h/t ESPN Radio’s Mike* & Mike In the Morning Show.
Which was the greatest individual sports performance? or the Top 5 greatest individual performances?
– Don Larsen’s perfect game against the Dodgers in the 1956 World Series
– Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point performance against the Knicks in 1962
– Secretariat’s win by 31 lengths at the 1973 Belmont Stakes
– Tiger Woods’ 15-stroke margin of victory at the 2000 U.S. Open
– Michael Phelps’ eight gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics
*Greenberg was a recent Hubba. I’m still waiting for him to get back to me on this.
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“*Greenberg was a recent Hubba. I’m still waiting for him to get back to me on this.”
Be sure and polish the pumps, Wanks! Best foot forward and all that, ya know?
I’d say the best performance from your list, I’d have to say Phelp’s eight golds in the Olympics. That most likely was the best. More concentration and output from my viewpoint.
The last play of the ice bowl GB v Dallas1967
Affirmed’s win against Alydar in the Belmont Stakes…by a nostril
Franco Harris, Steelers the Immaculate Reception
Man O’ War’s 100 length win in the mile and 5/8ths Lawrence Realization Stakes at Belmont.
Reggie Whites three sacks in Super Bowl 31.
1. Kobe Bryant scoring 81 against Toronto in 2006. Wilt was dominant head and shoulders. Kobe is 6’6 or so and hit a lot of jumpers. Wilt was far and away the superior athlete on the floor in the ’60s so Kobe’s has always been far superior to me –as much as I hate to admit it.
2. Reds’ Johnny Vander Meer — back to back no-hitters in 1938
3. Agree on Don Larsen’s perfect World Series Game
4. 7 no-hitters by Nolan Ryan
5. Gale Sayers 6 TDs in 1965 against the 49ers… in the mud and every which way you can
Jack Nicklaus winning the 1986 Masters at age 46.
Backup QB Frank Reich engineering the Buffalo Bills erasing a 32 point deficit against the Houston Oilers in the ’92/’93 playoffs (yes, en route to their third consecutive Super Bowl loss).
As much as I hate saying this, but because I have to recognize the achievement, Pedro Martinez pitching six scoreless innings as a relief pitcher (with a non-100% back) to defeat the Indians in the 1999 AL Division Series.
Larry Bird swooping in to steal Isiah Thomas’ pass and dumping the ball with eyes in the back of his head to a streaking DJ Johnson for the winning layup in the ’87 playoffs.
Jesse Owens four 1936 Olympics gold medals under the nose of Der Fuhrer.
Al Oerter’s four consecutive golds in the Olympics (way back when amateurs competed). If you’re not familiar with Al Oerter, check him out – he’d typically just kind of snek onto the US Olympic discus squad at the last minute . . . and then take the top spot when it really counted.
By the way, Furman’s Frank Selvy scored 100 points in college hoops way before Wilt did it in the pro’s – not the world’s toughest competition, mind you (I think Furman was playing Presbyterian College that night), but still a feat that just about every basketball fan in upstate South Carolina is aware of.
Quick and easy blurb on Al Oerter: http://www.aloerter.com/pages/bio.html
Well worth the read – an inspirational guy.
And it was Newberry College that Frank Selvy (also a heck of class act, by the way) laid the century on. Both Presbyterian and Newberry, I believe, were NAIA at the time, although Furman was an NCAA school – and at that time one with a reasonably decent team. If I’m not mistaken, Selvy, and then his teammate Darrell Floyd, led the NCAA in season scoring (or were darn close to doing so) for three or four years in a row.
And oddly enough, speaking of Wilt’s 100-point game, I received the following in an email from one of my little brothers (not the one missing from 3D) just a couple of days ago:
“On March 2, 1962, Chamberlain and the playoff-bound Warriors were scheduled to play a home game against the struggling Knicks in Hershey instead of back home, 85 miles away in Philadelphia. Chamberlain lived in New York and drove down early to the Hershey Sports Arena with two Knicks. While waiting for the Warriors to arrive, Chamberlain played pinball in the arena’s arcade. Knicks forward Dave Budd and center Darrall Imhoff walked into the building to find Chamberlain setting his first record of the night.
“He was scoring big time,” Budd said. “When you get so many thousand points, you get a free game, and he had eight free games on the pinball machine.”
Interesting in its own right (at least to me), but all the more so because I suspect it’s the only Chamberlain anecdote about scoring off the court that’s suitable for family consumption.
“He was scoring big time,”
Indeed
Arghh – can’t lay off this thread.
First off, lemme tick off all the female contributors who picked horses (remarkable achievements in each case), but I have a tough time putting a critter in a list of top individual achievements when the “individual” in question doesn’t even really know it has achieved anything. But that’s just me.
