The brightest stars burn the fastest

[storrsroars]

How about Josh Hamilton? Granted it was due to addiction, but he won an MVP and had that iconic HR Derby performance. Looked like the next Mickey Mantle.

Sad story. Right up there with Gooden.

 

[storrsroars]

A recent one to consider is Jordan Spieth. Looked like the next great golfer and has completely fallen off.

I recall in 2005 Michael Campbell had top 6 finishes in The Open and the PGA and won the US Open, holding off Tiger. Also won the World Match Play championship that year.

And that was pretty much it for him.

 

[superjohn]

How about Josh Hamilton? Granted it was due to addiction, but he won an MVP and had that iconic HR Derby performance. Looked like the next Mickey Mantle.

That's a good one. He's maybe the best talent I've ever seen in baseball. Bonds is the only other 5 tool guy like him.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

Kimbo slice. Insane street fight videos then got put in a ring with mildly competent fighters, got rocked and then floundered around the MMA scene for a while before passing away from heart failure

 

[Viet Vet]

Actually a great example... I was 10 years old when he burst onto the scene and made UConn basketball a thing. Then just like that, he was gone. We continued as a 20 win team and made the sweet 16 without him, but we would've been a championship-level team with Nadav for year two.



I know it was rampant cheating and everything else, but it was super fun watching that team of 14-year-olds lay the smack down. Think it's pretty much been determined that the dominant Chinese Taipei teams were using overage players, too, no?

Almonte was 15, two years into cheat time.

 

[ET7774]

Calvin Schiraldi

 

[Jaydumo20]

How about Josh Hamilton? Granted it was due to addiction, but he won an MVP and had that iconic HR Derby performance. Looked like the next Mickey Mantle.

I think he would've been top 5 players of the past 30 years

 

[Chin Diesel]

Same vein, I remember seeing Sam Horn hit absolute bombs at Pawtucket and then break in with the Sox and hit like 15hrs in 50 games. Thought he would mash for years to come.

I was trying to remember his name. Absolutely fits in this topic.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I recall in 2005 Michael Campbell had top 6 finishes in The Open and the PGA and won the US Open, holding off Tiger. Also won the World Match Play championship that year.

And that was pretty much it for him.

Max Homa is real close to losing it. In less than a year he has gone from Top 10 in the world to missing qualifying for the US Open.
Changed his equipment, changed his coach. Fired his caddy. And his interviews exhibit behavior of someone with zero confidence.

 

[AdamaNation]

That kid from St. John’s in the 90s. Totally forgot his name. From the Dominican Republic

Felipe Lopez?

 

[husky8273]

That kid from St. John’s in the 90s. Totally forgot his name. From the Dominican Republic

Felipe Lopez, played at Rice. Met him in a South Beach bar after the Timberwolves played Miami years ago.

 

[Jaydumo20]

Oklahoma RB Marcus DuPree.

He was the next Walter Peyton or Earl Campbell.

Probably the best 30 for 30s I've ever seen.

 

[Huskyforlife]

Baseball has so many of these guys. Feels like the hardest sport to continue dominance in.

I think Chris Ivory had one really good year for the Jets, with the rest of his career just being solid.

 

[Scoe]

Joel Zamiya, he could throw up to 103. He had a career changing injury from playing guitar hero.

 

[Palatine]

For a glorious decade, from 1945-55, Harry Agganis ruled sports headlines across New England, and the United States. He was the most celebrated schoolboy athlete in the country, a three sport high school star who turned down offers from more than seventy-five colleges to attend Boston University - so he could be near his widowed mother.
He was a quadruple threat All-America football star and one of the most sought-after baseball players in America. He was the first draft choice of the World Champion Cleveland Browns, chosen to succeed legendary quarterback Otto Graham.
But the story of Harry Agganis is his clean-cut life and love for family, friends and church, and dedication to his hometown of Lynn, Massachusetts, where he went from the sandlots to college to the Marines to the Boston Red Sox, where starring as a slugging left-hander at first base, he was paired with Ted Williams - until tragedy struck suddenly.
This, for the first time, is the story of the man they called "The Golden Greek."

