Philadelphias Mount Rushmore of Sports M

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The SN Rushmore project named four pro athletes from the 13 cities that have had at least  Brandon Nimmo Jersey four of the following five leagues represented for at least 20 years  NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, WNBA. While there were no hard-and-fast rules pertaining to the athletes selected, our panel of experts considered individual resumes, team succe s and legacy within the sports landscape of each city. Multiple players from the same franchise were allowed, and not every franchise needed to be represented. All sports fans have an opinion on this topic. This is ours.There is no sports city like Philadelphia, where the greatest reputation for toughne s belongs not to one of the Eagles ferocious defensive ends or a muscular power forward for the Sixers or an old-time Flyers enforcer or a Phillies pitcher who played a lot of chin music but, instead, the fans who follow all of those teams.Philly fans at a 1968 Eagles game really did boo Santa Claus. Well, not the real thing of course, but rather an Eagles fan who happened to be dre sed as Santa and was drafted to fill in for the snowed-in Santa whod been hired to appear.They threw stuff at the fake Santa, as well.So maybe were taking a chance here merely by presenting the Mount Rushmore of Philadelphia sports. Its po sible we could get every choice exactly right and still be jeered by the Philly faithful.MORE: There are few towns as rich in sports pa sion. Thats why it made sense for Philadelphia to be among the pioneers in all-sports radio. Station WIP launched its talk-heavy format nearly 35 years ago, when many of the loudest voices in media were doubting whether predece sor WFANs model was Francisco Lindor Jersey  sustainable.Angelo Cataldi, who was covering  Javier Báez Jersey the Eagles for the Philadelphia Inquirer, was among the first hosts and will retire from his show at the end of this year.Philly fans never run out of things to talk about regarding sports.Were here to help anyway.Philly faithful, did we get it right?Listen in or join the conversation now     (@sportingnews) MIKE SCHMIDT (Phillies, 1972-1989)Its po sible there was no athlete with a more complicated relationship with the City of Brotherly Love than the man widely acclaimed as the greatest third baseman ever to line up on a baseball diamond.An outsider would expect this to have been a two-decade love affair. Mike Schmidt played his entire career in Philadelphia. In the period before wild cards, he helped the Phillies reach six postseasons, played in two World Series and helped deliver a championship in 1980. He led the National League in home  Amed Rosario Jersey runs eight times, and people like home runs.Hes the best player at his position in Major League history. Thats still relatively indisputable, I would say, Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski told TSN. If its po sible to be the greatest player at your position and spend your entire career with one franchise and still be underappreciated, Mike Schmidt was that guy. Because he made everything look so easy. And Philadelphia hates that.They want their athletes to try. And they want their athletes to show that they are trying. And if the athletes arent trying, they want them to try to show that they are trying. And Schmidt was not that. And at times he could be a little tortured with himself. For the longest time, he didnt hit well in the postseason. And the fans could get to him.In this arena, Schmidt delivered one of the greatest quotes in the history of  Mike Piazza Jersey sports coverage, although the sports journalists he was satirizing might not have appreciated it at the time: Philadelphia is the only city where you can experience the thrill of victory and the agony of reading about it the next day.As problematic as this was at times, Schmidt told the Los Angeles Times near the start of his career he would take Phillys vocal fans over the tourist types who show up in Houston or Montreal and just sit there.A year after his 1989 retirement, when the Phillies honored his career at Veterans Stadium, Schmidt acknowledged fan reaction impacted his performance and insisted this was true of every athlete he ever encountered. Calling Philadelphia fans spectators hardly describes your impact, he said. You help mold the spirit of a team. He told them every ovation, including the one that day, left him with goosebumps.Maybe not every interaction, though. I was covering a charity golf tournament and Michael Jordan was there, and the foursome was Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Mike Schmidt and somebody else, said Joe Juliano, who retired from the Philadelphia Inquirer last December after nearly five decades covering the citys sport scene. After the thing is over, Jordan is just mobbed for autographs. And Barkley is just mobbed for autographs. And heres Mike Schmidt showing up in our little room in the clubhouse Michael Conforto Jersey  where were doing media. Were like, Oh, look, Mike Schmidt came in to talk to us. No, Mike Schmidt came in to avoid the autograph seekers.Schmidt was the foundation of the greatest modern Phillies teams. The club only has been to the World Series seven times, and two of those came with Schmidt, Pete Rose and lefty Steve Carlton as stars and the likes of Bob Boone, Larry Bowa, Gary Maddox, Bake McBride and Greg Luzinski filling a stacked lineup.Schmidt was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame with his name on 96.5 percent of baseball writers ballots. I remember watching his speech at the Hall of Fame, Juliano said. That was the day he got it, that These fans really do love me.Schmidt By The NumbersMost Valuable Player Awards3Gold Glove Awards10World Series titles1All-Star Games12Career home runs (No. 16 all-time)548TSN ARCHIVE: Nobody Did It Better; Schmidt Selected TSN Player of Decade (Jan. 29, 1990)JULIUS ERVING (76ers, 1976-87)When it comes to Dr. J, the rest of the world is deeply indebted to Philadelphia. He was only a glorious rumor in the early Jose Reyes Jersey  1970s, when he levitated through two seasons with the Virginia Squires and three more with the New York Nets,  Nolan Ryan Jersey averaging a double-double all five seasons and authoring an endle s series of dazzling plays that were retold almost like fables. When Doc got to Philly, everyone got to see what theyd been mi sing.Was it better than imagined? No, it was exactly what had been imagined, and who else but Julius Erving ever could live up to such a tale?The country as a whole didnt have an appreciation, fully, for how great he was until he got to Philadelphia, Sielski said. Because the ABA didnt have a national TV contract, and he had played at UMa s when UMa s wasnt really a powerhouse. No one really knew who he was relative to the other great college players at the time. He comes to Philly, and all of a sudden its: Oh, my God! This man who can fly plays for the Sixers!Is that an ov