So how about this?
Posted: June 16th, 2009 | Filed under: Baseball, Other Sports, Pop Culture | 112 Comments »
Another installment of “So How About This.” And, no, I’m not using the acronym.
– So how about this: A tidbit from the brilliant Michael Rosenberg — Dan Haren has a ridiculous .809 WHIP (Walks-plus-Hits-Per-Inning-Pitched) best in the big leagues.
And Detroit’s Dontrelle Willis? He has a .832 JWIP — that’s Just Walks per Inning Pitched.
– So how about this: Carlos Zambrano has hit 14 home runs in his last 282 at-bats. David Ortiz has hit 10 home runs in his last 348 at-bats.
– So how about this: Brandon Phillips the other day was fined and rebuked by manager Dusty Baker after he ignored/missed the take sign on a 3-0 count. Phillips apologized and said he was only trying to get something going. … Phillips is now 1-for-7 when putting the ball in play on 3-0.
– So how about this: At the end of Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Lakers coach Phil Jackson — who I think has his claim as greatest pro basketball coach ever — told his team to watch out because Orlando had a foul to give. The Magic did not actually have a foul to give. Meanwhile, Orlando’s Stan Van Gundy — who helped turn the Magic from an NBA joke into a terrific team — put his players in a defense that allowed Derek Fisher to get a wide open three-point look, which he swished to tie the score. Just seems a good reminder to all of us: Coaching can be overemphasized.
– So how about this: The Kansas City Royals are 46-32 — that’s .590 baseball — the last five years in Interleague play. That makes them 244-388 when playing American League teams over that same time period — a lovely .386 winning percentage. I suspect that this is probably just about small sample size* — but I have to admit that I have attended way too many of these games … and I’m always astounding how BAD National League teams look when they are playing the Royals.
– Not a “How about this” because I have never studied this closely. But I have always wondered which college could boast the best athletes at, say, four different sports. I think to make this work, you need to start with America’s big three sports — football, baseball, men’s basketball — and then you could take a fourth sport as a wildcard: Golf, tennis, hockey, soccer, softball, volleyball, whatever you want.
You want to try to do it off the top of your head. Ohio State is easy. In football, you could have lots of choices, but you would probably go with Archie Griffin, the only two-time Heisman winner. Pretty strong. In basketball, you would probably go with Jerry Lucas, Hall of Famer, one of 50 greatest NBA players, starter on SI’s all-century college basketball team. Again, pretty strong. Baseball … probably Frank Howard, twice led league in home runs and once in RBIs, lifetime OPS+ of 142. Golf — Nicklaus, of course. That’s not bad at all.
Best ever, though? Probably not. Stanford comes to mind. Football, it’s John Elway, of course. Tough to beat him. Basketball: None come to mind, I did have to look it up — I guess the best answer is George Yardley, Hall of Famer, first player to score 2,000 points in a season. Baseball: Many to choose from, I’d probably say Mike Mussina. And then golf is Tiger … with Tom Watson riding shotgun. Again, awfully-awfully good.
How about North Carolina? Football: Lawrence Taylor. One of the best ever. He edges out Choo Choo Justice. Baseball: Not entirely sure. B.J. Surhoff? Basketball is pretty easy, though you could put together a North Carolina team that would win the NBA Championship without using Michael Jordan. And then, for the wildcard: Mia Hamm, maybe?
Just a mindless exercise: I’m sure you can come up with great ones for USC, UCLA, Texas, Illinois, Florida, Kansas, on and on. Go on: It’s hours and hours of fun for the entire family.
– So how about this: Cleveland’s Cliff Lee had a no-hitter going into the eighth inning Sunday, and before the inning began the Indians public address announcer asked the trivia question: “Who was the last Indians pitcher to throw a perfect game?” First pitch after the question, Yadier Molina doubled to break up the no-hitter. Apparently, Indians players and some fans were NOT happy.
Yeah … you know, I’ve heard that some people in my hometown believe in curses. I’ve heard that.
Lee, incidentally, threw a three-hit shutout. And Len Barker is the answer.
– So how about this: Brett Favre does indeed seem to be leaning toward playing for the Minnesota Vikings. I know that most people who study the situation believe Favre to be an attention hog … someone who desperately longs for the spotlight, which is why he keep retiring and unretiring, keeps saying he’s done with football and then keeps (very publicly) getting back in. I don’t know enough about Favre or the situation to disagree entirely: But I do think it’s at least possible that that guy is just splashing around for answers. I think it’s possible that he WANTS to retire, leave the stage with dignity, but he also WANTS to play and cannot even stand to think of a fall without pro football. And because he’s BRETT FAVRE it turns into these intolerable public free-for-alls.
I remember both times when Roy Williams had to decide between coaching at Kansas or going to North Carolina. He was like Hamlet*, incapable of making a move, frozen by indecision, and people all around were saying: “Damn it, just make up your mind!” But Roy is a sensitive soul, and he knew that he was going to tick off a whole bunch of people he liked either way, and so he waffled. The first time, he decided to stay at Kansas, and friends at North Carolina were furious. The second time, he decided to go to North Carolina and people wore “Benedict Williams” shirts. It probably would have been easier on him if he had just made the decision quickly and boldly, but knowing Roy Williams a little bit I don’t think that was in his nature. I wonder if it’s the same with Favre.
