Top 10 Athletes From Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is loaded, partly because of the 2 major league cities within its borders, Philadelphia in the east and Pittsburgh in the west; and partly because its rural farming and mining areas motivated poor boys to get out any way they could, and sports was frequently the way. It's probably 1 of the top 6 sports States, along with New York (which wouldn't be 1 of them, if not for New York City), Ohio, Florida, Texas and California. So a lot of great ones are going to be left to the Honorable Mentions.
Arnold Palmer of Latrobe won 4 Masters, 2 British Opens, and 1 U.S. Open, was named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year for 1960, brought golf to the masses through TV, endorsed all kinds of products that people came to buy because they trusted him and came to like as much as he did, and was an all-around terrific guy. He even went to Latrobe High School at the same time, 2 years younger, as children's show host Fred "Mister" Rogers. In 2004, George W. Bush awarded him the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I have nothing unkind to say about him.
But golf is not a sport. This also eliminates Betsy King of Reading. Nor is auto racing a sport. This eliminates Mario Andretti of Nazareth, and the rest of his family. So let's move on.
Honorable Mention to Doug Allison of Philadelphia, and Dick Hurley of Honesdale, in the Lehigh Valley. Allison was the catcher on the 1st openly professional baseball team, the 1869-70 Cincinnati Red Stockings. Hurley was listed as a "substitute" on that team, and afterward, his most frequent position was in the outfield. In 1873, Allison managed and played for the Elizabeth Resolutes, New Jersey's 1st sports team that could be called "major league."
Honorable Mention to Josh Gibson of Pittsburgh. One of the 1st Negro League players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and 1 of 5 named by The Sporting News to their 100 Greatest Baseball Players in 1999, and known as the Black Babe Ruth -- with some wise guys saying Ruth should have been called the White Josh Gibson -- we can only guess what he would have done in a fully-integrated Major League Baseball. Sadly, he never got to speak for himself, dying of a brain tumor in 1947, shortly after his 35th birthday, and shortly before Jackie Robinson reintegrated the majors.
Honorable Mention to members of the Baseball Hall of Fame from Pennsylvania, who didn't otherwise make the Top 10: Gibson, John Montgomery Ward of Bellefonte, Hughie Jennings of Pittston, Bobby Wallace of Pittsburgh, George "Rube" Waddell of Bradford, Ed Walsh of Plains, Eddie Plank of Gettysburg, Stan Coveleski of Shamokin, Herb Pennock of the Philadelphia suburb of Kennett Square, Lewis "Hack" Wilson of the Pittsburgh suburb of Ellwood City, Roy Campanella of North Philadelphia, Nellie Fox of St. Thomas, Bruce Sutter of Lancaster (World Series MVP in 1982), and Mike Piazza of the Philadelphia suburb of Norristown.
Norristown is also the hometown of Tommy Lasorda, an old friend of Piazza's father Vince, and the reason Piazza got drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers. While Lasorda is in the Hall of Fame as a manager, this is about what these guys did as players, and he was a marginal lefthanded pitcher with a career record of 0-4. Bill McKechnie of the Pittsburgh suburb of Wilkinsburg was also a player who was elected to the Hall based on what he did as a manager.
Honorable Mention to Yankee World Series heroes from Pennsylvania. The aforementioned Stan Coveleski closed his career on the Yankees' 1928 World Champions. The aforementioned Herb Pennock won the Series with them in 1923, 1927 and 1928. Joe Page, one of the earliest great relief pitchers, helped the Yankees win the World Series in 1947 and 1949, in the latter year winning the 1st Babe Ruth Award as Most Valuable Player of the Series.
Albert "Sparky" Lyle of Reynoldsville helped the Yankees win the 1977 and 1978 World Series. Sparky won the 1977 American League Cy Young Award.
Honorable Mention to Dick Groat of the Pittsburgh suburb of Swissvale. He played basketball at Duke University long before that was cool, setting an NCAA record with 839 points in the 1952 season, and his Number 10 was the 1st they ever retired. He played the 1952-53 season with the NBA's Fort Wayne Pistons (who moved to Detroit in 1957).
He gave up basketball because he was better at baseball. A 5-time All-Star, the shortstop won the World Series, the National League batting title, and the NL Most Valuable Player with the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates. His hometown team traded him to the St. Louis Cardinals, and he won another World Series in 1964. He has since gone back to basketball, broadcasting for the University of Pittsburgh's team.
Honorable Mention to these quarterbacks from Western Pennsylvania, which, by themselves, could overflow a Top 10: Johnny Lujack of Connellsville, Arnold Galiffa of Donora, the aptly-named early black quarterback Willie Thrower of New Kensington, Vito "Babe" Parilli of Rochester, George Blanda of Youngwood, Joe Namath of Beaver Falls (MVP of Super Bowl III in 1969), Terry Hanratty of Butler, Chuck Fusina of Pittsburgh, Dan Marino of Pittsburgh, Jim Kelly of Pittsburgh, Jeff Hostetler of Hollsopple, Charlie Batch of Homestead, Gus Frerotte of Kittanning, Marc Bulger of Pittsburgh, Terrelle Pryor of Jeannette (converted to a receiver in the pros).
