This post is about those that legit look like they are out there having fun (no Favre-o)

Inspired by the rumors that Jose Reyes might be coming back to the Mets. Dude used to really seem like he was a kid out there, having fun playing a game that he was insanely good at.

Arenas is on the list as well, as is Seattle-era Griffey.

Who else?

curry

Especially Curry, Iggy, Klay, Green, and Speights.

He doesn't seem to be having that much fun on the court.

I'm good

The OP is, in fact, overtly racist

being immature?

cause gronk seems like the def of immature.

and the def of just having fun.

but he be having fun out there.

.

In the NBA I think about White Chocolate. Steph also. It's funny Shaq was like a big ass kid all the time *except* when he was on the court.

In the NFL, Rodgers has a little of that Favre tradition in him. It's hard for guys who aren't quarterbacks to display that, on offense other roles are so precise and allow for little if any overtly playful improvisation. A little bit for defensive players maybe but you have to be a killer to play defense in the NFL.

In baseball there are definitely some guys. Manny and Ichiro come to mind. Vlad Guerrero had that playful, DGAF swag right up until the end. Reyes, sure, Ozzie Smith, too.

Doughty has it in the NHL but it's kind of been hammered out of him by his role and the system in which he plays it. He's had to shoulder so much responsibility, more each year. Kane is the first guy I thought of, weird mix of angry intensity and totally toying with opponents in a way that seems to entertain him. He has this way of getting away from people that's damn near singular and his puck handling is the definition of "fun." Tomas Hertl is another guy that springs to mind that maybe isn't as prominent.

right until he realizes his bs about to fail AGAIN

I still maintain Sandy bet wrong by extending Wright over Reyes.

Very smart player. Gifted. I mean a 6'9" PG??

He was having fun on and off the court. Except when they played the Pistons.

.

.

.

i once saw him make a game-winning, home-run robbing catch. if it went over the wall, they lost, if he made the catch, the game was over. truly incredible.

IMO hunter is a hall of famer. maybe his numbers miss a lot of the standards but they are all pretty good. he meets another criteria i consider, that if you are the best player at your position over the span of ten years, you're in. centerfield is obviously a very prominent position, too

Maybe the best

>Maybe the best

Top 3 All-time, maybe the GOAT!

>>Maybe the best
>
>Top 3 All-time, maybe the GOAT!
>
>

it would be like firebrand's rants about how good hines ward or something. as a multi-tool player he was pretty complete, but taking everything in sum didn't make him a top 3 guy.

still the best CF in the AL for over a decade and i think you could make arguments for him against jones and beltran. didn't have the power beltran did but beltran didn't always have it either. i do think jones lived off rep for a while while he was in an early decline. hunter certainly beat them both in terms of longevity.

>still the best CF in the AL for over a decade and i think you
>could make arguments for him against jones and beltran. didn't
>have the power beltran did but beltran didn't always have it
>either.

Beltran's numbers are better across the board. I'm really not even sure what the argument here is supposed to be.


> i do think jones lived off rep for a while while he
>was in an early decline. hunter certainly beat them both in
>terms of longevity.

decline from his prime GOAT CF defense maybe, but Jones was still a great defensive player until he fell of a cliff after turning 30.

But yeah Hunter aged like fine wine and certainly deserves credit for staying a very productive player for so long.

even if one resigns to saying hunter was merely the best CF in one league (the AL) over a ten-year period rather than MLB, jones had a steep decline and beltran had more than his share of injuries after his early 30s, too.

we are talking HOF potential, no?

and i think being the best in one league for a ten year period is at least worth a look. for example i'd look at omar vizquel for that same reason.

>even if one resigns to saying hunter was merely the best CF
>in one league (the AL) over a ten-year period rather than MLB,
>jones had a steep decline and beltran had more than his share
>of injuries after his early 30s, too.

Well Jones was the best CF in the NL over a ten-year period (actually in all of MLB but let's just stick to the one-league thing here), so by your argument that makes him HOF worthy, no? His Dale Murphy-esque fall off a cliff promptly following that will hurt him with HOF voters, but a decade-long run as a HOF caliber player should certainly make him worthy of induction.

Beltran had his injury issues in his early 30s but bounced back nicely his last year in NY when they traded him to SF + the next couple seasons in St Louis. And as I mentioned previously his career #'s are better than Hunter's across the board.


