With big-money free agency dominating professional sports these days, it is rare for athletes to spend their entire careers with one team. As such, we often look back with nostalgia on ballplayers who did indeed only play for one team during their professional careers; during the 1980s and 1990s, two MLB superstars who epitomized this bygone era were Don Mattingly of the New York Yankees and Kirby Puckett of the Minnesota Twins, who for a decade, were each the heart and soul of their respective teams. As their careers essentially overlapped and both players retired in the same year with highly comparable numbers, it is only natural to ask:
In hockey, defensemen who not only prevent the other team from scoring goals, but can also quarterback their own team’s offense, both on the power play and at even strength, are invaluable to a team’s success. Throughout the long history of the NHL, a select few players have brilliantly displayed both of these skills – two of these legends are Brian Leetch and Al MacInnis, who are recognized as two of the most offensively-gifted defensemen of all time and are part of a rare group that has reached the 1,000 career point milestone from the blueline. In comparing the long and accomplished careers of these two players, the question is:
Two of the greatest dynasties in NBA history have been the 1960s Boston Celtics and the 1990s Chicago Bulls – led by legendary coaches in Red Auerbach and Phil Jackson and transcendent superstars in Bill Russell and Michael Jordan, respectively, equally important to each team’s success were their “secondary” or “complementary” stars. In particular, two names that stand out from these teams are small forwards John Havlicek and Scottie Pippen, who were each renowned for their versatility in terms of an ability to score, rebound, pass, and defend, and basically do whatever was necessary to win. Superstars in their own right, given their similar importance to legendary teams, an apt question to ask is:
When two players are drafted first and second overall in a given year, their careers are inexorably linked and will be forever compared and contrasted to each other (think Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin in the 2004 NHL Draft, or in a different sport, Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf in the 1998 NFL Draft). Such was the case in 1971, when two Quebec junior hockey superstars, Guy Lafleur and Marcel Dionne, were selected with the first two picks in that year’s NHL draft – both picks worked out, as each player went on to have a legendary Hall of Fame career, thus inevitably bringing up the question:
At the 2016 All-Star Game, MLB renamed the AL and NL batting title trophies after Rod Carew and Tony Gwynn, respectively, an apt tribute given each player’s hitting prowess – after all, only six players in baseball history have won seven or more batting titles: Ty Cobb (12x), Honus Wagner (8x), Gwynn (8x), Carew (7x), Stan Musial (7x), and Rogers Hornsby (7x). As baseball has evolved more and more into a game of the “three true outcomes” (home run, walk, or strikeout), Carew and Gwynn were unique in that neither was a power hitter, but instead, consistent .300+ contact hitters who each amassed 3,000+ career hits over nearly two decades. Given their similar games and the fact that they will be forever immortalized together as batting champion namesakes, it is only natural to ask:
