This week’s view from the cheap seats takes on an age old question: Who is the greatest of all time? Whether you were talking MLB, NBA, or NFL everybody has an opinion. As opinions are expressed, other greats are scoffed at and insultingly put down.
Trying to decipher who is the best in such a long history of each game is impossible. Major League Baseball has spanned over 125 years. The NBA for several decades, and the NFL since the 1920s. To try and figure who would be better, if matched up against each other, is like trying to measure philosophers and scientists against each other. Eras define the athlete, not athletes from other eras.
Each era had its own style. The dead-ball era put a premium on pitching and batting averages. The steroid era was all offense all the time! Pre-1969 the mound was several inches higher, and then there is the addition of the DH.
In the NBA, well it’s not even the same sport they played in the ’70s and ’80s. The Jordan-rules of the ’90s paved the way for the ‘don’t touch a player’ of today. You simply can’t compare.
And then there is the NFL. No hit QB rules, don’t lower your head and the ‘no-hit-zone’, that is pretty much the entire torso, makes football a laughable version of what our grandfathers watched.
What it boils down to, is who did you grow up watching. They were your heroes as a youngster, and will always continue to be. To tear down another from a different or current era is petty. It’s high time this comes to a screeching halt!
The games have always had legends and they should all be remembered for their greatness The 1960s gave us Bob Gibson, Johnny Unitas and Bill Russell. The ’70s was Bradshaw, Reggie Jackson and Dr. J. The ’80s brought Bird vs. Magic, Montana vs. Marino and Ricky Henderson vs. Vince Coleman. The ’90s Jordan, Cowboys big three and Derek Jeter. Kobe, Brady and Bonds are now followed by Lebron, Mike Trout and Andrew Luck. This is definitely just the short list, so the argument of who was the greatest can never be proven.
Remember to embrace greatness while it is here. Don’t waste the games picking apart who was better than who. A day will come, when you’ll look back and regret, not appreciating a Kareem skyhook, a Steve Young scramble or a Roger Clemens glare. They are all the greatest. The greatest at the time they arrived to their great games.