Honorable Mention to the Heisman Trophy winners from Pennsylvania: Larry Kelley of Williamsport in 1936, Lujack in 1947, Leon Hart of Pittsburgh (1949), John Cappelletti of Philadelphia (1973), Tony Dorsett of Aliquippa (1976), and Eddie George of the Philadelphia suburb of Abington.
Honorable Mention to these members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame from Pennsylvania, who didn't otherwise make the Top 10: Blanda, Namath, Marino, Dorsett, Charlie Trippi of Pittston, Emlen Tunnell of the Philadelphia suburb of Radnor (the 1956 Giants safety was not only the former all-time leader in interceptions, but was the 1st black man elected to the Hall), Lenny Moore of Reading, Mike Ditka of Aliquippa, Herb Adderley of Philadelphia, Leroy Kelly of Philadelphia, and Fred Biletnikoff of Erie (MVP of Super Bowl XI in 1977).
In 2008, ESPN named ranked Dorsett 7th and Trippi 20th on their list of the Top
25 College Football Players of All Time.
Staley went to Murrell Dobbins Vocational School, a.k.a. Dobbins Tech, in North Philadelphia, across the street from the church that now stands on the site of Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium, former home of the Athletics, Phillies and Eagles. That school also produced Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble.
She led the University of Virginia to 3 women's Final Fours, won the Honda-Broderick Cup as the outstanding women's collegiate athlete of the 1990-91 schoolyear, won 3 Olympic Gold Medals (1996 in Atlanta, 2000 in Sydney and 2004 in Athens), was a 6-time WNBA All-Star, is a 5-time conference Coach of the Year -- twice at Temple in her hometown, 3 times at the University of South Carolina -- and just coached South Carolina to a women's National Championship.
There seems little doubt that Kobe Bryant, of the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion, will be elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, in spite of the criminal case against him in 2003, the accusations that the Los Angeles Lakers won some of the 5 NBA Championships he played on with help from the referees (including winning the Bill Russell Award as MVP of the Finals in 2009 and 2010), and the mutual loathing between him and his "hometown" of Philadelphia, which reached a peak when the Lakers beat the 76ers in the 2001 NBA Finals.
In a few days, the Lakers will retire both Number 8 and Number 24 for him, making him the 1st athlete ever to get 2 uniform numbers retired for him by the same team. Even the Chicago Bulls only retired 23, not also 45, for Michael Jordan. But even that is not enough to get Kobe to crack this Top 10. Indeed, while Philadelphia is definitely a basketball city, Pennsylvania is unquestionably a football State, and there's only 1 basketball player in the Top 10 -- albeit at Number 1.
Honorable Mention to Cumberland Posey of the Pittsburgh suburb of Homestead -- who had the retroactively cringey nickname "Cum." He is the only man in both the Baseball and the Basketball Halls of Fame. He is regarded as the best black basketball player of the early 20th Century, and later played for, managed, and finally owned the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues, making him the boss of 12 Hall-of-Famers, including himself, the aforementioned Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, Walter "Buck" Leonard and James "Cool Papa" Bell.
Honorable Mention to Bob Lloyd of the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby. The guard didn't have much of a pro basketball career, playing only the 1st 2 seasons of the ABA, 1967-68 with the New Jersey Americans, and 1968-69 with the same team, who'd moved to Long Island and changed their name to the New York Nets. But in 1987, he became the 1st athlete in the history of Rutgers University -- a history then 118 years long -- to have his uniform number retired, 14.
A retired computer magnate, he now runs The V Foundation For Cancer Research, named for his former RU teammate, Jim Valvano, who coached North Carolina State to the 1983 National Championship.
Honorable Mention to Mike Richter of the Philadelphia suburb of Flourtown. No player played in more games for the New York Rangers than his 666. (With that number, maybe he should have played for the New Jersey Devils.) The Rangers retired his Number 35. He was awarded the Lester Patrick Award for service to hockey in America, which includes being the starting goalie on the U.S. team that won the 1996 World Cup. He is easily the greatest hockey player from Pennsylvania, and probably the best ever from any of the Middle Atlantic States. Oddly, he is not yet in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Of course, his heroics were a major reason why the Rangers won the 1994 Stanley Cup, including beating my beloved Devils in the Eastern Confernece Finals. But that's not why he's not in this Top 10. It's nothing personal: While I despise the team with which he spent his entire career, I find him to be likable. He's not in this Top 10 because it's so loaded, even someone with his accomplishments can't get in.
Honorable Mention to Harry Greb of Pittsburgh. In 1922, he won the vacant U.S. light heavyweight title -- the world title was held by Georges Carpentier of France -- by beating Gene Tunney, making him the only man ever to beat Tunney, a future Heavyweight Champion, in a professional fight. Tunney got revenge the next year.
