Friday Fire: Pick a Teammate…Any Teammate. Who Ya Pickin’ First?
This is about the teammate.
Not about skill.
Who do you feel safe helping you get the win? Who makes that cut just as you envision it? Who gets open when the rush gives you a window to pass? Who gets to the quarterback when the defense needs a stop? Who with the crack of the bat helps you all walk off? Who helps you off the floor after your shot is smacked four rows into the seats?
You stand on the field or the court and before the game begins, you have your pick of any player alive or deceased on any level. This could be anyone from your youth or someone you rocked with ‘hood to ‘hood, block to block.
Who ya running with?
I’m running with Reggie White because of what he expected out of his teammates and more importantly, himself.
Any Sport? Cuz I got an idea…..
Oh boy. This is tough. Any sport, huh? Wow…I think I’ll go with Bill Russell because he always seemed to make the defensive stop, and he was very disruptive in making things happen on the offensive end by usually creating lanes for the guards.
One player out of any sport? That’s a tough one. I need to marinate on this one.
(the Pro-Wrestling Pick) Bryan Danielson. I could suck out loud and that dude would somehow manage to make me seem credible.
(real sports pick) Wayne Gretzky. See above.
Easy for me.
Jackie Robinson-Anybody want to argue that one?
I will, Kev. I LOVE Jackie. He’s one of my heroes. However, Bottom of the ninth, 2 outs, down by 1, and a man on 1st, Jackie is not getting the man on base around. He might advance the runner and get on base, but he’s not knocking the man in. Good pick though.
So, Dredded One, in 1949 — when Jackie was busting his ass to the tune of a .342 batting average AND 124 RBI’s, why doesn’t that man score? He was MVP that year. He knocked in 80+ four times and 95 one year.
Sometimes, the role of a teammate isn’t merely to get a single guy home. After all, you play to win the game — not to tie. Sometimes, the role of a teammate is to sustain a rally by doing something unconventional that changes the rhythm of the game.
I’ve always felt that the guys who posed the greatest threat to Mariano Rivera were those “broken bat single” guys. They get “seeing-eye singles” and the next thing you know, a team on life support has busted through for 7 runs.
It happens. Sometimes you need a teammate just like Jackie to get it done.
Kobe
Current Athlete – Steve Smith – yeah he may bust me in my face for God knows what…but I know he’s gonna fight just as hard on EVERY possession of EVERY game…
Past Athlete (non mainstream)- Dan Gable – if you don’t know about wrestling…know about this guy. Only 118 wins and 1 loss while in college. Nothing too major. Gold medal in the 72 Olympics. Oh yeah…he went on to win 9 STRAIGHT NCAA national titles as a coach at Iowa….and the school is still sucessful because of him….
One More for the Road – Bill Russell….nuff said.
Charles Oakley.
Brian Dawkins
“Give it to me because I’m gonna give it to you, doggone it. Snot bubbles. Crazy eyes. I want it all.”
Foxhole talk right there because I’ll take Dawk as my teammate on the football field or a tag team match against the Four Horseman.
HD….. it’s Horsemen.
and i’m not gonna lie…. B-Dawk would be pretty good.
Thanks for playing spellcheck for me, O. Don’t know what I’d do without you differentiating between singular and plural for me.
Yeah, right.
Matthew beat me to it.
Charles Oakley
Forget that he was one of the best team defenders whose rotations would cover mistake of others, but just try to mess with one of his teammates. Just try…
Oakley was the quintessential “foxhole” teamate
sorry HD. I was cranky that morning. someone took my last orange.
No fuss, O.
Take care.
I’m from Dallas and while he may be one crazy guy off of the field there was never a teammate like Michael Irvin.
On the field he was the heart of the Dallas Cowboys of yesteryear.
As long as you don’t try to steal his seat. (reference near stabbing incident)
Michael Jordan would be a pretty good teammate too because I could lounge around eating popcorn all day while he kept winning me championships.