One other person I really think should be on the list – that’s Bob Beamon breaking the long jump record (at the time I think it was still the broad jump, which I have to add just to tweak the politically correct). Granted it was in thin air at the Mexico City Olympiad, but he still broke the bloody mark by almost two freaking *feet*, at a time when the average incremental increase in that record was generally about 2 inches. Beamon’s record stood for about 20 years, as I recall.
Wilt also set a broad jump record.
Thank-you and don’t forget to tip the waitresses.
I thought he was a pole vaulter?
His mamma kept trying to get him into the steeplechase.
Floyd, if there’s a way to make a living as your Ed McMahon, let me know – I seem to have a knack for it. At least if Wilt Chamberlain is in the punch line.
By the way, great call on the Gayle Sayers pick – I can remember watching it on the tube at the time. Sayers was the most entertaining running back who ever played the game, IMHO; just wish they’d had arthroscopic surgery back then (fewer Kermit Alexanders would have worked as well).
Kermit Alexander read Dr. Seuss to my daughters 3d grade class yesterday.
Her knees are still good though.
Speaking again of Kermit… I posted this a couple of years ago but if you have 10 minutes it well worth your time… I go to church with him — he is an amazing man…
Now when you mentioned Kermit Alexander and your daughter, I was sure you were kidding – I had no idea.
What an odd confluence of topics – but, hey, thanks for reposting the video. Incredibly inspiring – Mr. Alexander and his wife are truly awesome. And I’m sure Gayle Sayers would agree.
While he didn’t set any records doing it, I was pretty impressed with Tony Romo leading a comeback to win against a team that eventually made the playoffs with a punctured lung.
Bravo to all the people who either can’t read or follow directions and mentioned things that happened over the course of a career or team efforts…well done.
To follow through on what Stosh was saying how can a horse winning a race be an individual achievement when there’s a Jockey in the mix? Are we to believe that Secretariat would have done just as well if we put an equivalent weight of the jockey on his back placed him in the starting gate and then let him go on his merry way?
I’d add Emmitt Smith beating the Giants with a dislocated shoulder to the list in 1994.
+22
It was early, Outlaw. I got confused and now fixed — thanks for nudging me awake.
Nice to remember Gale Sayers here. He was more than Brian Piccolo’s roommate.
BTW, this “female contributor” is not the one who nominated Secretariat. Blame the “male contributors” of the morning drive-time ESPN show I sourced. And you can make a case against all five of the ones they listed, based on semantics alone.
Wankette,
Thanks for the original post – I’ve really enjoyed this thread (really enjoyed hijacking this thread?).
As the messenger, you are of course absolved of any guilt that might (or might not) be associated with attributing individual athletic achievement to four-legged beasts – at least until ESPN decides to upgrade its AM offering by making it “Mike and Mike and Wank in the Morning”!
But your point about the inherent elasticity in the term “individual” in individual athletic achievement is especially insightful. In the case of Frank Selvy’s 100 point game (referred to in one of my posts above), it was well recognized that once the century mark was within range in that game, Selvy’s teammates were routinely passing up open shots to feed him the ball, and near the end of the game there were even references to largely pointless fouls that were committed just so Furman would regain ball possession without losing too much time on the clock. I’d be surprised if the same didn’t happen (at least to some extent) in Chamberlain’s case.
And yes, the main reason for this post was to set Floyd up for yet another Chamberlain comment – let’s see if he goes for the record.
It just goes to show… no one scores without help.
Yes, but ball control is still the key.
O.K., I’ll step in it (horse manure, that is) and defend ESPN’s list at those who included equine accomplishment.
It may be worded improperly, but I took the list to mean, single greatest ass-whoopin’s. Athletic feats so dominant that an individual made the opponent(s) look like helpless children.
Do thoroughbreds, good thoroughbreds know they are racing? No question. Do they love to run and compete? No question. A horse winning a major race against the best in the world by 10, 20, 100! lengths is a major individual achievement, akin to Usain Bolt’s 100meters at the last Summer games.
There are some great entries here, although I’ll agree with Outlaw that the multiple occasion mentions don’t belong.
I don’t think anyone mentioned boxing. Mike Tyson, Ali, Sugar Ray, Marciano… Some great individual achievement there.
Also, Edwin Moses dominated, DOMINATED! his field for 20 years! Pick anyone of dozens of races where he won by dozens of meters, or more. Unbelievable!
I also agree with Stosh that Oerter and Beamon deserve mention, as does Jim Thorpe’s decathlon.
A horse…heh
I love dolts who say that jockeys aren’t athletes
I love dolts that can’t use the “reply” function.
Click here for the smoking gun, Outlaw.
“Who can’t use…”