Top 10 Athletes from California
Dishonorable Mention to Mark McGwire of the Los Angeles suburb of La Verne, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco suburb of San Carlos, Tom Brady of the San Francisco suburb of San Mateo, and Reggie Bush of San Diego. And you know why. And to O.J. Simpson of San Francisco, for a very different reason.
If we consider only the stats and the performance, and not how those were reached, or for character after playing, McGwire and Bush still might not make it. Bonds and Brady would.
And if you're wondering where Tiger Woods of the Los Angeles suburb of Cypress is, you're either new to this blog, or you're reading the wrong one. Tiger Woods is a golfer. Golfers are not athletes. When was the last time you heard that Tiger, or any other golfer, didn't make the cut at a major, so "He's off playing baseball"?
This one is going to be tough, because there's been so many. Some absolute all-time legends won't make the cut. California has produced 25 players in the Baseball Hall of Fame. It has produced more Heisman Trophy winners than any other State, 12. It has produced 22 players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It has produced 13 players in the Basketball Hall of Fame. No members of the Hockey Hall of Fame yet. But countless Olympians.
And most of those people didn't even come close to the Top 10.
But, just to clear up: The State of California has to be where the athlete in question was trained to play the sport that made him famous. If he was born there, but grew up and learned his sport in another State, he doesn't qualify for this list.
Nor does having played for a California team matter. Troy Aikman played for a California college -- in his case, UCLA. Joe Montana played for a California pro team -- in his case, the San Francisco 49ers. And Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did both -- in his case, UCLA and the Los Angeles Lakers. But that's not where they're from: Troy qualifies for Oklahoma, Joe for Pennsylvania, and Kareem for New York.
And, of course, it involves only players, not managers or head coaches, or executives.
So...
Honorable Mention to these Baseball Hall-of-Famers from San Francisco: Harry Heilmann, George "Highpockets" Kelly, Tony Lazzeri and Joe Cronin; plus Ernie Lombardi, Frank Robinson, Willie Stargell and Joe Morgan of Oakland; Chick Hafey of Berkeley; Harry Hooper of Bell Station; Lefty Gomez of Rodeo; Dennis Eckersley of Fremont; and Randy Johnson of Livermore.
Honorable Mention to these Baseball Hall-of-Famers from Los Angeles: Bobby Doerr, Robin Yount, Eddie Murray and Ozzie Smith; plus Bob Lemon and Tony Gwynn of Long Beach, Duke Snider of Compton, Eddie Mathews of Santa Barbara, Don Drysdale of Van Nuys, Rollie Fingers of Upland, George Brett of El Segundo, and Gary Carter of Fullerton.
Honorable Mention to Baseball Hall-of-Famers Frank Chance and Tom Seaver of Fresno.
Honorable Mention to Jennie Finch of the Los Angeles suburb of La Mirada. She pitched the University of Arizona's softball team to the 2001 National Championship, and the U.S. team to the Gold Medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Honorable Mention to the Heisman Trophy Winners. In addition to the disgraced O.J. (1968) and Bush (2005), there's been Glenn Davis of La Verne (1946), John Huarte of Santa Ana (1964), Mike Garrett of Los Angeles (1965), Gary Beban of Redwood City (1967), Jim Plunkett of San Jose (1970), Charles White of San Fernando (1979), Marcus Allen of San Diego (1981), Gino Torretta of Pinole (1992), Rashan Salaam of San Diego (1994), Ricky Williams of San Diego (1998), Carson Palmer of Rancho Santa Margarita (2002) and Matt Leinart of Santa Ana (2004).
In 2008, ESPN named ranked Glenn Davis 13th and Reggie Bush 24th on their list of the Top
25 College Football Players of All Time.
Honorable Mention to their Pro Football Hall-of-Famers from San Francisco, not counting the disgraced Simpson: Ollie Matson and Dan Fouts; plus Norm Van Brocklin of Walnut Creek, Gino Marchetti of Antioch, and Lynn Swann of San Mateo.
Honorable Mention to their Pro Football Hall-of-Famers from Los Angeles: Tom Fears, Hugh McElhenny, Ron Mix, Ron Yary, Mike Haynes, Warren Moon and James Lofton; plus Ronnie Lott of Rialto, Bruce Matthews of Arcadia, Anthony Munoz of Ontario, and Gary Zimmerman of Walnut.
Honorable Mention to their Pro Football Hall-of-Famers from elsewhere in the State: From San Diego, the aforementioned Allen, and Terrell Davis; plus Frank Gifford of Bakersfield, Les Richter of Fresno, Jimmy Johnson of Kingsburg, and Junior Seau of Oceanside.
Also to Tony Gonzalez of Huntington Beach. A while back, I saw a list somebody made of the top 10 football players from the Los Angeles area. It included Gonzalez, who almost certainly will make the Pro Football Hall of Fame when he's eligible in the election that will be held in February 2019.
It also included Glenn Davis, who's in the College Football Hall of Fame, and might have made the Pro Hall if he hadn't had to serve out his Army commitment; and 8 guys already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, including John Elway, who went to high school in Los Angeles but grew up in Washington State, which is why I'm not including him here. Mel Hein went the other way, being born in California but growing up in Washington, so he will probably join Elway when I make that list.
