Who are your GOATs?

[Badactor]

[cherokeescot]

Soccer : Pele
Golf : Nicklaus
Football : Brady
Betting : Spanky’s Bookie

[1hooper]

Boston

Basketball Bill Russell
Baseball Ted Williams
Football Tom Brady
Hockey Bobby Orr

[shoes]

Baseball- Babe Ruth (most dominant hitter of all time and throw in one of the top left handed pitchers in the league over a multi-year period with Boston)

Football- Jim Brown (arguably easily the best running back in the sport, almost every year he played during an era when the NFL was a running back oriented league).

Hockey- Gordie Howe (comtempoary Bobby Hull's slap shot was 125 mph, Gordies's WRIST shot (no wind-up) was 118 mph, best defensive great offensive player ever, and he was his own enforcer as the toughest player in the game).

Basketball- Wilt Chamberlain (this was the toughest and I could have gone a few other ways, but Wilt's scoring and rebounding were beyond compare, and he even led the league in assists one year just to make a point. While his teams often came up just short to some great champions, he was still part of two of the greatest teams of all time- 1967 in Philly and 1972 in LA.

Golf- Jack- (not just the 18 majors but the 19 seconds and while yes the overall quality depth of competition was less- he faced and often beat some of the toughest competitor's in the game including Arnie, Trevino, Player, and Watson.)

Boxing- Ali- (pre suspension he was the fastest heavyweight ever (both feet and hands) with underrated punching power (watch the Cleveland Williams fight). After a 3 year layoff he came back and retained the hand speed but changed his style and still beat 2 great champions in Frazier (2 of 3) and Foreman.

[Badactor]

Laffit
Muhammad
Wilt
Nolan
and Dave.

[otis0930]

Maybe not the greatest but definitely MY favorites of all time
Jockey: Angel Cordero
Boxing: Muhammed Ali
Football: Joe Namath
Basketball: Tie Walt Frazier & Pistol Pete
Baseball: Tom Seaver

[shoes]

Loved the Dave Wottle clip. Remember him well.

[spanky]

boxing mike tyson
baseball ty cobb
basketball bill russel
overall best goat jim thorpe

[ziggy]

Well goats are based on too much of what you did .... the records nowadays. Differences in equipment and length of seasons just makes records useless as a judge of "great". The football season has almost doubled. How many homeruns would Ruth have hit in 162 games? Cal Ripken passed Gehrig. Gehrig was dying so here's a big pat on the back Cal. You should have stopped when you tied the man who played with the onset of ALS and stopped because it. He died 2 years later. Most of the goats nowadays are jackasses.

I see Ali as a true GOAT

[Badactor]

LIKED everything about your post, zig.
This is a fun thread. Thanks Folks!
Hey 'shoes, thought I'd get you with The Dave.😉
Love his running style... in horses, too.

Personal goats, yes... much more interesting than technical goats.

PS.
Congratulations to Aaron Judge.
Sincerely,
Writer #1 - HBO's 61*

[ziggy]

Hey I forgot to mention the 5 inches the pitchers lost in 1969 with the mound dropping. What batters are doing now can't be compared to anything prior to 69!!!!! Ditto today's pitchers are short changed. I read they are thinking about moving the mound back a foot. Batting stats climb pitching drops. It's not the same game! My god how fast would the ball be getting to the plate nowadays if raised 5 inches, Catchers would be wearing armor LOL.!!!!!

[ziggy]

Heck the bags are getting bigger ... advantage hitter, slight but still over time it adds up.

[spanky]

The mound being lowered can be attributed to Bob Gibson.

[ziggy]

Whatever happened to unsportsmanlike conduct and when did dancing become a part of football? And what is this thing with doing more than touching a QB? Two legit tackles, roughing. I say if this is the way we're going touched behind the line of scrimmage and he's down! Ok two hands on him, tackled LOL.

[tims70ar]

Baseball: Pete Rose
Hockey: Gretzky (take away all his goals scored and he's still the top scorer in hockey with just his assists)
Boxing: Ali
Football: Brady with a hat tip to Joe Greene
Soccer: Pele
Auto Racing: AJ Foyt
Golf: Jack Nicklaus

[ziggy]

I agree with most of your picks tims70ar. Golf I just never followed enough. Length of season doesn't hurt what Brady can do. Baseball I just can't pick anyone. We had the steroid era, changes galore and the fields changed as did the surface. Apples and oranges. I like Gehrig just because he was great despite having to deal with ALS. I have a condition that had to be determined by ruling out diseases like ALS, MS. It's slowly progressive as is ALS so the disease named after him was affecting his play. I can relate having played football. I was slow as a kid. The longer the distance the more affected my legs were. The mile swim in boy scouts, at some point I lost the kick. Ditto running a mile, my legs were just not functioning right at the end. If Gehrig was healthy I put him up there. OJ Brigance appears in the area. He can only do what he does because of technology. It get so bad that you can't even talk. Hawking was proof of that. That has to be terrible with your mind working but not your body!

[tims70ar]

Ziggy, I pray ALS can be cured soon. My Dad died from a form of it. Also a niece on my wife’s side passed away from it.
Prayers for your health also.

[spanky]

I also have MS but am fortunate it has not limited me as much as others. I have avoided the wheelchair but certainly feel for anyone with autoimmune diseases. I am thankful because I believe there are those that are are worse off then I.