>we are talking HOF potential, no?

yes: baseball-ref HOF monitor (Likely HOFer ≈ 100)

A.Jones: 109
Beltran: 104
Hunter: 58

A.Jones: 62.8 career WAR/46.4 7yr-peak WAR/54.6 JAWS
Beltran: 67.3 career WAR/44.3 7yr-peak WAR/55.8 JAWS
Hunter: 50.5 career WAR/31.2 7yr-peak WAR/40.9 JAWS

Avg HOF CF: 70.4 career WAR/44.0 7yr-peak WAR/57.2 JAWS
(out of 18)

Center Field JAWS Leaders:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/jaws_CF.shtml

Beltran: 8th all-time
A.Jones: 10th all-time
Hunter: 30th all-time

Beltran and Jones are pretty solidly HOF caliber. Hunter has had a terrific career but he's not quite there.

>and i think being the best in one league for a ten year period
>is at least worth a look. for example i'd look at omar vizquel
>for that same reason.

oh yeah he's worth consideration, like walleye said hopefully he gets enough votes to stay on the ballot for several years and engender conversation about what a terrific career he's had. I'm all for that.

>>even if one resigns to saying hunter was merely the best CF
>>in one league (the AL) over a ten-year period rather than
>MLB,
>>jones had a steep decline and beltran had more than his
>share
>>of injuries after his early 30s, too.
>
>Well Jones was the best CF in the NL over a ten-year period
>(actually in all of MLB but let's just stick to the one-league
>thing here), so by your argument that makes him HOF worthy,
>no? His Dale Murphy-esque fall off a cliff promptly following
>that will hurt him with HOF voters, but a decade-long run as a
>HOF caliber player should certainly make him worthy of
>induction.

I didn't say it was an automatic, I said it meant someone deserved consideration. Jones deserves that but his fall was too hard and too fast.

>Beltran had his injury issues in his early 30s but bounced
>back nicely his last year in NY when they traded him to SF +
>the next couple seasons in St Louis. And as I mentioned
>previously his career #'s are better than Hunter's across the
>board.

He was a better hitter, I don't think he was a better centerfielder. When he has been healthy, he has remained productive, but that's like every three seasons on average since he reached age 32 or 33.

>>we are talking HOF potential, no?

Yes, potential, sure.

>yes: baseball-ref HOF monitor (Likely HOFer ≈ 100)
>
>A.Jones: 109
>Beltran: 104
>Hunter: 58
>
>A.Jones: 62.8 career WAR/46.4 7yr-peak WAR/54.6 JAWS
>Beltran: 67.3 career WAR/44.3 7yr-peak WAR/55.8 JAWS
>Hunter: 50.5 career WAR/31.2 7yr-peak WAR/40.9 JAWS
>
>Avg HOF CF: 70.4 career WAR/44.0 7yr-peak WAR/57.2 JAWS
>(out of 18)
>
>Center Field JAWS Leaders:
>http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/jaws_CF.shtml
>
>Beltran: 8th all-time
>A.Jones: 10th all-time
>Hunter: 30th all-time
>
>Beltran and Jones are pretty solidly HOF caliber. Hunter has
>had a terrific career but he's not quite there.

Hmmm, kind of tough to argue against all that.

>>and i think being the best in one league for a ten year
>period
>>is at least worth a look. for example i'd look at omar
>vizquel
>>for that same reason.
>
>oh yeah he's worth consideration, like walleye said hopefully
>he gets enough votes to stay on the ballot for several years
>and engender conversation about what a terrific career he's
>had. I'm all for that.

>IMO hunter is a hall of famer. maybe his numbers miss a lot of
>the standards but they are all pretty good. he meets another
>criteria i consider, that if you are the best player at your
>position over the span of ten years, you're in. centerfield is
>obviously a very prominent position, too

Hunter has been a really good player but not HOF caliber.

Nine gold gloves and all while hitting pretty well with above-average power.

at the end. and if you push the start date of the period back a couple years then Jones was clearly better over a full ten-year stretch as well.

That's not a knock on Torii, he's been a terrific player. Those guys were just better.

Dude was a mediocre hitter who just happened to be strong enough to hit it really far when he actually did make contact

And he was living off rep in the field from like 2003 on

No way shape or form a better baseball player than Torii Hunter

Im actually still lol'ing

Lol

.

A lifetime SLG knocking on .500 means that approach is working. It's not a poetry contest.

He has a damn near 1:1 hit to strikeout ratio

And a 1/3 ish OBP

Everything he did at the plate was power first, second, and third. No eye, no patience, and no technique.

>Dude was a mediocre hitter who just happened to be strong
>enough to hit it really far when he actually did make contact

and just happened to have a higher OBP than Hunter, only 2 pts higher K% but 4 pts higher BB%, 23 pts higher SLG%, 27 pts higher OPS, 10 pts higher wOBA. And that's even after cratering in his 30s.