The fighter known as the Pittsburgh Windmill and the Smoke City Wildcat made the rare move of dropping in weight class, and held the Middleweight Championship of the World from 1923 to 1926. Among the fighters he beat were Tunney, Tommy Loughran, Johnny Wilson and Mickey Walker. Rare among white fighters of the Roaring Twenties, he was willing to fight the era's top black boxers, including Theodore "Tiger" Flowers. Greb won their 1st fight, but Flowers took the title from him, and then won a controversial split decision that turned out to be Greb's last fight, before losing the title himself to Walker.
Sadly, both men would soon be dead: Greb checked into an Atlantic City hospital in 1926, and improperly applied anesthetic during respiratory tract surgery killed him. A year later, Flowers had surgery in New York to remove scar tissue from around his eyes, and he died on the table, too. Each man was just 32, and would be elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Honorable Mention to Billy Conn of Pittsburgh. He was Light Heavyweight Champion 1939-40, The Ring Fighter of the Year in 1940, and fought Joe Louis for the Heavyweight Title in 1941 (and nearly won) and 1946.
Honorable Mention to some of the great boxers who got their hometown nicknamed "The Fighting City of Philadelphia": James Francis Hagan, a.k.a. Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, briefly Light Heavyweight Champion in 1905; Tommy Loughran, "the Philly Phantom," Light Heavyweight Champion 1927 to 1929, named Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine in 1929 and 1931; and Joey Giardello, Middleweight Champion 1963 to 1965.
More recently, there's been Joltin' Jeff Chandler, Bantamweight Champion from 1980 to 1984. Meldrick Taylor won a Gold Medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, held the IBF Junior Welterweight title from 1988 to 1990, and held the WBA Welterweight title from early 1991 to late 1992.
And Bernard Hopkins, "The Executioner," who won the Middleweight Championship of the World in 1995, held it for 10 years until 2005, and was Light Heavyweight Champion from 2011 to 2014, making him, at age 49, easily the oldest man ever to hold any of boxing's world titles. B-Hop was named The Ring Fighter of the Year in 2001. He has had only 1 fight in the last 3 years, but he may not be done.
Joe Frazier was already 15 years old when he left South Carolina due to racism, which is why the man most famous for being a Philadelphia fighter -- in real life, anyway -- is not on this list at all. I did, however, select him as Number 1 in South Carolina.
Honorable Mention to Bill Toomey of Philadelphia, who won the Gold Medal in the decathlon at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, and also won the James E. Sullivan Award as the nation's outstanding amateur athlete in 1969.
Honorable Mention to these other Sullivan Award winners from Pennsylvania: Bernard Berlinger, 1931, the 1st winner of the award; Joe Burk, 1939; Jack Kelly, 1947, son of an Olympic Gold Medal rower, and brother of actress and Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly; Horace Ashenfelter, 1952; and Amy Palmiero-Winters, 2009.
Honorable Mention to Bill Hartack of the Pittsburgh suburb of Blacklick. He jockeyed his way to over 4,000 race wins, including the Kentucky Derby in 1957, 1960, 1962, 1964 and 1969; the Preakness Stakes in 1956, 1964 and 1969; and the Belmont Stakes in 1960. With Northern Dancer in 1964 and Majestic Prince in 1969, he won the 1st 2 legs of the Triple Crown.
He later became a color commentator on ABC's racing broadcasts. He is in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, and Hawthorne Race Course outside Chicago honored him by naming a race the Bill Hartack Memorial Handicap.
Honorable Mention to Walter Bahr of Philadelphia. He is the last surviving member of the U.S. team that pulled off the greatest upset in the history of soccer, beating England at the 1950 World Cup in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Honorable Mention to Matt Bahr of the Philadelphia suburb of Langhorne. Walter's son was the placekicker on the 1979-80 Pittsburgh Steelers, winners of Super Bowl XIV, and the 1990-91 New York Giants, who got into Super Bowl XXV due to his 5 field goals in the NFC Championship Game, and then won it, his 2 field goals and 2 extra points providing 8 points in the Giants' 1-point victory.
Honorable Mention to Chris Bahr of the Philadelphia suburb of Langhorne. Also Walter's son, he was the placekicker on the Raiders teams that won Super Bowl XV (for Oakland in the 1980-81 season) and Super Bowl XVIII (for Los Angeles in 1983-84).
Honorable Mention to Casey Bahr of the Philadelphia suburb of Langhorne. Also Walter's son, a.k.a. Walter Bahr Jr., he was the only one of these Bahrs who didn't graduate from Pennsylvania State University. Instead of Happy Valley, he went to Annapolis, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, was an officer in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, represented the U.S. in soccer at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, and was a member (albeit a reserve) on the 1973 Philadelphia Atoms, winners of the North American Soccer League title. Matt and Chris also played in the NASL before kicking in the NFL.
Honorable Mention of Meghan Klingenberg of the Pittsburgh suburb of Gibsonia. She was a member of the U.S. soccer team that won the Women's World Cup in 2015, and has now won back-to-back National Women's Soccer League titles with the Portland Thorns. She's also won a league title in Sweden.
Dishonorable Mention to Curt Leskanic of Homestead. He was a member of the Boston Red Sox who -- as far as I know, not with his contribution to the cheating -- cheated their way to winning the World Series and being named Sportspeople of the Year by Sports Illustrated in 2004.
