I don't enjoy baseball to an extent, and I had fun playing it growing up and I still have fun playing softball. But playing baseball growing up was pretty athletically undemanding**. Yes I wasnt amazing or anything and there is definitely a certain set of skills involved, but if we are talking about overall athlete, I don't think we can include anyone who only excelled in baseball.


**to further clarify: any of the other sports I played growing up had me quick enough, strong enough, agile enough, and in good enough shape to play baseball competitively at my top form whereas simply playing baseball would not have had me in top form for nearly any of the other sports I participated in.

[Edited on December 12, 2008 at 4:54 PM. Reason : ]

12/12/2008 4:51:31 PM

Quote :

"What are you rolling your eyes at? Any sport where a lardass like CC Sabathia is one of the best is disqualified from any discussions about the best all-around athlete. That's not to say someone who plays baseball AND has some other notable accomplishments as an athlete can't be included."

Yeah really, we need athletes like Shaq on the list!!

12/12/2008 5:00:03 PM

WTF? I didn't look at the espn link, but any modern day decathlete could hold their own at most sports I can imagine. They can run fast, run for a long time - fast, jump, throw heavy things, etc.

You take any hulk like Bo or similar and put them doing some of the events decathletes do and they get their asses handed. You took your average decathlete that has a grasp of baseball and basketball and after a little bit of practice they could hold their own.

12/12/2008 5:06:16 PM

Dan ...... then Dave.

[Edited on December 12, 2008 at 5:08 PM. Reason : dd]

12/12/2008 5:08:01 PM

I'm sure if you took LeBron about 4 years ago, trained him with them for a few months, he'd be better. There isn't a very large sample size for decathletes because they don't get paid shit, so nobody wants to do that. If you're a good athlete, you probably do something else.

12/12/2008 5:08:40 PM

^^i couldnt find a picture of those 2 or i wouldve posted it...those decathletes ended up choking pretty hardcore once they got to the olympics didnt they? despite all their nike hype

12/12/2008 5:22:27 PM

Quote :

"What are you rolling your eyes at? Any sport where a lardass like CC Sabathia is one of the best is disqualified from any discussions about the best all-around athlete."

Larry Allen is possibly the best Left Guard ever in football and he is fatter than CC Sabathia so football doesn't count.

Also have you seen Sabathia hit? He is an athlete....what a poor example.

12/12/2008 5:25:11 PM

Sabathia just LOOKS like a fat ass...he was a baller in high school in baseball, basketball and football

you might look at someone like Maake Keamoatu and say "thats one fat fuck" but he can also dunk a basketball with his 350 pound ass...looks can be deceiving

12/12/2008 5:30:14 PM

rusty larue

12/12/2008 5:38:32 PM

ric flair

[Edited on December 12, 2008 at 5:44 PM. Reason : WOOOOOOOOOOO]

12/12/2008 5:44:02 PM

MEAN

WOOOOOOO

GENE

12/12/2008 5:55:42 PM

Quote :

"WTF? I didn't look at the espn link, but any modern day decathlete could hold their own at most sports I can imagine. They can run fast, run for a long time - fast, jump, throw heavy things, etc. You take any hulk like Bo or similar and put them doing some of the events decathletes do and they get their asses handed. You took your average decathlete that has a grasp of baseball and basketball and after a little bit of practice they could hold their own."

agreed, which is why jackie joyner-kersey was the first thing that popped into my mind

12/12/2008 6:13:13 PM

Quote :

"I know you just googled this list, but anyone who only plays baseball should be automatically disqualified as being the greatest all around athlete."

if a guy has a freakishly good combination of speed, strength, stamina, agility, coordination and dexterity then why should it matter what sport he played? you could easily make a good case for cal ripken jr. to be on a list like that.

[Edited on December 12, 2008 at 6:20 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on December 12, 2008 at 6:21 PM. Reason : .]

12/12/2008 6:19:53 PM

and FYI Manny lawson was a MUCH more freakish athlete than mario williams

12/12/2008 6:29:01 PM

Quote :

"LaRue attended Northwest Senior High School in Greensboro, North Carolina, where, in addition to being an honors student, he earned All-State honors in baseball, basketball, and football. As a senior in 1993, he was named North Carolina Athlete of the Year, and he attracted the attention of many colleges before choosing to attend Wake Forest, where he planned to play both basketball and football in the ACC. LaRue would also play collegiate baseball for one season, becoming just the second player in ACC history to play three sports in the same year. LaRue arguably had his most collegiate success on the football field. As a freshman quarterback in 1992, he led Wake Forest’s football team to an Independence Bowl victory, and during his senior year he would break eight NCAA records for passing, including the record for most completions in one game (55). However, LaRue was a solid basketball player, as well, as he helped his teammates reach the NCAA Tournament for four consecutive seasons. He also finished second in school history in three-point field goals made, and he finished first all-time in three-point field goal percentage."

thats an all around athlete

[Edited on December 12, 2008 at 6:40 PM. Reason : had a wife and kid ... and a 4.0 in engineering ]

12/12/2008 6:37:34 PM

Quote :

"if a guy has a freakishly good combination of speed, strength, stamina, agility, coordination and dexterity then why should it matter what sport he played? you could easily make a good case for cal ripken jr. to be on a list like that."

