I think this term comes from the Straight Dope: after Bob Beamon’s mind bending long jump, these are players who are so mind bendingly superior to anyone else who has played the game, its hard to conceive of anyone doing better. Arguably, these may include Wayne Gretzky, Babe Ruth and Wilt Chamberlain . . . … three debates we can do elsewhere.
I’m looking for sports that either don’t have these unicorns or can’t.
I’ll start with a few sports:
American Football---- there’s so many specialized positions that I think it might be impossible. Tom Brady IMO is the greatest QB in NFL history, but he’s only “Beamonesque” at his position. Patrick Mahomes may also be in the same boat.
Unless you are in the camp that it is the most important position in the game.
Soccer----Lionel Messi, Pele, Diego Maradona and a short list of others are in the argument for the greatest footballer of all time: but since there is that debate, can any of them be considered Beamonesque?
NASCAR-----I’m pretty confident both Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson have won 6-7 NASCAR championships each rendering that sport “unBeamonesque”.
Interpret this OP as you may, but what sports have or can not produce “unicorns”?
I think that the OP is mixing a Beamon-esque feat with a phenomenal career. Beamon was a very good long jumper who broke out a single, jaw-dropping jump (at altitude and probably wind aided). For other sports, a Beamon-esque event would be a single game or season that is out of this world. Examples would include:
Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in a game.
OJ Simpson rushing for over 2000 yards in a 14 game season.
On his way to a still-standing track record of 1:592⁄5,[63] Secretariat ran each quarter-mile segment faster than the one before it. The successive quarter-mile times were :251⁄5, :24, :234⁄5, :232⁄5, and :23.[32] This means he was still accelerating as of the final quarter-mile of the race.[21] No other horse had won the Derby in less than 2 minutes before, and it would not be accomplished again until Monarchos ran the race in 1:59.97 in 2001
Preakness Stakes
Secretariat was never challenged. … the commission unanimously voted to change the time of Secretariat’s win from 1:542⁄5 to 1:53, establishing a new stakes record.
Belmont Stakes
The time for the race was not only a record, it was the fastest 1 1⁄2 miles on dirt in history, 2:24 flat, breaking by more than two seconds the track and stakes record of 2:263⁄5 set 16 years earlier by Gallant Man.[76] Secretariat’s record still stands as an American record on the dirt.[80] If the Beyer Speed Figure calculation had been developed during that time, Andrew Beyer calculated that Secretariat would have earned a figure of 139, the highest he has ever assigned.
If you count bowling as a sport, I can’t see it as ever having a “unicorn”. The best you can do is get a 300 game (or 900 series) and amateurs do it all the time. This is, if I’m interpreting the question to be about a one-time performance that can’t be replicated rather than a career that can’t be exceeded.
I think that with any sport where there is an upper limit to achievement, and where that limit is reached by multiple people, by definition that can’t have a unicorn.
I mean… yes… Pele is generally held up as amazing leap forward. Far more Beamonesque than Wilt Chamberlain, IMO. Messi has just now matched Pele’s record of most goals with one team (which is a longer amount of time than Beamon’s record stood).
In International Test cricket (the top level of the sport), good test batsman has a batting average in the range of 40-50 (if you can’t average that, you probably won’t hold your spot). If you average over 50, you are an undoubted champion. 3-4 players (including a current player) average in the low 60s.
Bradman averaged 99.9.
A very good player might score 100 runs in an innings 1 in 7 times. Great players might do it 1 in 6 times. Bradman did it 1 in 2.5 times.
American (gridiron) football, as the OP notes, has a lot of specialized positions. I’d suggest that, if I understand “Beamonesque” properly, there are two players who fit that description for their position, as receivers.
The first was Don Hutson, who played offensive end (the position that evolved into the modern wide receiver position) for the Packers for 11 seasons (1935-1945). Hutson is generally considered to have been the league’s first modern receiver, and he dominated the league – in his eleven seasons, he led the league in receiving yards seven times, and in receiving touchdowns nine times. When he retired, Hutson held nearly every major NFL record in receiving, many of which he continued to hold for decades (and he still holds a number of records today); he was selected to the NFL’s All-Time Teams for the league’s 50th, 75th, and 100th anniversaries.
The other is Jerry Rice, who played for nineteen seasons, primarily for the 49ers; after a pedestrian rookie year, he was then the dominant wide receiver in the league for 11 seasons (1986-1996), being named All-Pro in ten of those eleven seasons. Though not as dominant in his later years, he was still a very productive receiver into his 40s, and holds the NFL records for receptions, yards, and receiving touchdowns (the latter two by wide margins).
Regarding American football, the position I can having such a player is kicker. A very talented and strong legged kicker that can make 60 to 65 yard field goals consistently would qualify. Extremely unlikely to happen in the real world, but if it did, that player would meet the definition. Other than that, I can’t picture any other position players being so talented that they blow away the field.
Another problem with American football is that the sport evolves so much over the years, with constant rule changes, that it’s hard to compare players from different eras. Some players achieve success in ways that would be literally impossible to other players, because what they did wouldn’t be allowed.