Honorable Mention to their Basketball Hall-of-Famers: Jim Pollard and Gary Payton of Oakland; Don Barksdale of Berkeley; Alex Hannum, George Yardley, Gail Goodrich and Cynthia Cooper of Los Angeles; Bill Sharman of Porterville; K.C. Jones of San Francisco; Bill Walton of La Mesa; Jamaal Wilkes of Ventura; Dennis Johnson of Compton; Bill Laimbeer of Palos Verdes Estates; and siblings Reggie Miller and Cheryl Miller of Riverside.
Honorable Mention to Darrall Imhoff of the Los Angeles suburb of Alhambra. A center, he led the University of California to the 1959 National Championship, and was a member of the U.S. team that won the Gold Medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
Along with that entire team, he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Cal retired his Number 40. He was an NBA Finalist with the 1965, 1966 and 1968 Los Angeles Lakers, and a 1967 All-Star.
Honorable Mention to Leon Wood of the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica. A guard at Cal State-Fullerton, he seemed an unlikely choice for the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team, but played on that squad, possibly the greatest amateur basketball team ever assembled, and won the Gold Medal in Los Angeles. He played 5 seasons in the NBA, and 5 more in Europe, and is now an NBA referee.
Honorable Mention to Boxing legends: James J. "Gentleman Jim" Corbett of San Francisco, Heavyweight Champion from 1892 to 1897; James J. Jeffries of Los Angeles, Heavyweight Champion from 1899 to 1905; Max Baer of Alameda, Heavyweight Champion in 1934 and 1935 (his brother Buddy Baer was also a heavyweight contender); Raffaele Giordano, a.k.a. Young Corbett III, briefly Middleweight Champion in 1933; and Fred Apostoli of San Francisco, "the Boxing Bellhop," a minor Middleweight Champion, The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year for 1943.
More recently: Henry Tillman of Los Angeles, won the heavyweight Gold Medal at the 1984 Olympics in his hometown; Oscar De La Hoya of Los Angeles, winner of several titles ranging from WBO Junior Lightweight in 1994 to WBC Light Middleweight in 2007, The Ring Fighter of the Year for 1995; Sugar Shane Mosley of Pomona, 1st title the IBF Lightweight in 1997, last the WBA Welterweight in 2010; and Andre Ward of San Francisco, Super Middleweight Champion from 2009 to 2015, won the Light Heavyweight Championship last year but lost it earlier this year, The Ring Fighter of the Year for 2011.
Honorable Mention to Tennis legends: Helen Wills Moody of Centerville, Jack Kramer of San Bernardino, and Venus Williams of Compton. So now, you can guess who one of the Top 10 is.
Honorable Mention to Olympic Gold Medalists: Bob Mathias of Tulare, Greg Louganis of Santa Ana, and Florence Griffith Joyner of Los Angeles. Think about how deep California's talent pool is: The 1st man to win the Olympic decathlon twice, the greatest competitive diver ever, and possibly the fastest female sprinter ever -- and they don't make the Top 10.
Also runner Mal Whitfield of Los Angeles; shot-putter Parry O'Brien of Santa Monica; swimmers Donna de Varona of San Diego, Debbie Meyer of Sacramento, and Janet Evans of Placentia; divers Sammy Lee of Fresno and Pat McCormick of Long Beach; and the queens of beach volleyball, Misty May-Treanor of Costa Mesa and Kerri Walsh Jennings of Scotts Valley.
Honorable Mention to winners of Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year Award, other than those in the Top 10: Seaver (1969), Stargell (1979, co-award with Terry Bradshaw), and runner Mary Decker of Garden Grove (1983).
And the recipients of the collective 1999 award for the U.S. team that won the Women's World Cup: Brandi Chastain of San Jose, Lorrie Fair of the San Jose suburb of Los Altos, Tiffany Roberts of the Oakland suburb of Concord, Tisha Venturini of Modesto, Joy Fawcett of the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, Julie Foudy of the San Diego suburb of Mission Viejo, and Shannon MacMillan of the San Diego suburb of Escondido.
Also, while golf is not a sport, Woods (1996 and 2000, the 1st-ever 2-time winner) and Ken Venturi of San Francisco (1964). Also, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle (1963), but this isn't about executives.
Of course, sometimes award winners get exposed as cheaters. These include SI SOTY winners McGwire (1998, co-award with fellow since-exposed-cheater Sammy Sosa), Randy Johnson (2001, co-award with Curt Schilling, both beneficiaries of teammates' cheating if not, as far as we can prove, their own), Brady (2005); and, from the collective 2004 award to the Boston Red Sox, Kevin Millar and Gabe Kapler of Los Angeles, and Dave Roberts of the San Diego suburb of Vista.
Honorable Mention to Winners of the 1st Women's World Cup, in 1991: Mary Harvey of the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, and Carin Jennings of the Los Angeles suburb of Rancho Palos Verdes.
Honorable Mention to Winners of the 2015 Women's World Cup: Megan Rapinoe of Redding, Christen Press of Los Angeles, Alex Morgan of the Los Angeles suburb of San Dimas (yes, Bill & Ted's hometown is a real place, and she's its most excellent native), Whitney Engen of the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance, Amy Rodriguez of the Los Angeles suburb of Lake Forest, and Shannon Boxx of Fontana.
