Barack Obama not familiar with Bill Russell's career

Just watched an excerpt of this year's Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony (to be televised soon) with Barack Obama talking about Yogi Berra's great career.  As part of his summation of Yogi's life and contributions to society, he said, "He played in fourteen World Series in eighteen years.  Won ten World Series rings.  Had three MVP awards.  He had, as one biographer put it, the winningest career in the history of American sports.  Nobody's won more than this guy."

Huh?  Whoever wrote that for Obama needs a fact-checker and I would have thought, with Obama's love of basketball, that also, he would have caught that gaffe of forgetting about the career of one William Felton Russell and his ELEVEN pro championships in a team sport, which is actually ONE MORE than the ten rings Yogi won, crowning Bill Russell as having "the winningest career in the history of American sports," not Yogi.  Russ won in college and the Olympics too, which Yogi never did.  And, being a Yankee fan - hey I'm from New York, guys (but I never rooted for the Knicks) - I love Yogi.  But Obama should have his facts straight.  Either have them written for him by someone who knows his stuff, or, as a serious hoops fan, he should know enough about Bill Russell's career to instantly recognize a ridiculous mistake by an induction ceremony writer.

Especially since He awarded Russ the same medal a few years back.

The recently deceased are always "the best this or that". Their flaws are overlooked and ignored.

He gave Russ the Medal of Freedom a few years back. Russ was, in addition to being a great baller, a high profile leader in the civil rights movement. I cannot see how Barack Obama would not be aware of that.

He was being nice to Yogi and to his family, who deserved it too.

It's just politics and politicians playing nice when they need to. In 1984 Ronald Reagan awarded the Medal of Freedom to Eunice Kennedy Shriver. I'll bet he had a lot of very nice things to say about her and her family at the award ceremony. Privately? Maybe he was a bit cooler.


bob


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gyso wrote:Most politicians speak to their audience and I expect our current president is no different.  That being said, baseball has twice as many game each year than basketball does.  With such a long career, Yogi probably has won more games than Russell.  Facts are facts.  Many top baseball teams win around 100 games each season.  Multiply that by 18 years and the statement, "Nobody's won more than this guy" doesn't seem like such a reach.

Adding 4 years of college to Russ's win total doesn't bring him closer to actual games won.  The differences in championship appearances and championships won over their careers is marginal, so that doesn't necessarily push Russ over the top in this discussion.

Comparing different eras is an effort in futility and comparing different sports is even harder.  Trying to define the term "winningest" will vary among most sports fans.  GOAT is in the eyes of the beholder.

gyso

if winning GAMES instead of championships was what Obama was referring to (highly unlikely), Derek Jeter and Pete Rose have a siginficantly higher total than Yogi Berra.