June 6, 2025 • 14 mins
Shep dives into our Mitch Lyons Wealth Poll Question: does a player or coach need to win a championship to be considered the greatest to ever do it?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's our Mitchellineswealth dot com polk question of the day.
Do you think a player or a coach has to
win a title to be considered the greatest? Simply yes
or no? And if you feel that way, let me
just bring up some certain names, if it's okay, all right,
(00:21):
because I was thinking about this last night. Not that
it was by any stretch anybody on the floor for
Indiana or OKC. I mean, we get way too far
ahead of ourselves when it comes to certain things like that.
But if you watch a Day of Life on the
(00:41):
NFL network, which is really well done or not, no,
a football life, excuse me, not a day in the life,
but football life. It's really well done. And I was
watching Walter Payton the other day. I was like, god, man,
I was so good. You know, I hate Chicago, but
it's hard to deny that guy. The guy was a
hell of a player and he won a championship. But
(01:03):
that was the belief. The belief was, you've got to
win one. When they were talking about John Elway and
how he had come up short, can't be considered the
great unless he won, and he ended up winning two.
A lot of these names are way too if in
the time machine for many people out there, but Ernie Banks.
(01:27):
I know people love Ryan Sandberg or Andre Dawson or
some of the other maybe Dansby Swanson now, but the
best CUB of all time is widely considered Ernie Banks.
It was two time MVP, a fourteen time All Star,
never made the World Series. In fact, he played on
only six teams in his entire career that were above
(01:51):
five hundred, so he could be considered and he's a
Hall of Famer, he could be considered maybe the greatest
CUB of all time, and yet his team never won
a championship. Barry Bonds. If you believe that you can't
(02:12):
be called the greatest if you don't win a title,
the Barry Bonds can't be in your conversation. Seven time MVP,
two batting titles, eight Gold Gloves, fourteen time All Star,
did play in a World Series. They lost to the Angels.
(02:37):
Do you think it's Barry Bond's fault that they lost?
He hit four to seventy one and had an ops
of twelve ninety four. Detroit owned Ty Cobb, arguably the
greatest hitter of all time, twelve time batting champ, that's right.
(03:00):
It was a twelve time batting champ, hit three sixty
seven for his career. He played in three straight World
Series before Jim Kelly and the Bills lost four in
a row. Ty Cobb and the Tigers lost three straight,
two to the Cubs, first two to the Cubs and
the second one to Pittsburgh had a I think before
(03:23):
top receiver had the highest percentage of inclusion in the
Baseball Hall of Fame, So maybe you can't do that, right.
Patrick Ewing, not that he would have ever to be
considered the grace of all time, but he's one of
the better big men in history. Eleven time All Star,
(03:45):
seven time All Leagues, helped the Knicks get to thirteen
straight playoffs, made it to one and lost. Tony Gwinns
one of the best hitters, no doubt ever, Fifteen time
All Star. I've talked about it before seven times Silver slugger.
Never struck out more than forty times in a season.
I'll repeat that, never struck out more than forty times
(04:09):
in a single season, never won a title. How do
you do that? Allen Iverson, some would argue, is the
best pound for pound player of all time. I wouldn't,
but some would. He was called that during his huge
(04:32):
run where he was making eleven All Stars and winning
four scoring championships and seven time All NBA MVP of
two thousand and one. Hockey Jerome mcginla, Dude's got five
hundred and twenty five goals played in one Stanley Cup
lost to Tampa. Henrik Lundquist, who does a really good
(04:53):
job as an analyst on TNT, He's got four hundred
and fifty nine wins in his career. He was six
and two in game sevens and surrendered nine goals. Game
on the line. Six and two surrendering nine goals played
(05:14):
him one Stanley Cup lost to the Kings can't be
considered if that's the case. Karl Malone, we didn't like
him because of the elbow to Isaiah Thomas and his eye,
and rightfully so. But he did help with John Stockton
lead you talk to eighteen consecutive playoff appearances. It's pretty
(05:36):
damn good. Fourteen time All Star, two time MVP. Two
more for you, Dan Marino. When Dan Marino burst down
to the scene, he set the NFL single season record
that lasted decades. Eighty four yards forty eight touchdowns. Never
(05:57):
seen anything like it, Like, holy crap, this dude's slinging
it all over the yard. Can anybody stop them? Phenomenal
quarterback won Super Bowl, lost to Joe Montanan the Niners.
