Sports

Reality ruins sports

Death, injury, lawlessness rob us of so many great memories

Michael Muldoon
Published: July 11, 2009

Yao Ming is that rare athlete with freakish size (7-6, 310 pounds), surprising coordination and a drive to be the best.

Destined to be one of the all-time greats, the 28-year-old Houston Rockets center was recently diagnosed with a broken foot which the fear is could be career-ending. Sports fans are nothing if not selfish and frankly, this ticks me off. Great athletes give us great memories which sustain our love for sport. But when reality rears its ugly head, it can be crushing.

And too often, reality rears its ugly head.

Boston's real curse

There can't be another town which has experienced more athletic heartache than Boston.

You youngsters, Youtube Len Bias. Watch his steal and vicious reverse dunk vs. North Carolina. Few in college basketball history boasted his unique combination of breathtaking athleticism and a feathery jump shot.

Len did coke, Len died, Boston lost out on a couple titles in the late Big 3 era.

A franchise rarely experiences that type of pain. Except the Celtics, who seven years later relived the same agony with young all-star Reggie Lewis' death.

The Patriots had Marquise Hill die in a boating accident and old-timers still shudder at the thought of the great Golden Greek, Lynn's own Harry Agganis, dying from a pulmonary embolism at age 26.

He was living the dream as an up-and-coming star for the hometown Red Sox. This after the Boston University All-American quarterback turned his back on a lucrative NFL career.

In many ways, Tony Conigliaro's career paralleled Agganis'. He grew up on the North Shore and had dashing good looks and power to die for. He hit 100 homers for the Red Sox by the time he was 22 but then he was beaned. The horrific photo of his purple and black eye still turns stomachs. His vision shot, Tony C. was never the same. He, too, died young. He suffered a stroke at age 37 and was in a coma for eight years until his death in 1990.

Sad case of Bobby Orr

Songs, poems and books have been devoted to athletes dying young, but let's not overlook injuries.

A piece of New Englanders died every time the Bruins' incomparable Bobby Orr went under the knife for one of his dozen-plus knee surgeries. I'll never forgive the hockey gods for depriving me of all the jaw-dropping moments No. 4 would have given us. His career was all but over at the age of 27.

Same, too, with the prototypical power forward Cam Neely. He had the Midas touch around the net and could pummel an opponent with his fists. His knees forced him to retire at age 30. Damn you Ulf Samuelsson!

And how sad was it when budding Bruins star Normand Leveille's career was snuffed out by a brain aneurysm at the tender age of 19.

Celtic fans will always have a soft spot in their hearts for Leon Powe, the overachieving warrior who was homeless for a time while enduring a brutal youth in Oakland. So for all the heels in sports, why did it have to be him with the devastating knee injury in the 2009 playoffs?

Patriots running back Robert Edwards rushed for 1,115 yards as a rookie in 1998 before blowing out his knee at, of all places, an NFL rookie flag football game in Hawaii. The injury was so horrific his leg nearly had to be amputated.

Darryl Stingley's paralysis from a vicious Jack Tatum hit is one of the low points in Patriots and NFL history.

Northboro's Mark ''The Bird'' Fidrych captivated the nation with his child-like innocence on the mound, but after finishing second in the Cy Young voting his rookie season (1976), he injured his arm in his sophomore campaign and only had 10 more career victories. Sports gods, how could you do that to us?

Iron Mike, Bo and the Kansas Comet

On the national stage, I'll always feel cheated by Mike Tyson. Immaturity, indifference and immorality were all that separated him from being the greatest heavyweight of them all. It's a pity that he's remembered as a punchline, not a puncher nonpareil.

A fluke hip injury prevented Bo Jackson from being arguably one of the greatest running backs of all time and/or one of the greatest sluggers of all-time. What a tragedy for him and us.

Gale Sayers' moves transcended generations. Unfortunately, like Orr, knee injuries robbed the Chicago Bears back of the magic. Although he played only 68 games, The Kansas Comet lived up to the nickname and then some.

An often overlooked back is Marcus Dupree, who may not have been quite as fast as Bo, but at 6-3, 235 pounds (pre-steroids era!) he was about 15 pounds heavier. He set the college football world on its ear as a freshman at Oklahoma. I'll never forget his sad words about how God gave him the strength of two men to make up for his brother with cerebral palsy.

It would have been so much fun to watch 9-10 more years of Dupree, who was never the same after injuring his knee as a 20-year-old in the old USFL.

The mid-career deaths of flamboyant golfer Payne Stewart and the legendary Dale Earnhardt Sr. (among other NASCAR drivers) still sting followers of those sports.

Seles could have been the greatest

In terms of chilling video, the stabbing of Monica Seles is still horrible to watch. A deranged Steffi Graf fan came out of the stands with a 10-inch knife and stabbed the 19-year-old Seles, who had already won nine Grand Slam titles. She would only win one more.

Who's to say she otherwise wouldn't have won 10 more and become hands down the greatest player of all-time?

Of course the list goes on and on. Basketball had a horrible cocaine problem in the mid-'80s, ruining the careers of promising young big men like massive Chris Washburn and before-his-time 7-foot forward Roy Tarpley.

And guys like Boston Shootout legend Randy Livingston, pocket Magic Shaun Livingston (no relation) of the Clippers and classy Grant Hill had their careers marred by injuries.

I'll never forget the look on my college neighbor's face when the Chicago native heard Windy City schoolboy legend Ben Wilson, the nation's top prep player, was murdered in 1984, the day before the start of his senior season.

Ralph Sampson was 7-4 and good enough to be named College Player of the Year over the likes of Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing. He was the NBA All-Star Game MVP. Red Auerbach all but offered to sell his soul for Sampson to leave school early (the McHale-Parish trade was a nice consolation prize!).

Sampson averaged 20.7 points and 10.9 rebounds for his first three seasons with the Houston Rockets before injuries led to a rapid decline.

J.R. Richard was Randy Johnson before there was Randy Johnson but a stroke at age 30 ended his career and a few years later the 6-8 flamethrower was living under a bridge.

Drug abuse prevented Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry from being first-ballot Hall of Famers and a slew of injuries prevented bruiser Eric Lindros from dominating the NHL.

Stupidity and political correctness may team to end Mike Vick's career. When he was in the open field, though, America held its breath. Ask anybody who was at the Virginia Tech-BC game on Sept. 30, 2000.

Foreign basketball aficionados say 7-3 Russian Arvydas Sabonis was a shell of his former self by the time he signed with the NBA. Before the bad knees and hard partying took their toll, he might have been Bill Walton's equal.

Ah, Walton, if not for his brittle feet, he would have been one of the game's true legends. He is probably the No. 2 collegian of all-time to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Let's not forget that sore-armed Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax retired at age 30. Punishing Sean Taylor might have been the NFL's most intimidating free safety when he was killed at age 24. Jerome Brown was an unstoppable force on the Eagles' line who died at age 27.

America shed a tear when safety Pat Tillman, who turned down a multi-million contract, was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan at age 27. Another classic example of the sports world just not being fair was the death of Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis from leukemia at age 23.

Maybe with a little luck, Yao will recover. Sports fans have suffered enough.

E-mail Michael Muldoon at mmuldoon@eagletribune.com.