Making List of Top 50, and Checking it Twice

The millennium-watchers at ESPN are celebrating the approach of the year 2000 by compiling a list of the century’s 50 greatest athletes. Mixed in among the voting panel’s obvious choices are some scratch-your-head decisions.

At the top half-hundred announced so far are Chris Evert, No. 50; O.J. Simpson, No. 49; Pete Sampras, No. 48; Edwin Moses, No. 47; Eric Heiden, No. 46; Bill Tilden, No. 45; Bobby Jones, No. 44; and Julius Erving, No. 43.

No arguments there. Based on ESPN’s criteria of athletic ability alone, they certainly belong.

But because lists like this are so subjective, individual rankings can appear skewered. What makes Edwin Moses No. 47 instead of No. 46 or, for that matter, No. 48? No one can say.

A week ago, Sandy Koufax was anointed at No. 42 -- numerologists would have preferred No. 32 because that was his uniform number -- and given the added honor of being the only pitcher in the top 50.

That means no Walter Johnson on the ESPN list. No Christy Mathewson, either. No Tom Seaver or Warren Spahn or Nolan Ryan. No Bob Gibson or Early Wynn or Steve Carlton.

Just Sandy Koufax, out there all by himself.

There can be no argument that for six seasons, from 1961-66, Koufax bordered on the unhittable. Once he figured out how to throw strikes, he dominated the game, setting a National League record with five consecutive ERA titles and posting a winning percentage of .733. There were four no-hitters, one of them a perfect game, four strikeout titles and three Cy Young Awards.

And then, at 30, with his elbow aching from arthritis, Koufax walked away. He had gone 97-27 over the previous four seasons as the best pitcher in baseball and led the league in strikeouts four times with a best of 382 in 1965. When he finished his career, he had 165 wins, 87 losses and a 2.76 ERA.

The premature flameout was sad. Koufax was like a meteor, flashing across the horizon for a brief period and then disappearing. His mastery during that time made him a logical choice for a spot in ESPN’s top 50. But making him the only pitcher on the list seems a bit of a stretch.

Mike Antinoro, ESPN senior producer for the 50 greatest series, understands how that could raise some eyebrows.

“The perception is he came along at the right time,” he said. “The sexy strikeouts, the numbers. He left on top. He won 27 games in his last year. He left an indelible memory. He didn’t hang on. There was an aura, a mystique about him.”

Then Antinoro asked the key question.

“Who do you knock off, if you put another pitcher on?”

That depends on the rest of the list.

Taken as a total package, Koufax’s numbers are ordinary compared with some of the pitchers the network voters passed over. The others all had longer careers, but that just means they sustained their production and that should be rewarded, not ignored.

Ryan had seven no-hitters, three more than Koufax, and 5,714 strikeouts, 3,318 more than Koufax. He’s not on the list.

Johnson’s 417 wins included 110 shutouts. He had 252 more wins and 70 more shutouts than Koufax. He’s missing from the list.

Mathewson won 373 games and had three shutouts in a single World Series. Sorry, not good enough.

Spahn won 20 or more games 13 times and finished with 363 victories, the most for any left-hander in history. He had 10 more 20-win seasons and nearly 200 more victories than Koufax. Come back for the next list.

Need more evidence?

Koufax’s best ERA was 1.73 in his last season. In 1968, Gibson had an ERA of 1.12. No list for him.

Seaver, Wynn and Carlton all won 300 games. So did Grover Alexander, Lefty Grove, and lately, Gaylord Perry, Don Sutton and Phil Niekro. With 165 wins, Koufax would have needed seven more 20-win seasons to pass that plateau. He’s in. They’re not.

So, as good as Sandy K. was -- and make no mistake, he was very good -- he had plenty of dominating company on the mound. Of all those also-ran pitchers, though, only Johnson at No. 60 and Gibson at No. 67, could crack ESPN’s second half-hundred.

And right in the middle of all these great pitchers was this fellow named Cy Young, who won 511 games, 244 of them in this century--the same one in which ESPN made Koufax the only pitcher among the top 50 athletes.