Honorable Mention to winners of the James E. Sullivan Award, given by the Amateur Athletic Union to the most outstanding American amateur athlete of the year: In addition to Mathias (1948), Lee (1953), Whitfield (1954), McCormick (1956), O'Brien (1959), Meyer (1968), Decker (1982), Louganis (1984), Flo-Jo (1988) and Evans (1989), there's pole vaulter Cornelius Warmerdam of Hanford (1942) and swimmer Ann Curtis of San Francisco (1944), whose best years saw the Olympics wiped out by World War II; swimmer Tim Shaw of Long Beach (1975), long jumper Mike Powell of West Covina (1991) and figure skater Michelle Kwan of Palos Verdes (2001). And golfer Lawson Little of San Francisco (1935), but, as I said, golfers are not athletes.
Powell couldn't get past Carl Lewis in the Olympics, winning the Silver Medal in Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992. But in 1991, he set a new record of 29 feet, 4 1/2 inches, breaking the supposedly unbeatable record that Bob Beamon set in the 1968 Olympics (29, 2 1/2). Powell's record has now stood longer than Beamon's did, yet he was overshadowed by an earlier star and a current teammate at the same time -- which, I suppose, makes Powell the Roger Maris of track & field. (But even with steroids, no one has yet long-jumped 30 feet!)
Honorable Mention to winners of the Honda-Broderick Cup for the top female collegiate athlete of the year: Basketball player Ann Meyers of La Habra (1977-78), swimmer Jill Sterkel of Hacienda Heights (1980-81), the aforementioned Cheryl Miller (1983-84), softball player Lisa Fernandez of Lakewood (1992-93), soccer player Cindy Daws of Los Angeles (1996-97), the aforementioned Misty May-Treanor (1997-98), runner Angela Williams of Bellflower (2001-02), softball player Natasha Watley of Irvine (2002-03), and softball player Keilani Ricketts of San Jose (2012-13).
Like her brother Dave, Ann Meyers was a UCLA basketball star in the 1970s, and she later married Dodger legend Drysdale. As of 2017, they are the only Hall-of-Famers in any sport to ever have been married to another Hall-of-Famer in any sport.
Honorable Mention to the many California natives who came from California to become World Series winners with the Yankees. This includes the aforementioned Tony Lazzeri and Lefty Gomez. Jerry Coleman of San Francisco won the 1950 Babe Ruth Award as most valuable player of the World Series, and became a Hall of Fame broadcaster. (I previously had Don Larsen on this list, but he moved to San Diego at age 15, having grown up in Indiana.)
In addition, just in my lifetime, there's been:
* 1977: Manager Billy Martin of West Berkeley, Roy White and Paul Blair of Los Angeles, Chris Chambliss of Oceanside, Graig Nettles of San Diego, Dick Tidrow of San Francisco, Fred Stanley of the San Diego suburb of Spring Valley, George Zeber of Anaheim. In 1953, as a Yankee 2nd baseman, Billy received the Babe Ruth Award as most valuable player of the World Series.
* 1978: White, Blair, Chambliss, Nettles, Tidrow, Stanley, Jay Johnstone of the Los Angeles suburb of West Covina, Gary Thomasson of Oceanside, and the aforementioned Bob Lemon, the manager.
* 1996: Darryl Strawberry of Los Angeles, Cecil Fielder of the Los Angeles suburb of La Puente, John Wetteland of the San Francisco suburb of San Mateo, Mike Aldrete of Carmel, and Andy Fox of Sacramento. Fielder received the Babe Ruth Award, and Wetteland the Sport Magazine Award, the 2 MVP awards for World Series play.
* 1998: Strawberry, David Wells of San Diego, Chili Davis of Los Angeles, and Shane Spencer of the San Diego suburb of El Cajon.
* 1999: Strawberry, Davis and Spencer.
* 2000: Spencer, and Glenallen Hill of the San Jose suburb of Santa Cruz.
* 2009: CC Sabathia of the Oakland suburb of Vallejo, Phil Hughes of Mission Viejo, and Phil Coke of Sonora.
Honorable Mention to other World Series MVPs from California: Larry Sherry of Los Angeles and the 1959 Los Angeles Dodgers, the aforementioned Frank Robinson of the 1966 Baltimore Orioles, the aforementioned Rollie Fingers of the 1974 Oakland Athletics, the aforementioned Willie Stargell of the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates, Tug McGraw of Vallejo and the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies, Rick Dempsey of Encino and the 1983 Baltimore Orioles, Alan Trammell of San Diego and the 1984 Detroit Tigers, Bret Saberhagen of Reseda and the 1985 Kansas City Royals, Dave Stewart of Oakland and the 1989 A's, the aforementioned Randy Johnson of the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, Troy Glaus of Carlsbad and the 2002 Anaheim Angels, Jermaine Dye of Sacramento and the 2005 Chicago White Sox, and Cole Hamels of San Diego and the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies.
