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compare Cycling icons with icons in other sports
Last Post 12/17/2023 07:21 PM by smokey 52. 6 Replies.
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longslowdistance

Posts:2881

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12/14/2023 09:19 PM
Merckx = LeBron = Joe Johnson (US boxer over 100 yrs ago) at their peaks. Both simply bowled over, plowed through, steam rolled (pick your metaphor) their competition with superior power and will.
longslowdistance

Posts:2881

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12/14/2023 09:30 PM
Lance and Barry Bonds. Huge chemically assisted accomplishments. No Hall of Fame for either. Kudos for cycling for harsher payback short term. If MLB perseveres and the vets committee doesn't cave kudos to MLB long term.
longslowdistance

Posts:2881

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12/14/2023 09:36 PM
Correction Jack Johnson
79pmooney

Posts:3180

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12/15/2023 11:37 AM
Ken Griffey. His ability to know exactly where a catchable home run was going and his ability to get himself there was unreal. I never got to witness that live. I did get to see him quietly show off that gift of knowing exactly where the ball was going as soon as it was hit, only this time, flavored by his sense of humor.

Playoffs against the Yankees, 1995. Randy Johnson pitching. As I recall, 7th inning. 2 outs, nobody on base. A routine fly was hit to left center. As soon as the ball was hit, Griffey just started trotting toward the 3rd base dugout; inning over. (I was sitting a few rows back behind him, just to his right.) He never looked at the ball. So, who's going to catch it? Without any change in his inning-over trot, he lifts his glove to his lap, the ball drops in and he continues to the dugout like nothing happened. And this in the most important game the Mariners had ever played.

Me? (To myself.) "Did you see what I just saw?" 15 years later, that was a popular highlight reel on the Mariners' TV games. Still blowing me away. There are athletes who's brains are wired different.

Last summer there was a special I watched of the home run robbing catch that sports announcer felt was the best ever; Ken Griffey's catch in Detroit stadium that he had to run 90 feet for then jump high to catch the ball backhanded and at full extension. Then as the entire stadium went gaga (Detroit, so not pleased but still gaga) he lands, pivots and fires a rocket to second to hold the runner on first. That landing and pitch back were the work of a world class athlete totally focused on the game. Then, with all eye on him, he simply holds his hand up, fingers in a "V". Two outs. He is the on-the-field team captain. And after that? Just another catch.
longslowdistance

Posts:2881

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12/15/2023 02:03 PM
which cyclist is comparable to Griffey?
79pmooney

Posts:3180

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12/16/2023 09:39 AM
I have to think about that. The sailor is Charlie McKee. 1988 I bought his Taser sailboat from him through his girlfriend while he was campaigning for the Olympics in the 470s. One of his abilities was to judge and pull off incredibly close encounters in fast moving sailboats without ever infringing on the right of way rules of racing. Combined with the physical talents to get sailboats to do exactly what he wanted them to do.

He crewed on the 470. Last race, they had to put enough boats between them and the bronze sitter to pull off a podium. Stormy day. Blew 35. Huge seas. Where Charlie's physical skill in a boat reign supreme. Won the race and Bronze. Before and after, he won several world championships in the Tasers.

Bicycles? Griffey has the talent level of a Peter Sagan but he is not a showoff (except for his quiet but irrepressible sense of humor).
smokey52

Posts:493

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12/17/2023 07:21 PM
Jim Thorpe.
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