On Groundballs, and Those Who Hope to Field Them
November 3, 2011Samardo Samuels: “I am ready to Play Basketball”
November 3, 2011
Well this should be interesting. You know the concept, there are four spots available to immortalize individuals from a similar field. Instead of four Presidents, we are talking about the Mt. Rushmore of Cleveland sports.
There are no real rules or right answers, but it makes for some fun discussion. That said, we opened it up to our writers round-table style.
Rick: Jim Brown and Bob Feller are mortal locks I would assume. Who gets the other two spots?
TD: “The Lord” of course….BK19…. hahahahahaha… Hate to say it, but LeBron….Larry Doby?
Rick: I’m not automatically putting Kosar up there. He’s a candidate for certain, but he didn’t get us to the promised land.
Andrew: Jim Thome is getting a statue, so he has to be considered. The Indians are the oldest Cleveland sports franchise and he is the career HR leader, that has to count for something. LeBron probably should be on it, we don’t want to have to keep cleaning graffiti off it, so I say forget him. The Cavs should be represented, but by who? Z played the most games in this uniform, Price and Daugherty are folk heroes. Austin Carr is a great ambassador. But if the Cavs are tone represented, I might just nominate Joe Tait. Who is more beloved by Cavs fans that Tait?
Rick: Interesting. In fact Cleveland could be the only city who has four broadcasters on it’s sports mt. rushmore. (Tait, Score, Hamilton and Chandler)
Scott: I agree that LeBron would eventually get the nod, but a lot of dust still needs to settle. It may be a bit of a reach given that it’s not necessarily Cleveland, but what about Jesse Owens? Echoing the rest, Jim Brown and Bob Feller; those two can start having their faces etched right now – a bit of a head start while we hash out the other two.
DP: Paul Brown, Jim Brown, Bob Feller, and Lenny Wilkins. But that’s just me.
TD: I know Herb was a “legend” here, but the truth is he was HORRIBLE. He is actually a disgrace to the Tait/Hammy/Chandler names. Those three were are/were true pros and GREAT at their jobs. Herb was a babbling buffoon. Prime example right here. Tell me how this is a good call. Fast Forward to the 5:59 mark.
Lenny Wilkins? Tell me what he did besides get us to one conference finals? Thome or The Lord would go over him. Omar too.
DP: Sorry, I picked him b/c I thought we needed to rep all three teams. If it were just top four, I would bump Lenny Wilkins with Nap Lajoie. If we’re going all-time.
Kirk: My Dad says the exact same thing, TD. He talked about how Herb was just a guy who grumpily collected a paycheck and who everyone just put up with because he was here so long. The Brown brothers, Feller, and Lebron for me….. You can’t deny your past, you can only hope to learn from it. As much as Mr. Cavalier or Mr. Cavalier 2.0 (Z) are my heart picks, it’s Lebron.
Andrew: That’s fine, but then you’re in charge of cleaning all the graffiti off it every day.
Scott: It’s certainly a tough call on a few levels. Are we basing this on statistical accomplishments? How the city embraced (or still embrace) said individuals? I find it a bit depressing that we have collectively watched countless hours of Cleveland sport, yet the modern era has been littered with mediocrity – we have to give the benefit of the doubt to those who we’ve been told are legendary. Campfire tales and Steve Sabol-laced highlight videos.
Craig: I liked all the suggestions here except LeBron. I’d rather put Mark Price or Larry Nance on there than LeBron. Jim Brown has to be there. Bob Feller has to be there. After that, nobody else is a lock.
Rick: In one respect it’s hard to believe anyone would consider putting LeBron on there. In another respect, it’s hard to believe he didn’t earn it.
What about you? Who do you think should be on the Cleveland sports Mt. Rushmore?
85 Comments
Jim Brown, Bob Feller, LeBron James,
4th Pick:
Pete Franklin
Otto Graham
Jesse Owens
@40 – + 1bajillion for that comment. That is buckets full of awesome.
Oddibe McDowell
Pio Sagapolutele
Robert Tractor Traylor
Hector Marinaro
Actually its an insult to put Hector with this company…
Youse talk and talk about champs and no Kai Haaskivi. Pffft.
Actually, Mark’s choices at #19 are mine.
What might be even more fun is the Four-Holer, those deserving of having their image in the latrine of Cleveland sports. Everyone would start with Modell and Lebron, most would add Mesa, but then it gets interesting.
A vote for LeBron James is on a par with a vote for Art Modell. This is supposed to be a place of honor.
Bernie Kosar, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Mark Price, Bob Feller
Brown, Brown, Feller, blank. Let someone else earn that spot.
I agree with Christopher’s comments regarding Thome and those more deserving.
And I’d like to see an argument in favor of Zydrunas being among these hypothetically immortalized four. I just can’t see why he would be deserving.
Here is my revised list in no particular order:
1. Otto Graham – 10 championship games in 10 years. Can’t get more consistent than that.
2. Paul Brown – Founder of our beloved Browns. Made so many innovations to the game.
3. Jim Brown – Regarded by most as the best player ever to play in the NFL.
4. Jesse Owens – Too many accomplishments to list.
Cosign with crobarred @ 59, but you have to make room for Bob Feller, greatest Indians pitcher of all time, and an all around awesome dude.
I may be just ignorant but what is Jesse Owens connection to Cleveland? Other than sharing a middle name with the city did he ever live in Cleveland? Or is he just getting included because he went to Ohio State? Because if thats it he doesn’t belong in the Cleveland Rushmore conversation.
