This seems to be as good a place to put it as is availible.
Whom are the most overrated sports personalities? All sports, games, and activities are up for debate, but, by personal request, let’s only discuss people who have been retired for at least 5 years.
JOHN MADDEN.
(he’s retired from coaching so I can use him right?)
Everytime I hear that moron’s voice spouting something obvious (“He dropped the ball because the other guy knocked it out of his hand- Boom!”) I cringe.
Yes and No.
Yes, you can use Madden.
However, you can’t use his conduct as an announcer. This is meant to discuss players, coachs, and (sometimes) owners, NOT announcers.
Hast to be for at least 5 years, dutchboy.
Pete Rose has to be up there. People describe him as one of the greatest hitters in history. Puh-leeze. He only got the hits record by penciling himself into the lineup when he was manager, even though he had no business in the box.
He’s got a lifetime batting average of .303, which isn’t even good enough to place in the top 50. He never hit above .350 in a season.
I have a vendetta against Nolan Ryan, myself.
Sure, he pitched a lot of strikeouts, but his W-L percentage was around .526, and, while he did win 320+ games, it took him 22 years. These statistics are about equal with the likes of Don Sutton (who took 5 or so tries to get into the Hall).
Also, I still can’t figure out WHY Phil Rizzuto is in the Hall for anything other than the Ford C Frick Award.
Good point Neurotik Actually Pete Rose was also the greatest outmaker in baseball history. Rose made 9797 outs in his career. That is 1204 more than 2nd place on the list of most outs in a carrer.
http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/mostoverrated.html?partnersite=espn
BTW, to explain why I picked Rizzuto: He had a batting average of .267, no power, he only played for 11 or 12 seasons, he appears to not have had much speed, and he wasn’t much of a fielder. In fact, with his record, a member of ANY team other than the New York Yankees wouldn’t have ended up in the Hall.
Oh yeah? Look at the stats of Rabbit Maranville. Elected by the writers because he was a popular broadcaster (that is, one of them). Career BA of .258, 28 homers, 884 RBI, 2,605 hits. Okay, that IS a lot of hits, but the man played for 23 years, which means the number is less impressive. He also made 711 errors as an infielder.
Just to give this a shot: he averages 200 hits a year, has a career average of .317, fields his position well (.973), and is the leader on a winning team. I don’t know, he’s not Michael Jordan, but a lot of people don’t even seem to think he’s any good.
Jason Sehorn, anyone?
Oh, and Dan Reeves. Why is he still a coach?
True, I forgot about him and Rick Ferrell, but, you have to admit, Rizzuto is undeserving.
Another good target, in my mind, is Joe DiMaggio. He was very good, true, but his hype (largely the result of playing for the Yankees) always suggest that he towered over everyone, when, in reality, he was Hank Greenberg in pinstrips.
It’s not that I’m such a Yankee fan; I just don’t know as much about Rizzuto’s career. The stats posted above DO leave me wondering what the deal is there.
I know that’s an ESPN list, but I call bullshiat on Phil Mickelson being overrated. If anything, he’s underrated because everyone in the media ignores all the stuff he HAS done so they can bag on him for not winning a major yet.
As for overrated, I’ll say LeBron James. Let’s see what he does against real basketball players instead of overmatched high school kids before he gets annointed (and summer league games don’t count–I want to see how he’s doing 30 or so games in the NBA regular season when many rookies run out of gas).
Deon Sanders. Yeah, he was good for a while, but he way over stayed his talent, and looked like a bumbling fool. Then, to add insult to injury, he goes into broadcasting.
DiMaggio’s not overrated; it’s merely the fact that statistics don’t tell his story.
My vote: Joe Namath. And I say that is a long-time Jets fan who watched Joe in his prime. Namath had a couple of great seasons, but spent all too much time on the disabled list and, most importantly, was a terrible play caller (back when the QB called the plays). He got worse as he got near the goal line – he could be superb on his own 20, but on first and goal he became terribly conservative. Jim Turner, the Jets’ kicker, set a field goal record in 1968, mostly because of all the drives that stalled within the five because Namath ran three off-tackle plays in a row. (In fact, I knew they’d win the Superbowl when they scored their first TD – it was the first time I could remember them scoring on first-and-goal all year.) Namath was good, no doubt, but if it wasn’t for one game, he’d never be in the Hall of Fame.
Other choices:
2. Nolan Ryan. Lots of strikeouts, mediocre record.
3. Tiger Woods. Woods is the best golfer around today and one of the greatest of all time. Yet people overrate him ridiculously – but in a different way than others listed here. They seem to expect he will win every tournament and seem surprised when he doesn’t. The pros on the tour are more realistic; they know he’s great, but don’t expect him to be Superman and God rolled into one.
4. Gene Mauch. Managed the most games ever without getting into a World Series. Mauch was good with young players and noncontenders, but tended to panic and make bad news when the pressure was on. His mishandled his pitchers in Philadelphia in 1964, losing the pennant when he had a six game lead with ten games to go. His Angels blew a 2-0 ALCS lead to lose 3-2 and fell apart against the Red Sox 1986.
5.
All of them.
Magic Johnson
I would have to second Nolan Ryan, for more so than anyone else named. Quite a few fans cite Ryan as one of the five or ten greatest pitchers of all time - I’ve never personally know anyone who said Pete Rose was one of the five or ten best hitters of all time, and in my opinion, Rose was a greater player than Nolan Ryan.
Ryan’s a deserving Hall of Famer, but he’s no better than Don Sutton or Robin Roberts or a dozen other guys you never hear about. He’s overrated in terms of his performance because he was spectacular to watch.
I agree that there are worse guys in the Hall of Fame, but please; who ever talks about Rabbit Maranville, Rick Ferrell, or Travis Jackson anymore? They were overrated when they were elected but otherwise they’ve been mostly forgotten.
Marley, in fairness, Rabbit Maranville was a legitimately outstanding defensive player. He was, to put it in context, probably a better shortstop than Omar Vizquel has been. You’re forgetting that they made more errors back then than they do today. The average shortstop during Maranville’s career had a fielding percentage of just .945; his was .956, a pretty big difference, and that was with him making many more plays than average. It was not unusual for a shortstop to make fifty to sixty errors or more in a season during his day.
Maranville’s reputation during his career was that of a true defensive wizard, essentially the same as Ozzie Smith. He was a similar player to Smith, a tremendous, acrobatic glove man and a similar hitter, except he wasn’t quite as good a hitter and didn’t have Smith’s excellent speed. Like Smith, he was a playoff hero. That’s why he was elected. I think there’s good reason to say Smith is a Hall of Famer and Maranville should not have been, but you’re way underrating Maranville’s defense and his ability as a player. He isn’t the worst player in the Hall, and neither is Rizzuto.
For the worst Hall of Famers, I’d choose:
Look, Governor, you’re free to attack anyone you want. But I really wish you’d give up the all-too-popular attitude that playing in New York is an advatntage to players who hope to win awards or win acclaim. In reality, it just isn’t so.
Remember, Phil Rizzuto was NOT elected to the Hall of Fame by the sportswriters. Neither was Pee Wee Reese. Both were selected by the Veterans’ Committee, after being rejected for years by the supposedly New York-dominated press corps.
Here’s another point to consider: since I started watching baseball in 1969 (I’m 42 now), how many New York players have won the MVP award in EITHER league? The answer is… two! (Thurman Munson in 1976 and Don Mattingly in 1985). In 35 years, exactly TWO New York players have won MVP awards.
So, if the New York media are so biased and so omnipotent, why don’t the Yankees or the Mets ever win any awards?