Honorable Mention to Super Bowl MVPs from California: The aforementioned Lynn Swann of the 1975-76 Pittsburgh Steelers, the aforementioned Jim Plunkett of the 1980-81 Oakland Raiders, the aforementioned Marcus Allen of the 1983-84 Los Angeles Raiders, Larry Brown of Los Angeles and the 1995-96 Dallas Cowboys, the aforementioned Terrell Davis of the 1997-98 Denver Broncos, Malcolm Smith of Los Angeles and the 2013-14 Seattle Seahawks, and the aforementioned Tom Brady, 4 times with the New England Patriots.
Honorable Mention to Jim McMahon of San Jose, who quarterbacked the Chicago Bears to win Super Bowl XX in 1986.
Honorable Mention to Tom Dempsey of the San Diego suburb of Encinitas. Despite being born with a club foot, he became an NFL placekicker. On November 8, 1970, he kicked a last-play field goal to give the New Orleans Saints a win over the Detroit Lions at Tulane Stadium. It was 63 yards, breaking the NFL record of 56. There have since been 3 other 63-yarders and a 64-yarder. But the 64-yarder and 2 of the 63-yarders were in the thin air of Denver. Dempsey kicked his 63-yarder below sea level.
Honorable Mention to Winners of the Bill Russell Award for NBA Finals MVP from California: The aforementioned Bill Walton of the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers, the aforementioned Dennis Johnson of the 1979 Seattle SuperSonics, Paul Pierce of Oakland and the 2008 Boston Celtics, and Kawhi Leonard of Moreno Valley and the 2014 San Antonio Spurs.
I could also mention California's greatest thoroughbred racehorse, Swaps, a.k.a. the California Comet, who won the 1955 editions of the Kentucky Derby and the Santa Anita Derby, and the 1956 Hollywood Gold Cup. But he's probably best known for his match race loss to Nashua, who won the 1955 Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
Now, the Top 10:
10. Don Budge of Oakland. In 1937, he won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, earning him the Sullivan Award. In 1938, he won both of those again, and also the Australian and French Opens. He was the 1st tennis player, of either gender, to win all 4 in 1 year, making him the 1st to win what would later be called the Grand Slam.
He is in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and lived long enough to be introduced at the opening of Arthur Ashe Stadium at the 1998 U.S. Open.
I was a bit surprised by the number of tennis players available for this list. I ended up selecting 4 of the 10 from tennis. Also including...
9. Billie Jean King of Long Beach. She won 12 women's singles titles at majors: Wimbledon 6 times, in 1966, '67, '68, '72, '73 and '75; the U.S. Open 4 times, in 1967, '71, '72 and '74; the Australian Open in 1968; and the French Open in 1972. That, alone, would make her a finalist for this list.
Throw in 16 women's doubles titles from 1961 to 1979 -- 18 years apart -- and 11 mixed doubles titles from 1967 to 1976, and that's a total of 39 majors. An average of 2 a year.
In 1972, Sports Illustrated had its 1st tie vote for Sportsperson of the Year, awarding it to her and to UCLA coach John Wooden.
But beyond the victories: Along with Babe Ruth, Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali, she is 1 of the 5 most important athletes of the 20th Century because of how she raised the profile, and the prize money, of women's sports. And, with Ali's death last year, she's the only one of those still alive.
To put it into a baseball perspective: She had Hank Aaron's talent, Curt Flood's drive to make the sport more fair, and Andy Messersmith's success at that endeavor, and took as much heat for it as all 3.
The fact that she beat Bobby Riggs in that 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" shouldn't really count -- except, it kind of still does. The fact that she did all of this while staying in the closet until she no longer could, and then accepted her role as a gay rights icon as well as a feminist icon and a sports icon, makes her even more remarkable.
In 1975, Seventeen magazine polled its readers, and they named Billie Jean their most admired woman. Then again, these were the days when The Weekly Reader polled grade school kids, and the biggest "hero" of both genders was O.J., ahead of Moon lander Neil Armstrong.
She is a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and the National Tennis Center at New York's Flushing Meadow-Corona Park is named for her. (The main stadium is named for Arthur Ashe, but the entire complex is named for Billie Jean.) In 2009, Barack Obama awarded her the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
8. Mark Spitz of Sacramento. The swimmer with the fabulous mustache won 2 Gold Medals, a Silver Medal and a Bronze Medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Then, at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany -- heavy with symbolism, not just because the Jewish Spitz was competing in what was essentially the Nazis' hometown, but also with the Palestinian terrorists' kidnapping of several Israeli athletes -- he put together what was then the greatest performance ever at a single Olympics: 7-for-7 in Gold Medals, 4 individual, 3 relay.
At 67, "Mark the Shark" has now been far surpassed by Michael Phelps in what's been won, and with his hair gone white and his 'stache long gone, he's unrecognizable. But he remains in good health, and enjoys painting and sailing.
7. Rafer Johnson of Kingsburg. He nearly beat New Jersey's Milt Campbell for the decathlon at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. He kept on competing at UCLA, and in 1958 was named Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated, the 1st black person so honored.
(SI was founded in 1954, so Jesse Owens, Joe Louis and Marion Motley didn't have the chance, and Jackie Robinson didn't have much of one. After Johnson, they wouldn't select another for 10 years.)