>And he was living off rep in the field from like 2003 on

nah that was Torii after 2005 or so. Andruw was hands-down the best defensive centerfielder of his generation and arguably the GOAT.


>No way shape or form a better baseball player than Torii
>Hunter

significantly more power, got on base more, substantially better defender. so there's a way, a shape and a form right there.


>Im actually still lol'ing
>
>Lol

I'm actually guffawing at you lol'ing.

*guffaws*

But this conversation is so weird. He's had an amazing career. I hope he gets enough Hall of Fame votes to stay on the ballot a few years to keep people talking about how great he was.

But he wasn't as good as Andruw Jones. I kind of assumed that was universally understood. That it wasn't even an argument.

And good on you bringing up the weirdly under-rated Beltran.

like I said above Torii has been a terrific player. those other 2 guys were just better. wasn't trying to be down on Torii, he's great.


>And good on you bringing up the weirdly under-rated Beltran.

Mets fans & NY media never warmed up to him after his disappointing 1st season in NY (despite the fact he played most of the season hurt with a torn quadricep & then broke his face in a collision w/ Mike Cameron, but nobody cared about that), and then after taking the called 3rd strike ending the NLCS the next year they were pretty much over him. It was always "yeah he's good, but...", they never really appreciated what a great player he was.

______________________________
http://i.imgur.com/81XSukd.jpg <-- Happy trails

.

and i'm convinced nickey van smack made an early impression on a young kobe bryant in the art of chucking.

You could tell when he was nervous to start a game and goddamn could you tell when he got rolling. For all the bitterness at the end, Donovan was that fucking dude for us. He was our guy and I was proud to say it. I felt that way about Vick but only briefly, never about any of the other guys we had since Randall.

the energy was different.

the Eagles need someone willing to have some "fun" again.
I have a lingering feeling that Chip Kelly is a "No Fun" coach

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rickey's a charter member of this club even if Rickey doesn't have a chart.

but he's bipolar

jamal crawford may qualify at times tho.

he looks suicidal.

doink the clown of the mlb in his heyday.

Donovan was emotional in all directions and when he got it going he had that huge smile and wicked improvisational ability. He was a guy who fed so much off confidence, you knew exactly when he had it and when he did and holy shit when he had it he would COOK.

Iverson was like that too but he was more serious, more of a warrior. He hit the goddamn floor too much to be smiling and having a good time, and there was no opening for a laugh when he beat four or five different guys en route to a layup.

.

______________________________
http://i.imgur.com/81XSukd.jpg <-- Happy trails

All due respect to other fat guys who held it down (Sean May, Babe Ruth, et al) but nobody had SWAG like the Pillsbury Throwboy.

.....for about 6 inches.

And a ton of linemen in football, actually several tons of them.

It's funny you see very very few fat hockey players, even fewer than you see fat guys in hoops. You can usually count the overweight guys in the league on one hand. Some of them have been pretty good players, Keith Tkachuk got real fat at one point and the Blues suspended him. If you're above like 10% body fat that's rather unusual. Byfuglien almost certainly is, but he carries his weight really well.

Even if you get the ice time of a Bob Probert during games (i.e. 30 second shift followed by five minutes sitting on your own across the ice), you still have to skate for a couple of hours every day during practice, and even "standing around" on skates is engaging your legs/core much more than standing around during other practices.

an hour practice is long, any longer and it's always a time with multiple off days. i feel like some teams barely practice at all (blackhawks) but the weights, the film and all that kind of shit is more intense and time-consuming than ever.

.

______________________________
http://i.imgur.com/81XSukd.jpg <-- Happy trails

when he was actually talking to Jim Lampley while he was in the ring boxing against his opponent and Jim Lampley was sitting ringside. I'm certain this was pre-PPV days.

some of those games where he was on were straight LOL fests.

when he came to the Eagles, there were moments of LOL but it all seemed unreal and totally professional. might be part of the whole "image" rehab things, but the spectacle def had changed. I'll never forget the Ether Game.

Watching dude work was a lot of fun, even more fun than Rolen in his prime to me.

For this alone

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/elvis-andrus-throws-glove-at-kole-calhoun-s-soft-liner--avoids-costly-error-071025356.html

Him and Beltre are like two 12 year olds out there.

and this is a complete dumb observation

beltres kinda happy go lucky attitude i think rubbed off on andrus a little causing him to be more careless


i dunno its like beltre can act like that cause hes fucking beltre and i think elvis sometimes believes hes on the same level

http://s3.amazonaws.com/br-cdn/temp_images/2013/09/18/villar-butt-phillips-butt.gif

Not Ray, Raymond, Ray Ray or Raymundo, Rey like the Spanish word for King. Loved watching that dude operate.

dude was a wizard.