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Community => JD Sports Forum! => Topic started by: Pistol Pete on May 12, 2004, 05:08 PM
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Both in person and on TV is fine
In Person and on TV!
Baseball Barry Bonds
Football Joe Montana
Hockey Wayne Gretzky
Basketball Magic Johnson
Never got to see Bird or Jordan play live and I'd say Jordan is better than Bird so he is my TV choice. The rest though are definite locks both ways.
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Hockey: Gretzky. Got to see Bobby Hull play quite a bit and Gordie Howe, but both were well past their prime.
Basketball: Bird, has to be Bird. Never saw Jordan either though yes, a better player. Missed Magic and Kareem as well.
Baseball: Kirby Puckett. Pre wife beater.
Football: Fran Tarkenton. Yes, for real. The only NFL game I have ever been to.
Those are all in person. On TV or otherwise is too tough to rank, mostly because I go back too far and you can't have very good Jordan vs Russell vs Mikan vs Robertson conversations.
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I'll stick with the best I got to see live (not on TV).
Football:
Joe Montana - man, could he run that West Coast offense.
NHL:
The Great One - I pity anyone that neve got to see him skate at a game. No matter where he was on the ice, he could find an open person for a pass.
Baseball:
Kirby Puckett - By far the best I've see. Although, I'd give a nod to Nolan Ryan. I loved watching him pitch. 40-yr old dude striking out 200+ a season (just like The Rocket is doing now).
Basketball:
Jordan. I saw Bird and Magic on TV a lot, but never saw them in person at a game. His Air-ness was incredible though. I remember him being really tall, but that was probably because I was shorter.
Jeff
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Let's see, way back, I saw Steve Young play when he was with BYU. I've also seen Tim Duncan do his magic on the court.
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I've seen the true great one play...
Mario Lemieux.
And he's still magic to watch play... Never lost a step.
I've also seen many MANY other great NHLers play, including Gretzky, but nothing and nobody will top Lemieux to me. I've witnessed first-hand his skill on the ice. I've never seen anyone parallel him.
Beyond that... I've seen some great football players. Pittsburgh's been known to sport some of the best, even in our off years like last year. Jerome Bettis is my fav currently, and though he had a tough year last year he's still one of the all-time great RB's. Miss the old Jerome is all.
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Best two-pack-a-day athlete???
Hands down, Dale Hawerchuk. Always entertaining to watch him come back to the bench, gasping, wheezing and hacking. He could have been scary if he hadn't been a smoker.
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These are all in person....
Baseball: Roger Clemens
Football: Lawrence Taylor, Emmitt Smith
Basketball: Kareen Abdul Jabar & Magic Johnson
...and to be added to the baseball listings tomorrow: Alex Rodriguez!
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In person... well there was that Edmonton heritage hockey classic game here last yr but to many to list. ;)
I'll just go with one person. You know who he is! :-*
(http://www.telusplanet.net/public/djustus/Wayne%20Gretzky%20First%20Stanley%20Cup%20in%20Edmonton.jpg)
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I'll go with "in person" as well, although my list isn't all that spectacular.
Baseball: George Brett, Bo Jackson, Danny Tartabull, Don Mattingly (we drove down and went to KC Royals games three summers in a row when I was younger, played the Yankees at the last one I can remember best) I was fortunate enough to get several autographs back then when I collected baseball cards too.
Football: Being in Nebraska, its mostly Huskers. My favorite would be Ahman Green, he was awesome and I'm glad to see him being successful in the NFL now too. We've had some others that have gone on to successful pro careers that I've seen up close and in person as well, including Grant Wistrom, Mike Brown, Mike Rucker, DeJuan Groce, Will Shields, and others. Although not the greatest pros, they were great college players: Trev Alberts, Tommie Frazier, Scott Frost, and Eric Crouch. There were also some notables on some of the opponents of Nebraska....Kordell Stewart, Ricky Williams, etc.
Basketball: We went to an NBA exhibition that was held in Omaha when I was in junior high I believe. It was Sonics-Bucks, so I got to see Shawn Kemp (when he was good), Gary Payton, and some other NBAers. My dad and I always wanted to make the trip to Chicago to see Jordan play just once, but unfortunately we were not able to. I followed the Bulls religiously from 1988 until the Jordan-Pippen led team broke up. Also, again, saw a few Huskers...although not many have had really super careers, but solid: Erick Strickland, Tyronn Lue, Mikki Moore.
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Can't believe I forgot about some of these baseball players...