Now, at last, the Top 10:
10. Larry Holmes of Easton. "The Easton Assassin" was Heavyweight Champion of the World from 1979 to 1985, but because he essentially ended Muhammad Ali's career in 1980, Ali's fans hated him, and, as a result, he's never gotten the credit he deserves.
Which should be a lot, because he beat just about every pretender to the title. In order: Ken Norton, Alfredo Evangelista, Mike Weaver, Earnie Shavers, the washed-up Ali, Trevor Berbick, Leon Spinks, Renaldo Snipes, Gerry Cooney, Randall "Tex" Cobb, Tim Witherspoon, James "Bonecrusher" Smith, David Bey and Carl "The Truth" Williams. (One great fighter he didn't face was Michael Dokes, who was the WBA Champ for 9 months, 1982-83.) He was 48-0, 1 short of Rocky Marciano's heavyweight record, before Leon's brother Michael Spinks beat him. He finished 69-6.
He was named The Ring Fighter of the Year in 1982, and was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame. And he's not greatest boxer from Pennsylvania. Nor is any of those other fighters I mentioned. Nor is Rocky Balboa of South Philly: Fictional characters don't count.
9. Bill Tilden of Germantown, Philadelphia. For many great athletes, poverty was their motivator. Not for William Tatem Tilden II, son of a wealthy wool merchant, who took up tennis, then seen as a sport only for the rich.
In those days, Americans did not compete in the Australian Open, due to the distance and the means of transportation available. And he never won the French Open, going 0-2 in Finals. But he was the 1st American man to win Wimbledon, doing so in 1920, 1921 and 1930. And he won 7 U.S. Opens, from 1920 to 1929, before turning pro and winning a few titles on that circuit.
When people cited the 1920s as "The Golden Age of Sports," the names that came up were Babe Ruth in baseball, Red Grange in football, Jack Dempsey in boxing, Howie Morenz in hockey, Bobby Jones in golf, and Bill Tilden in tennis. He was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and the Associated Press named him the greatest male tennis player of the 1st half of the 20th Century.
But he had a problem. Two, in fact. One was that he spent money like crazy, and when he couldn't play anymore, he moved to Hollywood, and, with his friendship with Charlie Chaplin, became the highest-paid tennis instructor in the world. But he also had a thing for teenage boys, and twice served time in prison on what were then quaintly called "morals charges," for a total of 14 months.
After his 2nd stretch in the jug, the money dried up. Apparently, in the 1940s, it was okay to be gay, as long as you kept it out of the public eye, and didn't embarrass your friends. Tilden embarrassed his friends, and nobody wanted anything to do with him -- except Chaplin, who basically kept him alive. (Charlie understood, although his thing was for teenage girls.) He was one of the best tennis players in history, but he was no hero, and, today, the gay community does not claim him as one.
8. Reggie Jackson of the Philadelphia suburb of Wyncote. He remains my favorite athlete of all time, because he was my 1st sports hero: He was the right man in the right place, playing the right sport, at the right time.
He went to Arizona State University on a football scholarship, but he proved to be better at baseball. He hit 563 home runs, more than any other player in his generation. He added 18 in the postseason, leading to his nickname, Mr. October. He helped 3 different teams reach a total of 11 postseasons. With the Oakland Athletics, he won 5 straight American League Western Division titles, and 3 straight World Series, in 1972, 1973 and 1977.
He was just the kind of player, and just the kind of star, that Yankee owner George Steinbrenner wanted to bring to New York. He only spent 5 years in Yankee Pinstripes, but they were very eventful years. He didn't get along with some people much of the time, but the fans chanted his name, especially during Game 6 of the 1977 World Series, when he hit 3 home runs to clinch the title for the Yankees. It also made him the 1st man, and still the only one, to win the World Series Most Valuable Player award for 2 different teams, also winning it with the '73 A's.
He helped the Yankees win another World Series in 1978, the AL Eastern Division title in 1980, and the Pennant in 1981. George made what he later called his biggest mistake, not re-signing Reggie, who went to the California Angels, and helped them win the AL West in 1982 and 1986.
Reggie was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his 1st year of eligibility, and was named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Baseball Players. The A's retired his Number 9. The Yankees retired his Number 44 and gave him a Plaque in Monument Park.
The son of Slovakian immigrants came from the mining region of the Lehigh Valley, and was a gunner on a B-24 bomber in the U.S. Army Air Force in World War II. Doesn't sound like an obvious Ivy Leaguer, does he? Surprise: He not only got into the University of Pennsylvania -- and the Ivy League schools have never given out athletic scholarships, so he got in on brains -- but was an All-American for them, finishing 3rd in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1948, an astounding achievement for a center or a linebacker, and he was both.
He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles, and was the only player to bridge their 1949 and 1960 NFL Championships. He continued going both ways, even as the NFL adopted "two-platoon football," meaning players would play on only offense or only defense. He was "the Last of the Sixty-Minute Men," and, at age 35, played 58 of the 60 minutes of the 1960 NFL Championship Game, at his former college home of Franklin Field on the Penn campus, tackling Jim Taylor of the Green Bay Packers and holding him down as the clock ran out.