*A Brilliant Reader pointed me to this site — No Fear Shakespeare — and it has brought me loads of joy. The site basically puts the Shakespeare on the left side and a modern/plain definition on the right.
HAMLET: To be or not to be? That is the question –
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end them?
TRANSLATION: The question is: Is it better to be alive or dead? Is is nobler to put up with all the nasty things that luck throws your way, or to fight against all those troubles by simply putting an end to them once and for all.
JULIET: O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art though, Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name.
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
TRANSLATION: Oh, Romeo, Romeo, why do you have to be Romeo? Forget about your father and change your name. Or else, if you won’t change your name, just swear you love me, and I’ll stop being a Capulet.
– So how about this: Joe Mauer, his last six games, is 11 for 26. He’s had a hit every game, two hits in three of those games, and three hits in one game. In those six games, he has raised his average from .413 to .414.
THAT is how hard it is to hit .400 for as season.
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joe, i don’t know if it’s godaddy’s fault, but the last couple of days, i’ve been having trouble getting on your site. it’ll either just time out, or it will appear to load, but just have a completely white page. for instance, that happened around 9:30 (est) this morning.
Michigan has a decent team. Football – Tom Brady. Basketball – Glen Rice or Chris Webber. Baseball – Chris Sabo, Jim Abbott, someone else? Swimming – Michael Phelps.
Good luck beating UCLA.
Let’s start with Jackie Robinson, Troy Aikman, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Wildcards include Rafer Johnson, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Arthur Ashe and Jimmy Connors. Take your pick.
Apropos of nothing….I want to recommend in the strongest possible terms “Satchel” by Larry Tye to every person who reads this blog.
Only 100 pages in but already I’d say with confidence this is one of the five best baseball biographies ever written.
It’s going to be a hell of a horse race between this and Joe’s book for best baseball book of the year.
Stanford also gets some bonus points for JOhn McEnroe (tennis).
Am I missing something (probably) or is there no explanation to the first Posterisk about small sample size regarding the Royal’s interleague record…I love Posterisk explanations and was very disappointed…
KU gets a great start with Gale Sayers and Wilt Chamberlain, but there are no baseball players worth noting..
Good thought Red, but Phelps never actually swam at Michigan — he went to school there, but he was already getting endorsement money and was a pro, he didn’t swim for the team. I’d think that would be a requirement to be on the list. How bout Miami — football: Take your pick (Ray Lewis, Michael Irvin, Warren Sapp, Ed Reed, Jim Kelly…); basketball: Rick Barry; baseball: Ryan Braun? (maybe comparable to Frank Howard in a few years, great young hitter); and Wild Card: Greg Louganis (he transferred after 3 years on the diving team at Miami, but since a lot of the other guys on these lists may not have graduated from the school either, I think he fits).
For Ohio State you could also include Jesse Owens, possibly the greatest track athlete in American history. Add him to the four you mentioned and I don’t think ANY school could beat those five.
I agree with Mikey. I think its UCLA has it, but all you really need to do to get there is write down Jackie Robinson’s name for every sport. QED
The problem with this statement (re: Favre)…
“I do think it’s at least possible that that guy is just splashing around for answers. I think it’s possible that he WANTS to retire, leave the stage with dignity, but he also WANTS to play and cannot even stand to think of a fall without pro football.”
…is that it ignores the fact that Favre does all his hemming-and-hawing in teary press conferences, overly-solemn one-on-one interviews, and other hard-to-imagine-anything-more-public forums. If he was truly concerned about “leaving the stage with dignity,” he’d choose to keep all the embarrassing histrionics private until he’d made up his mind.
Don’t know if it competes with UCLA or Stanford, but Cal’s team is not bad.
Baseball: Jeff Kent
Basketball: Jason Kidd
Football: Tony Gonzalez, Chuck Muncie (Nnamdi Asomugha might have this spot hands down in a decade; Cal actually has more players currently in the NFL than any other college)
Wild card: Natalie Coughlin, Leigh Steinberg, Helen Wills (8 Wimbledons, 7 U.S. Opens, 2 Gold Medals), Matt Biondi (8-time gold medalist)
Kevin McHale, Paul Molitor (Dave Winfield), Alan Page (or others), Neil Broten (or others)
That wasn’t even hard to come up with three players that are Hall of Famers, two of which are considered near or the best at their position in the history of their sport. Given time, it would be easy to come up with more names.
Darkhorse contender in Minnesota -
Football: Bronko Nagurski
Basketball: Kevin McHale
Baseball: Winfield or Molitor
Golf: Patty Berg
Another bonus: all grew up in Minnesota. Let’s make that a constraint too!
Alan Page didn’t go to U of M though…
Because everyone loves Notre Dame (har), how about them?
Football – Joe Montana and a ton of other guys.
Baseball – Carl Yastzremski and Cap Anson (!!) although neither graduated.
Basketball – Adrian Dantley (or Bill Laimbeer or Austen Carr)
Other – Shannon Boxx (soccer), and…um, well they have had plenty of great NFL stars.
