Can you name the best player of all time at every position for the Big 4 sports leagues?? by bbf2

Can you name the best player of all time at every position for the Big 4 sports leagues??

created by bbf2

Enter a player (last names acceptable) in the box below
Correctly named players will show up below
Answers do not have to be guessed in order
THESE ARE NOT MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION! Answers compiled from NFL's "100 greatest players," the Sporting News' "100 greatest MLB players," HockeyNews' "100 greatest NHL players," various lists for NBA
This quiz has not been verified by Sporcle

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Show Missed Answers

NBA
PG
SG
SF
PF
C

MLB
1B
2B
3B
SS
C
RF
CF
LF
DH
SP (RHP)
SP (LHP)
RP

NFL
QB
WR
RB
FB
TE
OG
OT
C
LB
DE
DT
S
CB
K
P

NHL
LW
C
RW
D
G

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There are 53 comments for this game.
(Warning: comments may contain spoilers)

Best player ever, each position (big 4?) Quiz

by bbf2

Created Jan 17, 2011 in Sports
Game Plays 5,632

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	bbf2:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 04:23 GMT		5 points
	Important to note: I compiled these, but they are NOT my personal rankings. I compiled them from what I consider legitimate sources. For the NFL, I used NFL.com's recent "100 greatest players" at http://top100.nfl.com/ that was compiled by experts and picked the best at each position. For MLB, I did the same using the SportingNews's list at http://www.juggle.com/the-sporting-news-100-greatest-mlb-players compiled in 2000. For NHL, HockeyNews's 100 greatest players compiled by experts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_100_greatest_NHL_players_by_The_Hockey_News. NBA was a little trickier as there was no similar ranking compiled by experts, but almost every single NBA rankings list had the first four positions the same. The only tricky position was NBA Center, since there seemed to be absolutely no consensus between the three players listed and every list had them differently, so that is the only position with multiple people listed.

	bbf2:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 04:43 GMT		8 points
	Final note: Obviously everything is subjective and the expert panels I used don't know everything. There are some that I disagreed with personally (especially cornerback) and I'm sure you do as well. I know people don't really like subjective/ranking quizzes a whole lot, but the point of this is for fun and to help people get a better understand of the history of sports. Hopefully there will be some guy you don't really know about and it will encourage you to look up his accomplishments! If there are some that you disagree with the lists about, please share! Debate over whether "player x was better than player y" is what makes looking into sports history fun.

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	bbf2:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 05:12 GMT		5 points
	@jasonbaywordbay Well that's a thought, but those really don't tell the whole story. Especially since they don't factor in postseason stuff or big moments or anything like that. For example, if I used PER, it would list LeBron as the best SF of all time over Bird, which is just wrong. The experts lists aren't perfect but I figured they'd be the best measure.

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	JRicoC:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 05:15 GMT		-4 points
	You did a good job with baseball, probably could have had LHP, RHP. I'd say Plante, Hall, Sawchuk, Dryden and even Brodeuer before Roy ...

	fishmonkeyfrog:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 05:23 GMT		8 points
	After 100 plays, 12.1% were able to come up with Jim Brown. JIM BROWN is the second least popular answer on the quiz. That is absolutely mind-boggling.

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	bbf2:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 05:26 GMT		1 point
	@JRicoC Sawchuk and Brodeur are also acceptable answers since they were both at the top of many "best goalie ever" lists. I tried to add in a few acceptable answers in cases where various other lists seemed to differ greatly. LHP and RHP aren't really different positions, but since the point of this quiz is fun and knowledge I'll go ahead and add ol' Lefty :)

	bbf2:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 05:36 GMT		3 points
	@Packman I was shocked too, but both the SportingNews and "TheBaseballPage" had Bench ahead of him according to their measurements. Some other lists had Berra first though so I made him an acceptable answer as well. That was one of the ones I disagreed with the most, (not as much as cornerback though, Rod Woodson was way better than the guy listed).