A 1969 poll for the 100th Anniversary of college football named him the greatest collegiate center of all time. He was a 10-time All-Pro in his 14 seasons. The Eagles elected him to their Hall of Fame and their 75th Anniversary Team, and retired his number -- which, in a neat coincidence, happened to be 60. He was elected to the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, and to the NFL's 1950s All-Decade Team and 75th Anniversary Team. In a State that produces so many football players, from so many tough towns, Chuck Bednarik was the toughest bastard of them all.
6. Christy Mathewson of Factoryville. He was a 2-way back at Bucknell University in nearby Lewisburg, and played on the Pittsburgh Stars, winners of the Pennsylvania pro football championship in 1902. But that's not why he's on this list, or why Bucknell named their football stadium after him.
It's because he might just have been the greatest pitcher who ever lived. Pitching for the New York Giants (except at the very end, for the Cincinnati Reds), he won 373 games, tied with Grover Cleveland Alexander for the most in National League history, and 3rd all-time behind American League leader Walter Johnson (417) and major league leader Cy Young (511, split between both Leagues) -- against just 188 losses. He struck out 2,502 batters, 2nd all-time to Young at the time of his retirement. His career ERA was 2.13, his ERA+ 136, his WHIP 1.058.
He helped the Giants win Pennants in 1905, 1911, 1912 and 1913. In the 1905 World Series, he pitched 3 shutouts in a span of 5 days. You could do that back then, in the Dead Ball Era. But he had an array of pitches that probably made him more adaptable to the post-1920 Lively Ball Era than Young or Johnson would have been. (Alexander pitched until 1930, so he probably would have been fine.) He had a pitch he called the "fadeaway," which, based on his description, has led baseball historians to credit him with being the 1st pitcher to successfully throw what would later be called the screwball.
But he was no screwball himself. Bucknell is a pretty good school. The fact that he was one of the earliest college graduates to become a great baseball player inspired other college men to play it professionally, which helped lift the sport's reputation. In 1912, he published Pitching in a Pinch, which served as one of the earliest successful baseball memoirs and one of the earliest successful baseball instructional manuals.
He was nicknamed Matty for his name, Big Six for his height (there weren't many 6-foot-1 baseball players at the time), and The Christian Gentleman for his demeanor (he didn't drink, smoke, cheat on his wife, bet on sports, or play cards -- but he was a hustler at checkers, a game at which he excelled).
But the most beloved ballplayer of his time came to a sad end. During World War I, he was assigned to the U.S. Army Chemical Warfare Service. Serving alongside Captain Ty Cobb -- despite Cobb's cantankerousness, he and Matty were friends -- within weeks, his lungs got a triple whammy: A training accident gave him a lungful of poison gas, their weakening made him susceptible to tuberculosis, and he was further weakened by the Spanish flu epidemic that ended up killing twice as many people as the war did. He never fully covered, and died in 1925, only 45 years old.
He, along with Cobb, Johnson, Babe Ruth, and Honus Wagner (whom I'll get to shortly) were the 1st 5 men elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. When the College Baseball Hall of Fame was established, he was a charter inductee there, too. Since he played before uniform numbers, the Giants, after moving to San Francisco, made up an "NY" notation for him (and his manager, John McGraw), and placed it alongside their retired numbers, first at Candlestick Park, and now at AT&T Park.
In 1999, 83 years after his last game, and 74 years after his death made it impossible to speak on his own behalf, The Sporting News named him Number 7 on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and he was selected for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
5. Stan Musial of the Pittsburgh suburb of Donora. Like Babe Ruth, he was a lefthander who started as a pitcher but also played the outfield. Unlike Ruth, his pitching career ended when he landed on his shoulder while making a great catch in the minor leagues. So he became a full-time outfielder -- and, along with Rogers Hornsby and Hank Aaron, a candidate for the title of greatest hitter in National League History.
Ted Williams, Stan's contemporary, always said he wanted people to think of him as the greatest hitter who ever lived. If there's one thing Ted liked more than hitting, it was talking about hitting. Once, he went on and on about Stan, until his son, John Henry Williams, asked if he thought Stan was as good a hitter as he was, and Ted said, "Yes, I do." That says it all; the rest is details.
Here's some of the details. He shares with Aaron and Willie Mays the record of 24 All-Star Game appearances. (There were 2 ASGs every year from 1958 to 1962, so he appeared in them in the last 20 of his 22 MLB seasons.) He had a career batting average of .331. Someone once asked him why he was always smiling, and he said, "If you had a lifetime batting average of .331, you'd be smiling, too!" He won 7 batting titles. His OPS+ was a whopping 159, meaning he was 59 percent better at producing runs than the average player of his time.
He was the 1st man to collect his 3,000th career hit on television, in 1958. He finished with 3,630 hits -- exactly 1,815 at home and 1,815 on the road. He hit 725 doubles, 3rd all-time behind Tris Speaker and Pete Rose -- and Stan's last hit, in 1963, went under the glove of Rose, then a rookie 2nd baseman for the Cincinnati Reds.
