Modern Athletes vs Athletes from Another Era: Why the Comparison?
Written by Jason D. Barrett. Filed under: Sports Opinion, Sports July 24th, 2007Now that Barry Bonds is finally closing in on Hank Aaron’s home run record, Roger Federer is making a run at tennis’ majors, and Tiger Woods is chasing Jack Nicklaus, I have been in the mood to do a little thinking. Why is it that we compare today’s athletes with yesterday’s? I realize that all athletics are built around competition, so it is just a natural progression. Why then do we feel like we are experts enough to know the difference between all these athletes from different eras? Radio talk shows, ESPN, newspaper columnists and barber shop regulars spend great amounts of time and energy debating the merits of their favorites of today and yesterday.
Who is the best all time? Well that depends on the sport and several other factors. Factors that any sport lover can rattle off in a matter of minutes. We love the oldtimers and some of the modern players aren’t too shabby either.
I have bad news for Barry, Roger, and Tiger; there is another group of men on their way up and future media will swear we are watching the best. Guys, your accomplishments will be remembered, but like all others, they too will fade and someday someone will pass you. It is just the natural progression of time, science, and human effort. It is the way things go.
So with that said, why do we compare modern athletes to athletes from a different era? I was going to take a stab at some reasoning and create the typical top seven list, but I changed my mind. I am going to leave this one up to the comment section. Let’s get us a good ole’ fashion discussion going. What do you say?
July 27th, 2007 at 2:30 am
Not much of a discussion, eh.
Btw, it depends on the sport on whether its built on competition or not. Some sportsmen do it because it is their life or for money. Competition is what you see, but it is 0.01% of what the sportsmen do on the training and in their lives.
Not to mention, some basic things can be compared, such as timing, style, famous and infamous actions during competiton and so on - you know, what people gossip about. Only experts will discuss all the subtle differences, such as style-habits, extra effort to improve performance, etc no one will see, of course.
By the way. Do you think reading brown text on black background is easy?