	Etheridge2:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 06:43 GMT		8 points
	I would say on any planet Bench is the greatest catcher of all-time, but that's just me...I like how I got the Basketball PF by typing in Malone even though it wasn't Malone.

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	jdcook100:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 07:01 GMT		-4 points
	Bench far and away is the best catcher ever. Also, I typed in Bonds and was credited with Ted Williams... and I'm not sure if Bobby and Brett played the same position, but if they did I think Brett should be put above his dad.

	herrod54:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 07:27 GMT		7 points
	To be 100% accurate, Jim Brown was a fullback.

	awix:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 07:36 GMT		2 points
	bench>>bera. not a knock on bera, but Bench was arguably the best hitting and fielding catcher of all time.

	croppja:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 07:49 GMT		10 points
	In the words of the great Sparky Anderson: "I don't want to embarrass any other catcher by comparing him to Johnny Bench."

	bbf2:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 11:06 GMT		1 point
	@Etheridge @jdcook I put in a few other acceptable answers if I saw that player listed as the top player at his position in multiple other reputable lists. @jdcook Bobby was a LW and Brett was a RW. @herrod54 its true that Brown was listed as a fullback, but all football scholars list Brown as an RB first since his duties were clearly that of a RB and that's the position he usually fulfilled on the field.

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	jasonbaywordbey:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 14:16 GMT		3 points
	goskins I dont see anything too objectionable, in fact I'd say that at least 60 percent are no brainers and there isn't one selection that I'd consider bad or unreasonable

	michmark:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 14:53 GMT		1 point
	Lots of fun...felt bad that I spelled Larry Bird's name and Mean Joe Greene's name wrong and didn't get them. (slapping head) Anyone who says "most of these are bad picks" is not familiar with what the word "subjective" means. And if Sparky said it, it MUST be true.

	swills13:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 14:55 GMT		0 points
	you spelled morten andersen wrong. otherwise, excellent quiz

	Dramathorn:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 16:06 GMT		-2 points
	I put berra and got johnny bench?

	kevin98789:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 16:34 GMT		15 points
	edgar martinez is widely considered the best DH of all time

	BostonStorm1:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 16:38 GMT		1 point
	it is a good quiz, but very very very opinionated because people will have different answers for each position

	wasting2muchtime:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 16:43 GMT		3 points
	hey great idea, though I think you might wanna do something for football like a normal team: you know 2 WR (I think basic I formation is fine haha maybe 3 WR and 2 RB in addition to the 1 FB and 1 TE just to get more players guessed), definitely 2 OG and 2 OT (no need to worry about left and right i don't think) and then two safeties, 2 CB's (maybe 3 because the first one sucks haha), and then you choose between 3-4 and 4-3 front, haha.but having 1 linebacker seems kinda dumb. also maybe a KR? would anyone object to Hester? Also maybe you could fix up the order: convention (from madden i think) is OT goes before OG (outside->in) and on defense it goes (inside->out) then (front->back) i.e. DT, DE, MLB, OLB, CB, S(yeah safeties are a little behind CBs) okay i'll stop talking just two more suggestions. 1) similar to my other one except this probably makes less sense for these sports, but you could also do a full rotation for MLB or a bench for NBA (like 2nd best at each position + 2 remaining best (i assume they'd be centers and somehow one of the top 10 players ever would still be left off haha))? this probaably makes it a different quiz (more of a name the all-time team thing, so its fine, just a suggestion. Also, THIS IS THE BIGGEST ONE (i probably shouldn't have put this last cause I'm sure no one is still reading) but could you just specify in the instructions that the DH is the best player to be a primary DH, because I was guessing "Aaron" "Mantle" "DiMaggio" "Rodriguez" "Griffey" "Bonds" even "Cobb" "Musial" and couldn't figure it out. Granted I did kinda figure it out at the end and still got stuck after "Jackson" "Martinez" "Ortiz" and even "Hafner" haha. alright that was an essay, but 5 stars anyway.

