{"id":1412,"date":"2010-10-16T13:19:05","date_gmt":"2010-10-16T18:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=1412"},"modified":"2010-10-16T13:50:15","modified_gmt":"2010-10-16T18:50:15","slug":"baseball%e2%80%99s-tannibal-todd-wal-nuts-the-dumont-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/1412","title":{"rendered":"Baseball\u2019s Tannibal, Todd Wal-Nuts, The Dumont, etc."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I will admit that this article will probably interest Brett, Griff, and a handful of high school baseball players from Colorado and Utah who also frequent the Newschoolers forum\u2026and literally no one else.\u00a0\u00a0 Sorry Arlo.\u00a0 This is just what September and October mean to me: baseball playoffs and the anticipation of winter.\u00a0 The title probably doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense to very many readers, but these are a few nicknames of some of skiing\u2019s greats.\u00a0 Growing up the majority of sports media to which I subscribed were ski magazines, Internet forums devoted to skiing, and ski films.\u00a0 I paid way more attention to the world of professional skiing than I did to the world of professional baseball until I was around 20.\u00a0 At that time I found myself at school in Iowa playing baseball.\u00a0 Iowa surprised me with something that at least resembled skiing in the form of a trash dumb covered in manmade, but it was far enough from the skiing that I knew that I let it go a little.\u00a0 This time of year always brings me back to yesterdays and the days to come on the hill.\u00a0 Griff and Brett are two of my favorite people in the world to ride with, so I am really glad that they also write for The Sombrero.\u00a0 Anyway, with this piece I will compare a legendary skier to the Big Leaguers that I believe their personalities, talents, and styles most represent.<\/p>\n

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Tom Wallisch: Evan Longoria<\/strong><\/p>\n

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I actually had a different guy in mind before Brett wrote his recent piece on the lovable Rays and their fearless leader.\u00a0 Longo is the face of a new generation of player in my opinion, but, most importantly, the dude is also a bit of a throwback.\u00a0 Longo is never found with his foot in his mouth boasting about this or that.\u00a0 The guy gets his job done, performs at the highest level, and is just as likely to game-face it as he is to laugh a stressful situation off.\u00a0 Wallisch has about as much hype around him as any skier in history, Tanner included.\u00a0 The guy seemed to absolutely burst onto the scene though promotional videos and Level 1\u2019s Superunkown.\u00a0 Wallisch is the best park\/urban skier in the world, and I would argue that, if we are talking straight-up tricks, Wallisch is the most talented skier ever.\u00a0 Someone will have an argument against this, but I am going to limb it; barring double corks\/flips, Wallisch has the best 3,5,7,9,and 10, right or left, in the game.\u00a0 Every single one of them. \u00a0\u00a0Any variation.\u00a0 Anyway, Wallisch is the face of a new generation of skiers too.\u00a0 His following is almost cult-like.\u00a0 Amazingly, the guy seems to be humble, grounded, and almost unaware of his abilities\u2026 just like Longo.<\/p>\n

Jon Olsson: Alex Rodriguez<\/strong><\/p>\n

This one is easy.\u00a0 No skier epitomizes the greed, self-gratification, disinterest in the daily grind, and use of tanning salons like Jon.\u00a0 If you regularly frequent this site, you probably hate A-Rod.\u00a0 The guy is about as talented as anyone in history and might go down as the greatest ever when he is done, but look at this guy.\u00a0 What a joke.\u00a0 Remember when he used to play defense?\u00a0 What about when he didn\u2019t take every third game off for injuries that seem unusually vague?\u00a0 Jon used to be the same way.\u00a0 Now the guy sits out comps when he doesn\u2019t like the kick on a jump\u2026that he designed no less.\u00a0 The guy lives in Monaco and drives a Lambo.\u00a0 His sponsors tend to be European fashion designers, and he is known for big-leaguing fans.\u00a0 A-Rod is a liar, a cheater, a sissy, a hair-geller, and a man-tanner.\u00a0 Jon is too.\u00a0 I respect both for their talent and for who they used to be, but nowadays these guys are largely everything wrong with their respective sports.<\/p>\n

Seth Morrison: Albert Pujols<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few years ago this comparison would not have made any sense because Albert would have still been too young to be realistically considered Seth-like.\u00a0 Now, however, the guy is a living legend.\u00a0 Albert could very well wind up closing his career out as the greatest hitter to ever hold a bat.\u00a0 The top-end is the only thing anyone ever sees of Albert.\u00a0 He only enters the hitting zone from above the ball.\u00a0 His strike-zone judgment is at or near the top in the history of the sport.\u00a0 The power is there, but it comes in such a compact and efficient path to the ball that it is easy to forget how quickly the bat is accelerating at contact.\u00a0 The world is lucky to have Albert.\u00a0 He is today\u2019s link to Mick, Williams, Mays, Ruth\u2026whoever.\u00a0 Albert defines this generation of hitters, and there are a lot of excellent hitters in the game today.\u00a0 Seth is the same way.\u00a0 His style is so distinctive, so fluid, so perfectly efficient and graceful that it is a challenge remembering that the terrain he is charging is bonkers.\u00a0 Seth is the greatest big mountain skier to ever live and an absolute legend.\u00a0 Aside from Tanner \u2013 who has no equal or anything close \u2013 Seth is the best ever.\u00a0 Both athletes are the kind of no-nonsense, perpetually prepared, and calculated superstars that remind us that sport is a job – a way of life – and deserves to be treated with respect and reverence at all times.\u00a0 These guys have never taken a second off, and as both enter what could begin looking like a decline (still a few years away I think), we must constantly remind ourselves that with every movement they make we are watching history and may never see it again.<\/p>\n