He hit 475 home runs, more than any National Leaguer before him except Mel Ott. He had 1,951 RBIs, more than any NLer before him and still 7th all-time, including 10 100+ seasons. He finished with more extra-base hits (1,377) and more total bases (6,134) than any other player (with both records having been broken by Aaron).
He won 4 Pennants with the St. Louis Cardinals, winning the World Series in 1942, 1944 and 1946, and losing it in 1943. He won 3 NL MVP awards, in 1943, 1946 and 1948 -- in this last, missing the Triple Crown by 1 home run -- and finished 2nd 4 other times, including 1957, when he won his last batting title, and Sports Illustrated named him Sportsman of the Year.
Legend has it that Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covering a Cards-Dodgers game at Ebbets Field, saw Musial step up to take batting practice, and heard a fan yell, "Here comes the man!" Musial was "Stan the Man" ever after, and, decades later, when Cardinal fans called Albert Pujols the Spanish equivalent, "El Hombre," he publicly refused the nickname out of deference to Stan the Man. (Don Stanhouse, a somewhat screwy relief pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, was known as "Stan the Man Unusual.")
He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his 1st year of eligibility. In 1999, The Sporting News listed him 10th on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and fan balloting put him on the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
In 2011, Barack Obama awarded him the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Reflecting his service to his adopted hometown, and to his country, serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II in 1945 -- the only year between 1942 and 1946 that the Cardinals didn't win the Pennant -- a new bridge for Interstate 70 over the Mississippi River, which opened just after his death in 2013, was named the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge, and is nicknamed the Stan Span.
The Cardinals retired his Number 6, and dedicated a statue to him outside Busch Stadium, having since moved it to the new ballpark with that name. On its base is a quote from the Commissioner at the time, Ford Frick: "Here stands baseball's perfect warrior. Here stands baseball's perfect knight."
Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. were also born in Donora. Griffey Jr. also shares Stan's birthday, November 21, albeit 49 years later. And he might have been a better all-around player. But since he grew up in Cincinnati, he qualifies for Ohio. Ken Sr. qualifies for Pennsylvania, but, while a very good player, on this list, he would be an Honorable Mention at best.
4. Honus Wagner of the Pittsburgh suburb of Carnegie. Pennsylvania has long been known for its large German -- or, as they would say, "Deutsch" -- community, which includes the Amish, a.k.a. the Pennsylvania Dutch. John Peter Wagner was a son of German immigrants, and was often called the German equivalent of John, "Hans." Somehow, this became "Honus." But despite being bowlegged, and looking less like a great athlete than perhaps any baseball player until Yogi Berra came along, he could run, and was known as "The Flying Dutchman."
He played from 1897 to 1917, and, 100 years after his last game, he is still regarded as the greatest shortstop who ever lived -- yes, Yankee Fans, ahead of Derek Jeter. With Cobb, Ruth and Mays, he's usually in the discussion for the title of "Greatest Baseball Player Who Ever Lived."
He helped his hometown Pirates win Pennants in 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1909, losing the 1st World Series to Cy Young's Boston Americans (Red Sox) in 1903, but winning the Series over Cobb's Detroit Tigers in 1909. He won more NL batting titles than anyone, 8 (a record since tied by Tony Gwynn); and led the NL in RBIs and stolen bases 5 times each.
His lifetime batting average was .329, his OPS+ 151, his career RBIs 1,732 (a record at the time), and he collected 3,430 hits. Remember the fuss made when Pete Rose broke Cobb's career record for hits? Well, somebody had to have the record before Cobb, and it was Wagner.
He was a great defensive player, too, appearing in 1,887 games at shortstop, 374 in the outfield, 248 at 1st base, 210 at 3rd base, 57 at 2nd base, and even twice on the mound, pitching 8 1/3rd innings, all scoreless. When poet and baseball fan Ogden Nash made out his "Lineup for Yesterday" in 1949, he wrote, "W is for Wagner, the bowlegged beauty. Short was closed to all traffic with Honus on duty."
He later coached with the Pirates, wearing Number 33 in this role, and it was retired for him. They also dedicated a statue of him outside Forbes Field, moving it to Three Rivers Stadium and now to PNC Park.
With Cobb, Ruth, Mathewson and Johnson, he was 1 of the 1st 5 players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. In 1999, 82 years after his last game and 44 years after his death, The Sporting News placed him 13th on its 100 Greatest Baseball Players list, and fans voted him onto the MLB All-Century Team.
3. Johnny Unitas of Pittsburgh. His full name was John Constantine Unitas. The comic book character Hellblazer is named John Constantine, but, as the character is British, he certainly wasn't named for the Lithuanian-American Johnny U. Nevertheless, there were times when Johnny U seemed like a comic book hero, as he was nicknamed The Golden Arm. Or, if you didn't like the Baltimore Colts, maybe you thought of him as a James Bond villain.
