4/3/04 Steve Ralston becomes first MLSer atop Mt. McKinley

[numerista]

MLS top 30 in all-time minutes played, pre-2004, from a unique perspective...

Name -- Mins or Feet
Everest 29,029
K2 28,251
Manaslu 26,781
Gurla Mandhata 25,354
Aconcagua 22,835
McKinley (Dinali) 20,322
Steve Ralston 20,308
Mark Chung 20,069
Preki 19,389
Kilimanjaro 19,341
Chris Henderson 19,064
Mike Clark 18,942
Richie Williams 18,802
Jason Kreis 18,587
Popocatepetl 17,833
Mauricio Cienfuegos 17,710
Robin Fraser 17,709
Cobi Jones 17,620
Tony Meola 17,541
Jeff Agoos 16,893
Mount Ararat 16,808
Peter Vermes 16,384
Marco Etcheverry 16,305
Carlos Valderrama 15,621
Mont Blanc 15,584
Zach Thornton 15,202
Chris Armas 14,767
Scott Garlick 14,711
Alexi Lalas 14,663
Mount Whitney 14,495
Steve Jolley 14,302
Greg Vanney 14,223
John Harkes 14,058
Matt McKeon 13,999
Jesse Marsch 13,997
Brian McBride 13,973
Eddie Pope 13,952
Mike Petke 13,863
Mike Burns 13,860
Ivan McKinley 13,815
Mauna Kea 13,796
Kevin Hartman 13,770

Climbers in bold

[Auxodium]

what does this have to do with what is going on, on the pitch? :S

great info though :D

[mellon002]

What the heck made you think to compare MLS minutes to feet on mountains? :)

[RobtheAggie]

I wonder if Jeff Agoos can make it to Kilimanjaro 19,341?

[mpruitt]

One thing I've always wondered about career minutes played is if there's any kind of wall that players hit at a certain age after a certain amount of minutes played. It doesn't really seem to exist when you have a league with a 40 year old MVP. However tracking minutes played over a year, calculating things like non-league games, national team call ups might be an interesting thing to track. When you know that European players can play up to 70 games a year sometimes and MLS playes probably being about half of that it's definately a different story. It's something you see a lot with NFL running backs when they begin to reach the 10,000 yard plateau that frequently their performance will begin to level out. Of course minutes played in a year is something that players talk about on a year to year basis but what about career wise.

Also, I applaud numerista for digging up these numbers and comparing it to something completely unrelated just so that others might find it remotely interesting.

[ChrisE]

I would have commented on this, but I think the numbers speak for themselves.

Brilliant, numerista. Brilliant.

[guamster]

MLS top 30 in all-time minutes played, pre-2004, from a unique perspective...

Name -- Mins or Feet
Everest 29,029
K2 28,251
Manaslu 26,781
Gurla Mandhata 25,354
Aconcagua 22,835
McKinley (Dinali) 20,322
Steve Ralston 20,308
Mark Chung 20,069
Preki 19,389
Kilimanjaro 19,341
Chris Henderson 19,064
Mike Clark 18,942
Richie Williams 18,802
Jason Kreis 18,587
Popocatepetl 17,833
Mauricio Cienfuegos 17,710
Robin Fraser 17,709
Cobi Jones 17,620
Tony Meola 17,541
Jeff Agoos 16,893
Mount Ararat 16,808
Peter Vermes 16,384
Marco Etcheverry 16,305
Carlos Valderrama 15,621
Mont Blanc 15,584
Zach Thornton 15,202
Chris Armas 14,767
Scott Garlick 14,711
Alexi Lalas 14,663
Mount Whitney 14,495
Steve Jolley 14,302
Greg Vanney 14,223
John Harkes 14,058
Matt McKeon 13,999
Jesse Marsch 13,997
Brian McBride 13,973
Eddie Pope 13,952
Mike Petke 13,863
Mike Burns 13,860
Ivan McKinley 13,815
Mauna Kea 13,796
Kevin Hartman 13,770

Climbers in bold

Meanwhile towards the bottom of the table, Freddy Adu begins his long climb up the charts. First milestone: scaling Mt LamLam, the highest point on Guam.

Mt LamLam 1312
Freddy Adu 29

[scaryice]

http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/mls/history/alltime_leaders.jsp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_mountains

Don't look now, but he's about to break into the top ten...

1 Mount Everest 29,028
2 K2 28,251
3 Kangchenjunga 28,169
4 Lhotse 27,940
5 Makalu 27,838
6 Cho Oyu 26,864
7 Dhaulagiri 26,795
8 Manaslu 26,781
9 Nanga Parbat 26,657
10 Annapurna I 26,545
11 Gasherbrum I 26,509

Steve Ralston 26,468

[scaryice]

Moving on up...

1 Mount Everest 29,028
2 K2 28,251
3 Kangchenjunga 28,169
4 Lhotse 27,940
5 Makalu 27,838

Steve Ralston 27,548

6 Cho Oyu 26,864
7 Dhaulagiri 26,795
8 Manaslu 26,781
9 Nanga Parbat 26,657
10 Annapurna I 26,545
11 Gasherbrum I 26,509