I wouldn't bother arguing. There are a lot of absolute morons on here who think anyone can pick up a bat and hit a 100 mph fastball and track down a 395 foot bomb in the gap...

I guess Bo Jackson should be eliminated from this discussion too... After all, any old athlete can hit a ball 450 feet with one arm after trying to call time..

[Edited on December 12, 2008 at 10:53 PM. Reason : x]

12/12/2008 10:52:42 PM

Roberto Clemente

12/13/2008 2:52:19 AM

Quote :

"rusty larue"

bagged his groceries a couple times in hs... hard to believe dude's got an nba championship ring and played with jordan. great white hope.

12/13/2008 11:43:03 AM

id have to give brock lesnar a nod as well

12/13/2008 11:46:43 AM

Quote :

"Ward is a Heisman trophy winner, college football half of fame member, Led FSU to a national championship, was drafted by the Yankees, and played in the NBA. Are you sure you are not confusing Ward with Batch? Because you're a fucking moron if you don't think the man was an incredible athlete."

I could have won a heisman and a national championship playing for FSU in 93, and I suck! I guess he was so good at football that NO TEAM DRAFTED HIM.

And in the NBA, sure he played for a while, but he averaged 6 pts and 4 asts per. That's not the stuff of legends!

Sure he was a really good all around athlete, but best ever!? Be serious, sir.

12/13/2008 11:57:19 AM

Quote :

"Tyler Hansborough has more heart than all these chumps. He would OUTWORK OUTSTARE them all."

12/13/2008 12:00:48 PM

You can bench Tyler Hansborough, but you cannot bench his will!!!

12/13/2008 3:57:17 PM

Lebron

/thread

12/13/2008 3:58:00 PM

Quote :

"I guess Bo Jackson should be eliminated from this discussion too... After all, any old athlete can hit a ball 450 feet with one arm after trying to call time.."

well he would've been eliminated from the discussion if he had made a better choice to stick with baseball. despite the same physical ability he would've just played baseball, and according to the logic of a lot of people here he wouldn't deserve to be in consideration.

12/13/2008 4:21:21 PM

Jim Thorpe. I wrote a research paper on this my freshman year

12/13/2008 4:34:59 PM

^^ thus presents the reason this question will never really be answered. everyone will just argue this coming from a few different angles and the problem with the fact that none of us can really prove that someone who excelled professionally in one sport could have excelled in others will persist.

I think you are missing the point with the Bo Jackson thing. You are arguing backwards or something. None of us (at least not me) are saying that someone who plays baseball cannot be a great athlete. What I was saying is that, to me, if someone ONLY excelled in baseball then I can't include them. NOT because baseball players dont have the potential to be a good athlete, but because simply excelling in baseball does not provide me with a good enough analysis of all around athletic ability to judge someone by.

You can't argue backwards with Bo Jackson and parade him around and say that "according to the logic...blah blah blah" because using Bo Jackson to try and defeat my point only supports my point further. He DID go out and prove he was a great athlete in more than one sport, allowing for me as a spectator to see more of his athletic ability with chalks him up as a contender for me.

Once again, I am not saying that if you are a great baseball player you arent or cannot be a great athlete, simply that it is hard for me to look at someone whose only major bullet point in a resume for "greatest all around athlete of all time" is playing baseball and consider them without further proof. It requires lots of skill and certain athletic abilities but is far from displaying "all around" athletic ability for everyone on the field.

You could be the greatest athlete in the world, but if you spend your entire life hitting homeruns and jogging around the bases on offense and getting a ball thrown to you at first base on defense, how am I supposed to be able to evaluate your overall athletic ability as opposed to some of these other sports? And once again I am not saying that hitting 100mph is easy, just pointing out how the game seems to have a narrower scope of athletic ability than others.

[Edited on December 13, 2008 at 5:01 PM. Reason : ]

12/13/2008 4:58:45 PM

Quote :

"You could be the greatest athlete in the world, but if you spend your entire life hitting homeruns and jogging around the bases on offense and getting a ball thrown to you at first base on defense, how am I supposed to be able to evaluate your overall athletic ability as opposed to some of these other sports? And once again I am not saying that hitting 100mph is easy, just pointing out how the game seems to have a narrower scope of athletic ability than others."

because you wouldn't look at a 1st baseman as a prime example of an athlete. a lot of times they're overweight and slow. why else would you put them in a position that required a minimal amount of movement? i'll agree with you that the game as a whole doesn't offer as much athleticism compared to basketball or football, but i'm saying you can't disqualify anyone who only played baseball from discussion. believe it or not, it does require a hell of a lot of athleticism to be a good shortstop, outfielder, pitcher or catcher. yes, believe it or not, catching is an extremely physically demanding position. and guys do it for 3 hour games day after day after day. i know you said you think baseball players can be considered good athletes, and i know baseball isn't the most all around physically demanding sport, but there are a lot of guys whose names would rightfully be in discussion on a list of the greatest athletes of all time. i could sit here all night and explain to you why it's not fair to exclude baseball players for several reasons, but the point is just because YOU don't see or understand the athleticism behind some of the game's greatest players doesn't mean you can just throw baseball players out the window and ignore them.

