# Best Multi-Sport Athletes? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 25, 2008, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045 "2008-02-25T04:16:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/21 "2008-02-25T16:44:40Z")
Speaking of fishing, baseball Hall-of-Famer [Ted Williams](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Williams#Retirement) is also a member of the International Game Fish Association Hall of Fame. According to Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > Some opined that Williams was a rare individual who might have been the best in the world in three different disciplines: baseball hitter, fighter jet pilot, and fly fisherman. Shortly after Williams’s death, conservative pundit Steve Sailer called him “possibly the most technically proficient American of the 20th Century, as his mastery of three highly different callings demonstrates.” ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/22 "2008-02-25T16:47:23Z")
[QUOTE=Lamar Mundane] I think harder is to be proficient in a power sport and a finesse one. Hale Irwin was an All-Conference football player at Colorado and went on to become one of the ten or fifteen greatest golfers of all time. I want to hear about a heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler who is a champion curler or darter. [/QUOTE] Not champion, but Jerome Bettis has a 300 game in bowling, and is considered to be one of the top celebrity bowlers in the sport. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/23 "2008-02-25T16:49:03Z")
[QUOTE=Bayard] [Mike Peluso](http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/fishing/news/story?page=f_ath_Peluso_NHL) is a minor league hockey player in the Blackhawks system, and a pro fisherman. (He is not to be confused with his older cousin, also named Mike Peluso, who played several seasons in the NHL). Not a champion at either level, but still kind of a wide difference between the two sports. [/QUOTE] Good one. It was said that Ted Williams of the Red Sox was also a world-class fisherman, although I don’t think there is any way to confirm that - there was no pro circuit at the time. He may just have had the means to travel the world and catch all kinds of different fish. Kind of like the “big game hunters” of the past. They were mostly a small group of wealthy white guys who could afford to outfit an expedition to Africa. But the best hunters? I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/24 "2008-02-25T19:32:32Z")
In the context of this thread, I’m unimpressed with Heisman trophies or any other kind of amateur success. I mean, do you really consider Ron Dayne to be one of the best football players? The OP is talking about being truly great at the professional levels. Look again at the accomplishments of the women in the links. Those women were basically Tiger Woods and Roger Federer rolled into one. The only ones I would agree with are comparable would be Deon Sanders and Bo Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/25 "2008-02-25T19:37:17Z")
[Dave DeBusschere - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_DeBusschere) Played pro basketball and pitched for the White Sox. hall of fame for both. Plus youngest coach in NBA history. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/26 "2008-02-25T19:42:47Z")
[QUOTE=gonzomax] [Dave DeBusschere - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_DeBusschere) Played pro basketball and pitched for the White Sox. hall of fame for both. Plus youngest coach in NBA history. [/QUOTE] He isn’t in Cooperstown. According to [this](http://espn.go.com/classic/obit/s/2003/0514/1553649.html): > [@](#): > > He tried to combine the sports and pitched parts of two seasons with the White Sox, going 3-4 in 36 games. > > DeBusschere pitched 102 innings in the majors and had a 2.90 ERA. On Aug. 13, 1963, he pitched a six-hit shutout to lead the White Sox over Cleveland. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/27 "2008-02-25T19:43:56Z")
[QUOTE=Ellis Dee] The only ones I would agree with are comparable would be Deon Sanders and Bo Jackson. [/QUOTE] Deion Sanders was a “truly great” professional baseball player? Dick Groat _at least_ meets the Deion Sanders standard. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/28 "2008-02-25T19:46:12Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] Deion Sanders was a “truly great” professional baseball player? Dick Groat _at least_ meets the Deion Sanders standard. [/QUOTE] I thought he was. He wasn’t? I’m not a baseball fan, but I lived in the South while he was on the Braves, and he seemed like a force to be reckoned with when he was in. I dunno, from his [wiki article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deion_Sanders#MLB_career) he sounds pretty damn impressive: > [@](#): > > Sanders played a nine-year, part-time baseball career, playing 641 games with 4 teams. During his most productive year, 1992, he hit .304 for the Braves, stole 26 bases, and led the NL with 14 triples in 97 games. During the 1989 season, he hit a home run and scored a touchdown in the NFL in the same week, the first player to do so. Sanders is the only man to play in both a Super Bowl and World Series. > > In four games of the 1992 World Series, Sanders batted .533 with 4 runs, 8 hits, 2 doubles, and 1 RBI while playing with a broken bone in his foot. Despite Sanders’s performance, he and his Braves ultimately lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in six games. > > In 1997, Sanders finished 2nd in the NL with 56 stolen bases in 115 games. Compare that to Dick Groat’s one season in the pros. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/29 "2008-02-25T19:50:53Z")
