[Gotham Dark Knight]

Okay, who was better the great Japanese slugger Sadaharu Oh (he of the over 800 honers) or Pele' he of the over 1,000 Goals...or Wayne Gretzky?

[Lefty Noob]

Oh wow... Gotham, you've really outdone yourself with this one!

Having never had the pleasure of seeing Sadaharu Oh or Pele play, I have to go with Gretzky by default. But jeez is it ever hard trying to determine which had the greater athletic accomplishments...

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by Lefty Noob

Oh wow... Gotham, you've really outdone yourself with this one!

Having never had the pleasure of seeing Sadaharu Oh or Pele play, I have to go with Gretzky by default. But jeez is it ever hard trying to determine which had the greater athletic accomplishments...

I saw Pele in decline....never saw Oh, but the man cracked out over 100 more homers than Aaron...shorter seasons too...

[legend]

Immediately we eliminate Oh because of inferior competition. I doubt he would do that in today's Japanese baseball leagues. Even if he could, his appeal was limited to mostly Japan.
Gretzky is very similar to Pele in that they both did things in their sports that nobody had seen before. But as good as gretzky was, Pele was at one time the most recognized name in the world. Not of just an athlete, but of everyone from every venue. I'll bet he is in the top five today in name recognition around the globe, decades after his retirement. And he was that way before the internet, before cell phones, before the world got smaller due to technology. They stopped a WAR once so he could play!

[Wizard of Os]

(Perhaps it should be pointed out that none of these three dominant legends is American...)

I'm going with Legend here. It's Pele -- the greatest all-time in the world's most popular sport. To be dominant at the event which represents the highest level of competition of any sport in the world, the World Cup, should be enough in itself.

It's probably closer than we all think, though, because The Great One Gretzky literally revolutionized his sport to even a greater extent than Jordan -- probably the combination of Larry and Magic is most comparable. When the Great One left, he left behind a more beautified sport with more elegance and flash and speed than the big bruiser days of the 1970s.

O, and i think Gotham said the stuff about Saduhura Oh and light competition. I'd like to throw in my two cents there. I was reading this nostalgia piece on Wilt the Stilt's 100 point game. The writer of the piece answered all the criticism about the game (you know, no real competition, no other seven footers, his teammates went out of their way to fed him the ball, etc.) by saying, "Look, it doesn't matter who you're playing. 100 points is a lot of points." I feel the same way about these historical or cross-cultural comparisons. Just because Wee Willie Keller hit .402 in 1902 don't mean it's not .400. And Rocky Marciano going undefeated for his heavyweight career is still undefeated, despite a weak pool around him. Same goes for Oh, in my opinion.

Great question!

Cheers, all!