Detroit's 10 Greatest Athletes

Tonight, the Yankees begin a series in Detroit against the Tigers.

Detroit's 10 Greatest Athletes

Honorable Mention to Tigers in the Baseball Hall of Fame, who didn't otherwise make the Top 10: Hugh Jennings, Sam Crawford, Harry Heilmann, Heinie Manush, Goose Goslin, Mickey Cochrane, Charlie Gehringer, Hal Newhouser, George Kell, Jim Bunning, Alan Trammell, Jack Morris and Ivan Rodriguez.

Miguel Cabrera will probably join them, and Lou Whitaker should be allowed to. If Cochrane had spent his entire career in Detroit, he'd be in the Top 10.

Honorable Mention to Lions in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, who didn't otherwise make the Top 10: Dutch Clark, Alex Wojciechowicz, Doak Walker, Lou Creekmur, Jack Christiansen, Dick Stanfel, Yale Lary, Joe Schmidt, John Henry Johnson, Dick LeBeau, Dick "Night Train" Lane, Lem Barney and Charlie Sanders.

Night Train Lane would be in the Top 10 if he'd spent his entire career in Detroit. These men should be joined by Alex Karras, Wayne Walker, Chris Spielman and Lomas Brown.

Honorable Mention to Pistons in the Basketball Hall of Fame, who didn't otherwise make the Top 10: Dick McGuire, Bailey Howell, Dave DeBusschere, Dave Bing, Bob Lanier, Joe Dumars, Adrian Dantley, Dennis Rodman and Grant Hill. They might be joined someday by Bill Laimbeer, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton.

Honorable Mention to Red Wings in the Hockey Hall of Fame, who didn't otherwise make the Top 10: Marty Barry, Herbie Lewis, Brian Kilrea, Syd Howe, Bill Quackenbush, Jack Stewart, Sid Abel, Harry Lumley, Ted Lindsay, Red Kelly, Alex Delvecchio, Marcel Pronovost, Bill Gadsby, Norm Ullman, Marcel Dionne, Dino Ciccarelli, Viachelsav Fetisov, Mark Howe, Sergei Fedorov, Larry Murphy, Brendan Shanahan, Igor Larionov, Chris Chelios, Dominik Hasek and Brett Hull.

Mark Howe, of course, is Gordie's son. Syd Howe, however, is not related to them. Several of these guys would be in the Top 10 if they'd spent their entire careers with the Wings.

Now, the Top 10:

10. Bobby Layne, quarterback, Detroit Lions, 1950-58. His stats don't look so hot in comparison to quarterbacks of the post-merger era, but he was the original master of the 2-minute drill. He made 6 Pro Bowls, and led the Lions to the NFL Championship in 1952, 1953 and 1957 (although he was injured for the '57 Championship Game, with Tobin Rote filling in.)

The Lions retired his Number 22, and he was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the NFL's 1950s All-Decade Team. In 1999, The Sporting News listed him 52nd on their list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. But by 2010, the NFL Network completely left him off their list of the 100 Greatest Players, the biggest dropoff of any quarterback.

9. Isiah Thomas, guard, Detroit Pistons, 1981-94. His messy personal life and his disastrous runs as an NBA coach and executive are not factors here. This is based solely on what he did as a player.

A 12-time All-Star in his 13 seasons with the Pistons, he led them to the NBA Championship in 1989 and 1990, winning the Bill Russell Award as Finals MVP in 1990. The Pistons retired his Number 11, and he was named to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players.

8. Hank Greenberg, 1st base and left field, Detroit Tigers, 1930-46. He won AL MVP awards in 1935 and 1940 – the former at 1st base, the latter in left field, becoming the 1st player to win MVPs at 2 different positions. (Only one has done it since, Robin Yount.)

In 1934, he hit 63 doubles (2nd-highest total in MLB history), and helped the Tigers win their 1st Pennant in 25 years, despite missing a key game down the stretch because it fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. (This was a year before Sandy Koufax was born, and 31 years before Koufax would do the same on the day of Game 1 of the World Series.)