12/13/2008 7:01:14 PM

yea I know, its just differing opinions and yours is certainly a valid one. I played 2nd base and SS growing up - two positions that def require some athleticism. No I didnt play in the pros or college and I quit in HS because I got bored (though I do play softball now with friends and enjoy the game again). But I do have some experience with the game. There are incredible athletes that play Baseball, no doubt about it, so don't think that I am arguing with you about that.

I'll be honest and say thee main reason I tend to pick on baseball (and golf at times) even though I enjoy both to a point is actually because of the negative attention that wrestling gets Ive said it a thousand times here but I wrestled my entire life and out of every sport I played it was the most physically and athletically demanding sport I participated in. We had guys on our football team (my HS has a solid football team too) who went on to play college football who quit our wrestling team because they were puking at practice. Yet, I would get laughed out of the thread (and have in similar threads in the past) if I submitted a wrestlers name probably. But I'll go ahead and do it.

Cael Sanderson. Was good enough to play college football, chose wrestling.
-127-3 in High School 4X state champion
-First Wrestler ever to go 4 years undefeated in NCAA History (159-0)
-4X NCAA Outstanding wrestler
-3X Hodge Trophy Award (equivalent to heisman)
-Finished 2nd in his first International competition at the world games
-Went on to qualify and go 5-0 at the 2004 Olympics in Freestyle (a different type of wrestling than collegiate/folkstyle) and win a Gold Medal
-Sports Illustrated named his college career as the No. 2 most outstanding achievement in college history

So, sure you may not think much of wrestling, but it is unprecedented for someone to be THAT dominant in the sport, a sport that is very physically demanding. Yet, this thread could go on for pages and no one would ever think to name him. So I get bitter about it and take it out on another sport haha.

12/13/2008 7:49:23 PM

really 1rst base, pitcher and catcher, and maybe right field, are the only positions that dont require great "athletes" (at least as this thread defines them) at a Major League level. That said, most of the 1B's, C's, and P's are prob better athletes than 99% of America.

I'm not a huge baseball guy but i dont see how you can see a SS get to a hot grounder in the gap and turn a double play or watch a center fielder rob a home run, or see a pitcher throw 95 and claim they arent great athletes.

and i would bet that most champ level boxers are up there, they need speed, power, quickness and stamina, what else do you need to be counted as a great athlete?

12/13/2008 8:01:44 PM

cael sanderson is a good one

thats why i had mentioned brock earlier

i didnt know cael played football

[Edited on December 13, 2008 at 8:04 PM. Reason : a]

12/13/2008 8:03:15 PM

Quote :

"I'm not a huge baseball guy but i dont see how you can see a SS get to a hot grounder in the gap and turn a double play"

yea no doubt I have seen some great plays by SS, a few crazy ones even this past season (actually im sure there were a lot of them but I only watch a handful of games each year heh)

^ ah yea man i missed you mentioning lesnar..i always wondered what cael could do in mma stuff. lesnar is a BEAST. and yea cael played football growing up, a few articles I read said that he was approached by a few colleges but his whole family wrestled and his dad was the HS wrestling coach and that was his passion so he chose wrestling.

[Edited on December 13, 2008 at 8:07 PM. Reason : ]

12/13/2008 8:05:31 PM

Russel Wilson

12/13/2008 8:09:47 PM

Didn't Jackie Robinson run track, play baseball, basketball, and football at UCLA?

12/13/2008 8:24:16 PM

Quote :

"Didn't Jackie Robinson run track, play baseball, basketball, and football at UCLA?"

yes. there have been a lot of baseball players who were also really good at other sports. that was another reason why i thought it was unfair to count them out since they just decided to stick to baseball because they liked it more than the other sports or were simply better at it.

12/14/2008 1:49:52 PM

Russell Wilson is supposedly a better baseball player than football player.

Also, didn't Bradford go to Oklahoma with no thought of being a starting quarterback?

12/15/2008 2:01:16 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_O%27Brien

Dan won a gold the next summer games, Dave retired (stress fractures only landed him a bronze in '92 where Dan did not qualify for the US team after no-height-ing the pole vault)

so yeah that year they did both kinda choke up

12/15/2008 8:33:52 AM

Bo Jackson!

12/15/2008 8:43:00 AM

Quote :

"yes. there have been a lot of baseball players who were also really good at other sports. that was another reason why i thought it was unfair to count them out since they just decided to stick to baseball because they liked it more than the other sports or were simply better at it."

you obviously did not understand what he was going for in his first statement, even more so for the rest of you that argued with him.

12/15/2008 8:45:51 AM

I can't believe no one has said John Koncak yet

12/15/2008 9:20:11 AM

12/15/2008 10:50:00 AM

12/15/2008 11:41:54 AM