Poll on Importance of Individual Playing Positions in Various Sports

I hope this will start a healthy debate.

Sam

Sam,

I'll go with baseball pitcher for the simple fact you can get by for periods of time without the other three.

In basketball you can do without a proficient point guard. As a matter of fact championship teams have at times had someone at the point with limited skills for that position.

Football is another sport where teams have won championships with QB's that had questionable arms and limited leadership skills as well. With the rising popularity of wildcat formations there are times a true quarterback doesn't even take the field.

In hockey good defensmen can help keep some of the heat off a second tier goalie and teams practice defending late in the game when they've pulled their goalie for an extra skater.

In all three of those sports there are ways to compensate for the player at the position in question being a weak link.

In baseball there is no way around a pitcher getting out on the mound and establishing control of the game. A good defense can't really do anything to make up for a pitcher giving up hit after hit. Balls hit into gaps (or worse) cannot be defended against. You simply pull the pitcher and try again.

To me a pitcher is the single most important position in any team sport.

Hi,
I'll go with pitcher because baseball is the most "individual" team sport out of the mentioned 4. Also, if a pitcher screws up there's no one who can correct his mistake. Really simplistic but you've got the drift, I hope.

AK

Well.

looking at it this way.............

Nothing in baseball starts till a pitch is thrown. Every play begins with it.

A center must snap the ball to the QB. Who usually gets rid of it to a RB or a Receiver. Or gets pummelled to paste if he does anything else. But even then on 4th down the QB may be on the bench.

Basketball has a jump ball and not with the point guards and once started sometimes the PG might not get his hands on the ball for several possessions.

Hockey...............is that a national sport eh?

beat

hands down it has to be the pitcher in baseball.

I'm going with the pitcher.

In football, balls have been hiked directly to a running back. It's a "trick play", because everybody expects it to be hiked to the QB, but it works anyway. The Oklahoma wishbone is a great example of a team that regularly uses its QB almost like another running back. Jim McMahon of the Chicago Bears is a good example of a pro quarterback with a mediocre arm winning 2 SuperBowls. Joe Theisman was a great, HOF QB (who suffered, IMO, the worst looking sports injury ever) but his Washington Redskins were a mostly running team, behind their huge frontline (known as "The Hogs") and everybody knew that their running playbook was "Riggins left, Riggins right and Riggins up the middle". Theisman and Art Monk were there to mix it up, not to carry the team. John Riggins, RB, was the key cog on that team.

The LA Lakers have played in 6 Finals rounds since 1999, winning 5 of them. The starting PG on those Lakers teams was Derek Fisher. 'Nuff said.

If there's any position contending with the pitcher in this, for me, it might be the hockey goalie. Anybody who knows hockey will tell you that a team can ride a hot goalie to the Stanley Cup. Yes, there are defensemen that can help him, but they can't block every shot on goal, he has to do that for himself.

I picked the pitcher because a pitcher can pitch a perfect game without any help from anybody else (except the catcher, but when the pitcher's hot, what does he have to do? Keep calling for '1's?). The goalie can have a shutout, but he can't prevent all shots on goal himself, he can only stop them. Remember Ron Guidry back in 1978, when he went 25-3? The outfield could almost have laid down and taken naps when he was on the mound. Also pitchers, at least in the National League (I'm in SF, remember?) and sometimes in the World Series, get to bat. This means that unlike a goalie they have an opportunity to contribute to the offense as well.

bob

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First off, why is it the point guard for basketball instead of the center? (Said the 6-9 guy who played center.)

I voted for the goalie. Hockey is the sport I follow the least (sorry, I'm a Californian), but what I do follow shows time and again that a team with a hot goaltender goes from so-so to Stanley Cup contender just about every postseason. The Miracle on Ice ain't no miracle without Jim Craig.

A pitcher only pitches every fourth or fifth game, maybe every third in the playoffs. As the Giants proved yet again last season, pitching is the most important aspect of baseball, but a single pitcher can only win, at most, one third of his team's games, which is not enough. A goalie is out there every single game. Pitcher is third on my list.

Quarterback would be second on my list. Great quarterbacks have made the difference for so many title teams, but I keep coming back to teams like the 2000 Baltimore Ravens, who won with stifling defense, special teams, and barely competent offense. Trent Dilfer? His main asset was that he didn't turn the ball over. Most of the time, yes, the Super Bowl winner had a great quarterback, but not always. Jeff Hostetler, Mark Rypien, and Brad Johnson aren't going to be on anyone's list of great quarterbacks, but they are Super Bowl champions.

All the sports being considered are team games, but basketball is, to my biased point of view, the ultimate team game, at least in my world where the Russell Celtics and Wooden Bruins are the ultimate champions. As a coach, I was happiest when my teams had a good point guard and good post player, and as a player, I was happiest when I had a a good point guard. Of course it took a total team to make a great team, but I always started with an inside-outside combination. I just can't separate a point guard out from that essential combination. I've seen teams with a good point guard and not much else, and they ultimately don't go anywhere.

Outside

As for the every 4-5 day thing....
I think we (the rest of us that responded) are lumping the position pitcher as a player NOT just one particular pitcher or individual player. If the game is dominated at all it is almost always a pitcher that does it. You can stand out in the field all day and never have a ball hit to you and you may get up to bat 3-4 times and do nothing but if you are the pitcher you have the ability or chance to always shut the other team down

As the original post goes
"which position is the single most important one"

as for the Hockey Goalie.

Craig was hot that day back in 1980 no doubt... but he still allowed 3 goals that day...
thank goodness we scored 4!

beat

I have to go with QB.

A good quarterback dominates the entire game. He controls the management of time, he makes audibles at the line (changing the game plan on the spot), he wears out the opponents defense while conversely giving his defense a resting period, and with the game on the line – he is the single most important player on the field. In addition, with so few games in a NFL season – the importance of every play in magnified – there is very little room for error on a football field.

A baseball team can get poor pitching and still win 9 to 8.
A basketball team can go without a PG for a stretch – while their SG or SF handles the ball.
A hockey team can beat a superior goalie with a few deflections and bouncing pucks.

But with Brady or Manning or Rodgers under center – the entire fate of the game (and the season often) rests on their shoulders. For that reason, I think they are clearly the most valuable player in any sport.

Beat,

If you look at it that way -- the pitcher position, not an individual pitcher -- then I'd go with pitcher, no doubt. But that seems sort of an apples and oranges comparison, a pitching staff against an individual player from another sport.

Not that it applies, but a quote from Hot Rod Hundley came to mind: "My biggest thrill came the night Elgin Baylor and I combined for 73 points at Madison Square Garden. Elgin had 71 of them."

Outside, I guess I've always thought of q good point guard as being a catalyst for the team, which is what I consider the other three positions to be. But I did debate between center and PG. So I've added center to the voting options.

Sam