[QUOTE=Ellis Dee] I thought he was. He wasn’t? [/QUOTE] Career average of .263. 'Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/30 "2008-02-25T20:19:00Z")
[QUOTE=Ellis Dee] In the context of this thread, I’m unimpressed with Heisman trophies or any other kind of amateur success. I mean, do you really consider Ron Dayne to be one of the best football players? [/QUOTE] The women mentioned in the OP were amateurs. Time was that only amateurs could compete in the big events and professionals would barnstorm the world. Jim Thorpe sprang to mind for me as well, but today, you’re not going to find athletes like this. (Some impressive examples from the recent past have been cited.) They may have the talent to succeed in several sports, but they’re encouraged to pick one and concentrate on it to develop their skills and have a chance to make money as a professional. Amateurs had less reason to specialize. At this point, two-sport athletes are vanishingly rare once you get out of the college level. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/31 "2008-02-25T21:29:50Z")
Not Michael Jordan ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/32 "2008-02-25T21:34:01Z")
I don’t think we’ll ever see a Thorpe or Dideriksen Zaharias again. They were to the sports world what Dante or Leonardo were to the world of learning and arts: an artifact of the era before super-specialization. How about Carl Lewis? He was simultaneously the best sprinter and the best long jumper in the world for a time, and while those both fall under the umbrella of Track and Field, they’re widely different skill sets. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/33 "2008-02-25T21:43:45Z")
[QUOTE=Intelligently Designed] Perhaps Canada’s most multi-talented athlete was [Lionel Conacher](http://www.histori.ca/sports/conach.html). [/QUOTE] _Damn_. And died hitting a stand-up triple. _Dude_. The Conacher boys were quite a group… ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/34 "2008-02-26T01:06:29Z")
[QUOTE=EJsGirl] _Damn_. And died hitting a stand-up triple. _Dude_. The Conacher boys were quite a group… [/QUOTE] I’m so glad you quoted that link, which I passed over the first time it was posted. This is one hardcore athlete: > [@](#): > > He had to have endurance, too. One day in 1922, he hit a triple in the final inning to give his Toronto Hillcrest baseball team the Ontario baseball championship, then jumped into a waiting car and crossed the city to join his Maitland lacrosse team in their championship game against Brampton. Maitland was trailing 3-0 when Conacher arrived, but he scored four goals and assisted on another to lift his team to a 5-3 victory. Damn. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/35 "2008-02-26T01:19:36Z")
Yeah, but it’s not like playing baseball requires endurance. Are players really ever tired after a game? ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/36 "2008-02-26T01:55:28Z")
[QUOTE=Ellis Dee] In the context of this thread, I’m unimpressed with Heisman trophies or any other kind of amateur success. [/QUOTE] To comment in my own thread, amateur success on a high level impresses me, far more than middling talent in professional sports. To comment on some candidates, Fry is on the level of Zaharias and Dod, Conacher is on that level, Herschel Walker (from the Millrose Games footage I’ve seen) is reasonably close to that level, I don’t know enough about lacrosse to comment on Jim Brown, Sanders wasn’t on that level (his baseball OPS+ is 89, below league average), and I’m not sure that Jackson would have been on that level without injury (his on-base percentage tended to be below league-average, he struck out a lot, and he doesn’t appear to have been an impressive fielder). ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/37 "2008-02-26T02:04:37Z")
[QUOTE=Governor Quinn] To comment in my own thread, amateur success on a high level impresses me, far more than middling talent in professional sports. [/QUOTE] Understood, but my point is that more often than not that’s exactly what the progression is. I would’ve thought my example of the record-shattering Heisman-winning _Ron friggin’ Dayne_ would have made that point pretty convincingly. Amateur success on a high level frequently translates into middling talent in professional sports, which is exactly why I’m not impressed by it. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/38 "2008-02-26T04:16:07Z")
Well, John Brodie was an All-Pro quarterback for the 49ers, and later won a few golf tournaments on the PGA seniors tour. (I suspect he could have been a stellar rpo golfer in his youth, if he’d gone that direction instead of playing football.) ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/39 "2008-02-26T05:46:48Z")
[QUOTE=DMC] Bob Richards. He ran for president in the wingnut party, later in life. [/QUOTE] Yep. A well-earned :smack: . ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045/40 "2008-02-26T05:51:15Z")
[QUOTE=Snarky\_Kong] Yeah, but it’s not like playing baseball requires endurance. Are players really ever tired after a game? [/QUOTE] Other than catchers and pitchers, I wouldn’t think so. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-multi-sport-athletes/439045.md?page=3)