University of Minnesota is surprisingly good with:
Baseball: Dave Winfield or Paul Molitor
Basketball: Kevin McHale
Football: Bronko Nagurski
Wildcard: Neal Broten? Jordan Leopold? Tom Lehman? Brock Lesnar?
Music wildcard: Bob Dylan
On Phil saying that Orlando had a foul to give: Could he have meant that Orlando, up by 3, could possibly foul right away to send someone to the line. They would have needed to make the first and then intentionally miss the second and hope for the rebound. This would have been a good strategy.
Then again, I’m far from a basketball expert, and I was just fringe watching that game. I sure hope I didn’t just expose myself as a fool, but I belive in living dangerously.
As for the College team, I’m an Ohio State alum and I’d like to point out:
Archie Griffin vs Tom Brady (pretty close)
Jerry Lucas vs Chris Weber (Lucas)
Frank Howard vs Sabo/Abbott (Howard)
Nicklaus/Owens vs Phelps – if he counts (Nicklaus/Owens)
I’m not saying that UM has a bad team and I’m not saying that OSU has the best team. I’m just saying that I think we’ve got it over Michigan.
My alma mater is strong out of the gate with Herschel Walker and Dominique Wilkins, but then…ummm…either Spud Chandler or Glenn Davis for baseball, and either Gwen Torrence or Teresa Edwards. Maybe Mikael Pernfors.
Another MN music wildcard: Paul Westerberg.
Though the U has had tons of good hockey players, have any really been fantastic pros? Maybe Broten. And Herbie Brooks was a great coach, ok player.
Brock is a good pick too. Maybe once he become and IFC champ we can use him as wildcard.
THAT is how hard it is to hit .400 for as season.
I remember George Brett’s chase for .400 – I was just a kid learning about baseball and would go into my dad’s room in the morning to listen to the sports on the radio. And that’s how I learned. As happy as most players would be going 1 for 3 in a game, that’s still a bad game in the chase for .400. Even going 2 for 5 brings your average *down* when you are over .400.
Michigan should have Barry Larkin instead of Sabo/Abbot. Improves that quite a bit.
The University of Cincinnati has the Big O (basketball), Sandy Koufax (baseball)and Tony Trabert (tennis) all hall of famers. Football struggles a little, although there is a Super Bowl MVP in Jim O’Brien and one of the ultimate what-might-have-beens in Greg Cook.
USC:
Football: Take your pick; OJ, Marcus Allen, Charles White, Mike Garrett, Carson Palmer, Reggie Bush, etc. Bonus points for John Wayne?
Baseball: Again, take your pick; Tom Seaver, Dave Kingman, Randy Johnson, Mark McGwire, Rod Dedeaux, Fred Lynn, and of course the immortal Brian Bannister
Basketball: with a swerve the Trojans can claim Cheryl Miller, Cynthia Cooper, Lisa Leslie (all of which who have arguements for best female basketball player ever). On the men’s side; Bill Sharman, Tex Winter, Paul Westphal are on the non-payout ledger…on this side here, is OJ Mayo.
Wildcard (Astronauts…hey you said it’s a wildcard): Neil Armstrong
d’oh, that’s funny, because Bronko was my “2nd” choice.
Barry Larkin for Michigan baseball.
For OSU football, if you’re just talking about his college career, Griffin’s probably the guy. He didn’t do much in the pros, though. How about Paul Warfield? Or Orlando Pace? Or Cris Carter?
If you had held a gun at my head this morning and asked me where Jackie Robinson went to college I would’ve told you USC.
What’s it about those little brain farts, where we’re sure of something that’s absolutely wrong?
The Homer Simpson “D’oh!” factor?
My KU contribution:
Football — The Kansas Comet
Men’s Basketball — Wilt
Women’s Basketball — Lynette
Track — Glen Cunningham (not Ryun, because he failed at the Olympics… and I’m a liberal)
Syracuse University has an interesting history. They produced Jim Brown, one of the all-time greats, and possibly a better lacrosse player than running back. Donovan McNabb and Carmelo Anthony went to the ‘Cuse. They’ve won ten NCAA lacrosse championships. They’ve given us Bob Costas and Mike Tirico, and New York sportscaster Len Berman.
Sadly, there’s baseball. Their best there is probably Jim Konstanty. It’s not that easy.
The University of Texas will probably have a very good side… but I leave that to someone more knowledgable.
Stanford (my alma mater) probably laps the field in every sport EXCEPT the big three (and hockey) — even though we’ve had great basketball and baseball programs for many years, that hasn’t translated into a lot of stars at the pro level. At least we have Elway for football. And tons of candidates in tennis, golf, swimming and other “minor” sports.
Anyway, Stanford’s too easy, so let me try the school I grew up with: Michigan State. They won’t be in the upper tier, but they’re pretty good.
Basketball: Easy, Magic Johnson. (With a pretty solid team of backups including Kevin Willis, Steve Smith and Jason Richardson.)
Football: Hmmm… Hall of Famer Joe DeLamiellure? Hall of Famer Herb Adderley? All-time leading scorer Morten Andersen? No one really jumps out, but there’s some quality.
Baseball: Probably Robin Roberts. Kirk Gibson and Steve Garvey as runners-up.