Simon Dumont: Derek Jeter<\/strong><\/p>\n

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This is more of my personal perception of both of these guys, not necessarily who they really are.\u00a0 Basically it is the case that I used to hate both of them, but over the last decade have grown to appreciate them and what it is they do and have done for their sports.\u00a0 After watching Simon\u2019s segment from the most recent Poor Boyz release, Revolver<\/span>, anyone would have to be insane not to consider this guy one of the chosen of his generation.\u00a0 Some of the things Simon does are the most jaw-dropping and confusing accomplishments ever achieved on skis.\u00a0 He holds the all-time record for quarterpipe amplitude as well as a buttload of medals from prestigious comps, film segments, and industry cred, but I honestly do not find that nearly as impressive as the guy\u2019s bank account.\u00a0 While Dumont is incredible and easily deserves most of his accolades, he is not Tanner and never can be.\u00a0 He gets paid better than anyone in the sport with massive corporate sponsors such as Target, Nike, and Red Bull.\u00a0 Target?\u00a0 What interest could they possibly have in skiing?\u00a0 Jeter is the same kind of guy where if you look away from him for a second, you might have missed a historic play.\u00a0 Like The Dumont, Jeter has weird corporate sponsors too.\u00a0 Jordan, Gillette, Gatorade, Oreo.\u00a0 That\u2019s right.\u00a0 Oreo.\u00a0 Unlike Jon and Gay-Rod, though, these guys are gamers.\u00a0 They always show up and always give everything they have.<\/p>\n

I could go on and on like this with skiers and baseballers, but I have not written anything in a while and actually have a spare minute away from midterms finally.\u00a0 So here it goes:<\/p>\n

Tanner Hall: Josh Hamilton<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t gotten the idea from anything written above, I will clarify.\u00a0 Tanner Hall is the hands-down, without question, greatest skier to ever live.\u00a0 His vision, focus, technique, athleticism, stones, and passion are unrivaled and unrepeatable.\u00a0 An entire generation of skiers, Brettsta and I included, have been glorifying this dude since before any of us could even drive a car.\u00a0 Of all the people on the planet, be it baseball types, dentists, and other skiers, I don\u2019t think anyone can get me as amped to be alive as Tanner can.\u00a0 Tanner loves what he does so completely and limitlessly that he reminds everyone of just how fortunate we are to be human and aware of ourselves and our surroundings.\u00a0 Hamilton is the same way.\u00a0 His talent is endless, and fans get the feeling that his smile is about as genuine as it gets.\u00a0 There is nothing like the thought of losing what you love most to remind you to appreciate that thing you love when and if you get it back.\u00a0 Hamilton\u2019s struggles with injury and drug abuse are well documented and Tanner\u2019s are too, although not really all that similarly.\u00a0 Regardless, both of these badasses have been forced to take breaks from their careers to deal with strife and get healthy, and their sports simply were not the same in their absences.\u00a0 Hamilton is the best player in the game every time he touches the field in good health and rest.\u00a0 Tanner is too.\u00a0 These two guys are often misunderstood.\u00a0 I believe because of their pasts, they are forced to answer a lot of questions they would rather not.\u00a0 They both seem to have matured a great deal as they realized that they can carry their sport on their backs, however.\u00a0 Hamilton may not be quite at Tanner\u2019s level in terms of what he represents to baseball as a whole – primarily because the Dallas market just is not comparable to that in New York \u2013 but, as a member of the Dallas community, I assure you that as Josh goes, we go.\u00a0 As Tanner goes, so does the skiing.<\/p>\n

That was fun for me to write\u2026way more fun than studying for midterms, which is what I have been doing solidly for weeks.\u00a0 A big bummer about being enrolled in 12 classes is that midterms literally last a month.\u00a0 Black October is what it is called at Baylor in case you were wondering.
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I will admit that this article will probably interest Brett, Griff, and a handful of high school baseball players from Colorado and Utah who also frequent the Newschoolers forum\u2026and literally no one else.\u00a0\u00a0 Sorry Arlo.\u00a0 This is just what September and October mean to me: baseball playoffs and the anticipation of winter.\u00a0 The title probably […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,6,13],"tags":[21,150,618,173,1044,62,1045,1046,1047,1043],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1412"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1424,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions\/1424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}