 

[boog204]

I think he would've been top 5 players of the past 30 years

No doubt... Hamilton is easily one of the most naturally talented players I've ever seen and just had that "look" to him that so few have had in my lifetime. I think Griffey and ARod are the only other two I can think of who just totally looked like absolute stars just by the way they wore the uniform.

 

[Northbound]

Brian Bosworth

 

[boog204]

Maybe not the same level of success, but more hype, but I remember seeing Schea Cotton play at T-More and think he was the most physically impressive player I'd ever seen—legit man vs. boys. I desperately wanted him to come to UConn. Lenny Cooke was it before a fairly unknown Lebron started his ruination. There are good docs on both of those guys.

As a kid, I remember hearing about Damon Bailey for years before he went to IU. He had a very solid career, but it felt like his star started flaming out almost immediately.

Sebastian Telfair had endless hype, and then was exposed pretty quickly.

Tony Mandarich was supposed to be the best OL ever.

Todd Marinovich the first "Robo QB"

 

[Jaydumo20]

No doubt... Hamilton is easily one of the most naturally talented players I've ever seen and just had that "look" to him that so few have had in my lifetime. I think Griffey and ARod are the only other two I can think of who just totally looked like absolute stars just by the way they wore the uniform.

Not that this guy was in that league but:

Yasiel Puig.

That dude took l.a. by storm for a week

 

[Jaydumo20]

Maybe not the same level of success, but more hype, but I remember seeing Schea Cotton play at T-More and think he was the most physically impressive player I'd ever seen—legit man vs. boys. I desperately wanted him to come to UConn. Lenny Cooke was it before a fairly unknown Lebron started his ruination. There are good docs on both of those guys.

As a kid, I remember hearing about Damon Bailey for years before he went to IU. He had a very solid career, but it felt like his star started flaming out almost immediately.

Sebastian Telfair had endless hype, and then was exposed pretty quickly.

Tony Mandarich was supposed to be the best OL ever.

Todd Marinovich the first "Robo QB"

All good ones.
Marinovich and Damon Bailey are great ones.
I mention Damon Bailey in Indiana and they get the same dreamy look in their eyes as when they talk about Steve Alford

 

[superjohn]

Aaron Hernandez is #1 for me in terms of wasted talent and it goes so far beyond sports. He had Hall of Fame talent and it simply turned into a nightmare which ended up with people losing their lives and so many other lives destroyed.

He was destroying himself and others while still balling out on the football field in only 38 NFL games and it was all over at 23 years old.

 

[nomar]

How about Josh Hamilton? Granted it was due to addiction, but he won an MVP and had that iconic HR Derby performance. Looked like the next Mickey Mantle.

This is a good one. He was basically The Natural. The promise, the career derailed, and then the emergence. HR Derbies are dumb but not that one. That one was a hyper-talented player at his peak performance.

God knows what his career stats would have looked like if he didn't have devils on both shoulders.

 

[boog204]

Aaron Hernandez is #1 for me in terms of wasted talent and it goes so far beyond sports. He had Hall of Fame talent and it simply turned into a nightmare which ended up with people losing their lives and so many other lives destroyed.

He was destroying himself and others while still balling out on the football field in only 38 NFL games and it was all over at 23 years old.

Thought about adding him. I remember Bristol Central came to my school (I'm a teacher) to play us in FB, and just the way Hernandez carried his pads proved he was a man against boys. His aura, even as a high schooler, was next level.

 

[Deepster]

This is a good one. He was basically The Natural. The promise, the career derailed, and then the emergence. HR Derbies are dumb but not that one. That one was a hyper-talented player at his peak performance.

God knows what his career stats would have looked like if he didn't have devils on both shoulders.

I am not a very empathetic guy (I know, shocker) but it made me feel really bad for him when he'd talk about how much he hated his tattoos because they reminded him of his times of drug use. He used to wear wrist bands to cover them up.

 

[Flipside]

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