Hockey: Maybe Rod Brind’Amour
I think Michigan State has a better lineup than our hated rivals from University of Michigan.
Basketball: Magic Johnson
Football: Bubba Smith (Bonus points for being in police Academy)
Baseball: HOFer Robin Roberts or Kirk Gibson
WildCard: ROD BRIND’AMOUR for hockey
Here’s my pick for Illinois:
Football: Red Grange or Dick Butkus (tough call)
Basketball: likely will be Deron Williams. As of right now? Eddie Johnson maybe? Or Derek Harper? Red Kerr if you include coaching?
Baseball: Lou Boudreau
Wildcard: Dike Eddleman, excelled in three sports in college and won a silver medal in the 1948 Olympics.
I’ll take on Texas:
Football: Earl Campbell
Baseball: Roger Clemens
Basketball: Slater Martin (HOF) or Kevin Durant
Wild Card: Cat Osterman? Aaron Peirsol?
I can’t think of wildcards but Auburn is pretty good in the big three:
Baseball: Frank Thomas
Basketball: Charles Barkley
Football: Bo Jackson
Here’s a wild card for you; Auburn:
Baseball – Frank Thomas
Basketball – Charles Barkley
Football – Bo Jackson
Women’s BB – Ruthie Bolton
Swimming – Rowdy Gaines
Bo also gives you baseball depth if you would rather have Ronnie Brown or Pat Sullivan as your football guy.
@Kyle (#25): Niel Armstrong was a Boilermaker.
Ben Crenshaw for U of Texas wild card?
Arizona State:
Baseball: Barry Bonds and Reggie Jackson
Football: Randall McDaniel
Basketball: Byron Scott
Wildcard: Phil Mickelson
So How About This? Jon and Kate Plus 8 has become an unwatchable shell of its old shelf with zero focus on the kids and the mom and dad not even being filmed together. The last two shows have featured special guest appearances from Emeril Lagasse and the guys from Orange County Choppers. Before long Don Knotts, Sonny Bono, and The Harlem Globetrotters will show up for another Scooby Doo Mystery meets Jon and Kate. They need to kill this show off now.
Indiana University:
Baseball-Ted Kluszewski
Basketball-Isaiah Thomas or Steve Alford (don’t even mention Bob Knight)
Football-ummmm, how about Lou Saban? (and God save us from Lee Corso)
Wild cards: swimmming-Mark Spitz; acting-Kevin Kline.
Not a whole lot to get excited about.
Small-college edition..Occidental gave us the late Jack Kemp and some other politician named Obama.
Jon and Kate Plus 8 has to have set an unbreakable record for a show going from obscurity to oversaturation and back to obscurity.
The whole thing took like five weeks.
C. B. Fry,
The Nawab of Pataudi,
Roger Bannister,
Joe Roff.
For Colorado, not a bad list:
football: Byron “Whizzer” White
basketball: Chauncey Billups
baseball: Jay Howell (yeah, I didn’t know who either)
wildcard: Hale Irwin, Debi Thomas, Jeremy Bloom, Billy Kidd, Glenn Miller
Alan Page did go to law school at the University of Minnesota, but I don’t think that should count and he wouldn’t edge out Bronko Nagurski anyway.
BYU:
Football: Steve Young
Basketball: Danny Ainge
Baseball: Jack Morris
Wildcard: Mike Weir or Mitt Romney
Joe, For the last week or so I cannot directly access the home page. But if I google your name and get a link to one of the posts, then I can jump to the Home Page from there…
I have tried both IE and FF
LSU is in pretty good shape in the three biggies:
Baseball – Albert Belle
Football – Y.A. Tittle, etc.
Basketball – Shaq, Pistol Pete, Bob Petit
But then has a surprising lack of wildcard candidates. I don’t think golfer Fred Haas is what Joe had in mind. Any help from a Tiger alum?
San Diego State:
Baseball: T.Gwynn
Football: M.Faulk
Basketball: M.Cage
Wild Card: Gene Littler (golf); Marcelo Balboa (soccer); Arnie Robinson (Olympic gold medalist in the long jump); Raquel Welch
Florida State-
Football – Fred Bilentnikoff, Lee Corso, Burt Reynolds (!), Deion Sanders, Derrick Brooks, Marvin Jones, Terrell Buckley, Peter Boulware
Baseball – JD Drew, Dick Howser
Basketball – Charlie Ward, Sam Cassell
Golf – Paul Azinger, Jeff Sluman
Though an alum, I am no Nole homer by any means. But that is impressive, and I didn’t even go for “academics” as a fifth category with that Safety that got the Rhodes Scholarship last year.
OK. I’ll do Arizona:
Basketball: Sean Elliott (lots of other choices here)
Baseball: Trevor Hoffman
Football: Teddy Bruschi
Wild Card: Jennie Finch
And returning to Kansas for a minute, they’ve got men’s hoops (Wilt), football (Sayers), women’s hoops (Woodard) and track (Cunningham, Oerter, Mills, Ryun) all pretty well locked up, but Bob Allison as their best baseball player does pose a problem. Can we claim Walter Johnson? He’s FROM Kansas, after all, and really, where else would he have gone to college? K-State? Puh-lease.
