I figured it was just a sham- that conversation was around the era when she used “the swearing license” (you get it when you’re 18) as reason why my brother and I shouldn’t be swearing. But I thought Griffey did break his wrist once or twice, anyway.
(The more calcium in the diet thing I know well- even though my family raises beef cattle and I’m all about omnivorous diet, I’ll read any cookbook, even vegan, so I’ve gotten the “these are calcium rich foods” info-dump many, many times.)
The talented but fragile Fred Lynn looked like a Hall of Famer early, but had trouble with injuries.
I remember he once broke the hamate bone in his hand. You might be thinking of that.
except it overlooks how far ahead Gretzky is in most categories that he leads. He’s just slightly less than 1000 points ahead of second place, ~750 ahead in assists, and close to 100 ahead in goals. Mario lost some prime years to cancer, that’s true. But his overall pace was never near Gretzky’s, and he was never durable even outside that ailment (which, as others have pointed out, is a part of being great). And then there’s the fact that the only reason he came back the second time was so that he could get paid what the Penguins owed him.
Gretzky has a points per game average of 1.92, Lemieux’s current PPG average is 1.88, down from 2.0 before his return. I’d hardly call that “never near”.
I’m going to strenuously disagree with your assertion that he only returned to get his money. First of all, he had ALREADY received the money owed to him from Howard Baldwin and Roger Marino as credit towards bringing the team out of bankruptcy as the owner. Secondly, his stated reason for returning was that he wanted his son Austin to see him play, and he still thought that he had it (and that season, he did). Quite frankly, he’d have made more sitting in the press box as the CEO, considering he made the exact league average in the 2000 season (a concession to the NHLPA).
Oops, asked and answered upthread.
Quite possibly- and if not that, then someone else on the Mariners broke their wrist once and I’ve remembered it as Griffey instead.
Wendel Clark would be close to the same category as Mark Messier if his back hadn’t been so bad for so many years (and if he had more opportunity to play with the kind of guys Messier got to play with, and if he didn’t have to spend quite so much time defending teammates – which screwed up his back). He only played a full season once, and often missed half the season. Anyway, I’m sure plenty of hockey fans would vote this one down.
Cam Neely is a guy who would have been the all-time power forward. Even injury-shortened, his career got him into the hall of fame (I think?)
Eric Lindros. In full flight and full health, pre-concussions, he was terrifying and near-unstoppable.
When it comes to Orr, don’t forget that unlike Gretzky, he had to drop his gloves and throw. In a book he wrote back in the seventies, Orr takes a few paragraphs to describe his tactics for winning an on-ice fight – get up on your toes and drive your punches downward – Imagine the great one penning those paragraphs!
Good call, severus!