Your best Latin American athletes of all time...

Marcus Aurelius was a stud in the discus in his younger days.

Oh wait, i misread the thread title.

 

clemente averaged .345, .352, .341 and .312 his final four years and finished fifth in the mvp voting in his next to last year, but, yes, he also only averaged about 120 games through those seasons. i don't know ... i don't think 3,500 could have been out of the question.

 

Yeah, but by then, he'd only be batting about .288, and who wants a hitter like that?

 

Good stuff, TP. I don't think you're too far off, actually -- 3,300 was probably well within reach.

Consider his contemporary: Hank Aaron. Both born in 1934, both came up in 1954-55, both had outstanding renaissance seasons in 1971 and then hit a quick decline in '72.

Aaron played until he was 42, which was highly unusual (partly a product of chasing and setting the HR record), and compiled 118, 91, 109 and 62 hits in his final four seasons, a total of 380. I doubt Clemente would have lasted that long, since he had already missed about 50 games a year from 1970-72. The injuries were piling up and, as we know, he had more important things that he wanted to do, outside of baseball.

So I don't think we missed too much of Clemente, at least on the field. Off the field, of course, that's a different story.

 

Anthony Muñoz.

Also, does Ted Williams belong in the conversation or not?

 

Martin Dihigo should be near or at the top of any list.

 

Pedro Cerrano.

 

Of course, for most great athletes that age of that era (before PEDs and the like raised the limits for near 40-somethings), those last couple just-hanging-on seasons were just as likely to embarrass and tarnish their legacy as help it. I take it you've heard the woeful tales of Mays stumbling over his feet in the Shea outfield, Unitas fumbling his snaps for the Chargers, and Aaron whiffing as a DH for the Brewers?

I believe Clemente only played about 100 games and had the lowest numbers of his career in his final 18th season, he was near the end of the line. He might've had another milestone or two in him, but to say "we can only wonder what might've been" is ludicrous.

 

Nelson Piquet — three F1 titles
Juan Manuel Fangio — five F1 titles between 1951 and 1957, with four in a row from '54 to '57
Emerson Fittipaldi — two-time F1 champ, two-time Indy 500 winner, CART champion back when it mattered

Pele is at the top of my list, though. Ronaldo and Ronaldinho should be mentioned, as well.

And Doc ... people from the Caribbean other than Cuba and Puerto Rico typically object to being lumped into Latin America due to the cultural differences.

 

Alberto Salazar

 

Some contemporary guys may be right there soon: Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols.

 

Just looking for clarification here. Are we talking about Latin American-BORN players or those of that heritage?