OK, so there's a Baseball Hall of Fame and a Football Hall of Fame and one honouring hockey players, one that fetes surfers, another one for the game's best basketball players. And dozens more.
But just think for a minute if there were a North American Sports Hall of Fame with room for only two people. Who would they be? Where would you start?
Wayne Gretzky, regrettably, wouldn't make it. He's certainly the Great One, but not great enough to be one of two people in our all-time Sports Hall of Fame. Vince Lombardi is perhaps the name one associates most with the game of U.S. pro football, but, sorry Packer fans, he's on the outside looking in, too.
Golf offers Arnie, Jack, Tiger and the great Bobby Jones, but they don't make our exclusive hall. Love basketball? Wilt the Stilt? Magic? Michael Jordan? Great players all, but not up to snuff in our two-person All Time Sports Hall of Fame.
Who would you pick? Soccer player Pele? If this were a non-North American sports column, Pele would make the Big Two, but not here. Sorry.
Joe DiMaggio? Mickey Mantle? Cy Young? Bobby Orr? The Rocket? Gordie Howe? Red Grange? Joe Montana? Johnny U? Sorry, over and over again.
There is room in my All-Time Sports Hall of Fame for only two busts, and they belong to, in no particular order, Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali.
Surprised? You shouldn't be. Don't agree? That's OK, it's a free country, but name another athlete who would bump either of those iconic superstars from their pedestals. In their primes, they were beyond sports figures and the most famous people in the world. When you think of baseball figures, Babe Ruth stands above all. Yankee Stadium was the House that Ruth Built. He famously made more money per year than the president of the U.S. Heck, he had a candy bar named after him. He put the "roar" in the Roaring Twenties.
Ali, heavyweight boxing's gold medalist in the 1960 Summer Olympics, met with world leaders, fought all over the world and made headlines on the front pages by being found guilty of draft evasion charges, refusing induction into the U.S. military by famously saying "I ain't got no quarrel with the Viet Cong." He was stripped of his boxing title, and was out of the sport for four years while fighting his legal battles. Then he came back to the sport and was a four-time heavyweight champion.
Ali was simply "The Greatest" (Gretzky was merely "great") and he joins the Babe in this most exclusive Halls of Sports Fame.
R.J. Currie of sportsdeke.com: "The Columbus Blue Jackets, in their short history, have changed numerous head coaches, assistant coaches, made the playoffs just once and sit in the NHL basement. Maybe they should be called the Strait Jackets."
From Dwight Perry's Sideline Chatter in the Seattle Times: "Spotted on the readerboard at Nashville's Grace Cumberland Presbyterian Church: 'God has no favourites. Our sign guy does - go Preds.'"
Blogger Chad Picasner, on why a $13.9 million luxury-tax bill is no big deal to the Yankees: "Same as they pay a utility infielder."
Steve Simmons of Sunmedia.com: "The nickname going around about Mike Cammalleri tells you all you need to know about the traded Canadien. He was known as 'Me, Myself and Mike,' which is how a lot of underproducing goal scorers are perceived on teams."
Comedy writer Jerry Perisho: "The Walt Disney Company is ready to submit a bid in the latest reported attempt to purchase the Los Angeles Dodgers. So, the Dodgers may still suck, but at least the bathrooms will be clean."
And on the same subject, Perisho says: "Goofy has been running the team the last few years and he is in the middle of divorcing Grumpy."
Another one from Perry: "Oregon football player Mark Asper, attending a pre-Rose Bowl function at an L.A. restaurant, might have saved a choking diner's life when he applied the Heimlich manoeuvre ... making him the first offensive lineman ever celebrated for holding."
Currie again: "Dennis Rodman announced plans to coach a new topless women's basketball team. There will be a short preseason followed by a full slate of exhibitionist games."
Another one from Currie: "Despite rumours to the contrary, God did not send Tim Tebow to Denver because it's the closet NFL city to heaven."
Among the top 10 little-known facts about Tim Tebow, from CBS's David Letterman:
- "Fell to Earth after his home planet Krypton exploded."
- "Can turn water into Gatorade."
Perry again: "Rangers coach Rangers coach John Tortorella apologized for trashing officials after the Winter Classic. The NHL then apologized for fining him $30,000."
Tiger Woods, to reporters, offering up a Christmas present for PGA Tour galleries: "I'm swinging the club well enough that you don't need to walk out there with hockey helmets on."
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: "Will everybody please stop all of this crazy talk about Peyton Manning going to the New York Jets? This would be like Einstein enrolling at Mississippi State."
Care to comment? E-mail brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca
