I really mean sudden decline that happened to an individual in sports.
Has there ever been an elite player in a sport who, with no injury, just “lost” their talent very suddenly?
May I introduce you to…
exhibit A: Rick Ankiel.
exhibit B: Mark Wohlers
Wohlers is the person who immediately leapt to mind for me. From flame-throwing closer for a world champion Braves team to not-able-to hit-the-broad-side-of-a-barn-much-less-a-strike-zone hack in one season! Yow!
Exhibit C: Sammy Sosa
Reminds me of Captain America without his “Super Soldier Serum.”
Chuck Knoblauch lost the ability to throw from second base to first base. Apparently the mental impact of losing his father was the big problem. After a while, his defensive problems started to affect his hitting. He switched to the outfield, but his career was over quickly.
There’s a name for this when it happens to pitchers - it’s named for the first pitcher who just kind of lost his ability out of nowhere - but I can’t quite remember his name. I think he played for the Pirates.
Jay Williams.
(oooo. going to hell for that one.)
Steve Blass Disease.
And Steve Blass did in fact, pitch for the Pirates. He’s one of their television broadcasters now.
cf’75
I don’t know the word you’re thinking, but Knoblauch’s condition was typically referred to by NY sportscasters as “the Yips” which I think had its origin as a golf term, but I believe means “a mental block which prevents you from doing a seemingly easy task you had done millions of times in the past.”
Steve Sax had the same thing before Knoblauch.
Also, recall the sweet nickname, “Chuck Brain-lock”.
Going back: Rocky Colavito. A major slugger in the early 60s, then inexplicably went bad very quickly in 1967. In 66, he was on the All-Star team for his sixth time and hit 30 HRs (though his batting average had started to drop). In 1967, his HRs dropped to 8. He was only 33, a bit young to lose it so quickly. He hit eight more HRs in 1968, then was out of baseball.
Rob Dibble pre-Wholered Mark Wohlers.
John Rocker also Wohlered.
Mitch Williams was never the same after serving up the homer to Joe Carter.
Happens to closers a lot I guess. Any field-goal kickers?
Eddie George’s decline was weird and rapid.
I do remember them calling it “the yips.”
I found the name of the pitcher. I had the last name in mind the whole time and I remembered he was with the Pirates, but stupidly I didn’t google the name since I thought it might be wrong. His name was Steve Blass. Very good from 1968 - 1972, and then nothing.
If hype counts, you can’t go wrong with Alexander Daigle. He went from a phenom and a #1 pick to a lazy actor in a few short seasons. He just recently surfaced. First he played for Pittsburgh. Now he’s with Minnesota iirc.
There was an article on him in the NYTimes a few months ago.
I might also suggest Curt Warner the football quarterback. League MVP two times then it’s like defenses figure out how to get him out of his rhythm and he has been utterly ineffective since then…
The biggest one has to be Rick Ankiel. Hell, if only because he did it in mid-game in the playoffs.
A pretty good regular season and then BANG! Lost it in that playoff game (I was watching it at an ESPN Zone) and never got it back. Spectacular.
Rafael Palmeiro went from beloved hero to despised chump at breakneck speed. Remember when everybody was feeling all warm and fuzzy about him getting his 3000th hit? That was only 20 hits ago.
If you don’t mind golf -
David Duval went from being number one in the world to being unable to make a cut in less than a year.
David Duval went from #1 in the world to #211 in a little over two years!
Since he reached the top, he has made the cut in barely half of the tournaments he has entered. :eek:
Major, major, decline. In fairness to him, he did have a back injury that forced him to change his swing, but there is a mental element to his decline as well.
Lou Gehrig. Of course he did have a fatal disease.
Several pitchers come to mind:[ul]
[li]Steve Dalkowski–A “can’t miss” prospect in the late 50s, Steve’s fast ball was clocked at over 100 MPH. He unfortunately had major control problems, but before those could even be addressed, his arm burned out and he never made it to the majors. He was the inspiration for the “Nuke La Louche” character in “Bull Durham”.[/li][li]Jim Abbott–The one-handed pitcher who had a decent run with the Angels and Yankees (even pitched a no-hitter, IIRC), then disappeared just as quickly.[/li][/ul] But for the biggest career downturn, I have to go with: [ul]
[li]Mark “The Bird” Fidrych: Won the AL Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award in 1976, going 19-9 with a 2.34 ERA. Known as much for his on-field antics as for his pitching prowess, he suffered an arm injury the next season and never regained his ability. [/li][/ul]