Mile Tyson deserves a mention in this thread. In the space of a few months, he went from being the most ferociously intimidating fighter anyone had ever seen to being a total palooka who couldn’t finish a fight.
Perhaps there was an injury involved, I can’t remember, but Mickey Tettleton seem to age about fifty years overnight in 1997.
A shame, too, because he was one of my favorite players. Loved his batting stance.
My point with Watson was not how low he was, but that he had tumbled from a remarkably high level. I could easily argue that the delta between Watson’s high and his low was greater than Duvals.
How about Jim Rice? Look at the stats from 1977 to 1986, and then after 1986.
He was an eight time All-Star who averaged 30+ HRs, 109 RBIs a year for 10 years, batting well over .300 for that stretch.
Once he turned 34 he never again hit higher than .277, more than 15 HR or 72 RBI, and was out of baseball a couple of years later. I don’t remember him having any serious injuries that could explain it either, he just seemed to lose it.
has to be Daniel E. ‘Rudy’ Ruettiger. One play, one QB sack, and then his career is over.
Fair statement, but no discussion of golf collapse is complete without a mention of Jean Van de Velde. '99 British Open at Carnoustie, steps on to 18 after a brilliant tournament and a three-shot lead. Take an easy six on the par four, walk away with a bonanza of tour exemptions and become a national hero in France. But no. Instead make a series of unbelievably bad decisions and shots, limp into a playoff and blow the whole thing. Fifteen minutes which turned what could have been a respectable career into a name synonymous with the ultimate in choking.
If Jim Rice, then Ryne Sandberg should be mentioned, even though he’s in the Hall of Fame. 10 years of Hall of Fame standard play from 1983 to 1993. 1994 rolls around and he never got out of his standard April slump and retired mid-year. His comeback years in 96 and 97 were played at a decidedly mortal level and added little to his HoF credentials. If he had played for the less marque team (say the Mariners, for sake of argument) he’s probably still on the outside looking in of Cooperstown.
My votes go to Ankiel & Duval. By the way, Ankiel finished the year as a outfielder for the Cardinals AA Texas League team. Give him points for pluck.
I’ll vote for Rick Ankiel.
I saw him pitch on his way down through the minors. Memphis has the AAA affiliate of the Cardinals (go Redbirds!), and Ankiel was pitching one day when I happened to be at the game. I walked over to the bullpen and watched him warm up, and he was throwing lasers: 90, 95 mph, with dead accuracy.
Then when he got out into the game, he just couldn’t do it. He couldn’t even finish an inning; he got two outs, and gave up FOUR RUNS in the meantime on balls and wild pitches. People were cheering madly for anything even close to the strike zone. When the manager pulled him, no one booed; he looked so broken walking off the field that we stood up and applauded him. It was devastating to watch.
(I know teams are excluded, but I thought I’d mention that my beloved Atlanta Falcons were 14-2 in 1998 [16-3 including postseason and the Super Bowl], and then 5-11 the following year. Goddam Falcons.)
I nominate Donnie Moore of the 1986 California Angels. He gave up the game-leading home run and game-winning RBI to Dave Henderson of the Boston Red Sox in Game 5 of the 1986 American League Championship Series. He was blamed for the loss of the game and series. The next two seasons he only managed to get 9 more saves. He committed suicide in 1989.
I nominate the NY METS! god damn it they suck every year!
and every year they make me cry 
In the NHL…
Warren Young - 40 goals to 22 goals to out of the league
Rob Brown - 43 goals to 33 goals to 6 goals to fringe player
Blair MacDonald - 46 goals to 24 goals to out of the league
Coincidentally, Young and Brown dropped off as soon as they stopped playing with Mario Lemieux… MacDonald suffered the same fate when he stopped being Wayne Gretzky’s winger.
I have maintained that the blame for Ankiel falls squarely on Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan.
TLR decided to try and play head games with everyone before the Division Series, to the point that he sent Darryl Kile to the press conference as the Game 1 starter rather than Ankiel.
Dave Duncan and TLR screwed around with a young guy who was understandably jittery before his first playoff start, and it bit them. A guy who’d been almost unhittable all season suddenly started probing the backstop for holes on every pitch.
Some of the examples here are attributable to old age. Personally, I’m fascinated by the ones that aren’t.
Other candidates:
Roger Maris. Two-time MVP, but beating Ruth’s record took a lot out of him. Some injuries, but by the age of 30, he was done as a slugger. Got into a couple of extra World Series with the Cardinals, but was out of baseball at 34.
Tony Kubek – another 60s Yankee. Went from an All-Star shortstop in 1961 until he was out of baseball in 1965 at age 28.
Matt Robinson – NY Jets quarterback. Had a great year in 1978 and really looked like he’d be a find QB for them. Won the starting job in 1979 preseason in an intense battle with Richard Todd. Suffered a minor injury roughhousing and could not start the first game (he was available the rest of the season, so this wasn’t injury-related). Todd took over and Robinson never started for them again. Couldn’t even beat out Craig Morton at Denver. His 266 attempts in 1978 was just about half of the total attempts for his career.
In Boxing: Duane Bobick. Won his first 39 consecutive fights. Fight number 40 was against Ken Norton, who exposed Bobick as having a glass jaw. Ended up with a decent record, but became something of a joke.
Knoblauch’s not a good choice, either. Despite his defensive woes, he remained a good hitter until he started declining at age 30-31 due to nagging injuries. 31 isn’t an uncommon age for a player to decline; most ballplayers collapse between 30 and 32, especially a guy like Knoblauch, a diminutive second baseman. Yeah, I know you REMEMBER the ones who last until 40, but 99% of them are done by 32.
Colavito, too, was 33 when his production fell off, and wasn’t very good the year before.
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.
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How about pitcher Bo Belinsky ?
The 1986 Chicago Bears took a fast fade after their Super Bowl win.
(Remember Jim McMahon and William the Refrigerator Perry?)
Well, the discouraged pessimist in me would say out of disgust:
Chad Pennington (injury disqualification)
Kerry Collins (His whole team got injured; doing better out west than Warner.)
Ron Dayne (Check his college and rookie year stats.)
Amani Toomer (Pull it together already, dammit!)
Laveranues Coles
Curtis Martin
Any and all free agents acquired by the New York Rangers in the last seven years.
Pedro Martinez
On a lighter note, there’s always Ricky Williams.
Also:
Randy Johnson (Though he may be pulling it together.)
Curt Schilling
Peerless Price
Dante Hall
Daunte Culpepper (hehheh, just kidding)
Drew Bledsoe (Also doing better than Warner.)
Travis Henry
And finally, just cause I’m a heartless bastard, I’ll mention Scott Norwood.
Oh, I forgot the most obvious one:
Serena Williams
You win. I thought of Murph myself because even though it’s not uncommon for baseball stars to fade in their mid-thirties, 32 was way too young for an outfielder to fall apart, especially coming off a 44 homer season (back when 40+ homers was a huge feat). It’s amazing how he went from a sure Hall of Famer to someone with almost no chance in hell.
Rick Ankiel was mishandled by Tony LaRussa but is staging quite a comeback as an outfielder.
Chuck Knoblauch’s defense went before his hitting.
Rocky Colavito was never the same after he was beaned.