A Discussion of Mount Rushmores
Mount Rushmore is a national monument in South Dakota that is famous for depicting some of the United States’ most significant presidents. The famous image of the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln chiseled into the stone is one that is engrained in most Americans at a young age.
It’s one of our nation’s greatest monuments, but it has also been the center of focus in the sports world more than once. Every once in a while, an athlete will get asked the infamous question of who they would put on their Mount Rushmore of their respective sport. It’s a question that creates news out of thin air, as fans across the nation immediately debate the inevitable snubs that are always so blatantly disrespected by the athlete who can’t possibly understand the power of Mount Rushmore.
The most recent instance of this phenomenon came when NBA superstar LeBron James was asked to name his Mount Rushmore. He came up with a respectable answer of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Oscar Robertson. But like so many other things James says, it didn’t end there. In the same article, Kevin Durant replaced Oscar Robertson with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Since LeBron shared his top four, somebody had to ask Kobe Bryant about his at All-Star Weekend, and the Mamba said that his Rushmore included Michael, Magic, Bird and Celtics legend Bill Russell.
Athlon Sports recently got in on the Mount Rushmore fun by naming golf’s best four (Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Sam Snead), while ESPN had everyone beat when they named a Mount Rushmore for every state in the union way back in 2009. If you’re wondering who made Kentucky’s list back in ’09, ESPN went with Muhammad Ali, Adolph Rupp, Secretariat and Rick Pitino.
Yes, Secretariat was the only horse/non-human listed in the entire 50-state breakdown, which is obviously appropriate.
Sports Mount Rushmores are loads of fun, but why would anybody limit the excitement and endless spirited arguments to just games played with a ball? What about the Mount Rushmore of music? Movies? TV sitcoms? For fun, here’s a stab at each of them:
Movies: Gone With the Wind, Star Wars, Titanic and Avatar
Music: The Beatles, Mozart, Jay Z and Frank Sinatra
TV Sitcoms: Friends, Seinfeld, The Office and How I Met Your Mother
See how impossible it is? There’s likely a good amount of people who read those three categories and came up with alternatives to all of them almost immediately. When it comes down to it, asking one person to shoulder the weight of a Mount Rushmore proclamation is simply unfair.
Here at the Louisville Bats (and Adidas), impossible is nothing. That’s why we put our heads together and asked our fans on Twitter who would make the Louisville baseball Mount Rushmore. Much discussion ensued, but here are the highlights:
The first ballot cast got us off to a solid start.
An All-Redbird entry.
One of the more balanced ballots.
Don’t think that it wasn’t seriously considered.
There were plenty of great suggestions, but since the sculptors of Mount Rushmore only gave us four spots to work with, we had to make some tough decisions. Here’s the final (is it ever final?) Louisville baseball Mount Rushmore. For now.
Jim Fregosi — The late Fregosi led the Louisville Redbirds to back-to-back American Association championships and had an extensive Major League managerial career. He managed the 1993 National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies and was also a Gold Glove winner in his playing days.
Corky Miller — As much as we would love to, we can’t put Corky’s face on Mount Rushmore four times. One will have to do for the beloved catcher, who holds the franchise record for seasons in Louisville and most games with an incredible Fu Manchu mustache.
Rick Sweet — Sweet managed the Bats to three straight International League West Division titles (‘08-’10) and was named IL Manager of the Year in 2008 and 2009. Some of the notable names that Sweet managed in Louisville include Homer Bailey and Jay Bruce.
Joey Votto — The Reds’ brightest star only spent one season in Louisville, but since he is an MVP at the Major League Level, he is one of the best players ever to grace the diamond at Louisville Slugger Field. That has to count for something. In 2007, Votto was an IL mid-season and post-season All-Star, the IL Rookie of the Year and a Futures Game selection. In 2008, he would play his first full season with Cincinnati.
Since Pee Wee Reese is already immortalized with a statue of his own outside of the ballpark downtown, he was left off of the Rushmore. That doesn’t diminish his vast accomplishments in the game of baseball as a pioneer, World Series champion and Hall of Famer. A native of Kentucky, Reese played two seasons for the Double-A Louisville Colonels from 1938–1939.
So, there it is. One more Mount Rushmore to be proven wrong and argued time and time again. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this thorough examination of one of America’s finest slabs of granite. We sure have.
There are so many Rushmores to be named, yet so little time to name them all. Much like there are snubs from each Rushmore, there are so many Rushmores that haven’t been given the proper attention and scrutiny.
Today, we are left with only a select few. Maybe one day we will finally know who belongs on other important ones like fast food, toothpaste and Dairy Queen Blizzards.
Maybe one day.