In 1960, he went to Rome, and won the Gold Medal, barely beating out his UCLA, but not national, teammate, Yang Chuan-kwang (known in the U.S. media as C.K. Yang) of Taiwan. He won the Sullivan Award that year.
He became an actor and a sports anchor on a Los Angeles local news broadcast, and was one of Robert Kennedy's bodyguards during the 1968 California Primary, along with Rams star and actor Rosey Grier. They were unable to protect him: According to a reporter, while he and Grier were among those holding down accused shooter Sirhan Sirhan, someone yelled for Rafer to get the gun.
At the 1960 Olympics, even before he had won his Gold Medal, he was asked to carry the American flag during the Opening Ceremony, the 1st black athlete so chosen. In 1984, as the Olympics came to his home State, he was asked to light the cauldron with the Olympic flame at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Today, he is an advisor to the UCLA athletic department.
His brother is the aforementioned Jimmy Johnson, Hall of Fame cornerback for the 1960s San Francisco 49ers. Two of his children followed him into UCLA sports: Son Joshua competed in track, and was a medalist at the U.S. Championships; while daughter Jennifer competed in beach volleyball at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
6. Pete Sampras of the Los Angeles suburb of Palos Verdes. He never won the French Open, the closest call coming in the 1996 Semifinal. But he won the Australian Open twice, in 1994 and 1997; the U.S. Open 5 times, in 1990, '93, '95, '96 and 2002; and Wimbledon 7 times, in 1993, '94, '95, '97, '98, '99 and 2000; for a total of 14 majors. He's already in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and he's probably the best male American tennis player ever.
The best female American tennis player ever? Let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, a guy who played a little tennis.
5. Jackie Robinson of the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena. Yes, Jackie played tennis at UCLA. And ran track there. And played basketball, before John Wooden made the words "UCLA Basketball" legend. And played football there, making himself perhaps the best running back in the league now known as the Pac-12 in 1939 and '40. Yes, football was Jackie Robinson's best sport.
Of course, it was in baseball that he made his biggest impact. Or, rather, it was through baseball that he made his biggest impact. He changed the whole world. And he wasn't just a pioneer: He could play. He "brought the Negro Leagues' game to the major leagues," reminding everyone that baserunning could be a weapon. He changed how the game was played, not just by whom.
He batted .311 lifetime. He was National League Rookie of the Year in 1947 (the 1st time the award was given), NL Most Valuable Player in 1949, a 6-time All-Star, and a Pennant winner in 1947, '49, '52, '53, '55 and '56, winning the 1955 World Series.
He was the 1st black person elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the 1st Dodger to have his uniform number retired (in his hometown of Los Angeles, although he only played for them in Brooklyn), and the only player ever to have his uniform number retired for all of baseball. And yet, every year, on or (if a team is off that day) near April 15, the anniversary of his debut, Jackie Robinson Day is celebrated throughout Major League Baseball, and every player wears Number 42.
In 1999, The Sporting News named him to their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, ranked 44th; and fans voted him onto the Major League Baseball All-Century Team as one of its 2nd basemen. The former was based solely on performance; the latter took his social importance into account. When the College Baseball Hall of Fame was established in 2006, he was named a charter inductee.
He is buried at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, which is bisected by what was the Interborough Parkway. In 1997, as part of the celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of his debut (which included the universal number retirement), it was renamed the Jackie Robinson Parkway. In 1984, Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded him the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
4. Ted Williams of San Diego. "All I ever wanted was to be able to walk down the street, and hear people say, 'There goes the greatest hitter who ever lived.'" He wasn't -- he admitted that Babe Ruth was -- but people did call him "the greatest hitter who ever lived," so his wish came true.
He was a 19-time All-Star. His .344 lifetime batting average is the highest of any player whose career began in the last 100 years. In 1941, he batted .406, still the last man to bat .400 for a full season. He was 23. In 1957, he almost did it again, reaching .388. He was 39. His .482 career on-base percentage is the highest ever. He hit 521 home runs, despite missing what amounted to 5 seasons fighting in World War II and the Korean War.
He won 6 American League batting titles. He won the Triple Crown in 1942 and '47. He won the AL MVP in 1946 and '49. He only won 1 Pennant, with the Boston Red Sox in 1946, and lost the World Series, but it doesn't seem to have harmed his legend.
The Red Sox retired his Number 9. He was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame, The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and the MLB All-Century Team. The tunnel extending the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan International Airport in Boston is named the Ted Williams Tunnel. In 1991, George H.W. Bush awarded him the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Bush, his fellow ballplayer (1st base, Yale University, 1947 and '48 College World Series) and World War II pilot, called him "John Wayne in a baseball uniform." Except Ted actually did serve his country, and he was a far better athlete than Wayne. I understand he was good at fishing, too.
And yet, he's not the highest-ranked Williams on this list:
3. Serena Williams of the Los Angeles satellite city of Compton. Who is the greatest female tennis player of all time? If you said anyone other than Serena or Martina Navratilova, dream on. Serena has won Wimbledon 7 times: 2002, '03, '09, '10, '12, '15 and '16. She has won the Australian Open 7 times: 2003, '05, '07, '09, '10, '15 and '17. She has won the U.S. Open 6 times: 1999, 2002, '08, '12, '13 and '14. And she has won the French Open 3 times: 2002, '13 and '15. That's 23 majors. Martina? 18.
