OT: Most influential U.S. athlete of the past 25 years?

[husky429]

This is the only mention of Ohtani in this thread.

He has the highest selling jersey worldwide since 2023. He's the most dominant 2 way player in baseball history, maybe in all of sports. The first 50-50 player in baseball history. And you could start a thread alone on his impact to viewership, sponsorship and economics in Asia as well as the USA. Sponsorships alone account for 100,000,000 a year (Caitlyn Clark was 11m last year).

He's got titles and MVP's on his resume. How is he not being named more here, especially over some of the other names on the first 6 pages???

Baseball players just don't have the same kind of cultural impact that other sports do any more. If this was impact on the world and not the US, you'd have a better case and one I might agree with.

 

[Lafayette]

Would say my top 10 are now:

1. Jordan
2. Tiger
3. Serena
4. Caitlyn
5. Ed O'Bannon (note: athlete, but influence was after playing)
6. Brady
7. Ichiro
8. McGwire/Sosa/Bonds
9. Federer
10. Beckham

Influence should amount to either raising the popularity of the sport, changing the sport, or having some effective change that matters to beyond a team fan base. 8 was for that magical season and continuation with Bonds - that captivated so many people. Sucks it was all steroids and such.

If you want to argue Brady vs Caitlyn - Brady definitely had influence of enlarging the sport, but Caitlyn brought the WNBA back from life support.

 

[Inyatkin]

Caitlin Clark so influential that no one can spell her name

 

[Scoe]

How is Caitlin Clark more influential then Peyton Manning.

 

[Lafayette]

Caitlin Clark so influential that no one can spell her name

My bad - have one in the fam spelled the way I did.

Oh, let's compare:

Caitlin: fascinated the college basketball world with her shooting getting sold out wherever they played. Then #1 WNBA draft and basically picks the WNBA off life support.

Peyton: also #1 draft pick but that was 1988; anyway, won 2 Super Bowls, 4x MVP for NFL, but Peyton played when Brady played and literally like 20 other super great players like Randy Moss, Champ Bailey, Barry Sanders, Tony Gonzalez, even Marvin Harrison so Manning is a little diluted on his own team, and then because of the popularity of the NFL he was just one of the main guys.

It's like asking the Jeter question - success does not mean impact/influence

 

[Kolumbo]

Here's one Lance Armstrong. Think whatever you want you can call him a cheater and/or a scumbag but he's the reason you see cyclists on the road and why roads have added bike lanes.

Armstrong was a great athlete and could have been far more influential but pro cycling doesn't even reference him at all. I'm not sure he has that much to do with cycling popularity in the United States. I started watching the tour annually around 2010 and I don't know how many people watched when Lance was riding.

Really unbelievable story though. Born in 1971 and diagnosed with stage 3 testicular cancer in 1996 at age 25. Won Le Tour 7 years in a row 1999-2005 at age 27-33. Livestrong was a huge brand but Lance resigned in 2012 and even Nike ended its relationship with Livestrong. I think Livestrong started the rubber wristband product.

 

[Deepster]

Baseball players just don't have the same kind of cultural impact that other sports do any more. If this was impact on the world and not the US, you'd have a better case and one I might agree with.

So baseball doesn't have the cultural impact of women's soccer or the WNBA? Or women's gymnastics? LOL.

 

[Scoe]

My bad - have one in the fam spelled the way I did.

Oh, let's compare:

Caitlin: fascinated the college basketball world with her shooting getting sold out wherever they played. Then #1 WNBA draft and basically picks the WNBA off life support.

Peyton: also #1 draft pick but that was 1988; anyway, won 2 Super Bowls, 4x MVP for NFL, but Peyton played when Brady played and literally like 20 other super great players like Randy Moss, Champ Bailey, Barry Sanders, Tony Gonzalez, even Marvin Harrison so Manning is a little diluted on his own team, and then because of the popularity of the NFL he was just one of the main guys.

It's like asking the Jeter question - success does not mean impact/influence

Peyton has been a celebrity since high school it doesn't compare to Clark. I guess you gotta tie the Manning family in there they are a huge deal down south. Got the Manning passing academy, was and is still in millions of commercials. Peyton was on the Olympics coverage. Clark is the new flavor of the news that's what it is but she's not more influential then Peyton.

 

[Lafayette]

So baseball doesn't have the cultural impact of women's soccer or the WNBA? Or women's gymnastics? LOL.

Baseball does - it just has to be one person but how can you pick one baseball player to be most influential - this is not a knock on Jeter and I am not looking to argue how great he was. But even on his team there were stars and many others on many other teams. Really hard to stand out as the most influential.

