Greatest Athlete in D.C. History (team sports)

[Spaceman Spiff]

8 minutes ago, Hersh said:

That’s fair but she did swim for the national’s capital swim club all this time. 

 

"B b b b b but swimming is a NICHE sport!!!!"

[Sticksboi05]

This has gotten far beyond the topic, lol. We're not asking who has the highest blood oxygen level or who could win a decathlon, it's who is the greatest team sports in D.C. history.

 

But while we're on this topic, Ovechkin is 6'3 240 and in his prime (this is 2014 so actually past his prime) had by a mile the fastest acceleration in hockey. Fairly absurd actually the gap between him and the rest.

 

Edited November 10, 2021 by Sticksboi05

[Warhead36]

Ovi would have been an All Pro caliber OLB or SS in football. Would also probably be a tremendous power hitter in MLB too(not sure what his position in the field would be, probably OF).

 

The argument really should be who is #2. Since its team sports only I'd go with Scherzer.

[Hersh]

10 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

Ovi would have been an All Pro caliber OLB or SS in football. Would also probably be a tremendous power hitter in MLB too(not sure what his position in the field would be, probably OF).

 

The argument really should be who is #2. Since its team sports only I'd go with Scherzer.

 

While I would like to argue about swimming being a team sport, because it's both team and individual, I won't cause I have a few things to do today. I'd put Elvin Hayes or Wes Unseld in contention for the second spot. 

[Burgold]

No one's voted for Rock Cartwright yet?

 

Blondie where are you!

Edited November 10, 2021 by Burgold

[Spaceman Spiff]

Blondie's obsession with Rock Cartwright was weird.  She was weird.

[tshile]

6 hours ago, PokerPacker said:

Ask a Russian kid what's a niche sport: Ice Hockey or American Football.  I guarantee you their list of friends that know how to play American Football is gonna be smaller than your list of friends that know how to play Ice Hockey.  Bad use of anecdotal evidence.

it was about dc sports. Which exists within American sports. And hockey is a niche sport. It’s not even debatable. Hockey is at best 5th on the list for majority of people in this country. 
 

the ratings show it. The participation shows it. Who has access to it shows it. 
 

the only people who disagree are hockey fans that decided calling it a niche sport is an insult. It’s not. It doesn’t have to be. But just because you’ve decided that’s a degrading description, doesn’t make it less true. 
 

2 hours ago, skinsmarydu said:

I had an issue when Tiger was "Athlete of the Year".  Dude walks a lot and has an amazing swing...but to me, that's not "athletic".  Neither is NASCAR, even though I know those guys have to be in amazing shape to drive for hours in a hot car with integrated hydration and not pee themselves.  

 

Hockey is the most demanding of the 4 major sports, imho.  It's not just "hands on a ball".  There are skates, a stick, and a round piece of vulcanized rubber. 

Thank you captain obvious?

 

does hockey also involve nets and scores and timed periods? I’m not sure and quite confused what this hockey sportsball thing is 🤔 

1 hour ago, DCSaints_fan said:

Golf.  And probably baseball.

Yeah, skates/ice removed, definitely anything hand-eye coordination wise makes sense. Which I believe I said. 
 

 

[skinsmarydu]

2 minutes ago, tshile said:

 

does hockey also involve nets and scores and timed periods? I’m not sure and quite confused what this hockey sportsball thing is 🤔 

Yanno, you don't have to respond.  You just seem to be quite ****y toward me lately...not that I care, but you seem to be putting some effort into it.  Nice job. 

[PokerPacker]

2 hours ago, DCSaints_fan said:

Golf.  And probably baseball.

I do believe Ovechkin hit a hole-in-one his first time playing golf.

[tshile]

2 hours ago, skinsmarydu said:

Yanno, you don't have to respond.  You just seem to be quite ****y toward me lately...not that I care, but you seem to be putting some effort into it.  Nice job. 

You’re the one that responded by telling me hockey involves skates a stick and a puck

Just meeting you on your level. If you don’t like it maybe give a less ****ty response next time? 🤷‍♂️ 

 

 

[Sticksboi05]

Everyone let's not get personal! It's just a sports discussion.

[Springfield]

8 minutes ago, Sticksboi05 said:

Everyone let's not get personal! It's just a sports discussion.

But apparently hockey isn’t even a sport.

 

Who even cares if you were the best player at something that fails to even cross the sport threshold? Clearly all the good athletes wanna play a real sport like football or basketball. If you want to be a big fish in a small pond then just go play a marginal, wannabe sport that nobody else plays.

 

😉

[Burgold]

3 minutes ago, Springfield said:

But apparently hockey isn’t even a sport.

