Not related directly to the OP, but there’s an example of the “yips” that’s worse than Ankiel or Knoblauch At least they failed at tasks that involved the skills required of their positions. But I present a man by the name of Mackey Sasser. Sasser was a mediocre catcher for the New York Mets. His failure involved not being able to toss the ball back to the pitcher after a pitch. He’d have to pump his arm several times, which would allow base runners to steal bases or, at the least, frustrate his pitcher.
Good call, but it doesn’t feel like the same thing, y’know? Warner never won games through his sheer overpowering athleticism, he just had ways of making plays that no one had ever seen before. And then folks had seen them and cottoned on.
–Cliffy
I came in to mention Steve Blass and Steve Sax.
Heh. It’s Kurt Warner. I wouldn’t find it so amusing to correct you, but there was a very mediocre running back for the Seahawks named Curt Warner. I can’t say I recall him ever being good enough to have a “decline”.
Also, I’ll take a second to disagree with the Sosa mention. If you look at his numbers the decline was actually more gradual than people realize. The residual affection of people in Chicago masked the reporting of it along with a few nagging injuries that allowed the stats to be explained away. Then the move to Baltimore, the congresional hearing and his ignoble departure from Wrigley brought things suddenly into focus. It’s not so much that he declined quickly, but instead that it was noticed and appeared more stark than it was.
Good call, but it doesn’t feel like the same thing, y’know? Warner never won games through his sheer overpowering athleticism, he just had ways of making plays that no one had ever seen before. And then folks had seen them and cottoned on.
–Cliffy
You know, I hate Kurt Warner (with a “K”) as much as anyone else, but I think injuries had a lot to do with his rapid. Even though his wife denied it (and called in to a St. Louis radio station to say so) the thumb on his throwing hand was pretty badly hurt going into the 2003 season (the year after the Super Bowl loss to the Patriots). I seem to remember a couple other nagging, but significant injuries, too, but the thumb was really what started the decline.
I’d also like to mention former Cubs closer Joe Borowski, who had an utterly forgettable career until 2003, when he had 33 saves, then forgot how to pitch from then on.
Let me tell you firsthand that those 33 saves were never gotten comfortably. I’,m not so sure he knew how to pitch then either. But you know what they say regarding the blind squirel and all.
I remember an article back in 95’ that had a round table with what was then thought to be the current “legendary” quarterbacks in the league.
- Troy Aikman
- John Elway
- Brett Favre
- Kordell Stewart
Who’s not going to be in the Hall of Fame?
Ian Baker-Finch’s demise is very similar to David Duval’s, except the did it first . 
Just out of curiosity, why do you hate Kurt Warner? And more importantly, why do you feel a lot of other people hate him too?
I’ve never heard anything about his character that would make a lot of people hate him, although maybe I missed something. The guy went from box boy to NFL MVP. Pretty cool in my book.
Yeah, you’re right. After I posted that, I looked up his career stats and those last two years in Chicago were pretty bad (at least for a guy who was averaging something like .300/60/150 over the previous few years).
Notice how many of these careers ended in, or started their decline in, Chicago? What is it about playing in Chicago that kills an athlete’s career?
He’s one of those “thank you, Jesus, I wouldn’t have thrown that TD pass if you hadn’t been looking out for me!” guys.
The leading canidates so far:
[ol]
[li]Rick Ankiel[/li][li]Mark Wohlers[/li][li]Chuck Knoblauch[/li][li]Rocky Colavito[/li][li]Steve Blass[/li][li]David Duval[/li][/ol]
I’m disqualifying a few of those mentioned in a argument for whose was worst. Dibble, Fidrych, Dalkowski, Kurt Warner specifically because theirs were largely injury related which was a caveat in the OP.
I’m booting Abbott, Sosa, George because IMHO their declines weren’t especially dramatic.
I’m also not including Sax since I think Knoblauch was simply a more spectacular example of the same thing. And leaving out Borowski, Rocker and Williams since I don’t think they were ever quite good enough to call their declines a major fall.
I do love the Ankiel one since it was so damn sudden and complete. Literally midgame. So bad that he quit pitching and tried to make it back to the majors as an outfielder. As far as the pitchers go, I have to agree that perhaps Blass’ was the most impressive simply because he was so good for so long and his collapse was total. Knoblauch might be the most comical since it was such a trivial thing and it was for the Yankees. Duval’s was remarkable as well since typically you don’t see that kind of thing in golf, where in pitching it seems to happen over and over.
True, but I think most would agree that Duval’s peak was longer and higher than Baker-Finch ever achieved. That makes the meltdown a little more comical/truamtic.
Another dramatic golf one might be Tom Watson, who from 1975-1984 won 33 PGA tournaments and 8 Major tournaments and was probably the best player in the world. So he had more than fleeting success. But after 1984, only 35 at the time, he only won 3 more PGA tournaments and no majors. His putting stroke just disappeared
“Only” 3 PGA events? Most golfers would kill to win a total of 3. And TW is doing quite well for himself now.
For those who don’t follow golf, imagine if suddenly Tiger Woods couldn’t break 80 (par is usually 71). Duval wasn’t as dominant as Tiger is, but he was #1 right before TIger. It’s scary how bad he got. He did, however, make the cut last weekend for the first time in I don’t know how long. Of course, all the really good players were off at the President’s cup…
And of course Tom Watson, in 2005, managed to win $27,000 in 2 PGA events. Duval, whose only 23 years younger, has managed a whopping $7600 in 18 events.
Duval wins any and all conversations of worst decline in golf.
Well, with the exception of me, at around the 11th hole and 8 beers on any given weekend.
I nominate Dale Murphy, who looked to have a Hall of Fame career as a Braves outfielder.
Compare:
Age Year HR RBI BA
31 1987 44 105 0.295
32 1988 24 77 0.226
From 1988 on he was not close to being the same player he was the 5 years before that.
I blame myself. In 1988 I picked Murph for my fantasy league team. :smack: