Most dominate athlete

[Xenophon]

Hard to pick one, different sports require different skills.

For example, in Football Lawrence Taylor was the best defender ever, dominated the sport and changed how it was played.

In Baseball you had Ruth, who did it all, hit, hit with power ran decently, had a great arm.

Basketball was dominated by Jordan, nobody else was close.

Gretzy changed hockey, nobody will ever equal the great one.

 

[Bfgrn]

Wayne Gretsky without a doubt.

I love Wayne Gretsky, and as far as Hockey he goes, yep, he was the best. But in all of sports, Tiger is still more dominant.

Its hard to say.

I would say Gretzky too, though was he really more dominant than Lemieux? I thought he was better, but Lemeiux was one of the best of all time as well. Gretzky played the game with a vision I had never seen before nor have seen since. Gretzky established records that are probably never going to be broken, though Lemieux almost did. Gretzky getting 212 points, as he did one season, is like Tiger shooting a 57 at the Masters.

You can't do wrong with Gretzky or Lemieux, both were great, but no one redefined had the way the game is played like Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe...

 

[JakeStarkey]

Anyone who doesn't agree that Tiger Woods is the greatest, most hopey changey, and dominant athlete ever!, is clearly a racist.

Tiger goes through times when he isn't dominant though.

There are other athletes in other sports who never once experienced a time during their career when they weren't dominating their sport.

Like Gretzky. Barry Sanders comes to mind as well, which also covers my ass on the racist implication.

I'd say Jerry Rice, but he ruined it for himself at the end of his career.

He'll go down as the greatest Broncos wide receiver ever

Tiger has always been dominant, even when he seems not to be. Check out his stroke percentages, his placings, his earnings . . . he has left all behind for a long, long time.

The greatest baseball player is Babe Ruth. He was the best left-handed pitcher of this time, then became the greatest power average of all time.

 

[DiamondDave]

No love for Joey Chestnut??

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Stuey Ungar: In 1977 he won a $100,000 bet from Bob Stupak that he could not count down a six deck shoe and determine what the final card in the shoe was. Ungar knew the final card.

 

[rightwinger]

By Sport

Boxing- Joe Louis
Baseball- Babe Ruth
Football- Jim Brown
Basketball- Wilt Chamberlain
Track- Carl Lewis
Hockey- Wayne Gretsky
NASCAR- Richard Petty

 

[manifold]

No tennis fans huh?

An argument can easily be made that Roger Federer has dominated men's tennis over the last several years more than any athlete has ever dominated any sport. He has more major wins than Tiger Woods in a shorter period of time.

From wikipedia:
Federer has won 15 Grand Slam singles titles, more than any other male player. He is one of six male players to have captured the career Grand Slam. Federer has appeared in an unprecedented 21 career Grand Slam finals, and as of September 2009, has reached the semi-finals or better of the last 22 Grand Slam tournaments, a streak that spans over five years.[12] Federer also holds the record of reaching 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals and has appeared in 17 of the last 18. As a result of his successes in tennis, Federer was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for four consecutive years (2005–2008).

 

[manifold]

at some ignoramus who posted Wilt Chamberlain.

I don't know how anyone can consider him most dominant when Bill Russell shut his ass down every time they faced off.

 

[rightwinger]

at some ignoramus who posted Wilt Chamberlain.

I don't know how anyone can consider him most dominant when Bill Russell shut his ass down every time they faced off.

That is a myth

Chamberlain outperformed Russell in the majority of their games. Like Casey Stengle said "You can look it up"

However, the Celtics had five Hall of Famers on the team and Sixers had Wilt.

When Wilt came into the NBA they changed the rules to stop him. When Michael Jordan came in, they changed the rules to help him score more

 

[manifold]

He most certainly did not "outperform" Russell. He scored more, but scoring wasn't what Russell was there for. He was there for his defense. Go look up Wilt's scoring average overall vs against Russell.

 

[rightwinger]

For anyone who ever ran track in HS, look at these times and distances for Wilt Chamberlain as a Highschooler in the 50's

In his early years, Chamberlain was not interested in basketball, because he thought it was "a game for sissies".[9] Instead, he was an avid track and field athlete: as a youth, he high jumped 6 feet, 6 inches, ran the 440 yards in 49.0 seconds and the 880 yards in 1:58.3, put the shot 53 feet, 4 inches, and broad jumped 22 feet.[10] But according to Chamberlain, "basketball was king in Philadelphia", so he eventually turned to the sport

Considering his size, those are amazing numbers. Even today

 

[Paulie]

It's hard to pick anyone in football, because players only contribute on one side of the ball.

So for football, how about Deion Sanders?

 

[Mr Natural]

Muhammed Ali.

A great boxer, a colorful character, and one of the most recognizable people on earth.

 

[rightwinger]

He most certainly did not "outperform" Russell. He scored more, but scoring wasn't what Russell was there for. He was there for his defense. Go look up Wilt's scoring average overall vs against Russell.

To be honest manifold, there were only two big men in basketball at the time. Both Wilt and Russell dominated their oposition. So while Wilt had lower numbers against Russell than when he went up against a 6'4 center, Russell also had lower stats against Wilt.

 

[Paulie]

No way. Mugsey Bogues in Basketball.

Just to MAKE it to the NBA when my 2 year old son is taller than you is an accomplished feat worth admiring.

 

[Bern80]

Wayne Gretsky without a doubt.

I love Wayne Gretsky, and as far as Hockey he goes, yep, he was the best. But in all of sports, Tiger is still more dominant.

These are the two guys I thought it would come down to. Who would go one or two is kind of up in the air for me. I liked some of the other answers but I have to plead ignorance on guys like Thorpe as they were way before my time. Ruth could be number one as well I think when you consider is hitting and the fact that he was a pitcher.

What makes me lean toward Gretsky is the records he has amassed and the fact that we probably won't see anyone get anywhere near him. So let's do a real comparison of dominance between Tiger and Gretsky. I would think you would have to compare things like tournaments and/or majors won. Tiger doesn't hold the record for majors, he will probably, but not yet. I doubt he has the lowest avg score of any golfer or something like that.

Now look at Gretsky's stats.

894 goals - Most in the NHL...by a lot when you consider the next closest is Howe with almost 100 fewer goals and he played almost 300 more games. Among active players Selane is the closest with 579 and he maybe has 3 years left.

1963 assists - Over 700 more than anyone else and almost 3 times as money as any current active player (Modano). His assist per game average is almost twice the next person. He averaged 1.3 assists per game. Think about that. On avg. he contributed to a goal in every game he played.

He also has the single seasons goals and assists record. 92 goals in a season in 81-82. There are only 80 games in a season. Think about THAT. If you played the Oilers that season you started the game down 1-0 before the first puck dropped because of one guy.

These are the major ones, but Gretsky holds or shares 61 other records. Here's another fun one. Most goals by two brothers who played in the NHL. 895 Wayne's brother, Brett, had one.

 

[Bfgrn]

How many times has Tiger been crosschecked, slashed or slammed into the boards?

 

[del]

How many times has Tiger been crosschecked, slashed or slammed into the boards?

almost as many as gretzky was.

 

[Bfgrn]

How many times has Tiger been crosschecked, slashed or slammed into the boards?

almost as many as gretzky was.

Almost...LOL... Gretzky was really difficult to line up, but he did have reinforcements...

The Code - Marty McSorley | CBC News: the fifth estate

 

[rightwinger]

How many times has Tiger been crosschecked, slashed or slammed into the boards?

almost as many as gretzky was.

You nailed that one!