On Great Sports Photos

 

I saw a tweet (or whatever we're calling it now) asking for the most iconic sports photo.

I saw all kinds of responses. Some were (attempts at being) funny while others were nonsensical.

The tweet's author chose the incredible shot taken by Neil Leifer of Sports Illustrated in Lewiston, ME on May 25, 1965.

There's Ali taunting the fallen Liston, though some believe Liston took a dive off a "phantom punch."

John Rooney took a black and white photo of the same moment, but it's the Leifer photo that so many of us remember, mostly since we knew it from Sports Illustrated.

It's an incredible photo. A great photo can say so much and this does that very thing. 

Ali was heading towards becoming an icon as an athlete and a human being. Liston, sadly, was dead by the beginning of 1971, passing under mysterious circumstances.

For me, there are two photos that stand out to me. The first one dates to Sep 20, 1964 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh. The Steelers' John Baker knocked Giants QB Y.A. Tittle to the ground, leaving him bloodied. Adding insult to injury, Erich Barnes ran the result of the play -- an interception -- back 26 yards for a touchdown.

Tittle, blood running down his bald head, was beaten up. Morris Berman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette snapped a photo.

To me, that is everything about the NFL up through 1964. It's a violent sport and, in this one image, you can see the great Tittle's career ending. He actually played the next week against Washington and would finish out the '64 season.

But he was finished. You can see it.

He retired after the 1964 season.

Yet, given all options, my top iconic photo shouldn't be hard to figure out. It's June 13, 1948 and the Yankees are hosting an old-timer event to honor the 25th anniversary of the 1923 championship squad. They were also going to retire Babe Ruth's number as well.

Ruth, as everyone knew, was not well. Only 53 on this day with dismal weather as the Yankees played the Cleveland Indians (and beat them 5-3), Ruth was ravaged by throat cancer. He had been honored with "Babe Ruth Day" around baseball in 1947, speaking to the crowd in a hoarse voice. He spoke of baseball being "the only real game in the world."

On this day, Ruth was happy to have a pinstripe uniform on with the number three on his back. He joked with his old teammates before taking the field.

Still, he needed a baseball bat to steady himself, the midnight blue Yankees cap in his hand.

Nat Fein, a photographer with the New York Herald-Tribune, knelt behind him as Ruth stood on the third base line. Fein felt that he wanted to see that number three and feature it in his photo while most of the other photographers worked along the first base line.

Old timers, dignitaries, part of the crowd of nearly 50,000, and the famous Yankee Stadium frieze, adorned with pennants signifying the Yankees' success, are all part of the background of the picture that became known as "The Babe Bows Out."

It became the first sports photo to win the Pulitzer Prize.

Again, it is everything. This is about more than retiring his number and honoring the 1923 team.

This is literally about Babe Ruth's life.

He died three months later.

Obviously, we could highlight numerous other photos -- the "Miracle on Ice," Michael Jordan, levitating, Willie Mays' catch, Bobby Orr flying, Chuck Bednarik over Frank Gifford, Brandi Chastain, Pete Rose -- but we'd be here all night.

This actually took up some of "Doubleheader" today and I loved it. To me, sports is supposed to be in part about such minutiae. It's supposed to be about the cultural impacts and more.

It's those who can handle the debate that survives. 

So these are my choices and there are no wrong answers of course.