Ten greatest athletes in Baltimore sports history

[AirFlacco]

I'm good with Phelps on the list. Towson is 2 miles from the City line.

Babe Ruth was born in Baltimore, learned to play baseball in an orphanage in Baltimore, got his first professional baseball job with the Baltimore Orioles, and was given his nickname "Babe" by the manager of the O's, Jack Dunn (with the help of Baltimore sportswriters ;)).

The list they have seems pretty good to me. It's kind of a shame that Cal Ripken is way ahead of Brooks, Frank, and Jim Palmer in the voting. Not to take anything away from Mr. Ripken's historic streak, but all three of the aforementioned gentlemen were better baseball players.

IMHO Johnny Unitas and Brooks Robinson must top any list of athletes out of Baltimore.

The exact spot where the Babe was born is where center field is at Oriole Park. There
were all houses there in the 19th Century.

Jack Dunn was the Ozzie Newsome of his day for the Orioles, a minor league team of
the Boston Red Sox, and when he signed players writers called them his babes.

When he showed up with Ruth someone said here's Dunn's latest babe and wrote it
as Babe Ruth and the name stuck with his teammates calling him that.

He got into a lot of trouble as a kid so his father who owned a bar at that center field
spot put him in St Mary's Industrial School on Wilkens Ave. It's still there as Arch Bishop Curley Hi School. It was really like a reform school. The Babe was trained as a skilled
taylor and when asked what he would have done w/o baseball he said I would have been
the best taylor there ever was. His father died when a fight broke out in the bar and he
broke it up. It went outside and someone hit him from behind knocking him down and
his head hit the pavement and he died. His old man was a tuff dude too and the Babe
could fight as well.

Catcher was the first position he ever played because he like being around the ball.
Baseball was a boring game.

He moved to pitcher when he cussed out his pitchers for missing and the coach said
if you think you can do better go pitch your self. He did and became the best left
handed pitcher in MLB and set world series shut out records that stood from the teens til the 1960s. He wanted to play the out field in Boston so he could hit but his manager
didn't want to tamper with the best left handed pitcher in baseball. Finally he did and
hit 29 homers thru the second half of the season. When he was sent to NY and
they saw his hitting he stayed in the outfield and hit 54 homers in his first year while
batting .376 and 59 his second year hitting .378. See pic of Babe's 36 ounce bat.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/mar...4.photogallery


When Barry Bonds passed the Babe's HR record he quipped that he was better than the
Babe. A reporter said did you ever pitch a shut out in the world series. He said Huh?
Babe held the record for shut outs pitched in the series that stood for decades and
Bonds didn't even know it. BTW, Bonds used lighter bats and according to the pitcher.
He favored his 34 and a 30.5 ounce bats.


The Sultan of Swat's career slugging percentage of .690 remains the highest in Major League history and that's in addition to his career 94 wins as a pitcher and a career
ERA of 2.28.

The Babe should be at the top of the list. See link for all his stats and salaries. He
made $1900 his first year in 1914. Average salaries for working stiffs were around $600
pr yr.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/play...php?p=ruthba01

[Corvus Corax]

If you are going to go off topic, you might as well go off the wall: Frank Zappa.

How did I forget Mr. Zappa (late 20th century pioneer musician, rights activist)? Or Tom Clancy (author of 'Hunt for Red October')? Now, I'm trying to remember who else. Oh yes, Matthew Henson (first explorer to reach North Pole - ahead of Robert Peary)! Also, Howard Rollins (actor in TV series based on "In The Heat of the Night").

[iggyman555]

The exact spot where the Babe was born is where center field is at Oriole Park. There
were all houses there in the 19th Century.

Jack Dunn was the Ozzie Newsome of his day for the Orioles, a minor league team of
the Boston Red Sox, and when he signed players writers called them his babes.

When he showed up with Ruth someone said here's Dunn's latest babe and wrote it
as Babe Ruth and the name stuck with his teammates calling him that.