I've mentioned Ty Cobb and Tony Gwynn. Is among the
greatest hitters. If you truly believe, you can't be called
(06:19):
the greatest unless you win a championship. You can't vote
for Ted Williams. And Ted Williams was a two time MVP,
was a finalist seven times in his career. That's amazing.
He's the last man to hit four hundred and that
(06:42):
was in nineteen forty one, and that year he finished
second in the MVP because Joe DiMaggio and the Yankees
won the title. That Demaggio had a fifty six game
hitting streak. It's not like he had a bad year.
He hit three fifty seven for crying out Loud and
drove in one hundred and twenty five. But Williams led
(07:06):
the league in war led the league in runs, led
the league in homers, led the league in walks, led
the league in batting average, led the league in Imbez percentage,
led the league in ops, led the league in ops
plus it was incredible year. It's a nineteen time All Star.
We were all amazed at Miguel Cabrero winning the triple crown, right,
(07:31):
remember that as the first one since Carlustrimsky and so
on and so forth. Ted Williams did it twice. Oh
and by the way, he didn't play when he was
twenty four, twenty five, or twenty six. Those three years
(07:52):
prime years, arguably the most prime years of one's career.
He had just finished back to back years he had
finished second in the MVP race because at age twenty
two he had the four hundred season four h six
to be exact, and the following year led the league
(08:15):
in war and everything else, but finished second in the
MVP to Joe Flip and Gordon to the Yankees. Dude
hits three point fifty six on base of four ninety
nine leads the league in homers, runs, RBI's war, batting average, walks,
on base percentage, slugging loses to another Yankee. You don't
(08:35):
think there is any type of bias back then, Absolutely
there was. Imagine that today social media, twenty four hour sports,
twenty four hour news, constant discussion about personal achievements in
(08:57):
just about anything in life. Can you imagine if a
dude turned in the resume and said, I led the
league in war, I led the league in all those
categories I just talked about, and oh, by the way,
for the second straight year, even though I led the
league in all those categories, I finished second. My god, man,
(09:19):
people would be going ballistic. Miss three years because he
went to the military, He fought in the damn war,
came back and was named MVP. I don't like the
Red Sox. How do you miss three years of your
prime life? Come back, lead the league for a fourth
(09:41):
straight year in runs, lead the league for a third
straight year in walks in a fourth straight year and
batting average, and a fourth straight year in on base percentage,
and a third straight year in slugging. I could go
on and on. It's unbelievable what he was able to do.
(10:02):
You may not think certain guys can play in certain eras.
Before you start spouting about the greatest of all time,
look at the numbers that certain guys have put up,
including him. I know, old guy. Gosh darn it, well,
that may be. Okay, that could be. I'm not afraid
(10:23):
I never saw him play. That doesn't mean I can't
appreciate how great he truly was. And it sure doesn't
mean that I can't appreciate going back and looking at
the numbers and shaking my head and thinking, how in
the world did he do that. I remember hosting some
shows and Miguel Cabrera in twenty ten, I believe it
(10:52):
was twenty ten. Trent's got a really good memory. He
could he might he finished. Miguel Cabrera finished second in
the MVP of Josh Hamilton, and people were upset. There
was another time where the debate was between him and
Mike Trout and people were livid, and I mean livid
(11:18):
that I think it was twenty twelve that people were
even discussing Mike Trout. Yeah, Cabrera finished ahead of Mike
Trout in that MVP race. They were livid that he
was even being brought up. That was not the That
was not the Triple Crown year, right, the Triple Crown year. No,
(11:39):
that was, Yeah, twenty twelve was a Triple Crown year.
Maybe it was twenty thirteen where it was Cabrera and
Trout because they finished one to two in both those
But people were livid and I remember hosting the show
and I said, I think Miguel Cabrera deserves the MVP. Period.