No Cav should be on there, it dimishes the idea if you put a lesser person on just to represent all three sports. I don’t believe there was debate about putting Howard Taft on the real Mt. Rushmore just so middle America could be represented. Once again just like its not the “Hall of Pretty Good, its the Hall of Fame”. Rushmore can’t be littered with a bunch Terry Malloy’s who “Culda been a contender”. Champions only
1. Doby has to on there, nobody gets overlooked more. As if all of the racial attrocities that Jackie R faced were wiped away in the 2 MONTHS before Doby signed. He should be good enough to get in on Stats alone, but adding the cultural significance makes it a slam dunk.
2. Feller. He’s Bob freakin’ Feller can’t argue him
3. Id put Paul Brown on because he’s one of the 3 most influential people in modern football. And the people from Massilon would just go carve his face up there anyway if we left him off.
4. Id go Jim Brown but only after making it seem like we left him off so he could write us all a letter claiming what racist pieces of garbage Clevelanders are. That way we could put him up there to recognize his sports greatness and also remember that he’s a pretty angry ignorant man.
@Porkchop, Owens lived in Cleveland from the time he was a young kid and tied a world record in the 100-yard while he was running track for East Tech.
Brown, Brown, Feller and Graham get my vote.
It would be easier if we expand list to six or eight, but then it wouldn’t be Mt. Rushmore.
Crobarred had it clocked with Brown, Graham, Feller: P Brown, Groza, Carr and only one broadcaster Tait (since the beginning) all in the mix for 4th slot — or the loyal long suffering fans!
Mount No-Rush-AnyMore:
Gerard Warren
Courtney Brown
David Veikune
Mike Junkin
How about Mount MoreBadQBRushes?
Derek Andersen
Tim Couch
Jake Delhomme
Brady Quinn
as for Albert, he ditched us for a division rival…at least Manny and Thome had the decency to change division / league (resp)
j brown, feller and owens seem pretty obvious…i mean, who else took on HITLER? (as evoking his name will often lose an argument, it occasionally should win one) plus he represents a prolific ohio state contingent of cleveland.
jim brown makes any short list of nfl greats as does feller in terms of mlb pitchers. throw in a world series ring, only opening day no no not to mention taking time off to go after hitler.
paul brown makes sense but as much as it pains me to say it, the franchise he started went on to win a super bowl in a another city, this second rate expansion franchise doesnt live up to those standards (and don’t forget, this is also the man who gave us the bengals)
everyone consistently mentioned comes from a different generation. obviously lebron fits that category and even if the decision had never happened, hes still not a worthy candidate. two failed finals appearances and a couple state farm commercials?
hector marinaro’s accomplishments certainly far outweigh lbj’s.
Mount CRUSHMORE:
1. Jim “Thominator” Thome
2. Albert “Joey” Belle
3. Travis “Pronk” Hafner
4. Shelley “Turtle”/”Slam-Dunc”/”Dunc-a-Dunc” Duncan
Done and done
Paul Brown, Bernie Kosar, Ozzie Newsome and Bob Feller.
All guys wanted to and would have (if they actually didn’t) stayed in Cleveland their entire careers, which I feel is a requirement for the award. Bernie may not have won it all, but the way he worked the system so that he could come here is enough. Ozzie was a big part of that era.
Winning it all is hardly a requirement considering how few people have won it all for Cleveland. Just being honest.
No freaking way for Lebron, that’s outlandish. Jim Brown, Bob Feller, Mark Price, Kai Haaskivi.
Here’s a little love for Tris Speaker, player manager of the 1920 World Champs
Bob Feller
Jim Brown
Hector Marinaro
Blank – Goes to 1st Person to bring Cleveland a Title
Jim Brown
Jesse Owens
Otto Graham
Bob Feller
Mount Bust-more
Tim Couch
Courtney Brown
Adam Miller
DeJuan Wagner
or
Dolly Parton
Pamela Anderson
Salma Hayek
Jessica Simpson
All depends on your interpretation.
bob feller
jim brown
paul brown
hector marinaro
Jesse Owens, Jim Brown, Bob Feller, Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn
There you have it…
anyone think about Clay Matthews? Just throwing it out there…
Awesome discussion!
But…
I thought we learned something from the whole lebronfiasco that we shouldn’t idolize and make more of these overpaid amoral athletes than they deserve. Immortalize the teams, not the athletes. My Noms:
Chief Wahoo
The Browns sprite thing
The Cavs Polar Bear
And the old timey more racist chief wahoo
Larry Doby
Bob Feller
Jim Brown
Otto Graham
@53- taking a shot at a man who died earlier this year, and who always acquitted himself well when he wore a Cavs uniform (Traylor). Classy…real classy
The consensus seems to be Brown, Brown, Feller and someone else. I’m now leaning toward Cy Young. Young first made his name with the Spiders (helping them win the Temple Cup) and ended his career with the Indians. He won more games in Cleveland than anywhere else. I see support for Jesse Owens, but Jesse most appropriately belongs to Columbus, where he became a legend.
@ Frank Minni, Thanks! I had no idea, even being from Canton I should have known that, kinda embarrassing. Well then the two Browns get the Harvey Dent treatment and Jesse def gets his own
Bob Feller, Paul Brown, Jesse Owens, Jim Brown
Bill Veeck and LBJ next
Bob Feller
Jim Brown
Jesse Owens
Austin Carr
Jim Brown
Paul Brown
Bob Feller
Jesse Owens
Thought about it for a while, and the list worked its way down to that pretty easily for me.
Honorable mention: Otto Graham, Larry Doby