He was little-regarded coming out of St. Justin's High School, a small school in Pittsburgh, and the only college that really wanted him was the University of Louisville. He wasn't much better-regarded coming out of there, but given later circumstances, they retired his Number 16. The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted him, and cut him in preseason. He played semi-pro ball until 1956, when the Baltimore Colts signed him.
He led the Colts to the NFL Championship Game in 1958, and led them in a comeback against the New York Giants at Yankee Stadium, first forcing overtime, then winning the title, in what's been called "The Greatest Game Ever Played" and, thanks to the union of the NFL and television, the day the NFL grew up. He beat them again in Baltimore in 1959. He set a record in throwing a touchdown pass in 47 straight games (since broken).
He got the Colts into another NFL Championship Game in 1964, but lost. He was injured for most of the 1968 season, but they won the NFL Championship anyway, and when they fell behind the Jets in Super Bowl III, he came off the bench and began what could have been a counter-miracle, but the Jet defense stopped him. He got them into Super Bowl V, but was injured and missed the 2nd half, but still got his 3rd World Championship.
A 10-time Pro Bowler, he was a 3-time NFL MVP, in 1959, 1964 and 1967. When he retired after the 1973 season, he held most of the career passing records. He was named the starting quarterback on the NFL's 1960s All-Decade, 50th Anniversary and 75th Anniversary Teams. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the Colts retired his Number 19.
The Colts moved to Indianapolis in 1984, and when the Baltimore Ravens debuted in 1996, at Memorial Stadium, Johnny U, in his blue Colts jersey, presented the game ball to the purple-clad Ravens and their opponents, the Oakland Raiders. A statue of him now stands outside the Ravens' new M&T Bank Stadium.
Could he have played in the modern era? I am absolutely convinced that he could have. I've seen plenty of footage of Unitas: Not only did he have great passing form, but, rare among quarterbacks of the 1960s, he could run. How he could be that mobile while wearing those iconic black high-top cleats, and frequently a brace to protect his injured back and ribs, I don't know, but he was. Given today's protection, he would have been just fine, if not what everybody called him when I was growing up: "The greatest quarterback who ever lived."
But is he still that? Perhaps not:
2. Joe Montana of the Pittsburgh suburb of Monongahela. It really was a tough call deciding between Johnny U and Joe Cool, as they are, without much doubt, the 2 greatest quarterbacks of all time. The difference between them is a hair -- and not one of Joe's long blond hairs, but one of Johnny's short black crewcut hairs.
He led Notre Dame to the National Championship in 1977, defeating Texas and their Heisman Trophy winner, Earl Campbell, in the 1978 Cotton Bowl. He led the San Francisco 49ers into Super Bowls XVI, XIX, XXIII and XXIV, winning them all, making them NFL Champions for 1981, 1984, 1988 and 1989. He was named MVP of Super Bowls XVI, XIX and XXIV, and Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year for 1990. (An SI cover at the end of 1989 seemed to unofficially award their Sportsman of the Decade to Montana, Magic Johnson and Wayne Gretzky.)
An 8-time Pro Bowler, he was named NFL MVP in 1989 and 1990. An injury led the 49ers to think of his age and his health, and they released him in favor of Steve Young. The Kansas City Chiefs signed him, and he got them to the 1993 AFC Championship Game, still their best performance since Super Bowl IV after the 1969 season.
The 49ers retired his Number 16. He was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the NFL's 1980s All-Decade and 75th Anniversary Teams. And while Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania changed its name to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, the town of Ismay, Montana changed its name to Joe, Montana.
The Easton Assassin. The Man Who Made Tennis Big. Mr. October. Concrete Charley. Big Six. Stan the Man. The Flying Dutchman. The Golden Arm. Joe Cool. Quite a legacy for a single State. How can you top that?
You top it with a man who was something more than human, and, perhaps slightly, less than a god:
1. Wilt Chamberlain of West Philadelphia. He is the greatest basketball player who ever lived, or ever will. Don't give me "Michael Jordan" or "LeBron James." That is massive ignorance. He was to basketball what Babe Ruth was to baseball, and what Wayne Gretzky would later be to hockey: A guy who rewrote his sport's record book so much, it could have been retitled The Autobiography of...
Because he traveled around the world with the Globies, Sonny Hill, noted Philadelphia basketball impresario who hosts a radio show, said in his introduction to a 1986 interview with Wilt, "In the '50s, they knew who Wilt Chamberlain was in China! That's how big he was! Nobody in China knows who Joe DiMaggio was, and Joe DiMaggio was a great athlete! But Wilt, they knew!"
Here is what Wilton Norman Chamberlain did just in the 1961-62 season. He played all but 4 minutes of the season, including overtimes, meaning that he averaged 48.5 minutes per game, and a regulation game is only 48 minutes long. He led the league in rebounds per game with 25.7. And he averaged 50.4 points per game. We make a big deal about players scoring 50 points in a single game -- Wilt averaged that over the entire season.