But and that's where everybody, oh, here we go. I said,
(12:02):
if you think war is important, and it's I'm not
saying it's the be all, end all, but if you
think it's important, you can understand why some people would
view Trout as a guy who's in the conversation, he
led the league in war with eight point nine. Miguel
Cobret was seven point five. I said, he led the league, walks,
(12:23):
he led the league runs, He did a lot of
things really well that year, just so you know, so
the conversation is legitimate. They couldn't believe it, Like, how
do you not go? I said, Cabrera deserves to be
the MVP. And that was the second It was the
first of two straight MVPs and the first of two
(12:44):
straight years in which he beat out Mike Trout. You're,
of course you're going to vote for a guy who
leads the league in in those three significant categories. I mean,
forty four bombs, one hundred and thirty nine RBIs that
three thirty? But the guy right behind him had a
ten and a half war the Triple Crown season. The
(13:07):
dude who finished second had a higher war, he had
more run scored, and he stole forty nine bags and
he also hit three twenty six, not far off from
what Cabrera did, but people couldn't believe it. And Mike
Trubb belongs on that list too. If he can't be
the greatest, If you believe that he can't be the
greatest unless you win the title, he would be that guy.
(13:29):
He'd be the guy you have to keep off or
out of the conversation. Do you truly believe that? I
think it's a very interesting poll question brought to you
by Mitch Lions and Mitch Lions Wealth dot Com. Like
Trunt's won three MVPs. Right, he's an eleven time All Star,
it's a nine times Silver Slugger, Major League Player of
the Year. He's a Hall of Fame player, without a doubt.
(13:53):
And if it's not I always ask this to people,
if it's not that guy, because not Ted Williams, it's
not very I don't think anyone would have thought Jerome Acginla,
you know, he can't be the best. But there are
certain guys on this list that I think you can
you can make a case for Tony Gwinn's not going
to be considered the greatest player of all time, but
(14:14):
hit or wise, Ted Williams is in the conversation for
greatest player of all time, Ty Cobbs in the conversation
for greatest player of all time, Barry Bonds Cheater in
the conversation for the greatest player of all time. You
can make those cases. And Mike Trout perhaps a little
premature here, but during his prime, I'm not sure we
(14:38):
saw anybody better
Here's our Mitchellineswealth dot com polk question of the day.
Do you think a player or a coach has to
win a title to be considered the greatest? Simply yes
or no? And if you feel that way, let me
just bring up some certain names, if it's okay, all right,
(00:21):
because I was thinking about this last night. Not that
it was by any stretch anybody on the floor for
Indiana or OKC. I mean, we get way too far
ahead of ourselves when it comes to certain things like that.
But if you watch a Day of Life on the
(00:41):
NFL network, which is really well done or not, no,
a football life, excuse me, not a day in the life,
but football life. It's really well done. And I was
watching Walter Payton the other day. I was like, god, man,
I was so good. You know, I hate Chicago, but
it's hard to deny that guy. The guy was a
hell of a player and he won a championship. But
(01:03):
that was the belief. The belief was, you've got to
win one. When they were talking about John Elway and
how he had come up short, can't be considered the
great unless he won, and he ended up winning two.
A lot of these names are way too if in
the time machine for many people out there, but Ernie Banks.
(01:27):
I know people love Ryan Sandberg or Andre Dawson or
some of the other maybe Dansby Swanson now, but the
best CUB of all time is widely considered Ernie Banks.
It was two time MVP, a fourteen time All Star,
never made the World Series. In fact, he played on
only six teams in his entire career that were above
(01:51):
five hundred, so he could be considered and he's a
Hall of Famer, he could be considered maybe the greatest
CUB of all time, and yet his team never won
a championship. Barry Bonds. If you believe that you can't
(02:12):
be called the greatest if you don't win a title,
the Barry Bonds can't be in your conversation. Seven time MVP,
two batting titles, eight Gold Gloves, fourteen time All Star,
did play in a World Series. They lost to the Angels.
(02:37):
Do you think it's Barry Bond's fault that they lost?
He hit four to seventy one and had an ops
of twelve ninety four. Detroit owned Ty Cobb, arguably the
greatest hitter of all time, twelve time batting champ, that's right.