He got into a lot of trouble as a kid so his father who owned a bar at that center field
spot put him in St Mary's Industrial School on Wilkens Ave. It's still there as Arch Bishop Curley Hi School. It was really like a reform school. The Babe was trained as a skilled
taylor and when asked what he would have done w/o baseball he said I would have been
the best taylor there ever was. His father died when a fight broke out in the bar and he
broke it up. It went outside and someone hit him from behind knocking him down and
his head hit the pavement and he died. His old man was a tuff dude too and the Babe
could fight as well.

Catcher was the first position he ever played because he like being around the ball.
Baseball was a boring game.

He moved to pitcher when he cussed out his pitchers for missing and the coach said
if you think you can do better go pitch your self. He did and became the best left
handed pitcher in MLB and set world series shut out records that stood from the teens til the 1960s. He wanted to play the out field in Boston so he could hit but his manager
didn't want to tamper with the best left handed pitcher in baseball. Finally he did and
hit 29 homers thru the second half of the season. When he was sent to NY and
they saw his hitting he stayed in the outfield and hit 54 homers in his first year while
batting .376 and 59 his second year hitting .378. See pic of Babe's 36 ounce bat.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/mar...4.photogallery


When Barry Bonds passed the Babe's HR record he quipped that he was better than the
Babe. A reporter said did you ever pitch a shut out in the world series. He said Huh?
Babe held the record for shut outs pitched in the series that stood for decades and
Bonds didn't even know it. BTW, Bonds used lighter bats and according to the pitcher.
He favored his 34 and a 30.5 ounce bats.


The Sultan of Swat's career slugging percentage of .690 remains the highest in Major League history and that's in addition to his career 94 wins as a pitcher and a career
ERA of 2.28.

The Babe should be at the top of the list. See link for all his stats and salaries. He
made $1900 his first year in 1914. Average salaries for working stiffs were around $600
pr yr.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/play...php?p=ruthba01

u forgot to mentioned bonds was juicing lol

[AirFlacco]

Just think how many homers the Babe would have hit if he had steriods-lol?

A-Rod just got suspended for like 200 games for enhancement drugs.
Cruz and 2 others were suspended for 50 games. They're the biggest
banishments since the Black Sox scandal, and speaking of the Babe, he saved
baseball after that scandal.

_________________________
Rodriguez was suspended through 2014 and All-Stars Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta and Everth Cabrera were banned 50 games apiece Monday when Major League Baseball disciplined 13 players for their relationship to Biogenesis of America, a Florida anti-aging clinic accused of distributing banned performance-enhancing drugs.

The harshest penalty was reserved for Rodriguez.

______________________________________




http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/a...genesis-080513

[Real Fan Dan]

Final poll standings are out.
50 years later there still can only be one.

John Constantine Unitas 38%
Cal Jr 34%
Ray 10%
Michael P 10%
Brooks 5%

Nearly 9,100 folks voted

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ten-gre...112800295.html

[Raven Werewolf]

Ah..... Im just now seeing the condition of having to "wear the uniform of a pro sports team in the city" or however it said. Cause if not for that Juan Dixon would have to be a shoo in somewhere on that list.

(I guess if the Wiz had still played an annual game downtown or something while he was there you could still count him but that's REALLY stretching it LOL.)

[Tolucaraven]

Johnny U currently leads with 37%
Cal has 34%
Phelps is listed ahead of Ray Lewis although both are at 10%
Brooks is a distant 4th with 5%

6,600 folks have voted. It's doubled since yesterday.

Cant believe Cal Ripken is even that close with Johnny U ....mister quarterback. All Qb's are compared to Unitas not other way around.

Hard to keep Marchetti out of top ten.

[Bawlamer]

I would have to put Palmer in the top 5. What pitcher today has won 20 or more games 8 times and 3 CY's? He was absolutely dominant. He finished with a career 2.86 ERA. and helped his team to the World Series 6 times and won it 3 times. He has to be top 5.

[Yards]

Jim Palmer is actually an excellent athlete. From what I understand, he is excellent at golf and tennis too. He deserves to be in the top 10. I think Eddie Murray has to be considered also.