Left Field for the Boston Red Sox...hands down. Not only do you have a very small list to have starred for decades, but they have also performed in front of the greatest stadium icon in American sports, the Green Monster. Ted Williams Carl Yastrzemski Jim Rice Mike Greenwell Manny Ramirez Four HOFers (Rice will get in soon), including the greatest hitter ever and the last Triple Crown winner.
lakers C gets a slight edge over canadiens G and yankee CF others not mentioned yet: cardinals 1B - bottomley, mize, musial, white, cepeda, torre, hernandez, clark, mcguire steelers LB - ham, lambert, russell, merriweather nickerson, greene, lloyd, brown, gildon kirkland, porter, bell UNC guard - brown, milller, ford, davis, smith, jordan, davis, stackhouse, carter, williams
Even though this is the "Other Sports" forum, someone want to throw out a couple lists from the legendary soccer teams? GK for Italy? Striker for Man Utd? #10 jersey for Brazil? etc...
Undisputed Heavy Weight Champion of the World. Granted boxing is not an American sport; and has an alphabet soup quality these days; however, whenever one concensus HW title holder emerges he gets more props than anyone and walks around with a greater aura than any other American sportsmen, still.
Mikan, Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar and... Hate to nitpick, but Stackhouse played at forward at Carolina. Still, it's a decent list. And you can probably add Raymond Felton to that list in a year or two.
Re: Re: Re: What's the most prestigious position in American sports? You're right...made cardinal sin of not clearly reading the thread. If that's the case Centerfield NY Yankees. Even stronger if you are both Centerfielder & batting Clean-Up. QB Cowboys is second. I'd still rather be HW champeen of the woyyld
I'd say starting pitcher for the Dodgers was a high-profile position in sports for some time (Koufax, Drysdale, Sutton, Valenzuela). OF for the Yankees for sure. And they've had some pretty good 1st basemen (Wally Pipp, Gehrig, Skowron, Mize, Chambliss, Mattingly, Tino, Giambi). It's not a team, but the sheer number of awesome QBs from Western Pennsylvania is amazing (Johnny U., Joe Namath, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly).
Let's keep it to just one position...otherwise, you might as well just say "Cardinals infield." The Yankees clearly have the greatest full squad of any team in baseball, and indeed of any team in any sport in America, with loads of HOFers and 26 championships, not to mention the best player ever. BUT you'll have a hard time arguing that any of their individual outfield positions beats the Red Sox LF. Lots of people are referencing the Yanks CF, for instance, but noone has listed who played there. Of the original list by obie, only 2 played Centerfield: DiMaggio and Mantle. Not a bad twosome, to be sure, and you can add Bernie Williams to that list. Still not close to Williams, Yaz, Rice, Greenwell, Ramirez though. Perhaps a better argument could be made for the Yanks right field foursome: Ruth, Maris, Jackson, Winfield. But I don't think so... Maris and Greenwell each played 12 seasons. Maris: .260 AVG 275 HR, 851 RBI, 1325 Hits Greenwell: .303 AVG, 130 HR, 726 RBI, 1400 Hits Push? Willams and Ruth push That leaves Yaz, Rice, and Ramirez against Winfield and Jackson. And Jackson was only a Yankee for 5 of his 21 seasons. Winfield was a Yankee for 8 1/2 of his 22 seasons. (Even Ruth had a couple great years for Boston before becoming a Yank, but I won't push the point ) Ramirez was an Indian for 7, but is now in the 3rd year of an 8 year deal with the Sox, with two options years at the end of that. Williams, Greenwell, Rice, and Yaz were all career Red Sox.
Mike Greenwell...ROFL. Vlade!!! All true Laker fans like this guy. Wasn't Mattingly a first baseman? And for what it's worth, I ruled out all college teams as the players can only play for 4 years max. Not the same longevity that is needed in the pros to become great. The only position I think is worthwile in college is head coach.
Yeah, cuz career .300 hitters just grow on trees. What a joke. But really, neither he nor Maris deserve to even be mentioned with the likes of who we're talking about. Check the Mattingly post again. I'm still waiting for one of these brilliant posts for Yankee CF to actually list more than 2 Yankee centerfielders...
Well, there's striker for AC Milan: Gianni Rivera Marco van Basten Roberto Baggio George Weah Or Real Madrid: Alfredo di Stefano Ferenc Puskas Raymond Kopa Emilio Butragueño Ivan Zamorano Michael Laudrup Raul Ronaldo Or Barcelona: Lászlo Kubala Johan Cruyff Johan Neeskens Diego Maradona Gary Lineker Hristo Stoichkov Michael Laudrup Ronaldo Rivaldo
For European club teams, a better exercise might be prestigious shirt numbers, since soccer positions are less set in stone than American sports. For example, #7 at Liverpool (Keegan, Dalglish, Beardsley, Macca and now Kewell) and ManU (Best, Robson, Cantona, Beckham).
I had strongly considered adding Steelers LB to the list. Ham, Lambert, Nickerson and Kevin Greene were all phenomenal in their day, and Greg Lloyd in his prime was just frightening...
When there playing well (individual players not the team...) Linebacker or Running Back for the Chicago Bears.Both positions are treated as godlike in Chicago. Tied with that would be QB for the Cowboys, you have to be from Chicago or Texas to truely undertand how fans treat these positions.
Chicago had 2 notable RBs in the last 30 yrs. Sayers was great but got injured when he was young and Payton was an all-timer. I don't think of the Bears as having any position as traditionally "great", just some great players. They generally svck year in & year out. Could be the svcky QBs that you always have.
If you're going to limit it to the last 30 years, then all the "Ruth, Mantle, Gehrig, DiMaggio" stuff is out the window for the Yankees, too. Bears running backs also include Bronko Nagurski (Hall of Fame) and that Red Grange guy, maybe you've heard of him.
Did i say anything about the current crop? To me Prestige is how you are treated in the market you play and how the national media looks at you. In Chicago the RB and MLB position are considered the two most important positions by the fans.And when the players at this position excel they are treated simply like gods in this city.A RB who averages five yards a carry in Chicago is going to be treated a hell of alot better in Chicago then ones with even better yards in other cities(or other sports stars in general) .The position is simply that important to the fanbase here. The same is said out about Middle linebacker,the prestige in Chicago of playing for the Bears , and playing these positions is beyond what it is for other teams.
And it's amazing how (relatively) little importance is given to quarterbacks in Chicago. Had Joe Montana and Steve Young played for the Bears, they would have been just two more QBs who played well for a bit, then got ran out of town by Ditka. Jim McMahon (not Harbaugh, d'oh!) only earned his brief star status by the sheer force of his personality.
Before Mike Price and a few others, football coach at Alabama used to be incredibly prestigious. For the longest time, Alabama paid way below the average top 20 program because they didn't have to, people really wanted the job. People longed for the opportunity to be in Bear Bryant's shadow. Now, I'd say it has to be one of the most stressful positions in American sports. Nothing short of perfection is expected. Just ask Bill Curry who was ousted after 3 seasons simply because he couldn't beat Tennessee or Auburn...but had seasons most other programs would kill for (He was 10-2 his last year). Not only that, he got a brick through his window. Gene Stallings was chased out shortly after winning the National Championship. If Alabama could keep their boosters under control and get off of probation, it might become a prestigious position again.
If we're going to be getting into coaches or managers, let's talk the Yankees... Miller Huggins Joe McCarthy Casey Stengel Ralph Houk Billy Martin Joe Torre ...to name the most famous with long tenures. There were also some former great players, guys like Yogi Berra and Bob Lemon, who won World Championships with the Yanks in brief stints as managers.