 

Who even cares if you were the best player at something that fails to even cross the sport threshold? Clearly all the good athletes wanna play a real sport like football or basketball. If you want to be a big fish in a small pond then just go play a marginal, wannabe sport that nobody else plays.

 

😉

Oh come on, hockey is a sport. Now, NASCAR... that's not a sport.

[tshile]

Niche sport doesn’t mean not a real sport. 
 

you guys are super sensitive about this. It’s not an insult. Unless you make it one. 
 

im sorry you guys don’t understand how hockey is a sport that inherently cuts out large swathes if the population from participating from an early age through adulthood. 
 

who knew that was such a hidden secret 

[Renegade7]

I admittedly am not a huge hockey follower, but is Ovi recognized as a great two way player (offense and defense)?  

 

This comes up in the NBA thread in regards to judging eras and accepting that today's athletes are usually physically superior to say 30-40 years ago and more.

 

Thats why its easier to say something like Jordan is the GOAT because he has scoring titles and defensive mvp award.  He's the only player in NBA history to win defensive mvp and score over 30ppg.  That transcended eras, it will be a while before someone else does that, if ever.

 

So this goes back to my point on Sammy Baugh.  His accomplishments as a player in all three phases of football makes him a better all around player then Ovi.  Baugh was a 4 time passing yards leader and then the interceptions leader on defense in 1943.  That is literally impossible in today's NFL.

 

So ill ask again, is Ovi as great a multi-phase player as Baugh, or is he jus a dominant scorer?  There may be another Ovi, but will there ever be another Sammy Baugh?

[tshile]

1 minute ago, Renegade7 said:

but is Ovi recognized as a great two way player (offense and defense)

He’s recognized as someone who can be and has been at parts. 
 

he’s also had multiple seasons where he was criticized for not playing defense. 
 

I recall him skating in circles waiting for a breakout more often than actually playing defense for portions of his career. 
 

I believe it was under Hunter he hit the defense hard and he was (if I recall) great at it. But it was hardly how he played all the time. 
 

he also had issues with showing up fat and out of shape (or so the hot take headlines read at times, if I recall correctly)

[CRobi21]

3 hours ago, Warhead36 said:

Ovi would have been an All Pro caliber OLB or SS in football.

 

This is kind of crazy to say..

 

As a non hockey person, how can you correlate Ovis athleticism in other sports. Is there footage of him being a super athlete out there....but without ice skates on? 

[tshile]

4 minutes ago, Renegade7 said:

but will there ever be another Sammy Baugh?

Not sure that’s fair. Sports just isn’t that way anymore.

 

hell watching a lot of kids/parents these days, seems like a lot of kids don’t even play multiple sports. Just one, trying to specialize for a scholarship or whatever. 
 

(and there’s research about how that’s led to increased injuries due to how doing the same sport over and over over develops certain muscles and under develops others and is bad)

2 minutes ago, CRobi21 said:

As a non hockey person, how can you correlate Ovis athleticism in other sports. Is there footage of him being a super athlete out there....but without ice skates on? 

Tread lightly. They get angry with this line of questioning 😉

[Renegade7]

7 minutes ago, tshile said:

Not sure that’s fair. Sports just isn’t that way anymore.

 

 

Maybe not football, but my point still stands on being a multi-phase player.  If Ovi isn't known for being a great defensive player, why is he rated over someone who is in Baugh? 

 

What accomplishments does Ovi have that Baugh doesn't?  Baugh also helped revolutionize the passing game in the NFL, what did Ovi revolutionize?  

 

I'm not trying to bury Ovi, im saying when we have this conversation of GOAT in the NBA, we don't talk about how Jordan did in baseball as a knock on him as an overall athlete.  We don't ask stupid questions like can Jordan do more push-ups then LeBron, prime to prime.

 

When I opened this thread, I was expecting a comparison of accomplishments and impact on their respective sports with a list of DC athletes.  Some of yall sound like you put Micheal Vick at FS in madden because he was fast back in the day.

[tshile]

Yeah I think asking who can do more push-ups is stupid too. 
 

My only real issue was with the notion that it’s ovi and “not even close”. As if in all the decades of dc sports history not a single person is even worthy of possible comparison? Give me a break. 
 

im not even saying he’s not the greatest. 
 

no one wants to address the athletics part of athlete. They can’t even come to grips with the idea that access to play hockey is super limited both to the type of person as well as geography. So, 🤷‍♂️ 

 

I love ovi, the caps, and hockey. There’s a hell of a lot of great athletes in our history. Between the difficulties of comparing different sports and different eras (especially different sports, across different eras), I think reasonable arguments can be made for a number of people. 
 

[Hersh]

Ovechkin Accomplishments: 4th all time in goals, currently 29th in total points (goals and assists) all time. He's also currently fourth all time in hits, if you are looking for what he does defensively. They haven't always kept this stat, but since they started, no that scored a lot of goals is anywhere near that kinda number of hits. 

