The Babe Ruth of....

Originally posted by Red Night
There are certain athletes who transcend their sport and sport itself.

Examples:

Babe Ruth
Michael Jordan
Pele
Arnold Palmer

They become household names, icons; immediately recognizable by everyone even those who know nothing about sports.

Ruth is one of those players. Perhaps the biggest sports icon of all time.

(In any event, his stats are posted in the "Greatest Baseball player ever..." Thread here in this forum.

Babe Ruth is just a name, the reality is that the vast majority of people don't know how well he played. I'd bet that there's one name that more people around the world know much more than Babe Ruth, and again don't have a clue how good he is, and that name is David Beckham. How does it feel knowing more people across the world are more familiar with a high-pitched voiced, skirt-wearing, pretty boy like Beckham than your own vaguely recognized hero?

Originally posted by Red Night
[b]Ruth is one of those players. Perhaps the biggest sports icon of all time.b]

The biggest sports icon of all time is surely someone that the whole world knows and recognises (or knew and recognised).

Muhammad Ali or Pele have far more global appeal.

The only reason people outside of America have even heard of Babe Ruth is because they think, 'What kind of a name is that?!?! Sounds like the kind of guy who enjoys the after match showers a bit too much if you ask me. I bet he's first in and last out'.

The only other creature I've heard of with the actual name 'Babe' was a talking pig in a film!

Originally posted by Angry Boy
The biggest sports icon of all time is surely someone that the whole world knows and recognises (or knew and recognised).

Muhammad Ali or Pele have far more global appeal.

Ali is a good example.

So too, is Beckham.

I left Ali off the earlier list because I just forgot about him.

I considered putting Beckham on that list, but he's still active. Let's see if they're still talking about him 60 years after he retires. But he and Tiger Woods are good examples of current athletes whose popularity transcends their sport.

It is clear that all you guys want to do is fight. And I'm happy to fight with you, but then someone like mtthw comes along and wants to make intelligent comments on the discussion. So, at this point, I'm just going to quit while I'm so clearly ahead. Feel free to keep spamming the thread after I'm gone.

Originally posted by Red Night
The Black Babe Ruth, Josh Gibson
The Babe Ruth of Cricket, Sir Donald Bradman
The Babe Ruth of Poker, Doyle Brunson
The Babe Ruth of Tenors, Enrico Caruso
The Babe Ruth of Basketball, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, or Hank Luisetti
The Babe Ruth of Softball, Millie Deegan
The Babe Ruth of Wrestling, Dan Gable
The Babe Ruth of the Schoolyar ...[text shortened]... ent Price
The Babe Ruth of Bank Robbers, Willie Sutton
The Babe Ruth of Hockey, Howie Morenz

you have to much free time

Originally posted by Red Night
I considered putting Beckham on that list, but he's still active. Let's see if they're still talking about him 60 years after he retires. But he and Tiger Woods are good examples of current athletes whose popularity transcends their sport.

It is clear that all you guys want to do is fight. And I'm happy to fight with you, but then someone like mtthw ...[text shortened]... o quit while I'm so clearly ahead. Feel free to keep spamming the thread after I'm gone.

Oh dear. I don't want to get a reputation. Maybe I should try being more abusive.

Anyway, back to the thread...Beckham's an interesting example here. His fame has "trancended his sport", but he's not, and never has been, the best in the world (except possibly in specialised areas such as taking free kicks). Is this the case of any others on your list? That they are more "famous" than "great".

I don't know a lot about baseball. Babe Ruth is clearly one of the few players that a non-American, non-baseball fan would be expected to have heard of. But the only other I can think of is Joe DiMaggio - who is noticeably not appearing in the other thread about the greatest baseball player ever. But is famous for other reasons (as well as presumably being quite good).

Fame and greatness are very different.

Originally posted by mtthw
Oh dear. I don't want to get a reputation. Maybe I should try being more abusive.

Anyway, back to the thread...Beckham's an interesting example here. His fame has "trancended his sport", but he's not, and never has been, the best in the world (except possibly in specialised areas such as taking free kicks). Is this the case of any others on your ...[text shortened]... ns (as well as presumably being quite good).

Fame and greatness are very different.

Hi mtthw. You make a good point. Fame and Greatness don't necessarily go together. But you usually don't have fame without some degree of success (unless you're famous for some monumental act of failure. Ask Phlabs about Bill Buckner.)

Dimaggio is clearly another legend. His legend has survived. Will Beckhams? I don't know.

