Posted on 05/15/2014 1:17:52 PM PDT by BenLurkin
It’s difficult to judge an athlete’s true worth, even if on paper it’s clear they’re either a mega-loser or a mega-winner. But once you go beyond the stats and sabermetrics, and really take a look at what they’ve done, you inch a little closer to uncovering their true value.
In the cases of these five, we found a whole lot of nothing. These are some of the most overrated performers we’ve ever seen, and they should probably pay back all the money they’ve earned and go work at a Walgreens or something. Or CVS, if they prefer. We’re not picky.
5. Wilt Chamberlain
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Unfortunately, outside of a plethora of women’s phone numbers, he rarely won anything significant. In basketball, the ultimate team sport, Wilt was seen as a bad teammate, somebody who cared more about HIS shots and HIS stats than helping his team win rings. He won two titles, though given his gaudy numbers, plus the fact that his teams made the playoffs every single year he played save one, he really should’ve won more.
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4. Danica Patrick
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Here’s the issue: she’s never won. It’s not just that she’s never won a Sprint Cup — plenty of people have never done that. It’s more that, with the exception of ONE RACE back in 2008, she’s never won anything. She’s started over 230 races and won one. She rarely even finishes in the top ten. For somebody touted as a super-duper star, that’s pretty pathetic.
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3. Deion Sanders
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2. Dennis Rodman
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1. Alex Rodriguez
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(Excerpt) Read more at losangeles.cbslocal.com ...
Oh yeah. Oh hell yeah. OMG, yeah.
Bo Jackson on one play pretty much exposed him.
Joe Namath, when he was healthy, which was rare, was one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks. Take away the gimpy knees and no telling how many records he could have had.
http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.aspx?PLAYER_ID=161
I agree with Rose being overated. He was a singles hitter and played forever, and that’s why he finished as the all-time hits leader.....but
Nolan Ryan had 7 no-hitters, which is three more than second place Sandy Koufax and 12 one-hitters in his career. His all time strike out record will probably never be equalled.
For one game I had to win give me big game Jack Morris.
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It's an outrage that he's not in the HOF.
I agree that he was overrated, in the grand sceme of things.
I was a Colt fan. I hated his guts when I was a kid. I was glad that Morrall & Unitas both had more success over the rest of their careers.
But, no one, except Marino and maybe some freak from back in the '50s we never saw, had a gun like Joe. And he was no dummy, either.
And, he's not a bad guy after all.
“It’s an outrage that he’s not in the HOF”
Agree 100%.
Amen and amen. If there is any justice he’ll get there one day. He didn’t do much in the post season when he was with the Jays but the Jays wouldn’t have gotten to the post season in 1992 without Jack. I got his autograph on a pocket schedule because it was the only thing I had handy when I accidently ran across him signing stuff in front the team paraphernalia store.
I agree those records won't be broken in the foreseeable future. His all-time walk record won't be broken either, since he is about 1,000 BBs ahead of #2.
While Ryan could be brilliant - evidence his no-hitters, he was also too inconsistent to be an elite pitcher IMO - hence, my evaluation as overrated. His career winning percentage was .526. That ties him for 540th on the all-time list - generally about 100+ points below the elite pitchers. His winning percentage was lowest with the Mets, pretty much right on his career percentage with the Angels and Astros and better with the Rangers.
I was quite surprised to learn that Randy Johnson was considerably more likely to strike out a hitter than Ryan. Ryan faced 22,575 hitters and struck out 5,714 for a 25.311% while Johnson struck 4,875 hitters out of 17,067 faced for a 28.564%. I would have never guessed that and particularly, not the almost 13% higher rate.
BTW, Jack Morris would be an excellent choice to win one game.
I get on a lot of bb websites. And frequently there are threads about whether players from the past could play today. Some posters (probably very young) just can’t believe that any athletes not born in the last thirty years could possibly play in today’s league. I then point out all the slow players like Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Nikola Pekovic and others who became excellent players. Wilt was an incredible athletic specimen the likes of which I still haven’t seen duplicated. Bill Russell was also a great athlete who would be a great player today. Oscar was right...many people don’t know s**t about basketball.
Overrated?...... Hardly
BS.... When a big game is on the line, you can count on Romo choking. Funny, you still haven’t responded to that 1-3 playoff record. And what was Roger’s again?
For instance, in 1962 the Celtics beat Wilt's Warriors in seven games in the eastern conf. finals on a last second shot. Then they beat the Lakers in seven games in the finals when the Lakers Frank Selvy missed a wide open last second shot from about 12 feet in regulation that would have won it. In '65 they beat Wilt's Sixers in seven games in the eastern conf. finals when "Havlicke stole the ball" in Johnny Most's immortal words. In '66 they beat the Lakers in seven games winning the last game by two points. In '68 the Sixers were decimated by injuries in the playoffs. The Celtics beat the Sixers in the eastern conf. finals overcoming a 3-1 deficit to win the seventh game by four points. In '69 they beat the Wilt's Lakers by two points in the seventh game. That was the game Van Breda Kolff refused to put Wilt back in the game after he hurt his leg.
Were the Celtics the greatest team of the sixties? Undoubtedly. But they were fortunate to have their key players stay healthy for the playoffs.
Looking over the history of the league, I was amazed to discover how many championships were decided by injuries to key players. My conclusion was that the Celtics were a great team, but if they played the decade over with the same players on the same teams, they wouldn't have won as many titles. They won something like 10 out of 11 seven game playoff series during Russell's career. Try duplicating that.
Very misleading stat. He was a starter (Not full time in 1969 WS Met team)for only mediocre teams. Mets, Angels, Astros, Rangers. I'll admit he wasn't the greatest pitcher of all time, or even his era, but for someone to even elude he was overrated is absurd.
Thank you for the call on Rose. Obviously people don’t come to FR for the sports; but it still is crazy that people here have called him the “Greatest Hitter Ever.” Embarrassingly naive.
Greatest hitter ever? You could start a thread with just by itself. Cobb, Musial, Gehrig, Williams, DiMaggio, Hornsby, Ruth, and few others could all have an argument.
Ryan got better as he got older.......without steroids. He also pitched 14 two-hitters. His Mets years were his worst.
Randy Johnson was great. Can you imagine a 6-10 pitcher getting ready to throw a 100 MPH fastball at you? Scary. He’ll be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, this year.
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