Quite a few star baseball players were pitchers one day and shortstop or center fielder on days they didn’t pitch when in college. But when they moved to the majors, they had to become one or the other to completely hone their skills. So if I get the right GOAT young enough, I’ll bet he could practice to go either way.
Stan Musial for example was signed by the Cards as a pitcher. He went 33-13 with a 3.52 ERA over three years in the minors. His best year was his last at age 19 with a 2.62 ERA in 223 innings. He was called up the next year as an outfielder. Unfortunately like Ruth he was a lefty.
Sisler also started as a pretty good pitcher. He, too, was a lefty. But I’ll bet there’s a similar righty somewhere in the past.
Not if you cloned Sobers who was Test level bowler as left-arm fast-medium, left-arm orthodox and left-arm chinaman except that Lance Gibbs took the left arm orthodox spot.
Any of those who fielded in slips would have been a serviceable keeper so either Sobers or Kallis would be fine.
Not sure that either Hadlee or Pollock (presumably Shaun) would have been good enough with the bat. If they were then you could add Mike Proctor to the list.
IMO Aussie candidates would be lead by Keith Miller, Alan Davidson and Richie Benaud
I think basketball is a great sport for this. 5 Magics would be awesome, but I might take KD clones over 5 Magic clones. Kareem clones would be awesome too.
I think you are right in that a top class wicket keeper is the icing on the cake. If you were to bend your cloning criteria to favour specialist keepers then you’d lose more in batting/bowling skills than you’d gain in keeping skills. I look at the names on the all-rounder list and the athleticism present in any of them would make a serviceable keeper and that would probably be enough with an 11-man bowling attack of Sobers, Sobers, Sobers, Sobers…etc
I still think 12 (not 5, 12) Jordans* beat 12 of anyone else in a 7 game series. The two I would hesitate, but still bet Jordan, would be Magic & LBJ. But I think Jordan would get into LeBrons head by game 2 and send him into a tailspin by game 4. As for Magic… well, Jordan is 2-0 in games that mattered (91 championship, 92 Dream Team scrimmage), but obviously not 12 on 12.
You also have to figure out which rules you’re playing under. 1984 rules with hand checks and body slams and a more physical defense might frustrate LeBron. 2013 rules would liberate Jordan something fierce.
3’s wouldn’t differentiate them as much as one would think, with Jordan being a career .332 shooter from behind the arc, LBJ a .342 shooter and Magic shooting .303.
*By “Jordan”, I mean the 1991-92 Jordan. For LBJ, I would say his 2012 (third season in MIA) incarnation, and for Magic… let’s do his 1984-85 self.
I think '84 rules wouldn’t frustrate Lebron as much as it would Jordan because Lebron is so goddamn big. Jordan would get bullied anytime he tried to go to the basket, and Lebron could just shake off the much skinnier Jordan’s attempts at hand checking.
I don’t really know anything about tennis, but I remember reading somewhere that the best doubles men’s team was John McEnroe and anyone else. If true, it seems like you want two McEnroe’s?
The quote is kind of silly, since a doubles team is only as good as its weakest player (absent serving, of course). But yeah, if you can get two equal, completely dominant doubles players, that’s a pretty safe bet. Add in the fact that as clones, they are thinking the same way all the time (since doubles relies so much on partners reacting in sync), and I’d say he’s a lock to be the best doubles team ever.
I think soccer is the best bet for a team of GOAT-clones to be completely dominant. Attacking and defensive skills are most transferable, and goalkeeping is much less a part of the game than in hockey. I mean, if I had to chose a team of Gretzky clones or a team of Lemiuex clones, it would immediately come down to who was the better goaltender, and I’d take clones of someone significantly less talented at skating, passing, shooting and defending than Gretzky if the someone was a much better goaltender. And I’d have to know how good Gretzky’s goaltending was before I’d definitely take his clones over a regular NHL team. But, even with his height disadvantage in goal, I think I’d take 11 Messi-s over any past or present soccer team (and I’m not even convinced Messi is the best choice for the clone team).
Who a clone (US) football team could beat is kind of interesting; I think it depends a lot on how well the clone can throw, but also on how long the clone team has to practice and learn their individual positions. A team of identical Bo’s or Gronk’s with no practice at pass-rushing or linebacker play wouldn’t be too effective, but if Gronk1 can focus on setting offensive line protection schemes and making shotgun snaps for a year while Gronk23 practices pass-rushing from the edge, they’re much more competitive. Amount of scouting the other team can do would also play a role. If the other team comes in expecting a generic opponent, it’s going to take them much longer to pick apart the weak points of the clone team.
This might work, but only if the all-Watt defense can put enough pressure on the QB to prevent him from getting off a deep ball. With 5-6 Watts rushing on passing downs, it might work. A wide receiver might be caught in the open field, if on an intermediate route, by a Watt linebacker or safety.
Except he runs right past him and makes brilliant passes to the other Magics. Magic and Russell aren’t too different in size so Magic can guard them. Also Magic can hit threes.
I wonder what a team of Kareems might do. He has an unstoppable hook and would limit any other team to long shots.
I think that a basketball team would benefit more from this treatment than a soccer team would. Sure, the goalie isn’t as critical in soccer as in some sports, but it’s still a radically different position than the others. Basketball doesn’t really have that at all.
Just rethought this. If “the whole team” includes pit crew and engineers to design the car, then I might have to choose Nigel Mansell. He was an engineer before he was a driver.
The two areas of motorsport engineering and driving are so specialised these days that getting someone expert in both is next to impossible.
However, going back a couple of generations and we have people like Bruce McLaren who I’d suspect could design and build a better car than Mansell, even though Mansell is more likely to extract the most performance from what he built.