	dtmich:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 16:53 GMT		1 point
	Full Back is a variation of a Running Back, like a starting pitcher is a variation Pitcher... I think Jim Brown should be listed as a Full Back considering that was his position even if he ran with it more than todays fullbacks, and there should be someone else listed as a Half Back (Sanders, Smith, Payton, whoever your multiple sources say).

	dtmich:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 16:58 GMT		0 points
	@wasting2muchtime I tend to agree... if you're going to have 3 outfielders, you could have 2 wide receivers, 2 CBs, etc.

	dtmich:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 17:03 GMT		5 points
	Hmmm... weird issue... when i looked at "most missed" it highlighted in green names that I didn't get and ht didn't highlignames that I got ... like I got Gretzky and Jim Brown and it doesn't think I did, though I didn't get Moreten Andersen or Ronnie Lott and it thinks I did.... bizarre

	NinedenLtD:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 17:57 GMT		-1 points
	@Packman: On what planet is either Bench or Berra better than Josh Gibson?

	pita:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 18:05 GMT		4 points
	@Nineden Josh Gibson didn't play in the Big 4 sports leagues. That would be like saying Tretiak should be the goalie. He may or may not have been the best, but he doesn't meet the quiz criteria.

	NinedenLtD:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 21:06 GMT		-4 points
	@pita: The Sporting News list from which the baseball players in this quiz were drawn is not "The Sporting News 100 Greatest MLB Players," as the quiz-maker stated, but "The Sporting News 100 Greatest Baseball Players." Josh Gibson comes in on the list at the 18th greatest baseball player of all time, two behind Johnny Bench. But my comment was not meant to be critical of the quiz or quiz-maker, it was meant to be critical of the fact that the Josh Gibson gets less recognition generally than he deserves. You, apparently, are not discerning enough to make that distinction. Incredibly, you are not only ignorant of the very criteria you accuse me of ignoring, you are too dimwitted to recognize the difference between a criticism of this quiz and a criticism of the criteria upon which this quiz was based. Amazing.

	sdc1030:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 21:21 GMT		2 points
	No Hank Aaron?

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	truk:	Jan 17th, 2011 at 22:22 GMT		1 point
	Barry Sanders not even an alternate option?

	sbshuffler85:	Jan 18th, 2011 at 00:20 GMT		2 points
	come on, its koufax for lefty pitchers. And what about aaron, winslow for te, dick night train lane at cb. still decent for an opinionated quiz though

	Danny_Duberstein:	Jan 18th, 2011 at 03:04 GMT		3 points
	Whenever I'm playing a sports quiz and not doing well, I'll enter White, Brown, Black, Green, Jones, Smith, Johnson & Williams and usually get a right answer or two. This quiz was no exception.

	dlte:	Jan 18th, 2011 at 05:56 GMT		1 point
	Something is wrong here...When Jim Brown is answered, it counts towards Jerry Rice. When Jerry Rice is answered, it counts toward Joe Montana, When Joe Montana is answered, it goes toward Walter Johnson. I also noticed that Patrick Roy is at 0% guessed, and when he is answered, it goes towards Bobby Orr. More than just those answers are probably messed up. Please look into it. Thanks.

	bbf2:	Jan 18th, 2011 at 06:02 GMT		1 point
	@dlte Everything works fine on my computer. The only thing I see is that Patrick Roy continues to be at 0%, I don't see your other problems though. I double checked the quiz and everything is in order so it must be a temporary glitch with the Sporcle database.

	John0:	Jan 18th, 2011 at 17:48 GMT		2 points
	I don't understand the love for Koufax over Grove? Is it Koufax's lesser peak or lesser career that makes people think that?

	rsplenda477:	Jan 18th, 2011 at 21:37 GMT		-2 points
	First of all, Sandy Koufax was the greatest left-handed pitcher of all-time. He totally dominated the short span that he pitched in. Second, if it weren't for his illness and back problems, I think Mario Lemieux would have rivaled Gretzky for all-time greatest hockey player period.