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Prev    Next Commentary: Put greatness in perspective Published on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 Email To Friend    Print Version By Rene A Henry During every season in any given sport I hear sports announcers call an athlete “the greatest ever in the sport.” And sports writers and columnists repeat the “greatest ever” praises. And, most do so without any qualification. Rene A. Henry is an author and columnist who lives in Seattle. He has lived and worked inside The Beltway and during his career counseled banks and financial institutions and represented them dealing with Wall Street. His latest book, “Communicating In A Crisis,” is a must read for anyone in banking or financial services. Many of his widely published articles are posted on his website at www.renehenry.com More often than not, I agree with these sports journalists when they say or write that the athlete is great, but I have serious misgivings when they add “the greatest.” I also have to question the institutional memory of these fourth estate praisers and whether or not any have spent time studying and researching sports history. There is no doubt that athletes today are bigger, stronger and faster. Better? Who knows? They benefit from nutritional supplements, weight training, strength and conditioning coaches and modern sports medicine. They also compete in the best available venues using the best equipment that modern technology has made available. Keeping this in mind, then is any comparison valid? Several times this fall we will hear announcers call a college quarterback “the greatest.” This is a foolish and unfounded statement because it is almost impossible to compare a quarterback today with one of his counterparts several decades ago, except for specific abilities. I have no intention of taking anything away from the outstanding achievements of the last two Heisman Trophy Winners - Sam Bradford of Oklahoma and Tim Tebow of Florida. Both are outstanding in today’s game of specialization. However, when the single-wing was the most popular offense, the field general who directed the team was called the tailback. Regrettably, too many people today have no idea that quarterbacks, or tailbacks used to do everything – run, pass and kick – and even call their own plays. They had no wrist band “cheat sheets” with computer generated formulas to use when calling a play or have a coach on the sidelines tell them what to do. In an era before there were such things as redshirt freshmen, long snappers, short snappers and special teams, the tailback, or quarterback, also played defense and on kickoff and receiving teams. What if after throwing a pass or running for a touchdown, Bradford or Tebow and their counterparts stayed on the field to hold the snap from center for the extra point, then lined up as part of the kickoff team, and took a position on defense? During the 1950s, Dick Kazmaier of Princeton, Billy Vessels of Oklahoma and Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice of North Carolina did all of this and more. So did anyone else playing the tailback position. Vessels even was on the receiving end of passes and caught a number for touchdowns. Kazmaier and Vessels both won Heismans. In 1950, Justice led the College All-Stars to a 17-7 win over the reigning NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles. From 1934 until 1976, the college seniors annually kicked off the football season in Chicago’s Soldier Field playing against the best team in the NFL. Who is calling the shots in baseball? Baseball has been taken over by statisticians, mathematicians and experts in probabilities. Few people today will remember that during a pennant drive in 1948, Warren Spahn pitched 14 innings for a Braves victory. I wonder in what inning the pitch counters of today would have pulled him out of the game. That same season, Spahn and his teammate Johnny Sain, went 8-0 in just 12 days. Can you imagine any sports agent today letting his client start, pitch and complete four games in 12 days, much less pitch 14 innings in one game? Few pitchers today ever get to complete games. With today’s ball counters,, Walter Johnson, Cy Young and Spahn would never have completed 1,662 games during their careers. Nolan Ryan would never have credit for seven no-hitters because he too would have been yanked after a certain number of pitches and not allowed to complete a game. Baseball managers today seem to have pitching specialists for every inning – a starter, a mid-reliever, a holder, a closer and others just for extra innings. It is a wonder they don’t have computers and geeks with them in the dugout. I wonder how Joe Dimaggio, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams ever got a hit without wearing batting gloves, helmets, shin guards, elbow pads, wrist bands and other padded paraphernalia. I don’t remember any of them ever stepping out of the batter’s box after every pitch to adjust their gloves and guards the way many batters do today. Swimmers get design help Beijing, with its Water Cube, proved that you can design a venue where swimmers will set records. Swim suit manufacturers went even further to shave tenths and hundredths of seconds off a swimmer’s time by using new fabrics and design to create an aerodynamic flow of water over the body. I would have liked to have seen Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps go head-to-head with all things being equal, but swimmers like them come along only once in a generation, just like Dara Torres, still competing at 42 years old. There is no doubt that Jamaica’s Usain Bolt is the fastest man in the world today. But I have to look back at Jesse Owens who sprinted on a cinder track and didn’t have the advantage of electronic timing. New composite tracks are not only easier, but much faster to run on than cinders. Rules and new equipment has impacted records The three-point line in basketball has increased game, season and career scoring records for many players. There was a period when freshman had to play on freshman teams and not the varsity. Their career scoring totals were limited to three instead of four years. Seasons also are longer with more games played in almost every sport at college and professional levels. Asterisks are needed in record books to put things in perspective. The referees are extremely lax today in the way they call traveling and ball handling for palming and turning over the ball. If this once were the rule, the defense would have never seen the ball coming from Bob Cousey, Hot Rod Hundley or Pete Maravich. Technology and equipment has improved even since Carl Lewis’ records in the mid-80s. Cornelius Warmerdam and Rev. Bob Richards were the first two men to break the 15’ barrier in the pole vault and used rigid aluminum vaulting poles, a modest improvement over the ash and bamboo wood poles that had been used for years. The flexible fiberglass poles that virtually catapault an athlete over the cross bar were still years away from being used. I doubt if world record holder Sergey Bubka could clear 20’ today with the same rigid, no-bend, poles used by Warmerdam and Richards. New equipment has significantly impacted records. It would be a challenge to see if Andy Roddick, or any tennis player today, could deliver a 100-mile-per-hour serve using an old Jack Kramer wood tennis racquet. And, imagine how far Ben Hogan and Sam Snead would hit a golf ball if they played with the new high-tech shafts. Unfortunately drugs, and especially steroids, have tarnished many records and achievements and all too many athletes have disgraced themselves and their sport. The leaders in sport need to do more to rid all sports of all drugs and start with education programs starting younger than even the little leagues and biddy leagues. Sports announcers, writers and columnists should consider historical situations to put everything in perspective for their audiences when making comparisons. When talking about season and career points, hits and other records, they need to remind the viewers, listeners and readers that seasons are much longer today and that an athlete has so many more opportunities for statistical recognition. The record books need to have asterisks by many records. My good friend Don Smith appropriately sums it up. “Somehow a new generation of sports journalists and publicists have cheapened the word greatness by massive overuse,” he says. “Few things are really great. Greatness takes different shapes and forms depending on time and the human element, and the evolution of equipment and training.” Long before he became a sportswriter and later one of the country’s first and foremost sports marketing consultants, he was the New York State pole vault champion during his junior and senior years at Flushing High School. And, of course, he vaulted using a bamboo pole. I wish sports announcers, writers, columnists and publicists would think twice before using so many superlatives and especially when declaring any athlete “the greatest” or the “most outstanding.” Smith is quick to remind us that there is no degree for the word outstanding and will ask users – not utilizers – to explain the difference between a person being the outstanding athlete on the team and the most outstanding athlete on the team. It is outstanding, period, just as there is no such thing as a “new” world record. A record is a record is a record, period.   Reads : 525   Prev    Next

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