All-time favorite athlete whose career was cut short?

Pistol Pete Reiser. Line drive hitting outfielder, speedy and with a great arm, for the Dodgers in the '40's and early '50's. He insisted on trying to run through walls...and those walls weren't padded.

 

He was hurt 18 years after he was drafted.

 

yeah, i was hestitate to include mattingly for those reasons. in the end, i included him on the argument his career as a sure-fire Hall of Famer was cut short by the back woes. but if the topic was designed to only qualify candidates whose career ENDED prematurely, exactly right, mattingly should be ignored...

but by that measure, a guy like bobby orr shouldn't be considered, too, right? he played for 12 seasons. due to his knee woes, though, only a limited number of those were godlike. so the definition of a 'career cut short' is a tad vague, agreed?

 

Yup.

 

I want to meet the "purist" who would state Tyson was not among the greats. Better than Ali? No. Among the all-time greats - easily YES.

Arguably second best heavyweight ever. For a stretch he was THE baddest man on the planet.

 

Orr played 36 games in his last four seasons.

 

fyi, for the longevity argument's sake, penny played for 16 years, bernard 14.

so now i don't feel so guilty about including mattingly in the discussion...

 

Tyson ruined heavyweight boxing for me. Nobody since him can even come close to being half the fighter he was when he was in his prime.

 

Konstantinov was 30 years old at the time of the accident.

http://www.hockey-reference.com/players/k/konstvl01.html

Actually, Howe's career WAS cut short -- he was forced into retirement in 1971 by the idiots then running the Red Wings.

He sat out two years, then came back in the WHA.

 

George Blanda
Julio Franco
Jamie Moyer

 

re: orr -- he played in only 36 games his last THREE seasons, but his first nine were pretty full.

 

Although he lasted for over a decade, kind of, there is no question in my mind the greatest athlete whose career was negatively affected by injuries was Bill Walton. He was the greatest college player ever, and given health, would have been the same in the pros.