(03:00):
It was a twelve time batting champ, hit three sixty
seven for his career. He played in three straight World
Series before Jim Kelly and the Bills lost four in
a row. Ty Cobb and the Tigers lost three straight,
two to the Cubs, first two to the Cubs and
the second one to Pittsburgh had a I think before
(03:23):
top receiver had the highest percentage of inclusion in the
Baseball Hall of Fame, So maybe you can't do that, right.
Patrick Ewing, not that he would have ever to be
considered the grace of all time, but he's one of
the better big men in history. Eleven time All Star,
(03:45):
seven time All Leagues, helped the Knicks get to thirteen
straight playoffs, made it to one and lost. Tony Gwinns
one of the best hitters, no doubt ever, Fifteen time
All Star. I've talked about it before seven times Silver slugger.
Never struck out more than forty times in a season.
I'll repeat that, never struck out more than forty times
(04:09):
in a single season, never won a title. How do
you do that? Allen Iverson, some would argue, is the
best pound for pound player of all time. I wouldn't,
but some would. He was called that during his huge
(04:32):
run where he was making eleven All Stars and winning
four scoring championships and seven time All NBA MVP of
two thousand and one. Hockey Jerome mcginla, Dude's got five
hundred and twenty five goals played in one Stanley Cup
lost to Tampa. Henrik Lundquist, who does a really good
(04:53):
job as an analyst on TNT, He's got four hundred
and fifty nine wins in his career. He was six
and two in game sevens and surrendered nine goals. Game
on the line. Six and two surrendering nine goals played
(05:14):
him one Stanley Cup lost to the Kings can't be
considered if that's the case. Karl Malone, we didn't like
him because of the elbow to Isaiah Thomas and his eye,
and rightfully so. But he did help with John Stockton
lead you talk to eighteen consecutive playoff appearances. It's pretty
(05:36):
damn good. Fourteen time All Star, two time MVP. Two
more for you, Dan Marino. When Dan Marino burst down
to the scene, he set the NFL single season record
that lasted decades. Eighty four yards forty eight touchdowns. Never
(05:57):
seen anything like it, Like, holy crap, this dude's slinging
it all over the yard. Can anybody stop them? Phenomenal
quarterback won Super Bowl, lost to Joe Montanan the Niners.
I've mentioned Ty Cobb and Tony Gwynn. Is among the
greatest hitters. If you truly believe, you can't be called
(06:19):
the greatest unless you win a championship. You can't vote
for Ted Williams. And Ted Williams was a two time MVP,
was a finalist seven times in his career. That's amazing.
He's the last man to hit four hundred and that
(06:42):
was in nineteen forty one, and that year he finished
second in the MVP because Joe DiMaggio and the Yankees
won the title. That Demaggio had a fifty six game
hitting streak. It's not like he had a bad year.
He hit three fifty seven for crying out Loud and
drove in one hundred and twenty five. But Williams led
(07:06):
the league in war led the league in runs, led
the league in homers, led the league in walks, led
the league in batting average, led the league in Imbez percentage,
led the league in ops, led the league in ops
plus it was incredible year. It's a nineteen time All Star.
We were all amazed at Miguel Cabrero winning the triple crown, right,
(07:31):
remember that as the first one since Carlustrimsky and so
on and so forth. Ted Williams did it twice. Oh
and by the way, he didn't play when he was
twenty four, twenty five, or twenty six. Those three years
(07:52):
prime years, arguably the most prime years of one's career.
He had just finished back to back years he had
finished second in the MVP race because at age twenty
two he had the four hundred season four h six
to be exact, and the following year led the league
(08:15):
in war and everything else, but finished second in the
MVP to Joe Flip and Gordon to the Yankees. Dude
hits three point fifty six on base of four ninety
nine leads the league in homers, runs, RBI's war, batting average, walks,
on base percentage, slugging loses to another Yankee. You don't
(08:35):
think there is any type of bias back then, Absolutely
there was. Imagine that today social media, twenty four hour sports,
twenty four hour news, constant discussion about personal achievements in
(08:57):
just about anything in life. Can you imagine if a
dude turned in the resume and said, I led the
league in war, I led the league in all those
categories I just talked about, and oh, by the way,
for the second straight year, even though I led the
league in all those categories, I finished second. My god, man,
(09:19):
people would be going ballistic. Miss three years because he
went to the military, He fought in the damn war,
came back and was named MVP. I don't like the
Red Sox. How do you miss three years of your
prime life? Come back, lead the league for a fourth
(09:41):
straight year in runs, lead the league for a third
straight year in walks in a fourth straight year and
batting average, and a fourth straight year in on base percentage,
and a third straight year in slugging. I could go
on and on. It's unbelievable what he was able to do.