Nice Florida State list by No. 49, my fellow ‘Nole, but I have a few alternates:
Football: Deion Sanders (a tough choice over Biletnikoff and Charlie Ward)
Basketball: Dave Cowens (over the underrated pair of Sam Cassell and Ward)
Baseball: J.D. Drew (over Sanders, Doug Mientkiewicz and college studs like Howser, John-Ford Griffin and Marshall McDougall)
Wildcard: Azinger’s a good pick, but I’m biased toward Gabrielle Reese, women’s volleyball.
@ Paul White (#47) – I’m not an alum, but I think David Toms went to LSU.
I’m just impressed (relieved even) that Juliet isn’t peering off a balcony yelling “Romeo! Where on earth are you, Romeo?”
Fun for the whole family. University of Arkansas:
Football: Dan Hampton (defense), Lance Alworth, Darren McFadden (offense), Jimmy Johnson (facelifts)
Basketball: Sidney Moncrief, Joe Johnson
Baseball: Cliff Lee
Wild Card: John Daly
I don’t know that we beat anybody, except in the “too drunk to play golf” category. Although that’s a pretty awesome category.
Notre Dame, maybe?
Baseball: Cap Anson or Carl Yastrzemski
Football: Joe Montana, Alan Page, or Paul Hornung
Basketball: Adrian Dantley
Goat: Steve Bartman
Tear-jerker: Rudy
Coach: Knute Rockne or Curly Lambeau
Tennessee:
Football: Peyton Manning, Reggie White
Baseball: Todd Helton
Basketball: Candace Parker, Bernard King
Track & Field: Willie Gault
Not bad…..
Upon further reflection, forget Walter Johnson.
Bob Allison was an excellent baseball player. Three-time All-Star, Rookie of the Year, career 127 OPS+, good defensive outfielder with an excellent arm, and such a competitor and all-around admirable guy that the Twins’ annual award for the player that exhibits the most determination, hustle and on- and off-field leadership is called the Bob Allison Award. He died of ataxia in 1995 and there is now a Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center at the University of Minnesota.
I’ll take Bob Allison as KU’s baseball representative any day.
“Syracuse University has an interesting history. They produced Jim Brown…. Sadly, there’s baseball. Their best there is probably Jim Konstanty.”
Ron Luciano.
Wake Forest: Great start, with Tim Duncan, Arnold Palmer, and Brian Piccolo. But then in baseball, it’s either Erik Hanson or Ray Scarborough.
Hey Joe, how about putting up a poll as to whether we like reading “So how about this?” each time, or the just acronym, or just “So how about this?” one time at the top and then not again?
I would vote for one time at the top and not again. For whatever that’s worth.
University of Alabama
Football: Don Hutson (nod to Derrick Thomas, Joe Namath, Ken Stabler, Bart Starr, and Shaun Alexander)
Basketball: Robert Horry (Latrell Sprewell and Mo Williams are about all I got here)
Baseball: Joe Sewell (nod to Dave Magadan)
Wild Card: Mel Allen
Being a Mizzou fan, I know there is barely a list, but I’ll go ahead and point them out for Mizzou’s sake:
Baseball: Ian Kinsler, Max Scherzer, Phil Bradley (also played football at Mizzou)
Basketball: Linas Kleiza, Kareem Rush, Anthony Peeler
Football: Lloyd Carr and Jim Leavitt (both only played college ball, went on to become coaches), Justin Gage, Brad Smith, Gene Snitsky (now a WWE wrestler), Roger Wehrli, Kellen Winslow I, and the 6 or 7 players who were drafted in the 2009 NFL Draft
Other: Ben Askren (2 time wrestling national champion, now an MMA fighter), Christian Cantwell (world champion shot putter, won a silver medal in 2008 Summer Olympics)
Not proposing it as the best but for a defunct college Carlisle Indian Industrial School is interesting because of one athlete.
Football: Jim Thorpe
Baseball: Jim Thorpe
Basketball: Jim Thorpe
Other: Olympic athlete – Jim Thorpe, or Coach “Pop” Warner
Nebraska:
Football: Johnny Rodgers, Eric Crouch, Tommie Frazier, Grant Wistrom
Basketball: Tyronn Lue?
Baseball: Darin Erstad, Alex Gordon, Joba
Wildcard: Sarah Pavan (Volleyball, Johnny Carson (Golf?)
“Wild Card: John Daly” … ain’t that the truth!
My alma mater, Wake Forest, would go Tim Duncan, Arnold Palmer, Bill George (HoF Chicago Bear who helped create the position of middle linebacker) … and the wheels come off there. Erik Hanson, I guess, until Dave Bush has his breakout.
Creighton:
Basketball: Paul Silas
Baseball: Bob Gibson
Football: No team, but Gayle Sayers went to HS just down the street.
Wild Card: Johnny Torres has the longest wikipedia page of any former soccer player.
Carl Weathers has died in three movies:
Rocky IV
Predator
Happy Gilmore
S.H.A.T!!!!
