NYup.com starts debate on best athletes
Nothing like a good debate about sports, and a website called NYup.com, which was formerly the Syracuse media group, offered up one recently.
We have 62 counties in our state, and the site attempted to pick the top athlete from each.
There is no byline atop the list, which offers a paragraph summing up the contributions of the choices, meaning no one individual was directly responsible for the selections. The likelihood is that it was an effort undertaken by several. “Sports fans love to debate the greatest,” the site accurately proclaims in the introduction to its choices. “…. so, how did we do?" Well, not real well. The topic is a good one, the choices not so much so. To use some well-known sports terminologies: As many
strikeouts as hits, more bricks than made shots. And, two of the greatest oversights imaginable.
The list is not without its good points, and stirs the memory banks of our state’s rich sporting history, that New York’s confines produced the likes of Lou Gehrig ( New York County), Carmen Basilio (Madison), Julius “Dr. J” Erving ( Nassau) and Warren Spahn (Erie), among others.
The criteria was that the selections had a tie to an area, that he/she was born, grew up or played in a specific county.
But, there is more than a little literary license used to justify more than a few of the selections, and some of those are from right here in our area.
Let’s start with some of the good picks from our region.
The best two baseball players our area ever produced, Hall of Famers George Davis (Cohoes/Albany County) and Johnny Evers ( Troy/Rensselaer County), are both on the list
asketball standout Jimmer Fredette is the choice for Warren County, and former golf standout and current network commentator Dottie Pepper represents Saratoga County.
But, some blatant miscues? How about these?
Former NFL linebacker Kevin Greene is the choice for Schenectady County. Greene was born in Schenectady, but his family left the area when he was very young. Other than his local birth, he had no real local connection.
And, is he actually a better athletic representation from Schenectady County than drag-racing pioneer Shirley Muldowney, Olympic goldmedal Greco-Roman wrestler Jeff Blatnick, college basketball All-American Barry Kramer or basketball Hall of Famer Pat Riley
iley is probably the best choice for Schenectady County, but the list places him in Oneida County where he was born in 1945, but only lived there for two years before his family settled in the Schenectady area. Riley is very clearly one of ours, not one of Oneida County’s.
Then, there’s the choice of Bud Fowler from Montgomery County. Fowler is recognized as the first African-American to play organized baseball, but his decade-long playing days in the late 1800’s were spent exclusively in semi-pro or independent leagues. He never played in the majors.
A far better choice would have been Nelliston native Bill Dahlen, who played 21 major-league seasons (1891-1911) and is widely considered the best player not currently in baseball’s Hall of Fame, and better than several dozen others already enshrined.
The list’s choice for Columbia County is Bob Trowbridge (Hudson) who had a 13-13 major-league record as a pitcher over parts of five major-league seasons.
But, the area’s largest newspaper, the RegisterStar, selected a Top 25 list of its county’s top athletes last year and Trowbridge only came in at No. 5.
The top Columbia County athlete selected was Claude Rossman, who had a .283 batting average over five major-league seasons in the early 1900s, including a year in which he finished in the top 10 in baseball in 23 offensive or defensive categories.
The site also had to stretch its definition of a “connection” to find athletes from other counties, including Hamilton County ( boxing champion Gene Tunney, who only trained in Speculator on occasion), Greene County ( boxing champion Mike Tyson, who spent five years in Catskill to train), and Kings County ( basketball great Michael Jordan).
Kings County encompasses Brooklyn. Jordan was born there, but his family moved to North Carolina when he was an infant. Has Jordan ever been associated with our state?
And, it’s not like that particular locale was devoid of other quality athletes, including more- connected ones like boxing champion James Braddock, basketball star Bernard King, and baseball Hall of Famers Whitey Ford and Sandy Koufax.
Somehow, the top athlete named that comes from Onondaga County (Syracuse area) is women’s basketball standout Breanna Stewart, who attended Cicero-North Syracuse High School.
But, if a “connection” actually includes playing days in a county, then what about Syracuse University alums basketball players Dave Bing and Carmelo Anthony, or football stars Donovan McNabb, Ernie Davis, Floyd Little or Larry Csonka?
Wouldn’t they all be more accomplished athletes than Stewart?
That Onondaga also-ran list doesn’t even include arguably the greatest athlete of the 20th century.
That would be another Syracuse alum, Jim Brown, who not only is, it says here, the most dominant football player of all time but the best lacrosse player to ever wield a stick.
And, if the list wanted to include Brown, it could have placed him in Nassau County where he grew up, attended Manhasset H.S. and lettered in football, lacrosse, baseball, basketball and track.
So, how did the site do in picking the top athletes from our state’s 62 counties?
It created much fodder for debate. But, to omit Brown, who, ranks on any Top 10 list of athletes in our country’s history; and Koufax, arguably baseball’s all-time left-handed hurler, let doesn’t just diminish the list’s credibility, but demolishes it.
That this list doesn’t include those two comes up as empty handed as one of Jim Brown’s would-be tacklers or looks as bad as a feeble swing-and-a-miss at a Sandy Koufax kneebuckling curve ball.