All-time favorite athlete whose career was cut short?

My choice is Gale Sayers (I'm that old).

Bo Jackson was an amazing athlete and I loved watching him do amazing things but I never really saw him as say, Terrell Davis or Rickey Henderson, someone who was dominant then had his career cut short. He was pretty good, but not great, in either sport. Put together, yeah, he was a great athlete.

 

Cam Neely.

 

Mark Prior. So much pain there as a Cubs fan, but damn was he fun to watch, along with Kerry Wood, when he was on. In comeback mode now, would be nice to see him get it back on track and carve out something of a career, even if it is middle relief.

 

Bobby Orr.

 

Stephen Strasburg.

Too soon?

 

Agree on Donny Baseball

 

What about Roberto Clemente?

 

I have to disagree qt. Had Bo devoted himself full-time to football, he'd have been an inner-circle Hall of Famer, with the likes of Dickerson, Simpson and Sanders.

Had he stuck to just baseball (or if he'd never hurt his hip), he could have been a perennial All-Star, if not a Hall of Famer ... at worst something along the lines of a Jayson Werth or Jermaine Dye. He was Carl Crawford with a better arm and much more power (if not as much plate discipline).

Clemente was basically done as a player when he died. He was 38 and had played 18 years in the majors. He was a much bigger loss as a citizen (he might have one day been president of Puerto Rico) than he was as an athlete.

 

He formed the greatest backfield in NFL history with Marcus Allen. He had three runs of 88 yards or greater in his short career and averaged 5.4 YPC.

He was the real deal.

 

Is someone calling Bo Jackson "pretty good, but not great"? If so, that's the first time I've ever heard of anyone say that. Congrats, whoever you are!

 

Normand Leveille
Travis Roy
Tony Conigliaro
Bobby Orr
Mark Bavaro

 

Ronald Reagan in 'Knute Rockne, All-American.'