South Carolina
Football: George Rogers, Sterling Sharpe
Baseball: Brian Roberts, Mookie Wilson
Basketball: Alex English
Wild card: Athletes, Terrence Trammell, Tonique Williams-Darling
Coaches, Dan Reeves, Charlie Weis, Bobby Cremins
Others, Robert McNair(owns Texans),
Humpy Wheeler(Chairman Lowes Speedway),
Hootie Johnson (Chairman Augusta National)
The list that Neuty came up with for Colorado was pretty good (John Stearns is a possibility for baseball, as is Dave Logan who played baseball at CU), but for the wildcard you need to have Robert Redford. It’s tough to beat a team with Roy Hobbs.
For Arizona, I’d add Annika Sorenstam as wildcard.
Oklahoma State may have a good team…I’m not much of a fan though, so it can probably be improved.
Football – Barry Sanders
Baseball – Robin Ventura, ?
Basketball – Byron Houston, ??
Other – Randy Couture, or a bland golfer (Scott Verplank, Charles Howell, Bob Tway, etc)
Try U of Cincinnati also:
Baseball: Sandy Koufax (also Kevin Youkilis for depth)
Basketball: Oscar Robertson
Football: Jason Fabini (yes, it’s a stretch, but he’s better at what he does than Tyronn Lue)
Wild Card: Urban Meyer
Sarah Lawrence College:
. . .
This explains the disturbing lack of major league scouts following me around.
I’ll do my alma mater, Yooveeay (College World Series, anyone?)
Baseball – Eppa Rixey
Football – Tiki Barber
Basketball – er, Ralph Sampson? (does notoriety count?) I didn’t want to put Olden Polynice…
Wild Card – Dawn Staley (carried the flag in the Olympic opening ceremony – not many can say that)
Not as bad as I expected…
UNLV:
football – Randall Cunningham
basketball – Larry Johnson, Reggie Theus, Shawn Marion
baseball – Todd Stottlemyre, Matt Williams, Cecil Fielder
wild card – Adam Scott (golf), Gina Carano (mma), Kenny Mayne (Randall Cunningham’s backup)
My alma mater, NYU, can actually pull of HOFers in the big 3, sort of.
Baseball: Hank Greenberg (he never played there, but he did attend for a semester, I’ve seen his transcript). If not, then Eddie Yost
Basketball: Dolph Schayes (also Satch Sanders)
Football: Ken Strong (HOF FB, played in the 30s), plus Paul Tagliabue.
(On the minus side, you get Gary Bettman too)
Wildcard: Carol Heiss, 1960 Gold Medal Winner in Figure Skating – or Martin Scorsese if we’re going outside sports.
And I’ll do Rutgers as well:
Baseball: David DeJesus (not really, but it’s Joe’s blog, and the other options are Bob Tewksbury and Eric Young)
Football: Paul Robeson – more recently Deron Cherry, and we’ll see about Kenny Britt
Basketball: Roy Hinson (sorry Joe) – also David Stern & Jim Valvano
Wild Card: Alexi Lalas or Peter Vermes
Or, out of deference to Joe P, the UVa wildcard should be in acting/writing/producing:
Superstar – Tina Fey
(Yes, she was a close friend of mine at school!)
Stanford hoops: Hank Liusetti, invented the jump shot, made the Augusta Chronicle’s list of top 100 basketball influences.
Small school edition
St. Joseph’s
Baseball: Jamie Moyer
Football: Vince Papale (no football team at the school, but he was a pole vaulter on the track & field team)
Basketball: Jameer Nelson
NBA Head Coaches): Jack Ramsay, Jim Lynam, Jim O’Brien, Paul Westhead, Jack McKinney, Matt Guokas
The best Saint Louis University has to offer:
Basketball: Hall of Famer Ed Macauley
Baseball: Gene Robertson (a part-time MI in the 20s I’d never heard of until I looked it up on baseball-reference)
Football: Bradbury Robinson (threw the first legal forward pass)
Soccer: Brian McBride
USC’s team seems pretty funny.
OJ Simpson, football
Mark Prior, baseball
Paul Westphal, basketball
Phil Hill, formula one racing
Florida Gators, maybe?
Football – Emmitt Smith, Jack Youngbloog, Fred Taylor, Jevon Kearse, Rex Grossman (a personal favorite)
Baseball – Brad Wilkerson, Mark Ellis, David Eckstein, maybe Matt LaPorta
Basketball – Al Horford, Corey Brewer, David Lee, Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem
Wildcard – swimmers Dara Torres, Ryan Lochte
A bit weak in baseball/football which is surprising for a Texas school. But a pretty nifty wildcard.
University of Houston:
Baseball – Doug Drabek
Basketball – Clyde Drexler, Elvin Hayes, Hakeem Olajuwon
Football – Andre Ware (if college only counts), Tom Landry
Wildcard – Carl Lewis
UCLA
Baseball – Jackie Robinson
Basketball – Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul Jabbar)
Football – Troy Aikman
Track – Jackie Joyner Kersee
Tennis – Arthur Ashe
Women’s Basketball – Ann Meyers
Women’s Softball – Lisa Fernandez
University of Minnesota: not too shabby.
Football: Bronko Nagurski; Carl Eller
Baseball: Dave Winfield; Paul Molitor
Basketball: Kevin McHale
Hockey: Coach Herb Brooks and every major player on the “Miracle on Ice” team
And, Eller aside, all of them were either born in or grew up in Minnesota.