David Cone
Reggie Jackson
Lou Pinella
Ron Guidry
Rich "Goose" Gossage
Don Mattingly
Dave Winfield
Gary Carter
Thurman Munson (I think, I was only 5 or so)
Ricky Henderson
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Baseball: I have to say Nolan Ryan
The game I went to was an awesome one at that. Me and my buddy had seats right along the first base line in the first row, got to watch Juan Gonzalez go apesh!t in the clubhouse after he didn't hit a homer in BP. Ryan struck out at least 12. We got on the jumbotron and we almost got Tom Henke to give us a high five as he walked to the dugout
Honorable Mention: Puckett, Ripken, Henderson in his prime, ARod, the 1993 Blue Jays with Joe Carter, Winfield, Alomar, Molitor and Olerud, Clemens, Pedro Martinez (although the Twins rocked him)
Football: Barry Sanders Dude is and probably always will be my all time favorite NFLer. Amazing to watch, glad I got to see him play.
Honorable Mention: Randy Moss and Cris Carter
Basketball KG...that's biased though
Honorable Mention: Duncan, Shaq, Kobe, Malone with the Jazz, Payton and Kemp on the Sonics, Barkley, Olajuwan, Drexler on the Blazers. Never got to see Jordan live :'(
Hockey Mike Modano
Honorable Mention: Broten and whoever was on the Blackhawks in the mid 80's (Savard I guess). Haven't been to a pro hockey game in 15 years
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Today, I add A-Rod & Mariano Rivera to my list. With as many Yankee games as I've been to over the past few years, this is the first time Mo has come in to save a game I've been to.
Also, forgot to mention Wade Boggs. I saw him play on the '96 Yanks while on business in Toronto.
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I will go with athletes that I just saw in person, as I have seen pretty much every athlete on TV from baseball, basketball, & football since I was six years old.
Baseball: Sammy Sosa & Andre Dawson
Basketball: Scottie Pippen, sadly I never got to see Jordan play as the few games I went to were during his first retirement
Football: Derrick Brooks
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Damn, I forgot Julius Erving. Played an exhibition game here in Winnipeg. Mo Cheeks, Moses Malone and a few others from my heyday of NBA fandom. But Erving. Surreal.
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I was thinking about my 2 sporting claims to fame today for some reason...here's one...
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/wintetr01.html
Trevor Winter plays 5 minutes against Shaq-Fu and gets 5 fouls
Here's the other
Over the next several years he continued to pile up impressive power totals for a series of mediocre Tiger teams. In the ninth inning of an April 2nd game at the Minnesota Metrodome, Fielder took off from first on a hit-and-run and lumbered safely into second when Melvin Nieves swung through the pitch and catcher Greg Myers' throw kicked off the heel of shortstop Pat Meares. It was Fielder's first stolen base at any level since 1984, and his first ever in 1,096 major-league games, a record for the most games at the start of a career without a steal. The Minnesota crowd cheered wildly after learning that it was his first steal, and after the game a Twins' attendant delivered the base to his locker. "The pressure is off now," Fielder said. "He (manager Buddy Bell) might start moving me a little more now that he has seen me run. Hopefully he won't."
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Just about every player that's been on the Yankees since the late 70's/early 80's - Dave Winfield, Ricky Henderson, Don Mattingly, Reggie Jackson... if they were on the team, I saw them play. And that's not even counting who the Yanks played against - George Brett, Robin Yount, Cal Ripken Jr., Wade Boggs...
As for Hockey: Wayne Gretzky, Joe Sakic/Peter Forsberg, Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Mark Messier, Tony Amonte, Segei Federov, Mike Modano, Brian Leetch....
As for Football: not too many, as I'm not a Giants/Jets fan, so I don't go to many games. However, I did go to a few Jets games back in the Shea Stadium days, to see guys like Wesley Walker, Freeman McNeil, Mark Gastineau, and Joe Klecko.
Basketball - went to 1 Knicks game in my entire life - don't know who was on the team at the time, but they did play the Bulls, so I got to see Jordan and Pippen.
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Ok I'll try this as those athletes I've seen live..
Baseball: Carlton Fisk (White Sox), Andre Dawson (Cubs)
Football: Brett Favre (Packers, ugh)
Hockey: Denis Savard, Steve Larmer, Jeremy Roenick, Ed Belfour (Blackhawks), Mike Modano (Stars), Brett Hull (Blues)
Basketball: Michael Jordan and the 1996 & 1997 NBA Champion Chicago Bulls
Wrestling (yes I dared to say it): Ricky Steamboat (1992 WCW), Steve Austin (WCW/1997 WWF), Chris Benoit (WWF), Kurt Angle (WWF)
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basketball - jordan ( i was a knicks fan in high school and jordan would drive me nuts)
baseball - curt schilling ( this guy is a gamer)
hockey - hasek (he was a goalie)
football - emmitt smith (jets fan but still he was silly good)
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Tons upon TONS of Hockey Players I've seen and met personally. Just absolutely tons, but...
Mario Lemieux, without a doubt, is the greatest player I've seen out of any sport. He makes hockey more than just the greatest sport alive, he makes it a form of art to boot. Great One who? Pffft...
That said, I've seen Gretzky, Oates, Yzerman, Roy, etc...
