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Culturally important sports players


DG_ThenNowForever

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So we are speaking the most culturally important sports figures of all time, you have to include the two other sports that are played and spectated in higher numbers than that of hockey, baseball, American football, and basketball combined. That would be rugby and cricket. Oh course football (soccer) is the highest played and most popular sport in the world.

Cricket players:

1. Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka) - Muthiah the king of swing is undoubtedly one of the greatest off-spinners of all time. He took exactly 800 wickets in his test career, a record which seems to be unbreakable after the introduction of T20 edition.

2. Imran Khan (Pakistan) - Imran Khan led Pakistan towards 1992 world cup glory with his outstanding leadership and cricketing skills. He is considered one of the top notch bowling all-rounders.

3. Gary Sober (West Indies) - Gary Sober is one of the best all-rounders the world has ever witnessed. His temperament, class and test match batting average is above many legendary cricketers.

4. Sachin Tendulkar (India) - This batting Guru has scored a hundred 100s in his career, a record which seems to be unbreakable. He has the highest number of runs in both ODI and Test formats, with over 34, 000 runs under his belt. He is one of two players who are able to score a double century in an ODI match.

5. Best Cricketer hands down: Sir Don Bradman - Sir Don Bradman is considered the greatest batsmen of all time as he averaged approximately 100 in test cricket. None of the modern batting Gurus are able to even come close.

कौन?

On 8/1/2010 at 4:01 PM, winters in buffalo said:
You manage to balance agitation with just enough salient points to keep things interesting. Kind of a low-rent DG_Now.
On 1/2/2011 at 9:07 PM, Sodboy13 said:
Today, we are all otaku.

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POTD: February 15, 2010, June 20, 2010

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Tony Gwynn, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Nolan Ryan, Ted Williams, and Sandy Koufax would be my picks for baseball. For football, I'd have to pick Joe Namath, Walter Payton, Roger Staubauch, and Jim Brown. For hockey, my picks are Steve Yzerman, Maurice Richard, Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzy, Bobby Orr, and Patrick Roy. For basketball, I'd say George Mikan, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, the Bad Boys Pistons of the 80s, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James (even though I dislike him quite a bit).

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Tony Gwynn, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Nolan Ryan, Ted Williams, and Sandy Koufax would be my picks for baseball. For football, I'd have to pick Joe Namath, Walter Payton, Roger Staubauch, and Jim Brown. For hockey, my picks are Steve Yzerman, Maurice Richard, Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzy, Bobby Orr, and Patrick Roy. For basketball, I'd say George Mikan, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, the Bad Boys Pistons of the 80s, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James (even though I dislike him quite a bit).

I question many of these guys as culturally-important. Patrick Roy was kinda funny ("I can't hear him because I have a Stanley Cup ring in each ear."), I'll give you that.

I highlighted Namath because he came to mind for me. And we almost have to have two categories: "All time" and "during his/her time." Namath was a cultural icon. That really is not the case today but in the 70s "Broadway Joe" was a trendsetter. Is he culturally important right now? But he was. I bolded Magic because of HIV. He was thrown into something that at the time was scary as hell for most people and he probably expedited the understanding that we have. If, in 1991, someone would have bet me that he'd have been alive in 2015, I'd have laughed in their face. He's probably going to be of some cultural importance 20 years from now.

Some people right now could include:

  • Payton Manning: even if it's just a testament to how much money can be made doing commercials.
  • Tom Brady: Makes less money than his supermodel wife.
  • Tony Romo: Like Brady, known well by TMZ watchers

20 years from now, none of these guys would fit the bill, but right now...

...and they are all NFL QB. I could probably come up with others but those are the first three I thought of.

Disclaimer: If this comment is about an NBA uniform from 2017-2018 or later, do not constitute a lack of acknowledgement of the corporate logo to mean anything other than "the corporate logo is terrible and makes the uniform significantly worse."

 

BADGERS TWINS VIKINGS TIMBERWOLVES WILD

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Yeah, we're looking for culturally relevant OUTSIDE of sports. Ruth has been discussed. Maybe Mantle due to his life basically epitomizing 1950s nostalgia, "the good ol' days," and hero worship - while bigger problems lied underneath. Mantle is a pretty damn good allegory for the 1950s as a whole, really.

Gehrig, maybe because of ALS, but he's on a lower tier of "cultural importance." Koufax maybe as the last truly great Jewish sports legend - but again, just being "last/first x to do y" doesn't get you too far unless there is widespread change outside of sports.

Most of the rest Tigers named were the all time greats at their sports, but again, "culturally relevant" means more than just sports achievements, unless you're Ruth.

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Tony Gwynn, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Nolan Ryan, Ted Williams, and Sandy Koufax would be my picks for baseball. For football, I'd have to pick Joe Namath, Walter Payton, Roger Staubauch, and Jim Brown. For hockey, my picks are Steve Yzerman, Maurice Richard, Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzy, Bobby Orr, and Patrick Roy. For basketball, I'd say George Mikan, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, the Bad Boys Pistons of the 80s, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James (even though I dislike him quite a bit).

I question many of these guys as culturally-important. Patrick Roy was kinda funny ("I can't hear him because I have a Stanley Cup ring in each ear."), I'll give you that.

I highlighted Namath because he came to mind for me. And we almost have to have two categories: "All time" and "during his/her time." Namath was a cultural icon. That really is not the case today but in the 70s "Broadway Joe" was a trendsetter. Is he culturally important right now? But he was. I bolded Magic because of HIV. He was thrown into something that at the time was scary as hell for most people and he probably expedited the understanding that we have. If, in 1991, someone would have bet me that he'd have been alive in 2015, I'd have laughed in their face. He's probably going to be of some cultural importance 20 years from now.