(10:02):
You may not think certain guys can play in certain eras.
Before you start spouting about the greatest of all time,
look at the numbers that certain guys have put up,
including him. I know, old guy. Gosh darn it, well,
that may be. Okay, that could be. I'm not afraid
(10:23):
I never saw him play. That doesn't mean I can't
appreciate how great he truly was. And it sure doesn't
mean that I can't appreciate going back and looking at
the numbers and shaking my head and thinking, how in
the world did he do that. I remember hosting some
shows and Miguel Cabrera in twenty ten, I believe it
(10:52):
was twenty ten. Trent's got a really good memory. He
could he might he finished. Miguel Cabrera finished second in
the MVP of Josh Hamilton, and people were upset. There
was another time where the debate was between him and
Mike Trout and people were livid, and I mean livid
(11:18):
that I think it was twenty twelve that people were
even discussing Mike Trout. Yeah, Cabrera finished ahead of Mike
Trout in that MVP race. They were livid that he
was even being brought up. That was not the That
was not the Triple Crown year, right, the Triple Crown year. No,
(11:39):
that was, Yeah, twenty twelve was a Triple Crown year.
Maybe it was twenty thirteen where it was Cabrera and
Trout because they finished one to two in both those
But people were livid and I remember hosting the show
and I said, I think Miguel Cabrera deserves the MVP. Period.
But and that's where everybody, oh, here we go. I said,
(12:02):
if you think war is important, and it's I'm not
saying it's the be all, end all, but if you
think it's important, you can understand why some people would
view Trout as a guy who's in the conversation, he
led the league in war with eight point nine. Miguel
Cobret was seven point five. I said, he led the league, walks,
(12:23):
he led the league runs, He did a lot of
things really well that year, just so you know, so
the conversation is legitimate. They couldn't believe it, Like, how
do you not go? I said, Cabrera deserves to be
the MVP. And that was the second It was the
first of two straight MVPs and the first of two
(12:44):
straight years in which he beat out Mike Trout. You're,
of course you're going to vote for a guy who
leads the league in in those three significant categories. I mean,
forty four bombs, one hundred and thirty nine RBIs that
three thirty? But the guy right behind him had a
ten and a half war the Triple Crown season. The
(13:07):
dude who finished second had a higher war, he had
more run scored, and he stole forty nine bags and
he also hit three twenty six, not far off from
what Cabrera did, but people couldn't believe it. And Mike
Trubb belongs on that list too. If he can't be
the greatest, If you believe that he can't be the
greatest unless you win the title, he would be that guy.
(13:29):
He'd be the guy you have to keep off or
out of the conversation. Do you truly believe that? I
think it's a very interesting poll question brought to you
by Mitch Lions and Mitch Lions Wealth dot Com. Like
Trunt's won three MVPs. Right, he's an eleven time All Star,
it's a nine times Silver Slugger, Major League Player of
the Year. He's a Hall of Fame player, without a doubt.
(13:53):
And if it's not I always ask this to people,
if it's not that guy, because not Ted Williams, it's
not very I don't think anyone would have thought Jerome Acginla,
you know, he can't be the best. But there are
certain guys on this list that I think you can
you can make a case for Tony Gwinn's not going
to be considered the greatest player of all time, but
(14:14):
hit or wise, Ted Williams is in the conversation for
greatest player of all time, Ty Cobbs in the conversation
for greatest player of all time, Barry Bonds Cheater in
the conversation for the greatest player of all time. You
can make those cases. And Mike Trout perhaps a little
premature here, but during his prime, I'm not sure we
(14:38):
saw anybody better
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