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:
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...
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
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
The A to Z Challenge continues today with the letter P. I am going with a snake for my reptile this time around. Below is a picture of a Pine Snake.
The Pine Snake is a non venomous snake common to the eastern and southern United States. The snake feeds mainly on rodents and can grow between 4 and 7.5 feet.
The letters change and so do the reptiles. Yesterday we had had a crocodile and today we have a rare lizard. The endangered Otago Skink which is found in a small range in New Zealand.
