# Three Living Legends **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 12, 2009, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282 "2009-11-12T04:59:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KennerTheGreat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a8b319/32.png) [@KennerTheGreat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KennerTheGreat)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/1 "2009-11-12T04:59:43Z")
Step one. Pick a city (or a metropolitan area, like the Bay Area in California). Step two. Pick who you think are the three best living athletes that played for that city’s teams. There are only two rules. Besides the one that your three choices must be currently living; your three athletes must represent three different sports (you can’t have both Yogi Berra and Tom Seaver, for example.) Though it’s not a hard and fast rule, I’d also suggest that your athletes should have had their best years while representing your chosen city. If you want to suggest Wayne Gretzky for Los Angeles; I won’t say you’re wrong, but really, his best years were with Edmonton. I’ll start off by nominating a trio from Boston. Bobby Orr, Carl Yastrzemski and Larry Bird. Have at it, Dopers. Which city do you think is best? ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/2 "2009-11-12T05:11:05Z")
San Francisco: Joe Montana Willie Mays Rick Barry ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/3 "2009-11-12T05:23:51Z")
Detroit Gordie Howe, Barry Sanders, Isiah"before he was shit piss bad exec" Thomas. Beat that bitches 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/4 "2009-11-12T05:45:03Z")
Chicago: Michael Jordan Walter Payton Bobby Hull ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/5 "2009-11-12T05:52:03Z")
Milwaukee: Hank Aaron Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Bart Starr Abdul-Jabbar only played five seasons for the Bucks, but they’ve never really had a HoF-caliber player who played most of his career there. Starr, of course, played for the Packers, but the Pack played roughly half of their home games in Milwaukee throughout his career. (I might have said Brett Favre, but the Packers stopped playing in Milwaukee early in Favre’s career.) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/6 "2009-11-12T05:53:29Z")
Missed edit window: of course, I screwed up the Chicago entry, since Payton is deceased. Let’s make that: Michael Jordan Bobby Hull Dick Butkus ---
**Author:** ![KennerTheGreat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a8b319/32.png) [@KennerTheGreat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KennerTheGreat)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/7 "2009-11-12T05:53:43Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Chicago: > > Michael Jordan > Walter Payton > Bobby Hull Walter Payton has passed on though. Once upon a time, you might have been right. ETA: I see you noticed before I did. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/8 "2009-11-12T06:49:50Z")
I will nominate what I believe will be the smallest town (in this thread) in terms of population, less than 10,000 residents, East Rutherford, NJ. Lawrence Taylor Martin Brodeur Edwin Arantes do Nascimento ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/9 "2009-11-12T12:53:59Z")
Pittsburgh Mario Lemieux Bill Mazeroski Lynn Swann ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/10 "2009-11-12T13:09:30Z")
Shouldn’t this be people that came from your city and not people that your city hired to play for their team? Otherwise big markets will always win this one. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/11 "2009-11-12T13:29:33Z")
Cincinnati: Pete Rose Oscar Robertson Ken Anderson ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/12 "2009-11-12T14:11:56Z")
Kansas City: George Brett Len Dawson Nate Archibald? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/13 "2009-11-12T14:14:01Z")
Indianapolis: Peyton Manning Reggie Miller Randy Johnson (AAA baseball) ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/14 "2009-11-12T15:38:55Z")
> [@KennerTheGreat](#): > > I’ll start off by nominating a trio from Boston. Bobby Orr, Carl Yastrzemski and Larry Bird. I’ll give you The Basketball Jesus over Russell (barely), but does Yaz clearly beat in-his-prime Pedro, Big “the greatest clutch hitter in the history of the Red Sox” Papi or others? I suspect The Metrosexual (you know, married to Giselle?) might be less controversial. (And, besides, isn’t Ted Williams just, um, ‘animationally suspended’, not actually dead? He should count! ) ---
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/15 "2009-11-12T15:45:29Z")
Baltimore: Brooks Robinson or Jim Palmer (tough choice there) Wes Unseld Raymond Berry ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/16 "2009-11-12T15:48:52Z")
Houston: Hakeem Olajuwon Nolan Ryan (or Craig Biggio) Earl Campbell ---
**Author:** ![KennerTheGreat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a8b319/32.png) [@KennerTheGreat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KennerTheGreat)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/17 "2009-11-12T16:20:07Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > I’ll give you The Basketball Jesus over Russell (barely), but does Yaz clearly beat in-his-prime Pedro, Big “the greatest clutch hitter in the history of the Red Sox” Papi or others? I suspect The Metrosexual (you know, married to Giselle?) might be less controversial. > > (And, besides, isn’t Ted Williams just, um, ‘animationally suspended’, not actually dead? He should count! ) Well, Yaz did have twenty-three seasons, compared to Pedro’s seven, and Papi’s seven and counting. He also has a Triple Crown, an MVP, a 1560 OPS in the last ten games of the 1967 season, and a .352 average in two World Series. Pedro’s seven season run was pretty sick, but I still like Yaz’s longevity. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/18 "2009-11-12T16:22:31Z")
New York: Babe Ruth Lawrence Taylor Patrick Ewing (?) > [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Shouldn’t this be people that came from your city and not people that your city hired to play for their team? Otherwise big markets will always win this one. Nah, we’re not gonna do that. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/19 "2009-11-12T16:28:00Z")
Philadelphia: Michael Jack Schmidt Julius Erving Bobby Clarke ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282/20 "2009-11-13T16:48:10Z")
Cleveland’s got a good group: Bob Feller, Jim Brown and LeBron James. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-living-legends/517282.md?page=2)