She and Venus also won the women's doubles titles at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and Serena won the women's singles title at the 2012 Olympics in London. Sports Illustrated named her Sportsperson of the Year in 2015.
Oh yeah: That Australian Open she won earlier this year? She was pregnant at the time. Okay, it was just 1 month, but she was still pregnant. And male soccer players act like babies if they so much as get knocked over? Get outta here!
2. Joe DiMaggio of San Francisco. Because of his World War II service and a heel injury that forced him to retire right after his 37th birthday, the Yankee Clipper played only 13 seasons. He was named to the All-Star Game all 13 times.
There was no Gold Glove Award to confer on the best center fielder of his generation, but he won 3 AL MVPs (1939, '41 and '47), 3 batting titles, 10 Pennants and 9 World Series: 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1947, 1949, 1950 and 1951.
The 56-game hitting streak he had from May 15 to July 16, 1941 is what stands out, but what got remembered by those for whom he was the player in their youth was the way he glided around the bases, and around center field. Nobody ever looked more like a ballplayer than Joltin' Joe.
Oh yeah, he was a pop culture icon, too, with that hit song in 1941, his brief marriage to iconic actress Marilyn Monroe that boosted both of them to the stratosphere of American imagination, and his TV commercials for The Bowery Savings Bank and Mr. Coffee.
And there were his name-drops in Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea; in songs by Paul Simon, Billy Joel and Madonna; and on the TV show Seinfeld, some of these coming long after he hung up his spikes.
In 1977, President Gerald Ford awarded him the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Yankees retired his Number 5, and he was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the 1969 Baseball Centennial Team (including, perhaps incorrectly, as "The Greatest Living Player"), The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and the MLB All-Century Team. The latter 2 took place shortly after his death in 1999, at which point the Yankees replaced his Plaque in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park with a Monument, and New York City renamed the West Side Highway the Joe DiMaggio Highway.
Broadcaster Bob Costas put it best: "DiMaggio played his last game in 1951. I was born in 1952. And my dad, and every guy in my dad's generation, said the same thing: 'Willie Mays? Great. Mickey Mantle? Hit the ball out of sight. You never saw DiMaggio, kid. You never saw the real thing."
1. Bill Russell of Oakland. He is North American sport's greatest winner. He won National Championships at the University of San Francisco in 1955 and '56, part of a winning streak that would reach 60 games, a record later broken by Walton's UCLA in 1971-74 at 88. He led the U.S. basketball team to the Olympic Gold Medal in Melbourne in 1956.
He played 13 seasons for the Boston Celtics, got them at least to the Eastern Division Finals all 13 seasons, to the NBA Finals in 12, and won the NBA Championship in 11: 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968 and 1969.
Think about that: 11 titles, meaning he has more rings than he has fingers. It is a figure matched in all of sports only by Henri Richard of the Montreal Canadiens -- and while the Pocket Rocket was a genuine Hall-of-Famer, he wasn't as good in his sport as his brother Maurice was, or as good as Russell was in his.
(The 2 losses? In 1958, the St. Louis Hawks beat the Celtics because Russell was playing through an ankle injury. And in 1967, the Philadelphia 76ers put together what's sometimes regarded as the greatest team in NBA history, finally getting Wilt Chamberlain his 1st title.)
In 1966, Celtics general manager Red Auerbach stepped aside as head coach, naming Russell to succeed him, making him -- unless you count the early NFL as "major league," whose definition it probably didn't meet, but if you do, then Fritz Pollard was -- the 1st black head coach in North American major league sports.
Thus, Russell was player-coach for the 1968 and '69 titles. Later, with Seattle and Sacramento, he discovered that it was a lot harder for Bill Russell to coach when he didn't have Bill Russell to play.
The Celtics retired his Number 6. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players. The NBA named the Finals Most Valuable Player Award after him. And, while with the Miami Heat, LeBron James switched from the Number 23 he had worn to honor Michael Jordan to Russell's 6, to symbolize the titles he wanted to win.
A statue of him stands outside TD Garden. There's another sign of his greatness: Pro sports have been played at that site (it was built behind the old Boston Garden) for almost 90 years, and yet only 2 athletes are honored with statues there: Bill Russell and Bobby Orr.
The fact that she beat Bobby Riggs in that 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" shouldn't really count -- except, it kind of still does. The fact that she did all of this while staying in the closet until she no longer could, and then accepted her role as a gay rights icon as well as a feminist icon and a sports icon, makes her even more remarkable.
In 1975, Seventeen magazine polled its readers, and they named Billie Jean their most admired woman. Then again, these were the days when The Weekly Reader polled grade school kids, and the biggest "hero" of both genders was O.J., ahead of Moon lander Neil Armstrong.