Though I'd say the 2nd favorite player I've seen from hockey behind Lemieux is Ron Francis, another long-time Penguin. Francis is the epitome of the "perfect" hockey player. While Lemieux's everything you could want in a forward, and he's an intelligent player overall, Francis is the most well-rounded, gentlemanly, honest, caring, NICE guy in the game. He gives you 100% every game, he never falters, he never cries about anything... He's just a great player, and if I had to say there's one guy I miss from the Pen's height, it's Ronnie Francis.
And he still burns us when he's back in town, but boy is he fun to watch play. He's a forward that, when I was a defenseman, I actually modeled my style after his. That's a well-rounded player.
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I'll stick to who I've seen in person:
Hockey: Patrick Roy. I never caught the Great One, nor have I seen Mario in person. It was amazing how he could take over a game.
Baseball: Barry Bonds. I didn't go to a major league game until the '90's, so I'm really limited on who I've seen. Great hitter, though.
Football: John Elway. My favorite athlete of all time. For years, he carried the Broncos on his back without much support (until TD came along)
Basketball: Magic. I never saw Jordan live. :'(
I will mention this additional bit - I've been extremely lucky to see the last 3 Heisman winners in person here in Boulder (Crouch in '01, Palmer in '02, White in '03). ;D
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Baseball: Cal Ripken, Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Pudge Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Joe Clark, Mark McGwire, Dave Winfield, Reggie Jackson, Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez...too many to think of. I know I'll have to amend this list.
Basketball: Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Dirk Nowitski, Michael Finley, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, more when I remember.
Hockey: Eddie Belfour, Mike Modano, Brett Hull, Patrick Roy, Peter Forsberg, Chris Chelios, Sergei Fedorov, Steve Yzerman, Mario Lemieux, and more when I look through my stubs.
football: Walter Payton (playoff game), Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Barry Sanders (MNF), Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, Drew Pearson, Brett Favre (playoff), John Elway, Fran Tarkenton (NFC Championship), Steve Largent, Eric Dickerson (playoff when he was a Ram), Earl Campbell, OJ Simpson (as a 49er), Joe Montana (as a Chief), Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Art Monk, Darryl Green, Joe Theisman (lots of times, but '79 final game, we kicked his BUTT), Phil Simms, Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Harvey Martin, Randy White, Lee Roy Jordan, Cliff Harris, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Dan Marino, Bob Griese, Archie Manning, Dan Fouts, Dieon Sanders, Larry Allen, and many more. I have had season tickets to the Cowboys in 1977, 1978, 1979, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995. So, I've seen most of the great players in those two eras at Texas Stadium.
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In person:
Baseball: Cal Rikpen, Jr. (saw him tie Lou Gehrig's record at O's Stadiim), Nolan Ryan, Brady Anderson
Football: John Riggins, Emmit Smith (hate Dallas though), Darrell Green, John Elway
Racing:Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, Jeff Gordon
Figure Skating: Scott Hamilton (yes, he's an athelete :P)
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The list of seeing people play on TV would be too long, but some of the players I've seen live are:
Kobe Bryant
Shaquille O'Neal
Tracy McGrady
Vince Carter
Derek Jeter
A-Rod
Roger Clemens
Doug Flutie (oh hell yeah)
Hines Ward
Jerome Bettis
Jim Kelly
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I'm gonna say it right now, but Sidney Crosby I'd tentatively put on that list. He's really just amazing to watch.
Now if everyone else would get it together!
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Well my live stuff is limited to the Cubs, Cardinals, Bulls games.
Baseball: I will go with Ozzie Smith and Ryne Sandberg....I went to several Cub/Cardinal games when I was a kid and these two had some insane defensive stops that wowed the crowds. It was a real treat to watch those 2 play against each other for 3 hours in the summertime.
But I will also go with McGwire and Sosa....despite the steroids. Those guys were a lot of fun. One day McGwire would hit 2 and Sosa 1. The next day it was Sosa 2 and then McGwire 1. LOL!
Football - I actually saw John Elway play the Bears at Soldier Field...when he was like a rookie. LOL! So, here I go with Walter Peyton and Mike Singletary. I can't say enough about how cool it was to see Peyton running the ball and Singletary killing everyone he'd hit. God that was great. I wish I would have enjoyed it more at the time since I assumed they would win the Super Bowl for 4 years straight. LOL!
Basketball - Yeah, Jordan. Nothing comes close that I have seen live. Then again I have only been to a handful of NBA games in my life.
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Michael Jordan, hands down.
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I've seen Jordan live and on TV (obviously), so he's my answer for both.
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Players I've seen live:
Baseball: Ken Griffey Jr. and John Smoltz
Basketball: Michael Jordan
Football: Brett Favre (it hurts just to type that), Barry Sanders, Billy Sims, Roger Staubach and Harvey Martin. I suppose I should add Reggie White to that list also...even if he was a Packer when I saw him.
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I got to watch Brett Farve get picked off 4 times by the Bucs en route to a 21-7 loss a few years ago... I haven't seen many greats in live though.