This is what I came to say. If anyone averages half what he did, they would still be a star player. Then zero in his last innings. Although he did make the point that this was in the first innings of the game. He may have had another go, but it didn’t work out that way.
Still, it gave the ABC (originally Australian Broadcasting Commission, now the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) their postal address - PO Box 9994, “in your capital city.”
Think Cugel’s point rules out Bradman.
Retained the Ashes, won the last Test by an innings and plenty, completed an undefeated tour of England, captain of arguably the best Australian tourists of all time.
The Oval ‘38 is what drove his obsession to crush all opposition in ‘48.
To be honest I think all the quibbles about my Bradman suggestion are valid given the various ways in which we might interpret the question.
As a *cricketer *(in general and a team captain) his final game certainly wasn’t his worst, as purely a *batsman * however it was just about as bad as it could be.
Mind you, Australia were already in a position of strength in that match when he came to bat so I suppose it could have been worse if they were deep in the shit and Bradman failed under those circumstances.
I like to think he got out ironically, as if to say “yeah, I could easily have averaged 100 but I have to leave the mortals some targets to aim for”
Nope, not The Don.
Would have scored 200 and given the poms 50+ to avoid the outright.
‘38 really burned him.
In Willie Mays era pay was nowhere near what it is now even if you add inflation factor, even for top guys. Players even worked in the off season to earn money. I think Mays was happy to get 2 easy years to earn more cash. And he probably helped the Mets sell more tickets.
On the flip side Mike Tyson’s last fight was against Irish journeyman Kevin McBride. It ended with Tyson quitting on his stool before the 7th round after trying to break McBride’s arm in a clinch, being docked points for intentional head butts, and in general putting in a pathetic performance.
Payton Manning was pretty damn bad in his final game. Okay it happened to be winning the Superbowl, but he finished a sad season with a miserable game.
13of 23 for 141 yards and and INT. for a passer rating of 56.6
Zenyatta was undefeated in nineteen races, but finished a close second in her twentieth and final run.
Are we just talking about stars here? Jeremy Guthrie, who had a decent but unspectacular career, started the last game of his career in 2017 for the Washington Nationals. In the first inning he gave up 10 runs while only recording two outs.
Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Bob Gibson. In his final season, he didn’t start a game after July 8, pitching in relief several times. His uniform # was retired on September 3, the day he made his final appearance. Coming into the game in the 7th inning with the score tied at 6-6, the first batter flied out. A single followed, then a walk, and another single. Gibson made a play to force a runner at the plate, so two down and bases still loaded. Gibson threw a wild pitch to score a run. With first now open, he issued an intentional walk. He then served up a pinch-hit grand slam to Pete LaCock before ending the inning on a groundout. The pitching line of his final game – 1 inning, 2 hits, 3 walks (1 intentional), 0 strikeouts, 1 wild pitch, 5 runs, 5 earned runs.
That should be, “A walk followed, then a single, and another walk.”