In 1935, he won the AL MVP and led them to their 1st World Championship, although he was injured during the World Series. In 1937, he had a whopping 183 RBIs, 1 off Gehrig's AL record. In 1938, he hit 58 home runs, and for a while it looked like he might break Babe Ruth's record of 60. In 1940, he won the MVP and led the Tigers to another Pennant.

Then he became the 1st baseball All-Star to enlist in the armed forces, in anticipation of World War II. Discharged in the middle of the 1945 season, he rejoined the Tigers, and hit a grand slam on the last day of the regular season to win the Pennant, and the Tigers won the World Series as well.

A bad back led him to retire after 1946, but the Pittsburgh Pirates talked him out of it by offering him baseball's 1st $100,000-a-year contract. The original "Hammerin' Hank" walked away after the 1947 season, with a .313 batting average, a 158 OPS+, and 1,628 hits and 331 home runs, despite having played only enough games to add up to 10 full seasons

He was elected to the Hall of Fame, and the Tigers retired his Number 5 and dedicated a statue to him outside Comerica Park. The Sporting News ranked him 37th on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

7. Terry Sawchuk, goaltender, Detroit Red Wings, 1950-64. Well, more accurately, 1950-55, 1957-64, and 1968-69. Until Patrick Roy and then Martin Brodeur came along, Sawchuk was on the short list for the title of greatest goalie in hockey history, along with Jacques Plante.

An 11-time All-Star, he won the Calder Memorial Trophy as Rookie of the Year in 1951; and the Vezina Trophy as best goalie in 1952, 1953, 1955 and 1965. He helped the Wings win 3 Stanley Cups, and the Toronto Maple Leafs win 1 more. For a long time after he retired, his 447 wins and 103 shutouts were all-time records.

He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the Wings retired his Number 1. In 1998, The Hockey News ranked him 9th, the highest-ranking goalie, on their list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. In 2010, THN ranked him the greatest goalie ever. In 2017, he was named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players.

6. Nicklas Lidström, defenseman, Detroit Red Wings, 1991-2012. It wasn't easy to succeed Steve Yzerman as the Wings' Captain, but no one was better suited to it. A 12-time All-Star, he won 7 Norris Trophies as the NHL's best defenseman, including in 2001, when he became the 1st player born or trained in Europe to win it; and in 2011, when he became the oldest man to win the award, 41.

No European-born player has played in as many games as Lidstrom, 1,564. That number also marks the most games played for only 1 NHL team. He played in a record 900 winning regular-season games. His 263 postseason games are the most with a single team. And his +61 is the highest postseason plus/minus rating.

He won the Stanley Cup in 1997, 1998, 2002 (the 1st European winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as Playoff MVP) and 2008 (the 1st European Captain of a Cup winner). The Wings retired his Number 5, and he was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame and the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players.

5. Al Kaline, right field, Detroit Tigers, 1955-74. An 18-time All-Star, in 1955 he became the youngest player ever to win a major league batting title. He collected 3,007 career hits, including 399 home runs, and won 10 Gold Gloves. He led the Tigers to win the 1968 World Series. His Number 6 was the 1st number retired by the team, and they dedicated a statue to him at Comerica Park. He was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame and The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Baseball Players, coming in 76th.

He remains the most popular athlete in Detroit history, ahead of Ty Cobb, Doak Walker, Barry Sanders, Isiah Thomas, Gordie Howe and Steve Yzerman.

4. Barry Sanders, running back, Detroit Lions, 1989-98. He played 10 seasons with the Lions, and made the Pro Bowl in all of them. He was NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1989, and MVP in 1991 and 1997. He rushed for 15,269 yards and 99 touchdowns, and added 352 receptions for 2,921 yards and 10 touchdowns.

And then, in 1999, just 1,457 yards short of Walter Payton's all-time record, and about to turn 31 so he was in his prime and could've broken the record that year, he retired. Maybe it was the right decision: We've seen so many players suffer from arthritis due to the constant pounding their bodies took, and from dementia from blows to the head, including the aforementioned Sayers.