She is a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and the National Tennis Center at New York's Flushing Meadow-Corona Park is named for her. (The main stadium is named for Arthur Ashe, but the entire complex is named for Billie Jean.) In 2009, Barack Obama awarded her the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
8. Mark Spitz of Sacramento. The swimmer with the fabulous mustache won 2 Gold Medals, a Silver Medal and a Bronze Medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Then, at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany -- heavy with symbolism, not just because the Jewish Spitz was competing in what was essentially the Nazis' hometown, but also with the Palestinian terrorists' kidnapping of several Israeli athletes -- he put together what was then the greatest performance ever at a single Olympics: 7-for-7 in Gold Medals, 4 individual, 3 relay.
At 67, "Mark the Shark" has now been far surpassed by Michael Phelps in what's been won, and with his hair gone white and his 'stache long gone, he's unrecognizable. But he remains in good health, and enjoys painting and sailing.
7. Rafer Johnson of Kingsburg. He nearly beat New Jersey's Milt Campbell for the decathlon at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. He kept on competing at UCLA, and in 1958 was named Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated, the 1st black person so honored.
(SI was founded in 1954, so Jesse Owens, Joe Louis and Marion Motley didn't have the chance, and Jackie Robinson didn't have much of one. After Johnson, they wouldn't select another for 10 years.)
In 1960, he went to Rome, and won the Gold Medal, barely beating out his UCLA, but not national, teammate, Yang Chuan-kwang (known in the U.S. media as C.K. Yang) of Taiwan. He won the Sullivan Award that year.
He became an actor and a sports anchor on a Los Angeles local news broadcast, and was one of Robert Kennedy's bodyguards during the 1968 California Primary, along with Rams star and actor Rosey Grier. They were unable to protect him: According to a reporter, while he and Grier were among those holding down accused shooter Sirhan Sirhan, someone yelled for Rafer to get the gun.
At the 1960 Olympics, even before he had won his Gold Medal, he was asked to carry the American flag during the Opening Ceremony, the 1st black athlete so chosen. In 1984, as the Olympics came to his home State, he was asked to light the cauldron with the Olympic flame at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Today, he is an advisor to the UCLA athletic department.
His brother is the aforementioned Jimmy Johnson, Hall of Fame cornerback for the 1960s San Francisco 49ers. Two of his children followed him into UCLA sports: Son Joshua competed in track, and was a medalist at the U.S. Championships; while daughter Jennifer competed in beach volleyball at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
6. Pete Sampras of the Los Angeles suburb of Palos Verdes. He never won the French Open, the closest call coming in the 1996 Semifinal. But he won the Australian Open twice, in 1994 and 1997; the U.S. Open 5 times, in 1990, '93, '95, '96 and 2002; and Wimbledon 7 times, in 1993, '94, '95, '97, '98, '99 and 2000; for a total of 14 majors. He's already in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and he's probably the best male American tennis player ever.
The best female American tennis player ever? Let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, a guy who played a little tennis.
5. Jackie Robinson of the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena. Yes, Jackie played tennis at UCLA. And ran track there. And played basketball, before John Wooden made the words "UCLA Basketball" legend. And played football there, making himself perhaps the best running back in the league now known as the Pac-12 in 1939 and '40. Yes, football was Jackie Robinson's best sport.
Of course, it was in baseball that he made his biggest impact. Or, rather, it was through baseball that he made his biggest impact. He changed the whole world. And he wasn't just a pioneer: He could play. He "brought the Negro Leagues' game to the major leagues," reminding everyone that baserunning could be a weapon. He changed how the game was played, not just by whom.
He batted .311 lifetime. He was National League Rookie of the Year in 1947 (the 1st time the award was given), NL Most Valuable Player in 1949, a 6-time All-Star, and a Pennant winner in 1947, '49, '52, '53, '55 and '56, winning the 1955 World Series.
He was the 1st black person elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the 1st Dodger to have his uniform number retired (in his hometown of Los Angeles, although he only played for them in Brooklyn), and the only player ever to have his uniform number retired for all of baseball. And yet, every year, on or (if a team is off that day) near April 15, the anniversary of his debut, Jackie Robinson Day is celebrated throughout Major League Baseball, and every player wears Number 42.
In 1999, The Sporting News named him to their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, ranked 44th; and fans voted him onto the Major League Baseball All-Century Team as one of its 2nd basemen. The former was based solely on performance; the latter took his social importance into account. When the College Baseball Hall of Fame was established in 2006, he was named a charter inductee.
He is buried at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, which is bisected by what was the Interborough Parkway. In 1997, as part of the celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of his debut (which included the universal number retirement), it was renamed the Jackie Robinson Parkway. In 1984, Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded him the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
4. Ted Williams of San Diego. "All I ever wanted was to be able to walk down the street, and hear people say, 'There goes the greatest hitter who ever lived.'" He wasn't -- he admitted that Babe Ruth was -- but people did call him "the greatest hitter who ever lived," so his wish came true.
He was a 19-time All-Star. His .344 lifetime batting average is the highest of any player whose career began in the last 100 years. In 1941, he batted .406, still the last man to bat .400 for a full season. He was 23. In 1957, he almost did it again, reaching .388. He was 39. His .482 career on-base percentage is the highest ever. He hit 521 home runs, despite missing what amounted to 5 seasons fighting in World War II and the Korean War.