On March 2, 1962, at HersheyPark Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Wilt scored 100 points in a 169-147 Warriors win over the Knicks. This included the defiance of his difficulties with shooting free throws, as he set records that still stand with 32 attempts and 28 successfully. There is no surviving video, just a radio broadcast, so we can't know how many of his shots would have been for 3 points under today's rules. For all we know, those shots might have been worth 120 points under today's rules -- and the next-best single-game point totals in NBA history are 81 by Kobe Bryant, 78 by Wilt Chamberlain, and 73 by both Wilt Chamberlain and David Thompson.
But there was no 3-point shot then. And, in an effort to stop him, the NBA widened the lane, allowing big men to crowd him. It didn't work. He still set records for points in a game (100), a season (4,029), and a career (31,419, and only that one has been surpassed, by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). He still holds the NBA records for rebounds in a game (55, against the Boston Celtics of Bill Russell, in 1960), rebounds per game for a season (27.2, in that same 1960-61 season), rebounds in a season (2,149, also in 1960-61), and rebounds in a career (23,924).
He led the league in scoring 7 times, in his 1st 7 seasons. He led the league in rebounding 11 times, and he only played 14 seasons. In 1968, he led the league in assists. As a center. No one else has ever done that, not in the NBA, not in the WNBA, not in the NCAA (men or women).
He was the 1960 Rookie of the Year. He was an All-Star 13 times, every season of his career except 1969-70. He was MVP of the regular season 4 times, in 1960, 1966, 1967 and 1968. He was MVP of the All-Star Game in 1960.
Despite being the greatest high school player in the country, he was not selected for the U.S. team that went to the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. By the time the 1960 Olympics in Rome came along, he had already turned pro. He famously struggled in the postseason, losing the 1957 NCAA Final with the University of Kansas to North Carolina, despite being named the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player, losing 8 of 9 Playoff meetings with Russell's Celtics, and losing in the NBA Finals in 1964 (with the San Francisco Warriors against the Celtics), 1969 (with the Los Angeles Lakers against the Celtics), 1970 and 1973 (both with the Lakers against the Knicks).
But when he did win, boy, did he ever. Starting the 1966-67 season with his hometown's new team, the Philadelphia 76ers -- the Warriors moved across the country after his miraculous 1961-62 season -- he jumped out to a record of 41-3, ending 68-13. Those 68 wins were a new NBA record. Finally having a great team around him, he personally demolished the Celtics in 5 games in the Eastern Conference Finals, then beat the Warriors in 6 to win his 1st NBA Championship. In 1972, with the Lakers, he set new records with a 33-game winning streak and 69 wins over the season, beating the Knicks in the Finals and winning the series' MVP.
Perhaps he was defying bad luck, by wearing Number 13. But that number has been retired for him by 5 different teams: Kansas, the Globetrotters, the Warriors, the 76ers and the Lakers. He was the easiest of choices for the Basketball Hall of Fame. A statue of him stands outside the 76ers' new arena, the Wells Fargo Center. It shows 2 figures: Wilt in full height, throwing down a dunk, and seated in street clothes and smiling, holding a ball, as if offering it to the viewer. Of course, he deserves a dual statue: He wasn't quite as tall as 2 adult men, but, culturally, he was twice as big as anybody he played against.
(The sculptor, Omri Armany, specializes in sports figures, having also made statues of Michael Jordan for the United Center, Vince Lombardi for Lambeau Field, and Pat Tillman for the Arizona Cardinals' stadium.)
Basketball wasn't his only good sport. He was also a track star, specializing in (naturally) the high jump, competing in the Penn Relays in his hometown, and winning Big Eight Conference titles at Kansas. He was good enough at volleyball that he thought he could start a professional league, but he couldn't get the financial backing for it.
And no person in the history of the world has been better known for being tall -- 7 feet, 1 1/16th inches -- and he used that to his advantage in various films and TV commercials, including a pair in 1979 for Volkswagen, proving he could get in and out of their cars, which were famous for being small. (He also joked, "Smoking is bad for you. I smoked a stogie when I was 14. I haven't grown an inch since.)
In 1991, he published a memoir, Wilt: A View From Above. It's a fascinating book, and I read the whole thing, not just the chapter on his womanizing. We may never know if he was telling the truth about having had sex with 20,000 women -- although, given his looks, his fame, his money, the permissiveness of the 1960s and '70s, and the fact that he had homes in the sex-charged cities of New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, it's not as implausible as you might think.
Not long before his death, Wilt was at a dinner with fellow NBA legends George Mikan and Bob Cousy. They were seated at the head table with sportswriter Dick Schaap, who told the audience, "Between the 4 of us, we've slept with 20,010 women." Mikan said nothing. Cousy said his number was 1, his wife. Chamberlain said, "Dick, I'd like to remind you, that book is now a few years old."
But let the record show, especially with sexual misconduct so much in the headlines these days, that no woman has ever come forward to say that Wilt Chamberlain mistreated her in any way.
Wilt was having none of it: He walked over, and said, loud enough for anyone to hear -- and truthfully -- "Michael, my man, when you played, they changed the rules to make it easier for you. When I played, they changed the rules to make it harder for me. And it didn't work." And he walked away, and the room was dead silent. Talk about "dropping the Mike."
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