The Lions retired his Number 20 (a joint ceremony with Lem Barney and Barry's fellow Heisman Trophy winner, Billy Sims of arch-rival Oklahoma). He was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame -- making him the shortest player in Canton -- and the NFL's 1990s All-Decade Team. In 1999, The Sporting News listed him 12th on their list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. In 2010, the NFL Network ranked him 17th on their list of the 100 Greatest Players.

3. Steve Yzerman, center, Detroit Red Wings, 1983-2006. In 1986, he was named the Wings' Captain. He was just 21, and, at the time, the youngest Captain in NHL history. But he had already broken a record, which he still holds, of youngest All-Star ever: 18 in 1984. It was the 1st of 10 All-Star appearances. His 19 years and 1,303 games as an NHL team Captain are unlikely ever to be surpassed.

But he arrived in the middle of the "Dead Things" era, and it took years to clean up the damage left by the Bruce Norris regime. Finally, Mike Ilitch came in, and built one of the great teams in NHL history around him. They finally reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1995, and won the Cup in 1997. Gordie Howe then said of Stevie Y, "I'm just so dang happy for the kid, it's unbelievable." The "kid" was 32, but, to Gordie Howe, pretty much everybody was a kid.

Yzerman would also lead the Wings to Cups in 1998 (winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as Playoff MVP) and 2002. He finished with 692 goals and 1,755 points, got his Number 19 retired, and was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame and the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players.

2. Ty Cobb, center field, Detroit Tigers, 1905-26. This isn't about how nice a guy he was. This is about him being the best baseball player in the world pretty much continuously through the entire Presidencies of William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson. That's 12 full seasons.

The Georgia Peach won 12 American League batting titles, 4 RBI titles, and the home run title in 1909, making him the AL's 1st Triple Crown winner. He led the Tigers to Pennants in 1907, 1908 and 1909. Under the old system, he was named AL MVP in 1911.

He was once recognized as having held the records for stolen bases in a season (96) and a career (892), although checks of 19th Century totals have thrown those marks into question. He once held the record for most runs scored in a career, 2,245. He once held the record for most hits in a career, 4,191, although that was later revised to 4,189. He still holds the record for highest career batting average, the revision bringing it from the old familiar .367 to .366.

Since he played before the era of uniform numbers, the Tigers dedicated a plaque in his memory, and placed it on the outer wall of Tiger Stadium. They have since added his name, but no number, to the retired number wall at Comerica Park, and dedicated a statue to him as well. (Footage of him at Yankee Stadium for Old-Timers' Day 1947 shows him wearing a Tiger uniform with the Number 25 on it. There is no known explanation for the number.)

When the 1st election for the Baseball Hall of Fame was held in 1936, Cobb got the most votes, which, in a manner of speaking, makes him the 1st person elected to the Hall of Fame -- in any sport. In 1999, The Sporting News listed him 3rd on their 100 Greatest Baseball Players, behind only Babe Ruth and Willie Mays. That same year, he was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

1. Gordie Howe, right wing, Detroit Red Wings, 1946-71. Say what you want about Wayne Gretzky, but Gordie Howe is the greatest hockey player of all time. He remains Mr. Hockey. Put it this way: At age 38, in 1999, Gretzky had to retire due to a bad back; at the same age, in 1966, Howe was still putting the Wings on his back, to the Stanley Cup Finals, and was still 1 of the top 5 players in the game.

He played in 22 All-Star Games for the Wings -- plus 2 more for the Houston Aeros and 1 more for the Hartford Whalers. He won 6 Hart Memorial Trophies as NHL MVP, and 6 Art Ross Trophies as leading scorer. He led the Wings into 10 Stanley Cup Finals, winning in 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955. Nobody played more regular season games, 1,767. His 801 career goals (786 with the Wings) have been surpassed in NHL history only by Gretzky.

The Wings retired his Number 9, and dedicated a statue to him. He was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame, The Hockey News' 100 Greatest Players (3rd), and the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players. He lived long enough to learn that the new bridge over the Detroit River, connecting Detroit with Windsor, Ontario, would be named the Gordie Howe International Bridge.