(photo: Getty)In a recent Siena College poll, Derek Jeter was named the greatest New York athlete of all-time. As long as the person conducting the poll stuck to the script, this was one of the questions asked:
“Many great athletes have participated in organized sports here in the New York area. Who is in your opinion the single greatest athlete of all-time that played for a New York team or that you associate with sports in New York?”
No disrespect to the Captain, he is loved, a modern day icon, but whomever answered his name for the question above clearly doesn't have a grasp on New York Sports history. Am I wrong? I don't think I'm stepping out of line here.
First off, HERE is the summary of the poll. Check it out.
HERE is the breakdown of their rankings. Check that out too. Then continue reading my rant.
When we analyze New York Sports athletes of all time, there’s the obvious of all obvious choices, Babe Ruth. Ruth was a dominant pitcher and then went on to be the most dominant hitter ever. Yeah, and I mean the MOST dominant hitter ever. He had seasons when he hit more home runs than entire teams! That’s not a typo. Babe out homered teams!! He also, and much more importantly, saved baseball from being destroyed by the 1919 Black Sox gambling scandal.
OK, maybe you’re looking for more of an athlete that looks like an athlete. Ever hear of a guy named Jackie Robinson of Brooklyn Dodgers fame? Not only did he break baseball’s color barrier, but he was an excellent baseball player. Also, and not that this was relevant to this poll, but just a fact of his athleticism, during his time at UCLA he was the first athlete in the school’s history to win 4 varsity letters. Robinson lettered in baseball, basketball, football, and track. The Inter-boro Parkway was renamed Jackie Robinson Parkway for a reason.Again, no disrespect to Derek Jeter, right now, he clearly owns New York, but that's RIGHT NOW. The poll ask OF ALL TIME! If you know your Yankee history, you know he’s not the best ever. To Jeter's credit though, he is close to the greatest in New York, just not number 1.
I seriously question the credibility of this poll.
I started to think… Do people remember baseball history? Of course, current players will rank higher than they should just because they are current. But there has to be more than that.
Maybe we rely too much on the Internet. When prior generations had to come up with an answer off of the top of their heads, they could only rely on the knowledge they had learned... Today, we Google it.
Or maybe it’s the “dumbing down” effect ESPN has had on sports. It’s like if ESPN doesn’t have video of an athlete or an event, it's like that athlete or event didn’t exist. Making SportsCenter is the goal of a lot of athletes. They want to be on the highlight reels. Everything is here and now. History only exists in obscure and seemingly ridiculous statistics. Every game is so completely over hyped. How many times do we hear, “It’s do or die,” when it’s really not. We see so many highlights that when we see a truly great play in person, we lack true appreciation.
From the results of this poll it unfortunately appears that most modern fans also truly lack appreciation for the all-time greats.
If you disagree with me comment, let me know. Shoot me an email at: moonlightgraham.1905nygiants@gmail.com
--Moonlight Graham BYB Staff Writer
Please comment and let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.
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