The brightest stars burn the fastest | Page 2 | The Boneyard

The brightest stars burn the fastest

DFW HOYA said:
Mark Fidrych is the archetype but there have been others. David Clyde was another.
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But the bird played 3 amazing seasons before that knee issue - his star was bright for like 3.5 years. Compared to guys like David Lin that is an eternity.
 
Deepster said:
I think Tim Lincecum qualifies. He really only pitched 8 seasons and had 2 Cy Young awards, 3 WS rings, 2 no hitters and led the league in K's 3 separate times.
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Look up Koufax. Only had a handful of full seasons.
 
As others have already mentioned, Linsanity was an exciting time to be in the Garden. Must have killed Carmelo to be overshadowed by a relative no-name at MSG especially with all the fanfare when he came back ‘home’.
 
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boog204 said:
Linsanity was incredibly cool for about 6-7 games.
Before my time, but Mark Fidyrich had a ridiculous year and then was basically gone.
In my early Yankee fandom days, Donnie Baseball was the best player I'd ever seen. Then his back decided to make him ordinary.
DRose was a MVP and then...
Penny Hardaway was Magic Johnson 2.0 and then...
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Mattingly and Hardaway were both exceptional players for prolonged periods of time before having the length of their careers shortened. Fidrych and Lin are the best examples I can think of.
 
Also, for the few older CT people that follow bass fishing, Bryan Kerchal. A young CT guy who won the world series of bass fishing, the Bassmasters Classic, out of nowhere. Four months later, he tragically died in a plane crash.
 
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superjohn said:
Connecticut boy Dark Knight Matt Harvey.

Connecticut boy Steve Blass of Steve Blass disease fame.
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After Steve Blass pitched the Pirates to the World Series title in 1971 I met him at WBIS. I was just getting interested in major league sports that year and I picked the Pirates as my team after seeing some games on tv during the season. My best friend’s mother brought us to the Bristol radio station. I was 9 so I can’t say I really truly appreciated him but it was cool.
 
Jaydumo20 said:
We can try to keep it basketball related but I'm cool if you go off of the hardwood and onto the field.

Name an athlete who unexpectedly captivated a city or the country for a short time but faded just as quickly.

(It doesnt mean they were out of the league necessarily, but became largely a common after their quick burst of stardom)
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Kevin Maas from the early 90's Yankees or Gregg Oden.
 
Jabba post-midges.
Daniel Jones after successful initial preseason.
 
Jose Jimenez Cardinals rookie pitcher in June 99 pitched a no hitter in Arizona vs Randy Johnson, Cardinals scored in the 9th to win 1-0. In that game Randy Johnson threw his 2500th strikeout. Two weeks later, in a game I had the good fortune to attend, Jimenez threw a 2 hitter vs Randy Johnson in St Louis. The Cards came out on top again 1-0. Mark McGuire hit a triple and later scored for the games only run in the 4th. Both games combined RJ threw 22 strikeouts. Against the rest of the NL I believe Jimenez had a 7 plus era. He stuck around for a few years but never again shined so brightly.
 
cwh20 said:
After Steve Blass pitched the Pirates to the World Series title in 1971 I met him at WBIS. I was just getting interested in major league sports that year and I picked the Pirates as my team after seeing some games on tv during the season. My best friend’s mother brought us to the Bristol radio station. I was 9 so I can’t say I really truly appreciated him but it was cool.
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He was a very good/great pitcher for 5 seasons. He dominated the World Series pitching 2 complete game wins, 18 innings with 2 earned runs total. He had one more great season and then couldn't ever find the plate again.

If you know tiny Canaan, CT it's hard to believe a stud MLB pitcher ever came out of there, it's 1,000 people and as sleepy as it gets.
 
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superjohn said:
Connecticut boy Dark Knight Matt Harvey.

Connecticut boy Steve Blass of Steve Blass disease fame.
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Matt Harvey is a great one.
If you go back to some of those 70s uconn baseball teams they had some good prospects. I dont know how good his dad was but the son rose and set quite quick.
 
Jaydumo20 said:
Matt Harvey is a great one.
If you go back to some of those 70s uconn baseball teams they had some good prospects. I dont know how good his dad was but the son rose and set quite quick.
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I guess he flamed out? He had a pretty rare thoracic joint problem, even had a rib removed to try and help it and then pitched well into a postseason run against doctors orders and was never the same.
 
Daunte Culpepper-was never the same without Randy Moss. Dolphins picked Culpepper over Brees.

Steve Avery- one of the Braves young star aces along with Smoltz and Glavine.

Mark Wholers- was never same after Leyritz homered off him in game 4 of World Series.

Brandon Jennings- had a 55 pt game as a rookie
 
Fernando Mania with the Dodgers was great. He stuck around a few years, but his rookie season was electric.
 
James Bouknight certainly captivated UConn Country for a couple covid years. Lots of kids leave early though and it doesn't pan out.

Victor Page from Georgetown left after his sophomore year and didn't even get drafted.
 
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Daisuke Matsuzaka came with an extremely hefty price tag after a very good career in Japan. ROY candidate at age 27 and Cy Young candidate at 28. Then it all unraveled. Twas a shame.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Look up Koufax. Only had a handful of full seasons.
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Four man rotations back then. A full season was 40-41 starts as opposed to 31-33 today.

Still remarkable he retired at 30 after compiling a 10.3 bWAR season and his third Cy. Have to wonder if today's $$$ would've changed his mind and kept pitching despite the pain (or taken a year off for an operation). He made $125K in 1966, about $1.23 million today. But he'd be more likely been making $30 mill/year in today's market.
 
Kolumbo said:
James Bouknight certainly captivated UConn Country for a couple covid years. Lots of kids leave early though and it doesn't pan out.

Victor Page from Georgetown left after his sophomore year and didn't even get drafted.
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Victor Page. Good call.
 
Deepster said:
I guess he flamed out? He had a pretty rare thoracic joint problem, even had a rib removed to try and help it and then pitched well into a postseason run against doctors orders and was never the same.
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Yeah. I Wouldn't say that he lost it. It was definitely injury. But considering how short he was on the top of the heap. I remember listening to an interview he did with Dan Patrick and he was talking about his rehab and seemed so confident.
I remember that there was also something about that interview that had some controversy. Re: Harvey wanting to promote a product on the air as a contingency to be interviewed and Patrick pushing back. I recall Harvey coming across kind of unlikeable
 
Jeff Francoeur was a good one for me - he became my favorite player instantly, was the best player all summer after a call-up as a rookie and was on the cover of SI "The Natural." He had a pretty strong sophomore season then stunk the rest of his career - he's now a good broadcaster, though.

He maaaaay have influenced my username.
 
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