Had a discussion recently about Tiger Woods and his knee injury. Someone made the comment that it was a terrible shame and all that and someone else contended that even if Woods never hits another golf ball, he would still be considered the greatest all time --another debate entirely.
Well this got us to discussing athletes, from any sport, whose career was cut short due to injury or even death.
Without getting all statitistical, the top nominees for the all-time greatest were Ken Griffey Jr., Bo Jackson, and Gale Sayers with Jackson getting my vote as the greatest since he excelled (sort of) in two sports. I know, I know he was purely a swing-for-the-fences-or-bust hitter who might have made a strong run for the strike out record but still he hit tape measure homeruns, could throw a two hundred foot strike from left field and, oh yeah, was a pretty damn good power running back before his hip totally gave out.
Well there wasn’t much agreement so I turn the debate over to here.
Sandy Koufax retired early due to arthritis in his arm. He was only 30, but dominated pitching his last five years like Woods dominated golf.
**Dizzy Dean. ** He made it into the Hall of Fame, but barely played enough years to qualify. He won 133 games in his first five full seasons, but was injured in the 1937 All-Star game and went from being perhaps the best pitcher in baseball to someone struggling to keep up.
There was also Herb Score, who won 20 games in 1956 and was one of the best young pitchers in baseball when he was hit in the face by a line drive and never recovered.
Don’t know if you can put Griffey on the list. Granted, If it weren’t for his injuries, he’d probably be challenging Bonds’ record right now, but 600+ home runs over a career can hardly be called “ruined”.
Many people believe that if Mark “The Bird” Fidrych hadn’t blown his arm out at such a young age, he would have been one of the greatest of all time. But we’ll never know.
I’d have to agree on Bo Jackson . If he’d just stuck to baseball, he’d be in the Hall of Fame today.
People are much inclined to comment on the lost greatness of Ken Griffey Jr., but lket’s bear in mind that he’s had a Hall of Fame career; he is a Hall of Famer by a very comfortable margin and will doubtlessly be elected on the first ballot. You can’t say his career was “Ruined.” Maybe he might have done more had he not gotten hurt, but
He didn’t start getting regularly hurt until he was in his 30s, which isn’t unusual for a baseball player. It’s normal, not unusual, for a player’s career to end due to injury, and
Griffey has had a very long career even with lost time to injuries. He has played 2459 games to date, which is a very substantial career; only 58 other players in the entire history of the major leagues played in more games. Griffey will be in the top fifty by the end of this year.
Griffey will not be remembered as a player with a ruined career.
Bo Jackson would almost certainly never have been a Hall of Famer as a baseball player; he just wasn’t good enough. He might have been a Hall of Famer as a running back, though. He averaged 5.4 yards per carry, which is sensational, but his body wouldn’t let him play much.
I feel like Pete Reiser should be mentioned in this thread.
In 1941 – his rookie year – at the age of 22, he hit .343/.406/.558 (OPS+ of 165) with the Dodgers. The next year he was hitting .380 when he ran smack into an outfield wall, which wrecked his season. And that propensity to run headlong into walls is what effectively ruined his career.
I remember reading a book about him many years ago, in which some of his contemporaries were quoted as saying he had a chance to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time. If only he had stopped running into walls…
I agree that Griffey doesn’t deserve to be on the list. One in company during the discussion referenced in the OP whose all-time favorite baseball player just happened to be Griffey Jr. -imagine that- maintained that Griffey has lost four full seasons due to injury and that had he remained healthy would have shattered every major hitting record and would be universally revered as the greatest baseball player of all time and widely acknowledged as the greatest human being to have ever walked the planet.
Marco Van Basten was probably the greatest striker in world football from about 88 - 92, when he played for Milan. Before Milan he played for Ajax, scoring 128 goals in 133 games - he knocked in 90 for Milan out of 147 appearances playing in the best (at the time) and toughest defensive league in the world.
He always had ankle problems, and from 92/93, when he was 28, they started to get the better of him and he missed a lot of games. Never really played much over the next 2 years and had to retire in 95. He was cut down in his prime, really - had he not been injured he would have had 3 or 4 years right at the peak of his ability.
He fits the OP because he was a great, great player. There is no hall of fame in football - but he is at the level of a Willie Mays or Jim Brown in US sports. Legends who are amongst the very best to have ever played their sports.
Now that I mention it, wasn’t Jim Brown’s career cut short by injury?
Greg LeMond. It’s not hard to argue he would have won 5 Tours de France (at the very least) were it not for that horrific hunting accident in '87. His comeback to win the Tour in '89 and '90 was nothing short of miraculous, but his career was then cut short due to the blood disease directly related to the gunshot.
LeMond was a more talented rider, and far gutsier, than Lance Armstrong in my opinion.