NHL records[edit]

• First player to win the Art Ross Trophy, Maurice Richard Trophy, Lester B. Pearson Award, and Hart Memorial Trophy in a single season.^[176] (although Wayne Gretzky won the Art Ross, Pearson Award and Hart Trophy plus led the league in goals 5 different seasons prior to the Richard Trophy being awarded, Mario Lemieux did it twice, Phil Esposito and Guy Lafleur each did it once.)
• Only player to be named to the NHL First All-Star Team in each of his first five seasons.^[177]
• Most NHL goal scoring titles with 9.^[74]
• Most goals scored by a left-winger in a career: 730 (as of 2020–21 season)
• Most goals scored by a left-winger in a season: 65 goals in 2007–08.
• Most points scored by a left-wing rookie: 106 in 2005–06.
• Most shots on goal by a left-winger in a season: 528 in 2008–09.
• Most shots on goal by a rookie in a season: 425 in 2005–06.
• Most regular-season points by a Russian-born NHL rookie: 106 in 2005–06.
• Fastest overtime goal: 6 seconds on 15 December 2006 vs. Atlanta Thrashers (tied with Mats Sundin and David Legwand).
• Only player to be named to both the NHL First and Second All-Star Teams in the same season: 2012–13
• Most goals by a Russian-born player: 730 (as of 2020–21 season).
• Most points by a Russian-born player: 1,320.
• Most career overtime goals: 24.
• Most consecutive 30-goal seasons: 15 (also tied with Jaromir Jagr and Mike Gartner)

Washington Capitals records[edit]

• Most seasons with 50 or more goals – 8 (2005–06, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2018–19)
• Most shots on goal in a season – 528 (2008–09)
• Most goals in a season (2007–08) – 65 goals
• Most power-play goals – 259 (17 February 2020)
• Most power-play goals in a season (2014–15) – 25 PP goals
• Most career overtime goals – 23 OT goals
• Most career penalty shots attempted – 10 shots (most recent on 7 March 2015)
• Most goals in a season by a rookie (2005–06) – 52 goals
• Most points in a season by a rookie (2005–06) – 106 points
• Point streak by a rookie – 11 games (17 points; 5 goals, 12 assists), 18 March – 7 April 2006
• Point streak by a rookie to start season – 8 games
• Goal streak by a rookie – 7 games, 10 February – 8 March 2006
• Most career hat tricks – 27
• Most career goals – 730 (as of May 20, 2021)
• Most career points – 1,320
• Most goals in a single postseason (2017–18) – 15

 

Edited November 10, 2021 by Hersh

[Hersh]

36 minutes ago, Renegade7 said:

 

Maybe not football, but my point still stands on being a multi-phase player.  If Ovi isn't known for being a great defensive player, why is he rated over someone who is in Baugh? 

 

What accomplishments does Ovi have that Baugh doesn't?  Baugh also helped revolutionize the passing game in the NFL, what did Ovi revolutionize?  

 

I'm not trying to bury Ovi, im saying when we have this conversation of GOAT in the NBA, we don't talk about how Jordan did in baseball as a knock on him as an overall athlete.  We don't ask stupid questions like can Jordan do more push-ups then LeBron, prime to prime.

 

When I opened this thread, I was expecting a comparison of accomplishments and impact on their respective sports with a list of DC athletes.  Some of yall sound like you put Micheal Vick at FS in madden because he was fast back in the day.

 

There will not be another like Ovechkin any time soon, if ever. No one scores goals with both the skill and physical brand of hockey like Ovechkin. Dude has amazing skill and is built like a tank for hockey. 

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

It's definitely Andre Carter.

 

He has like 18.5 sacks in 15 games in Madden '10 for me.

[Renegade7]

12 minutes ago, Hersh said:

 

There will not be another like Ovechkin any time soon, if ever. No one scores goals with both the skill and physical brand of hockey like Ovechkin. Dude has amazing skill and is built like a tank for hockey. 

 

Let's revisit this if and when he passes Gretzky, who he's currently 150+ goals behind on the alltime scoring list. And this still ignores my question concerning his defense.

[Hersh]

Just now, Renegade7 said:

 

Let's revisit this if and when he passes Gretzky, who he's currently 150+ goals behind on the alltime scoring list. And this still ignores my question concerning his defense.

 

32 minutes ago, Hersh said:

Ovechkin Accomplishments: 4th all time in goals, currently 29th in total points (goals and assists) all time. He's also currently fourth all time in hits, if you are looking for what he does defensively. They haven't always kept this stat, but since they started, no one that scored a lot of goals is anywhere near that kinda number of hits.