Some people right now could include:

  • Payton Manning : even if it's just a testament to how much money can be made doing commercials.
  • Tom Brady : Makes less money than his supermodel wife.
  • Tony Romo: Like Brady, known well by TMZ watchers
20 years from now, none of these guys would fit the bill, but right now...

...and they are all NFL QB. I could probably come up with others but those are the first three I thought of.

The two I highlighted will be considered significant when they're inducted into the Hall of Fame.

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Manning, Brady and Romo... again, if they make prolonged waves in a field other than sports. Right now, the first two will just go down as two of the greatest quarterbacks ever, and the last is more of a running joke/TMZ story than anything.

Maybe if Manning/Brady/someone else pulls a Ronald Reagan and changes career paths to something "more than sports," otherwise their greatness will be confined to football.

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I keep coming back to Curt Flood as someone who had heavy influence on the business of sports - with further reaches into the labor side of things and, subsequently, sports as a large (and increasingly larger) part of business and culture. He's not on the same tier as the top 5, but the impact is still there.

Maybe I'm trying too hard to relate this to the A&E program I mentioned earlier, but in that series, the #1 most influential person of the millennium wasn't a scientific genius like Newton, Copernicus, Einstein, Darwin, or Galileo - it was Johann Gutenberg. Curt Flood is like the Johann Gutenberg of sports. Gutenberg was no genius, Flood wasn't a superstar. But they both did one thing that had profound and lasting impact.

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If we're not conflating "culturally important" with "for the greater good of society," then certainly Brett Favre has a place in this discussion.

I mean, would anyone seriously consider him amongst the greatest QB's off all time... rather than someone who simply had a long career and a knack for avoiding injury... if not for John Madden's constant verbal molestations turning him into some sort of good ole' boy icon in the vein of Chuck Norris or Lynyrd Skynyrd?

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I'd say Peyton Manning has a bit of a leg up over others mentioned in the last few posts in the cultural significance department due to his demonstrated ability to be funny on Saturday Night Live and various commercials, but he's nowhere near the Big 5 mentioned by the OP.

And I'd also say there's more of a case for Sandy Koufax than your average pitcher. He was pretty important to Jewish culture in the United States in the ’60s, especially after declining to pitch in Game 1 of the 1965 World Series in observance of Yom Kippur.

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David Beckham. has there ever been a more popular athlete in the world?

David Beckham is the most famous person in the world, not only the most famous athlete, despite the fact that he retired a couple of years ago.
When I was a kid, the most famous person in the world was undoubtedly Muhammad Ali. For the past two decades it's been Beckham. Beckham is not directly comparable to Ali in that he is not linked to causes of conscience and social justice as Ali is; but in terms of pure fame he is Ali's successor.

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If we're not conflating "culturally important" with "for the greater good of society," then certainly Brett Favre has a place in this discussion.

Ehhh... I don't see Favre having any lasting impact other than playing a lot of games, setting a few records, having some memorable moments, Wrangler commercials, and being one of the few athletes who you can say "I've seen ____'s dong."

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Before Jordan, there was this 7-time Grand Slam champion and brand/company...Henry Lacoste

Others for thought:

Kip Keino:Started the Kenyan distance running dominance


Oscar De La Hoya: The second to last American boxing star (the last likable one) and was the first major Latin crossover star to mainstream America. Outside the ring, he is a promoter, part owner in the Houston Dynamo, and is starting a TV network.


Nadia Comăneci: Her Olypmic win and Bela Karoli’s move to the US was pretty d@mn significant in the sport.


Then there are two Asians who have had recent impact:

Manny Pacquiao

Yao Ming


Lastly, we are days/weeks away from another athlete to have cultural impact for a second time...

Bruce Jenner

It is somewhat amazing how the last 10-15 years, his marriage and step-children have skewed how his apparent transition to the point that it is seen more as a stunt.
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I think it's great to discuss the greater social issues in sports. That we should never think to talk about them is awful. In fact, social issues should always be up for discussion and action.

So I take it you've finally given up the ghost regarding Chief Wahoo, eh? ;)

In all seriousness though, I agree to a point. Once it reaches that point? I don't know man. Does every round of LeBron James free agency need to turn into a discussion about white people being uncomfortable about a black guy exercising his right to seek better employment opportunities? And seriously, do we need to bring up issues of police militarization just because the new Autobot is a SWAT truck (obviously not directed at anyone here, but I feel the point is valid)? Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

There's a very clear line, in my opinion, between responsibly discussing greater social issues within the realm of sports and entertainment and just shoehorning it in for whatever reason. The latter is what has, unfortunately, made "social justice" a dirty phrase.

I don't know. Once I was inspired. Now? Maybe I'm just sad and tired. [/JesusChristSuperStar]

IceCap talks about losing the ideal and inherent escapism of sports, but the joke's on him: circlejerking about how we understand a Seattle Seahawks defensive back but other people don't is just as escapist as anything.

Touché.

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To the topic at hand. Wayne Gretzky definitely qualifies. You had people petitioning Parliament to block his sale to Los Angeles. Him leaving Canada wouldn't have had that impact if he hadn't reached a certain level of cultural significance.

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ask fans today who Jim Thorpe is, they wouldn't know who he is. also nobody remembers that he was the was the greatest athlete of the first half of the 20th century (from AP poll of 400 sportswriters in 1950) .

also

will put Ron Barassi (who i met back in 2006) and E.J Whitten for Australia (mainly Victoria).

so long and thanks for all the fish.

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So I take it you've finally given up the ghost regarding Chief Wahoo, eh? ;)

Oh, I think we should still keep talking about them, I just like Chief Wahoo. I ain't perfect.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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