Best of the Best, Part 2

   

   Welcome back to Part 2 of this Best of the Best series. What did you think of my best baseball team of all time? As we move on from baseball, I thought let’s move onto basketball. Before we get started, Golden State seems to be a better team than last year. They are 11-0 and an unreal 11-0! They have a chance to be the best basketball team of all time, but until that happens; we will talk about the current all-time best time. When it came down to baseball, it was really hard to choose between the 27 and 98 Yankees. Basketball was a little bit less complicated, but was compelling none the less.

    What’s the first team that comes to mind when you think “Best of All Time” in basketball? If you guessed the 1995-96 Bulls, then you are correct. They had a 72-10 record(something no one has ever matched). That season they were first in the league in Points per game with 105.2. They were also 3^rd best in the league at 92.9 points per game allowed. Not only was the best player on the planet, Michael Jordan, on that team, but he had a great supporting cast. Pippen was a scoring and assist wizard. The real steal was Dennis Rodman. He came over from that “Bad Boy” team in Detroit. He was a rebounding machine. That season he averaged 14.9 rebounds per game.

     On this Bulls team, they had 3 players who averaged 13.1 points per game or better. As well, 8 players had a Field Goal percentage of 48% or better, but Steve Kerr was the only one over 50%. 4 players had 5.1 rebounds per game or better. If you put all of this together, we can collectively see how well that team played together. They were also in the middle of a 2^nd 3peat of winning championships.

     Honestly, the only team I feel that I can come close to comparing to this team is the 1971-72 Lakers. Yes, I know I was not born during this time period, but I did do my research. Just like the Bulls, they were first in scoring that season. They actually had more points per game than the Bulls with 121.0/game. With that, they also gave up more points per game with 108.7/game. This team was just a scoring machine. Jerry West averaged 25.8 points per game and Gail Goodrich had 25.9 per game. They also had 6 players with Field Goal percentage at 47% or better including Wilt Chamberlin’s insane 64.9%. He was also better at crashing the boards than Rodman, averaging 19.2/game.

   Even though the Lakers did have a 69-13 record that season and won the title, I don’t feel that they were the better team than the Bulls. The Bulls played in a league with 29 teams opposed to the Lakers with 17 teams. This means that the Bulls had more competition to deal with on a daily basis. The Bulls were also better defensively. The presence of Rodman certainly helped them. No disrespect to Wilt, but Jordan was just the better player on a better team. Unless the Warriors keep up the magic this season, I do not think that we will see a team like the 95-96 Bulls for quite a while.

Best Of The Best, Part 1

  As I was watching the World Series, a certain thought came to my mind. The thought was about the best teams ever to play in baseball history. Not just baseball came to mind, basketball, football and even hockey came to mind. If you start to think about it, the best teams in baseball vary by the time period. Everyone says could the 1998 Yankees measure up against 1927 or 1936 Yankees. Comparing teams is not an easy task. In this particular post, I will be talking about the best team in baseball history. It will be a 4 part post. Debates are this topic are endless, making it so much more to discuss.

   While thinking about this the past few days, it was a difficult decision. It was between the 1927 Yankees and 1998 Yankees. I remember watching the 1998 Yankees and saying "WOW". They played well together all season long. After doing some research, it just amazed me to see the similarities and difference of both teams. 1998 Yankees had 8 players with 17 home runs or more that season. They were also about driving in runs, 4 players had 98 or more RBI that season. Hitting .300 or better in a season is very difficult. The 98 Yankees pitched well from beginning to end. David Cone had 20 wins, followed by David Wells at 18 and Andy Pettitte with 16 victories. Keep in mind that the season was 162 game. They also had 2 extra rounds in the playoffs. In total, they went 125-50 including the playoffs.

   As all sports fans know, the 1927 Yankees are known as "Murderers Row." They had 4 players with over 100 RBI and 6 players with over a .300 batting average that season. Lou Gehrig had 47 home runs and Babe Ruth had 60 home runs. Babe Ruth had more home runs that season than a bunch of the teams combined. Gehrig had 173 RBI season. People may ask "What were these guys taking?" Honestly, it was all natural. This team could also hit for average. There were 6 players with a batting  average of .300 or better. Lou Gehrig had a .373 average. Both Earl Combes and Babe Ruth had a .356. The pitching for this team was just as amazing. They had 4 pitchers with 18 or more wins.

   While debating which team was better, there were other considerations I had to take besides the stats. If you look, the 1927 played only 154 games compared to 162 games. As well, the 1998 Yankees played in 2 extra rounds of postseason baseball. In 1927, hitting over .320 or .330 was more of the norm. The pitching was also seemed to be better during the mid to late 20's. In the end, I believe that the 1927 "Murder's Row" Yankees are the best team in baseball history. Very rarely do you see talents like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the same lineup. 1998 comes close, but there are very little comparisons. There are two things these teams had in common, they both won World Series and both played in New York.