He won 6 American League batting titles. He won the Triple Crown in 1942 and '47. He won the AL MVP in 1946 and '49. He only won 1 Pennant, with the Boston Red Sox in 1946, and lost the World Series, but it doesn't seem to have harmed his legend.
The Red Sox retired his Number 9. He was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame, The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and the MLB All-Century Team. The tunnel extending the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan International Airport in Boston is named the Ted Williams Tunnel. In 1991, George H.W. Bush awarded him the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Bush, his fellow ballplayer (1st base, Yale University, 1947 and '48 College World Series) and World War II pilot, called him "John Wayne in a baseball uniform." Except Ted actually did serve his country, and he was a far better athlete than Wayne. I understand he was good at fishing, too.
And yet, he's not the highest-ranked Williams on this list:
3. Serena Williams of the Los Angeles satellite city of Compton. Who is the greatest female tennis player of all time? If you said anyone other than Serena or Martina Navratilova, dream on. Serena has won Wimbledon 7 times: 2002, '03, '09, '10, '12, '15 and '16. She has won the Australian Open 7 times: 2003, '05, '07, '09, '10, '15 and '17. She has won the U.S. Open 6 times: 1999, 2002, '08, '12, '13 and '14. And she has won the French Open 3 times: 2002, '13 and '15. That's 23 majors. Martina? 18.
She and Venus also won the women's doubles titles at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and Serena won the women's singles title at the 2012 Olympics in London. Sports Illustrated named her Sportsperson of the Year in 2015.
Oh yeah: That Australian Open she won earlier this year? She was pregnant at the time. Okay, it was just 1 month, but she was still pregnant. And male soccer players act like babies if they so much as get knocked over? Get outta here!
2. Joe DiMaggio of San Francisco. Because of his World War II service and a heel injury that forced him to retire right after his 37th birthday, the Yankee Clipper played only 13 seasons. He was named to the All-Star Game all 13 times.
There was no Gold Glove Award to confer on the best center fielder of his generation, but he won 3 AL MVPs (1939, '41 and '47), 3 batting titles, 10 Pennants and 9 World Series: 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1947, 1949, 1950 and 1951.
The 56-game hitting streak he had from May 15 to July 16, 1941 is what stands out, but what got remembered by those for whom he was the player in their youth was the way he glided around the bases, and around center field. Nobody ever looked more like a ballplayer than Joltin' Joe.
Oh yeah, he was a pop culture icon, too, with that hit song in 1941, his brief marriage to iconic actress Marilyn Monroe that boosted both of them to the stratosphere of American imagination, and his TV commercials for The Bowery Savings Bank and Mr. Coffee.
And there were his name-drops in Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea; in songs by Paul Simon, Billy Joel and Madonna; and on the TV show Seinfeld, some of these coming long after he hung up his spikes.
In 1977, President Gerald Ford awarded him the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Yankees retired his Number 5, and he was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the 1969 Baseball Centennial Team (including, perhaps incorrectly, as "The Greatest Living Player"), The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and the MLB All-Century Team. The latter 2 took place shortly after his death in 1999, at which point the Yankees replaced his Plaque in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park with a Monument, and New York City renamed the West Side Highway the Joe DiMaggio Highway.
Broadcaster Bob Costas put it best: "DiMaggio played his last game in 1951. I was born in 1952. And my dad, and every guy in my dad's generation, said the same thing: 'Willie Mays? Great. Mickey Mantle? Hit the ball out of sight. You never saw DiMaggio, kid. You never saw the real thing."
1. Bill Russell of Oakland. He is North American sport's greatest winner. He won National Championships at the University of San Francisco in 1955 and '56, part of a winning streak that would reach 60 games, a record later broken by Walton's UCLA in 1971-74 at 88. He led the U.S. basketball team to the Olympic Gold Medal in Melbourne in 1956.
He played 13 seasons for the Boston Celtics, got them at least to the Eastern Division Finals all 13 seasons, to the NBA Finals in 12, and won the NBA Championship in 11: 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968 and 1969.
(The 2 losses? In 1958, the St. Louis Hawks beat the Celtics because Russell was playing through an ankle injury. And in 1967, the Philadelphia 76ers put together what's sometimes regarded as the greatest team in NBA history, finally getting Wilt Chamberlain his 1st title.)
In 1966, Celtics general manager Red Auerbach stepped aside as head coach, naming Russell to succeed him, making him -- unless you count the early NFL as "major league," whose definition it probably didn't meet, but if you do, then Fritz Pollard was -- the 1st black head coach in North American major league sports.
Thus, Russell was player-coach for the 1968 and '69 titles. Later, with Seattle and Sacramento, he discovered that it was a lot harder for Bill Russell to coach when he didn't have Bill Russell to play.
The Celtics retired his Number 6. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players. The NBA named the Finals Most Valuable Player Award after him. And, while with the Miami Heat, LeBron James switched from the Number 23 he had worn to honor Michael Jordan to Russell's 6, to symbolize the titles he wanted to win.
President Barack Obama, presenting Bill Russell
with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, at the White House, 2011
A statue of him stands outside TD Garden. There's another sign of his greatness: Pro sports have been played at that site (it was built behind the old Boston Garden) for almost 90 years, and yet only 2 athletes are honored with statues there: Bill Russell and Bobby Orr.
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