 

[Lafayette]

Peyton has been a celebrity since high school it doesn't compare to Clark. I guess you gotta tie the Manning family in there they are a huge deal down south. Got the Manning passing academy, was and is still in millions of commercials. Peyton was on the Olympics coverage. Clark is the new flavor of the news that's what it is but she's not more influential then Peyton.

This is a case of success (Peyton) and likeability. He's a great dude, but he did not take the NFL off life support and give people who didn't watch the NFL a reason to. That is what Caitlin did for the WNBA (and yes, Paige would have been that one if not for Caitlin), but that is a measure of influence rather than popularity.

 

[husky429]

So baseball doesn't have the cultural impact of women's soccer or the WNBA? Or women's gymnastics? LOL.

My answer wasn't any those. Sooo?

 

[storrsroars]

So baseball doesn't have the cultural impact of women's soccer or the WNBA? Or women's gymnastics? LOL.

There are many people who hate baseball because they find it "boring".

There are also many people who call the above people inceIs.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

How is beginning golf measured? From looking up the site they credit numbers being up because of covid being a boon for golf. They credit social distancing, gold simulators and the like.

I said Tiger was wildly popular and was dominant for a decade. He absolutely got people watching back then and the TV numbers in recent years are nothing like they were back then. The "Tiger effect" which was talked about so much back then with black and inner city kids playing the game hasn't materialized and we haven't seen a bunch of black professional players come along like was predicted.

View attachment 111256

Clearly not 100% tiger but the people that grew up with Tiger as the face of golf are in their 20s and 30s right now, with disposable income, which is prime age to pick up golf and drive the growth in golf. COVID and the flight from urban to suburban communities may have put gasoline on the fire but a lot of that is Tiger.

The idea that it’s still only country club types and very wealthy folks is also incorrect. Plenty of blue collar and middle income folks play golf. There has also been massive growth in minority golf participation over the last 25 years. POC were 9% of golfers in 1990, 19% at the height of Tiger, and 25% now. Actual professional golf representation was always going to be harder to come by. While amateur golf is reasonably accessible, competitive golf at the level required to go pro is absolutely still a rich kid’s game.

 

[storrsroars]

Peyton has been a celebrity since high school it doesn't compare to Clark. I guess you gotta tie the Manning family in there they are a huge deal down south. Got the Manning passing academy, was and is still in millions of commercials. Peyton was on the Olympics coverage. Clark is the new flavor of the news that's what it is but she's not more influential then Peyton.

Clark is the face of the WNBA. Prior to that, she was the face of women's college hoops for 2 years.

On a scale much smaller than Tiger's with the PGA, Clark is helping WNBA players earn real money. Manning never had that level of impact. He is a good commercial actor though.

 

[Scoe]

This is a case of success (Peyton) and likeability. He's a great dude, but he did not take the NFL off life support and give people who didn't watch the NFL a reason to. That is what Caitlin did for the WNBA (and yes, Paige would have been that one if not for Caitlin), but that is a measure of influence rather than popularity.

Ok I get it now.

 

[Deepster]

Baseball does - it just has to be one person but how can you pick one baseball player to be most influential - this is not a knock on Jeter and I am not looking to argue how great he was. But even on his team there were stars and many others on many other teams. Really hard to stand out as the most influential.

No argument.

So explain why Megan Rapinoe was mentioned before him.

 

[Lafayette]

So baseball doesn't have the cultural impact of women's soccer or the WNBA? Or women's gymnastics? LOL.

Baseball influentials if the 25 year rule was not here:

1. Jackie Robinson.
2. Babe Ruth - ended the Dead Ball era
3. Bob Gibson - they lowered the mound because of him in 1968
4. Curt Flood - free agency (yeah, blame him)
5. Lou Brock - no one was stealing bases for a long time and he brought it back
6. Ichiro - grew the Japanese market for baseball; got many people in America to watch who are of Japanese descent.
7. Bruce Sutter - credit for making save stats and metrics matter
8. McGwire/Sosa/Griffey - 1998!
9. Carl Mays - threw a pitch at Ray Chapman's head and killed him. No more spit balls, no more dirty plays, that and Ruth ended the dead ball era
10. Leaving this _________ for the sake of any further argument.

 

[EnochRoot]

I can't say Michael Jordan is the biggest influence on 21st Century sports. Not with a straight face anyway. I mean, why stop with him? Why not Bird or Magic, or hell, Shaq?

Tiger Woods? I guess so. But to me his largest contribution seems to be the blowhard drunkards' incessant, "GET IN THE HOLE!" after every shot with a prayer of reaching the green.

Tom Brady for 2nd, and then Seth Curry and Lebron can fight over third place. I like the nods that Ed O'Bannon has gotten in this thread.

 

[Flipside]

Ice Cube

... an athlete of sorts, ha, very influential getting a 3-on-3 tournament with old players on a major network, and didn't have to use his AK