Greatest Athletes By Number - #1

Wow this is a tough one right off the bat. There are many greats who wore the #1 and they come from different sports which makes it harder to choose just one. Here is the ballot and you can make your choice.

- Warren Moon, was a CFL pioneer winning five Grey Cups which is equal to the NFL's Super Bowl. He threw for over 49,000 yards and 291 touchdowns in 17 NFL seasons. He was a pioneer for the African American quarterback in the NFL. I know he broke my heart several times with spectacular games against my Bengals.

- Oscar Robertson, The Big "O" maybe the greatest all-around player to play the game. In just his second season he averaged a triple-double which is probably the most difficult stat to accomplish in the NBA. He scored over 26,000 points during his 14-year career. He played for Cincinnati in college and the pros, which is a plus from me.

- I personally have to place my vote for this number with the "Wizard" of Baseball. Ozzie Smith transformed the shortstop position with his amazing defense and of course who can forget his signature backflip. Alot of my early baseball memories growing up in Cincinnati are of watching Ozzie Smith play shortstop. The range that he posessed was second to none and it almost literally seemed like he was performing magic with some of the spectacular plays he made. He won the Gold Glove award from 1979-1992, went to 15 All-Star games and stole over 500 bases. Probably not considered one of the greatest baseball players because of his lack of power, but he definitely made an impact on the game like no other. I never saw anything but a smile on his face and you could truly tell he loved the game of baseball.

A few others to consider were Pee Wee Reese, Billy Martin and Sadahuru Oh who set the world record for home runs hit with 868 home runs over his 22 year career with the Tokyo Giants, would have been interesting to see what he could have done in the MLB.

Greatest Athletes By Number - #00

I am going to attempt to start going through and getting opinions on who you believe is the greatest athlete at each jersey starting at #00-#99.

There are not many who wore the #00 in sports, but there were a few that could get the best at this number.

My choice for this number is Robert Parish of the Boston Celtics, Charlotte Hornets and Chicago Bulls. Robert Parish played the most games ever for an NBA player at 1611. I am not a huge NBA fan so you probably will not see many make it through on my list, but when Parish played are the days of the NBA that I remember the most. He was a very unselfish player who won 4 NBA championships with the Celtics and Bulls, was a 9-time All-Star and was selected as one of the NBA's best 50 players. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.

The only other player I could find of any popularity with this number was Jim Otta, Oakland Raiders center in the 60's and 70's.

College Football Playoff????

Click on the image to see a clearer picture.

Dan Wetzel at Yahoo.com came up with this playoff chart on what a college football playoff would look like if they were using this system this year. Look at the potential matchups and think of the excitement surrounding this possibility. He basically took the champion from each of the 11 D1 conferences and then had 5 at large bids. With all of the confusion and parity in college football this year, I am not sure there is a better argument for a playoff. I must say 16 teams might be a stretch as this would possibly include some teams with up to 3 losses. 8 teams would create some exciting matches and definitely be able to include the elite teams each year. What are your thoughts about a college football playoff? I think it might throw my wife over the edge on football though. I would want to watch almost everyone of these games. I will include the link to his article if you would like to take a peak. It is a very interesting article.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=dw-playoff112707&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Buckeyes - National Champions?

I think the Buckeyes are going to do what seemed so far fetched a couple of weeks ago and make it back to the National Title game.

I also think they are going to win that game.

Posting

I guess I have to invite you to post to this blog. If anyone knows how to switch it so anyone can post let me know. If not leave your email and I will add you as an author.

How Much Is Too Much?

Alot of the buzz so far in the baseball offseason has centered around Joe Torre and Alex Rodriquez. Now that we know where Joe Torre has landed the focus is centered on A-Rod. I was reading an article today and when I read over the part that said A-Rod opted out of his 10-year, 252 million dollar contract I felt like I wanted to slap somebody. So what does he want, somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 million dollars!!! 250-300-350 million what really is the difference, I think this really just shows greed and selfishness on his part. I am not sure that I would want to be on a team with someone who is never happy with just being a baseball player.

I was listening to the radio the other day and they were talking about the worth of a few of the MLB teams. I believe they said the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were worth around 290 million dollars. They said why not just sign the team over to him and say come and play, the whole team is yours. The truth is I am not sure that would make him happy either.

So my question is, WHY would a team fork out this kind of money on a single player when they can get 3-4 GREAT players for the same dough. We have seen in todays game that it does not always take the team that is willing to spend the most money, but really the team that has the complete package and usually the guys who truly love the game. I know there are probably not too many GM's going to log into this blog, but give me your thoughts on this and let me know what you think a teams mindset is when spending this much money.

Ray of Hope

I sent this story out to a few friends last week and thought it is a very inspiring and uplifting story. If you get a chance take a few minutes to watch it. Just go to the link below and hit the play button on the video. It takes about 15 minutes to watch it.

The tragic death of UNC mascot Jason Ray gave new life to four New Jersey families.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=rayofhope