Joe D and Becks have one thing in common: they both married famous women.

Joltin' Joe was a great player, ask the question of enough people and some one will suggest the Yankee Clipper as the greatest of all time.

Georgie Best's reputation and fame have survived. I liken him to Joe Namath in that they made their reputaions as much for being bad boys as they did for their achievements on the field.

babe ruth of hocky is wayne grezkey duh 😲

Originally posted by silver king
babe ruth of hocky is wayne grezkey duh 😲

I agree. Who is Howie Morenz?

P-

Originally posted by silver king
babe ruth of hocky is wayne grezkey duh 😲

I didn't create the list.

Just posted this in the thread about the greatest baseball player of all time, but it's also applicable here, as it concerns the Babe Ruth / god of Cricket, Donald Bradman...


From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Bradman

"Sir Donald George Bradman, AC (August 27, 1908 — February 25, 2001), often called The Don, was an Australian cricketer who is universally regarded as the greatest batsman of all time, and is one of Australia's most popular sporting heroes. His Test batting average of 99.94 is by some measures the greatest statistical performance of all time in any major sport. By way of comparison, the second, third and fourth best Test averages are 76.56, 60.97 and 60.83. This disparity between the best and the second best exceeds that in (sic) other sports, and suggests that Bradman may be considered the greatest athlete of all time... "





I looked up what was meant by "Test Averages", and found this article on "Test Cricket" :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_cricket

But I had to laugh though, when I got to this part of the article:

"Test cricket is played between two teams over five days, with three two-hour sessions per day. (Sessions are usually interspersed with a 40-minute break for lunch and 20-minute break for afternoon tea.) "

Break for Lunch?? Afternoon TEA??



Also from the Bradman article:


" ... In 2000, Bradman was selected by a distinguished panel of experts as one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Century. Each member of the panel selected five cricketers, and Bradman was the only player to be named by all 100 correspondents. The other four cricketers selected for the honour were Sir Garfield Sobers (90 votes), Sir Jack Hobbs (30 votes), Shane Warne (27 votes) and Sir Vivian Richards (25 votes). Some members of the panel commented that two of the five votes cast would be effectively wasted, as they had to be cast for Bradman and Sobers... "

Originally posted by TheBloop

But I had to laugh though, when I got to this part of the article:

"Test cricket is played between two teams over five days, with three two-hour sessions per day. (Sessions are usually interspersed with a 40-minute break for lunch and 20-minute break for afternoon tea.) "

Break for Lunch?? Afternoon TEA??

Yes? If you're playing for 6+ hours a day for five days, you're going to get a bit peckish at times 🙂

Originally posted by mtthw
Yes? If you're playing for 6+ hours a day for five days, you're going to get a bit peckish at times 🙂

I don't doubt it! I just thought that "afternoon tea" sounded funny, that's all. Americans don't associate our athletes with things like that...

But our major league baseball teams don't even play doubleheaders any more... they used to schedule several doubleheaders a year, usually on Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day as well as maybe 3 or 4 other days. Now, the only way for a fan to see a double headers is if they happen to have tickets to a game on the day a previous game is made up (due to a rain out), thereby forcing the teams to "play two".

Originally posted by TheBloop
Just posted this in the thread about the greatest baseball player of all time, but it's also applicable here, as it concerns the Babe Ruth / god of Cricket, Donald Bradman...


From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Bradman

[b]"Sir Donald George Bradman, AC (August 27, 1908 — February 25, 2001), often called The Don, was an Australian cricketer who ...[text shortened]... would be effectively wasted, as they had to be cast for Bradman and Sobers... "[/b]

Another person quoting wikipedia????

You realize these articles are written by anyone. They don't carry any scholarly weight.

Anybody can go in and make changes to the text.

I can go in and say that Dan Broadman was a 7 foot tall green space alien. (Now, eventually something like that will get changed...but it doesn't change the fact that entries are mostly just someone's opinion.)

Here is a link to a front page news article from Australia that has been preserved in the Australian State Library Archive.

http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/bradman/scrapbooks/15/bsb15217.htm

The article is about Bradman actually meeting the IMMORTAL Babe Ruth and repeatedly compares Bradman to the Babe; even calling him "Babe" Bradman.

There is a great picture of Bradman in a "real" baseball uniform. If you're a fan, you'll really get a kick out of it.

If I can find the picture of Bradman meeting the "Babe" and acutally shaking his hand I'll post that too for you!