In Australian sport great players usually play at a representative level - for their state and in international contests. In 1971 Geoff Starling, after only a few senior games, became the youngest player ever to play for Australia. He continued to play at this level for 3 years and was considered likely to end up one of the greats. In 1974 he contracted a debilitating illness that caused him to lose weight and suffer constant fatigue. Years later, too late to resume his career, a woman reading an article about Starling contacted him to tell him that she thought he had Addison’s disease. Tests proved her right.
Weird thing about someone like Pietersen - he played double the test matches Don Bradman played (exactly, KP - 104, Don Bradman - 52). Length of time is one thing - how many games some of these guys played is obviously another (and World Wars getting in the way shortening some players effective careers would have an impact on that too).
Shane Gould
Won 3 gold medals (in WR time), silver and bronze at the 1972 Munich Olympics aged 16.
From Dec 1971 to Sep 1972 she became the only person to hold all freestyle world records (100m to 1500m). Voted best female athlete in the world 1972.
Retired aged 17.
Thanks for the interesting replies. I’m not a big sports fan, so I truly had no idea who else might compare to Gale Sayers. I guess I had thought there might be someone who had a great first couple of seasons but then - I don’t know - died or had a career-ending injury.
I had thought of offering Bo Jackson, but my quick look at his record suggested a decent length MLB career. I guess I should have looked closer.
Have to admit the name Terrell Davis meant nothing to me. Makes me wonder about whether how much name recognition an “all-time great” ought to have among non-fans… Is TD in (or expected to get into) the HoF?
I’d also thought of Jim Brown. I guess he played 9 seasons, but he quit while still going strong.
Don’t think I buy any of the gymnasts and swimmers. My superficial familiarity suggests that among them a LONG career is the exception.
How about Secretariat? Not only 3 races, but less than 8 minutes! 
Bo Jackson WOULD have been a great athlete had he not gotten hurt, but he did. He was a hell of a running back but I don’t think many people would say his two season’s worth of games make him an all time great, and he wasn’t a great baseball player.
Bjorn Borg has to be the winner here, with Ken Dryden a pretty decent runner-up.
Among baseball players, the player with the shortest Hall of Fame career is Amos Rusie, a 19th century pitcher who only barely made the 10-year requirement, but I think there are pretty legitimate questions as to just how great 19th century players were.
The only other baseball Hall of Famer I can think of who only played ten years is Jackie Robinson, who was one hell of a ballplayer.
Secretariat raced 21 times over the course of a year and a half (winning sixteen.) As horses go that’s actually a pretty long career.
Agreed. He was a very good baseball player, but the sense I have is that he was doing that largely on his pure talent – though he’d played baseball in high school and college, he hadn’t really focused on the sport, and he played only 53 games in the minors before joining the Royals. I’ve read that scouts felt he was a promising baseball player despite his relative lack of experience.
As far as football, even setting aside the injury, as already noted, he was only playing half of each season. Despite not participating in the Raiders’ training camps, and coming to the Raiders each season immediately after the wear and fatigue of a full MLB season, he was still a dominant running back when he did play, which is hugely impressive.
But, yeah, his body of work, in both sports, was limited, and a key part of his legacy is the imagining of “what might have been” without the injury.
Looking to rugby union, Jonah Lomu seems a prime candidate. International debut in 1994, set the world cup alight in 1995, forced to retire (due to a kidney condition that saw him dead by 40) in 2002. 15 tries in 2 World Cups - no-one has scored more despite competing in 3 or 4 of them.
I was joking WRT Secretariat.
Didn’t know there was a minimal length career for the MLB HoF.
Like I said, I’m not a big sports fan. But I was wondering about some of the pitchers I’ve heard of over the years, who were trumpeted as phenoms, but whose careers didn’t last (for whatever reason.) Like Fidrytch (sp?), Valenzuela, or Gooden.
Maybe there would be fodder for another threads of All-Time Greatest Might-Have-Beens!
Doc Gooden destroyed his potential early on, but he had a ~14 year MLB career. He just fell off of the radar after about 3 seasons.
Mark Fidrych is probably the best example there: he had his amazing rookie season in '76, but he never really recovered from injuries he suffered in '77, and had only 27 starts over the rest of his career.
Valenzuela played for seventeen seasons, but it was a case of being great in his first six seasons, and then being pretty average for the rest of his career.
Gooden, similarly, was great for his first few years, then had a long tail of being an average to below-average pitcher. In his case, of course, we’re pretty sure as to the why (substance abuse).
None of those guys is often considered an “all-time great”, though, no matter what they might have become without their injuries. There’s no end to that sort of speculation. Tony Conigliaro isn’t either.
An actual contender from horse racing has to be 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify. He won his career debut on February 18, and won the Belmont Stakes - his last race - on June 9. His career lasted 6 races and 113 days.
Rob Gronkowski played (so far 
) 9 season for the Pats (2010-2018) but 2013 and 2016 were essentially half seasons and he only played all 16 games twice. He’ll probably make the HOF and would be considered one of the best TEs to ever play the game.
Dizzy Dean (who I talked about upthread) is listed as having played 12 seasons, but his rookie “year” consisted of one game in September. His last two seasons also showed one game each and were essentially stunts. Dean played six full seasons, parts of three more, and then three seasons of one appearance, each.
Addie Joss actually played only 9 seasons in the major leagues before he fell ill with meningitis during spring training, and died two days after the 1911 season opened. For decades he was blocked from the Hall of Fame on the grounds he hadn’t participated in “10 championship seasons.” The rule was finally waived for him and he was admitted into the Hall in 1977.
In Golf, it would have to probably be Bobby Jones. He retired at age 28, after winning the US Open, US Amateur, British Open and British Amateur in 1930. He won those 4 tournaments in 4 months and no one has duplicated that feat in a lifetime
He won 13 of those championships, and won 7 professional majors out of 15 attempts.
Footballer Marco van Basten was forced to retire at 28 through injury - basically played for ten years, and would be considered an all time great centre forward. Indisputably the best centre forward of his era and prob in the conversation for best ever at that position - although as the most high profile position on the pitch (your job is to score the goals) there’s obv massive competition there.
Beautifully technical player - really had everything. Could have played any position on the pitch and been good at the minimum.
Although Kiner is a HOFer, he wouldn’t be considered an “all time great” of the caliber of Robinson, however.
I came in mention Red Sox pitcher Tony C. Who knows how great he might have been if his career hadn’t been but short by that ill-pitched ball?
He is in the HoF. I’m too lazy to look it up but I want to say it was around 2016? Maybe 2017? Sometime around there.
I don’t think he played long enough to merit his HoF induction, nor do I think he really was one of the greatest RBs to ever play the game (meriting an induction to the HoF) but he won Super Bowls and that counts for a lot so whaddyagonnado?