Ryan Zimmerman recently from baseball and the Washington Nationals. Fitting to end the A to Z challenge with him. He was a World Series Champion, a two-time all-star, who enjoyed a 16 year career.
A tribute to him:
They award the best pitchers in the American League and National League the Cy Young Award. However, how great was Cy Young? Cy Young holds the records for 511 wins and 749 complete games which are both records which will probably never be broken.
Opening of Baseball's Hall of Fame
Xavi is perhaps the greatest midfielder to kick a soccer ball. He was on the 2010 World Cup winning team representing Spain.
Last week of the challenge and I am bringing up a different sport Woman's Alpine Skiing. Of course that means a new athlete in Lindsey Vonn. She won four overall Woman's World Cup Champion. The first USA woman's skier to win a Gold Medal in the Olympics. Winning 82 World Cup races she is the greatest female ski racer from the USA and one of the greatest in the world.
Her Olympic Medal runs...
Jose Uribe played in the Major Leagues for 10 seasons, mostly for the San Fransisco Giants. The shortstop. His life ended in a car accident in his native Dominican Republic when he was 47. Not the biggest stat, but he had a long career. Who are some of your favorite players who might not have been stars?
I will be back tomorrow with a new post.
Today's athlete has played two professional sports. Tim Tebow best known for his college glory days of winning two National Championships and a Heisman Trophy Championship.
During his career Sammy Sosa hit 609 home runs, was an MVP and a 7-time All Star. He was a baseball player and the athlete for S. Sammy played in the steroid, performance enhanced drug era. However, his longball hitting did pique an interest in the sport.
Cristiano Ronaldo is considered to be one of the top players, if not the best player in soccer. He has scored 800 goals in 1100 games in typically low scoring sport. He has enjoyed hoisting 32 trophies in his career,
Today we are going back to the gridiron with the letter Q. Today's athlete is the former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Mike Quick. Quick led the NFL in receiving yards in 1983. He was a five-time Pro Bowler in his nine-year NFL career. He is also inducted in the Eagles Hall of Fame.
Pete Rose was a 17-time all-star, a three-time World Series Champion, MVP and rookie of the year. Known as Charlie Hustle as a kid I thought he played the game the right way. He is the all-time hit leader.
Moving right along with the A to Z Challenge today we are changing to yet another sport hockey. Today's letter is O and Olaf Kolzig, who was also known as Olie the Goalie is the athlete of the day.
He was a two-time all-star and was award the Vezina Trophy for best Goaltender in 2000. He holds many Washington Capital records including wins with 301.
A fan made tribute from youtube...
In a battle over the Led Zeppelin song Black Dogs my readers voted three to three in this Heart to Hart decision. Will I do an overtime battle on May 1st or will a go in a different direction? Honestly, I don't know.
The fair thing to do is to celebrate both Beth Hart and Heart.
"Bad Woman Blues" from Beth Hart
Keeping on woman athletes and moving from soccer to golf. Today's athlete is Nancy Lopez. She is inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame and won 48 LPGA events during her career.
Switching sports to soccer or the other football. Let's switch gears even further by choosing our first female athlete. Mia Hamm perhaps the greatest woman's soccer player of all time. She won four NCAA Championships at North Carolina. She was on World Cup Champion teams in 1991 and 1999. In 1995 Team USA finished in third place and also in 2003.
Here is a commercial with Michael Jordan...
My A to Z Challenge of athletes and teams has fallen into a streak of basketball. L is for Lebron James who some think is a serious challenge for Michael Jordan's supposed GOAT status.
Lebron's Top 35 plays
Michael Jordan is considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time. He was on an NCAA National Championship team with the North Carolina Tar Heels.
College Highlights
Allen Iverson left the Georgetown Hoyas after his sophomore season. That season he was named an All American. In the NBA he was named Rookie of the Year, he was an 11 time All Star and the league MVP in 2001. After his career he ended up in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Here is someone's list of his top 10 plays
Former Ohio State standout and NFL quarterback Dwayne Haskins reportedly has died from being hit by a car. The 24 year old was on the Pittsburgh Steelers roster and had played for the Washington Redskins.
Some of his college highlights....
April air, the green of Spring luring me back to baseball as I continue through the A to Z Challenge. Today's letter is H and I return to baseball, and the Atlanta Braves with Hank Aaron. H is for Hank and for home runs which he hit a ton. Many years the slugger held the all time home run record until he was passed in 2007 by Barry Bonds. He was a great player being a 25 time all star, and his records for runs batted in, extra base hits and total bases still stand!
Historic home run 715
G is for Garcia and golf. As I am going through the 26 days of the A to Z with athletes, teams, sport theme going on I am trying to hit several sports. So far boxing, tennis, baseball, football and now golf.
Sergio won the 2017 Masters and 11 PGA Tournaments. In Europe the Spaniard has won 16 European tours.
Highlights in Dubai in 2021
Fred Taylor was a Gator great at the University of Florida. The running back was part of a National Championship winning team and ended up being named to the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame.
His Gators highlights
In the 80's and 90's John Elway was a star quarterback in the NFL. Leading the Denver Broncos to five Super Bowls. He won two.
Some of his highlights....
The Kansas Jayhawks won the 2022 NCAA Men's Championship storming back from a big half time deficit. A fitting conclusion to a classic March Madness Tournament. The championship game pitted two Blue Blood programs with North Carolina and Kansas. The Tar Heels went to the championship game led by a first-year coach in Hubert Davis.
Highlights from the title game...
I grew up in the era of superstations, WGN in Chicago broadcasting Cubs games to the masses and WTBS broadcasting Braves games across the nation. I have found members of watching many of games on television at my Granddad. Like many people who followed the Atlanta Braves Dale Murphy became my favorite baseball player.
Below Dale Murphy hits his 300th homerun
Cal Ripken Jr known as baseball's Iron Man for breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played record and also set the league's record for most consecutive innings played. He won awards from the get-go Rookie of the Year, World Series Champion, Two-time MVP, 19-time All-Star, and capped off with an induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Setting the record...
Bjorn Borg was a tennis great from the 70's and 80's who won six French Open Titles and five Wimbledon Titles. Interestingly he never won a U.S. Open Title.
Highlights from a 1978 US Open