University of San Francisco (strong case for a school most people people don’t know about)
Basketball: Bill Russell, belongs at least in the discussion for best of all time
Football: Gino Marchetti, hall of famer, and selected for all millennium team
Baseball: Jesse Foppert(?)
Wildcard: Pete Rozelle, NFL commissioner
Auburn already has a pretty strong team, but we can add Harvey Glance-Gold medal winner in the 76 Olympics. The boycott kept him out of 1980.
(oops, didn’t see Sean’s post #18 up there. Lesnar makes a great wildcard.)
Vassar College
errr….
ummmm…
Damn.
As a Vikings fan and a psychologist, I am genuinely now excited for Favre to play for us for only one reason: I want to see how Favre Vikings jerseys sell.
Truly. He could break his leg on the first play of the first game and I won’t care because I don’t think he’s even remotely the answer (he is much more the All-Time Intercepted than the All-Time Touchdowned right now).
But I want to watch it happen. I want to watch Vikings fans who for 16 years hated him look at purple 4 jerseys and go, “God do we have to?” I want to watch Packers fans who celebrate Brettmas go, “We just CAN’T” unlike last year when many of them put “Go Jets” on their cars and bought #4 Jets jerseys as a sign of aggravation toward Packers owners.
Honest to Joe, I need a study done. I need to see this happen. He has to sign on and they have to give this a whirl. It would be a fascinating experiment.
#1 Public School in New England Edition:
Basketball – Ray Allen, Rip Hamilton, Emeka Okafor, Josh Boone, Ben Gordon, Rudy Gay, Donyell Marshall, Cliff Robinson, etc.
Football – Umm…Dan Orlovsky? Darius Butler should be good for the Patriots this year
Baseball – Walt Dropo, Charles Nagy, Jason Grabowski
Wildcard – any of the women’s basketball players (Rebecca Lobo-Rushin, Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Maya Moore); Moby (musician?), Meg Ryan (actress), Leigh Montville (writer), Hajim al-Hassani (speaker of the Iraqi National Assembly)
So the Huskies are no good aside the basketball teams. Who knew? Gotta love wikipedia though
Columbia University:
Football – Sid Luckman, Roone Arledge
Baseball – Lou Gehrig, Sandy Koufax
Basketball – Barack O’Bama
Bad Ass Mo-Fo – Teddy Roosevelt
Wild Card – Hunter S. Thompson
I would like to throw out a small MAC school in southwest Ohio.
Miami University:
Football – Ben Roethlisberger
Basketball – Ron Harper (with apologies to Wally Szczerbiak)
Baseball – Charlie Leibrant of the 1985 World Champion Royals.
Other – Coaching- Coach Paul Brown (with apologies to all of the Cradle of Coaches)
Not a list that competes with the big schools (Ohio St, UCLA), but still much better than a school like Missouri. Also, for those of you who judge a player because of championships (example Elway over Marino) you can appreciate that Roethlisberger has 2 Super Bowls, Harper has 5 Nba titles, Leibrant has 1 World Series title and Paul Brown won 3 Nfl championships.
Washington University Battling Bears:
Baseball: Dal Maxvill, Muddy Ruel
Football: Jimmy Conzelman
Comedy: Harold Ramis
Ballooning: Steve Fossett
Playwright: Tennessee Williams
Univ of Washington
Football; Warren Moon
Basketball; Brandon Roy
Baseball; Tim Lincecum
Wildcard; Bruce Lee
(also Columbia should not have Obama or HST. Barry went to undergrad at occidental i believe, and hunter never went to college.)
1) I think it’s clear that the fourth top college sport in most of the country is track. That’s where our Olympic heroes come from. On the East Coast, I’ll agree it’s probably lacrosse, a sport which (like ice hockey) I know nothing about. And at the Aggie schools in Oklahoma and Iowa it’s wrestling, which is actually sort of gay, and reminiscent of other activities well-known to go on at Aggie schools.
KU comes out very well in track and, of course, basketball. Football is a bit iffy, and I don’t know if we ever produced a good baseball player.
2) It’s also pretty clear that the greatest American athlete of the 20th century was Jackie Robinson, a four-sport letterman at UCLA and then one of baseball’s top players ever. Robinson certainly could have been a pro football star; I don’t know how good he was at basketball. Besides, of course, there is that little matter of breaking the color line with dignity, courage, and incredible self-control. Not to mention that he was an Army officer during World War II, though he didn’t see combat. All due respect to Jesse Owens and Jim Thorpe.
3) Roy Williams should have stayed at Kansas. He’d have founded his own tradition at the school. At Carolina he’s just Dean Smith’s designated heir. Second banana. Kind of like Brett Favre. He could have been the greatest legend in Packers history, and have lived off that the rest of his life. Instead of going out with class, he put on a clown show for the media. When you’re done, you’re done. Admit it, take the eighty billion dollars you have in the bank, and enjoy a nice vacation with Paris Hilton or one of her friends down at Cabo.
Speaking of KU track, I read a book a few years back about the competition to run the first 4 minute mile. Wes Santee from KU was one of the 3 runners mentioned (Bannister and an Australian (maybe New Zealander) whose name escapes me were the other two). Anyways, for the KU alumni here, how does Santee compare to Ryun and the other KU track stars?
I don’t think any one’s done Wisconsin yet:
Football: Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch
Baseball: HOFer Addie Joss (All-time career leader in WHIP at .9678 Second best all-time ERA of 1.89)
Basketball: Michael Finley
Wild Card: Suzy Favor-Hamilton (Olympian), Phil Helmuth (Poker champ)
Kent State University Golden Flashes:
Baseball: Thurman Munson, Steve Stone, Rich Rollins
Football: Jack Lambert, James Harrison, Joshua Cribbs
Basketball: Antonio Gates (for his subsequent NFL success)
Wild Card: Ben Curtis (golf – winner of 2003 British Open)
Gerald Tinker (track – gold medalist in 1972 Summer
Olympics for 4 x 100 relay)
Lou Holtz
Nick Saban
Drew Carey
Arsenio Hall
Michael Keaton
Devo
Indiana is pretty competitive until you include baseball:
Basketball: Isiah Thomas
Football: Anthony Thompson or George Taliaferro
Swimming: Mark Spitz
Baseball: Ted Kluszewski
Not much of a Michigan State guy, but thought I should at least start their list with Magic Johnson and Kirk Gibson.
Southern Illinois Salukis
Basketball – Walt Frazier
Baseball – Steve Finley
Football – Jim Hart
Wildcard- Dennis Franz aka Andy Sipowicz
How about Georgia Tech? Has the best current team.
Football: Calvin Johnson
Baseball: Mark Texeira
Basketball: Chris Bosh
Golf: Take your pick
My squad, Mizzou, is quite ugly. Mizzou is the largest university in a state with two sports-mad cities, and this is the best I could come up with
Baseball-Ian Kinsler (that’s the best I can do), and he left after one season.
Basketball-Norm Stewart (played there and was obviously the coach for a long time)
Football-Kellen Winslow (awesome, the best athlete of the group)
Wild Card-Um…Carl Edwards? Mizzou doesn’t even have an athlete in a random sport of any kind of renown. Christian Cantwell won a Silver Medal at the recent Olympics, but I don’t think either Edwards or Cantwell can compete with, say, Mia Hamm (UNC) or Jesse Owens (THE Ohio State) or Jackie Robinson by himself at UCLA.
Pete – Check out #62 (Wes) – Ben Askren kicked all sorts of ass for 2 years on the wrestling mat. He’s no Jesse Owens or Jackie Robinson, but he’s no slouch either.
@#67 Bellwether Johnson – Carl Weathers is also renowned for his ability to make a fantastic stew out of virtually nothing.
So how about this: Joe Mauer, his last six games, is 11 for 26. He’s had a hit every game, two hits in three of those games, and three hits in one game. In those six games, he has raised his average from .413 to .414.
THAT is how hard it is to hit .400 for as season.
So in his next game, at home against the Pirates, Mauer goes 4-for-4 and raises his average eleven points, to .425.
Interesting. If that’s a curse, let’s have more of it, Joe!
So How About This: The Royals have won four in a row!!!! And have at least scored 4 runs in each game. I guess they listened to ya Joe: Score MORE than four.
Harvard:
Football: Walter Camp, basically invented the game (Alternates: Don McInally, Matt Birk, Tommy Lee Jones, James Brown, Dan Jiggetts, Paul DePodesta)
Baseball: Jocko Conlan, Hall of Fame umpire
Basketball: David Halberstam, author of the best NBA book of all time (Alternate: Arne Duncan, US Education Secretary; Nearly: Dexter Fowler, who accepted then punted a basketball scholarship to play pro baseball)
Wild Card: HOCKEY: Don Sweeney (Alternates: Ted Donato, Bruins coach; Bill & Bob Cleary, host of others)
Others doing their Alma Maters, so here’s TCU:
Football: LaDainian Tomlinson or Sammy Baugh (good start)
Baseball: Pete Donohue or Tex Carleton (completely forgotten, but good pitchers)
Basketball: Kurt Thomas (really? Next best is Lee Nailon)
Golf: Angela Stanford (currently #7 on LPGA tour)
Good football history, anyway. Also Davey O’Brien and Bob Lily.
Weird thing is that Tomlinson, Nailon, and Stanford all were going to school when I was a sports broadcaster there. Maybe one of their recent baseball draftees will surpass Donohue and Carleton.
.590!! If only the Royals had gone to the NL in ‘94 instead of the Brewers. Stupid David Glass.
@Jim H (#36): Armstrong might’ve got his BS at Purdue, but he got his Masters in Aerospace at USC.
It does help, I’m sure, that so many of the Royals’ interleague matchups thus far have been against the Pirates, Reds, and Astros.
I’ll toss out some for Cornell:
Football: Pop Warner (Alternate: Ed Marinaro)
Baseball: Nobody since the ’40s
Basketball: Only in the front office
Wildcards: Ken Dryden, Joe Nieuwendyk (Hockey), Bruce Arena (Soccer), Dick Schaap (Sports Reporting and Writing), Robert Trent Jones (Golf Course Design)