2015 Sportsman of the Year running thread

She is an all time great and not to diminish it, but at that time Steffi had little competition. Martina was done and Seles and Hingis were still kids. Serena is at an age when most women are done, but she is dominating. If she wins the US she should definitely get it, unless Spieth also completes the slam. In that case, they should share it, think Coaches K and Summitt were the last co-winners.

 

Other than finishing 1988 as No. 2 in the world, yeah, Martina was done.

 

Well, yeah.
Spieth still has to win two more tournaments and Serena is down to one.

 

And after '88 she won one more major, so if you don't want to say done then she was near the end. She was mid-30s and Steffi was in her prime.
Considering that, what Serena is doing is even more impressive.

 

My main point in that the way the tournaments are played for each sport. The golf tournaments, even the majors, are much more of a crapshoot, mainly because Spieth would have to beat the entire field, and chances are greater that a player or two is going to rise up for a weekend and finish ahead of Spieth, no matter how good he is in general. Meanwhile, Serena faces one opponent at a time and is much, much better than that opponent the majority (if not all) of the time right now. I'd make the same statement if Serena had two tournaments to go and Spieth only had one.

 

Honest question: Is Serena's competition better, worse or equal to Graf's?

I don't think I see anyone arguing that Serena would be undeserving. I think we're simply recognizing the reality that SI tends to follow the American public's lead and ignores tennis. Federer reached 18 of 19 Grand Slam finals from 2005-2010, broke the record for Grand Slam championships and still never got SOY.

SI could surprise us, but I doubt Serena gets it.

 

I hadn't thought of that but, yeah, by 1988, the women's tennis field was very weak. Graf in her prime, Martina was about 3 years past her HOF prime, Evert was about 7 years past. I seem to remember that, after Graf or Navratilova, you might get the occasional Sabatini or Manlikova breaking into a semi or final.

1988 WTA Tour - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pam Shriver was 5th that year. It was the 1988 Topps set of women's tennis. Not many stars and no promising rookies.

 

The women's field is very weak now, and has been for several years.

 

No they haven't.

Nor have they forgotten Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, which may be the underlying concern regarding why Serena isn't getting more attention..

The animosity toward the American Pharoah story on this site has befuddled me from the outset. You can't say a cross word about Our Girls, playing a sport that precisely no one gave jack shit about until we started winning all of 16 years ago, without setting off the board equivalent of a riot. But a sport that reaches back through the annals of American sports history? It's cool here to give it a big ol' "meh."

 

What animosity?

 

Jackie Stewart beat Secretariat for it back in 1973, and if Secretariat didn't win it, nothing with four legs should win it.

Harper looks like a pretty strong choice right now. I honestly think it's going to go to a baseball player. Cutch if the Pirates win it could work, and Trout for the Angels.

 

They won't give it to a baseball player two years in a row. Bumgarner won last year.