Who should be on the Mount Rushmore of Maryland sports? (semi-final fan voting)

[helloharv]

HAS TO BE :

CAL
RAY
PHELPS
JOHNNY U

next in line would be :

BROOKS
EARL
LEFTY

finally Len Bias should at least be mentioned

[Mista T]

I don't get this love for Cal over Brooks! Perhaps it's an age thing: fans who didn't see Brooks play until the twilight of his career, if at all.

Cal was an average fielder due to limited range (fielding stats are deceptive), good bat, a bit too loner/cozy with his coach/Dad and, of course: the Streak.

Brooks dominated the third base line for two decades, was a great clutch hitter, total team player. Brooks had great range, quick reflexes which typically shut down the 3rd baseline to hitters. Brooks performance in the 1970 World Series against the Reds was the baseball equivalent to Joe Flacco's unmatched passing performance in the 2012 playoffs.

[DonNMass]

I don't get this love for Cal over Brooks! Perhaps it's an age thing: fans who didn't see Brooks play until the twilight of his career, if at all.

Cal was an average fielder due to limited range (fielding stats are deceptive), good bat, a bit too loner/cozy with his coach/Dad and, of course: the Streak.

Brooks dominated the third base line for two decades, was a great clutch hitter, total team player. Brooks had great range, quick reflexes which typically shut down the 3rd baseline to hitters. Brooks performance in the 1970 World Series against the Reds was the baseball equivalent to Joe Flacco's unmatched passing performance in the 2012 playoffs.

Brooks was the standard that all professional 3rd basemen were compared against and all little leaguers and HS players aspired to be for decades.

[alien bird]

I can understand the feeling that Phelps and/or Ledecky didn't swim "for" Baltimore but I can't not include Phelps regardless. The city always played it up when he was swimming. He's the most decorated Olympian of all time. That's at the world level. That trumps anything anyone else on these lists have done except MAYBE Cal with the record game streak.

Ditto on Phelps. The vote is for MARYLAND sports. There is a lot more to Maryland than Baltimore. The Balto-centric view doesn't add up. The dude is global.

[rhapsody]

I don't think you can include Phelps and exclude Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth was/is American history. He is still the greatest baseball player of all time, 93 years after he retired. He was a great pitcher, also in the World Series. A slugger/pitcher - as if Beethoven and Picasso were the same person. A great athlete - fat in his later years, yet he stole some 120 bases. He is the supreme American athlete with his well known virtues and faults. He hit the longest tape measure HR in Detroit, IIRC, 602 feet.

Someone said "he was, walking down the street, a parade all by himself." I could watch old clips of Babe all day long, but not do the same with Phelps. All the latter did was splash around in the water.

[ravenmaniac4life]

LOL. I’ve seen him mobbed by hundreds of kids at one time, and it’s possible that fewer than one in ten of them has even heard of Unitas. I’ve seen kids wait in line for 2 hours to get his autograph and talk to him.

Phelps owns the damn Olympic Games. His influence is global and local. Hard-pressed, LO freaking L.

Johnny Unitas, Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken, and Ray Lewis were worshipped in Baltimore/Maryland for decades. Michael Phelps wasn't,

[moose10101]

Johnny Unitas, Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken, and Ray Lewis were worshipped in Baltimore/Maryland for decades. Michael Phelps wasn't,

Give it up. You said it would be hard to find even one kid. Now it has to be "decades". Fine. FYI, kids were in awe of Phelps when he was a 15-year-old Olympian, and plenty of kids still are. That's almost 20 years, and it shows no sign of slowing down.

[moose10101]

I don't think you can include Phelps and exclude Babe Ruth.

I don't understand this, unless it's just your lack of interest in swimming. Phelps lived and trained in Baltimore for most of his career. He represented Maryland on the world stage. It was noted multiple times on prime-time TV at the past Olympics that the state of Maryland, led by Phelps and Ledecky, had won more gold medals than all but a few countries.

Babe grew up here. No one outside Baltimore associates him with Maryland/Baltimore.

[rhapsody]

I don't understand this, unless it's just your lack of interest in swimming. Phelps lived and trained in Baltimore for most of his career. He represented Maryland on the world stage. It was noted multiple times on prime-time TV at the past Olympics that the state of Maryland, led by Phelps and Ledecky, had won more gold medals than all but a few countries.

Babe grew up here. No one outside Baltimore associates him with Maryland/Baltimore.

Well, if Phelps had swum in the 1920s, how many kids would be standing in line now to get his autograph? Swimming is very narrow. Phelps has/had no impact on the American experience or the American psyche. They made movies about Ruth from William Bendix to John Goodman, about a fifty year span. You are picking the recent guy you like.

[BustOfPallas]

Phelps
Lewis
Ripken
Ledecky
Unitas

[tnsmith90]

Yeah i am sorry but Cal Ripken replaces any of the others.

Local guy, best athlete, the ironman streak alone puts him up there.
-Cal Ripken
-Johnny Unitas
-Michael Phelps
-Ray Lewis

That would be my list

I didn't bother to read through this whole thread, but I agree with this post completely. Nailed it. Cal HAS to be #1. I don't know if this is in order, but I might move Phelps up to #2 actually now that I'm thinking of it, but that's just nitpicking really.

[moose10101]

Well, if Phelps had swum in the 1920s, how many kids would be standing in line now to get his autograph? Swimming is very narrow. Phelps has/had no impact on the American experience or the American psyche. They made movies about Ruth from William Bendix to John Goodman, about a fifty year span. You are picking the recent guy you like.

By that measure, scratch Cal, Ray, Brooks, and Johnny U. In other words, it’s an absurd measure.

I include Phelps because leaving out the greatest Olympian of all time, who represented the city and state for nearly two decades, is completely ludicrous. Not because he’s “a recent guy I like”.

I include Unitas and Ray. And I give a slight edge to Brooks over Cal; I’d be OK with either, but not both.