Great players with bad starts to their careers?

scashaggy

What players who were great or HOF had bad starts to their career?

Players that come to mind:

John Elway -7 TD's & 14 Int's in 1983.

Nolan Ryan in 1966

Brock21

Mike Schmidt
G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR BI SB CS BB SO AV OB SL

1973 23 PHI NL 132 443 367 43 72 11 0 18 52 8 2 62 136 .196 .324 .373

Toro

Greg Maddux, combined 8-18 with a 5.56 ERA his first two years with the Cubs

Troy Aikman 0 Wins in 11 Games, 9 touchdowns, 18 picks.

WalterSobchak

Sandy Koufax was a below-average major league pitcher for the first six years of his career.

nearmint

Terry Bradshaw: 38.1% completion percentage, 6 TDs, and 24 INTs (an 11% INT rate!) in 13 games in 1970.

Bradshaw's stats

markj111

Mays started 0 for 23. Bonds the younger was terrible his first year. It happens a lot.

cardsnbeads

Warren Spahn did not a Game until he was 25.
Tracy McGrady averaged 7 points a game his first season.
Len Dawson could never crack the Starting Lineup as Rookie with the Steelers and his career was nothing until he was 27 years olds. He had only 2TDs in his first 5 Years of Football.

lawnmowerman

During Jerry Rice's first year in the league, he had a bad case of drops. Although he had respectable numbers(49 rec, 927 yds) he dropped way too many passes.

cardsnbeads

Dominik Hasek was stuck in the Minors and had limited playing time behind Ed Belfour before being traded in his 3rd Year.
Karl Malone averaged a So So 14.9 points per game as a rookie. Walt Frazier just 9 points per game as a rookie.
Phil Niekro did not become a Good Pitcher until his 30's and went on to win 300 Games.

cardsnbeads

Jamie Moyer was a Bum until he was 30 years old and did not become a good pitcher until he was 33.

judgebuck

Mickey Mantle started so poorly in 1951 that he was sent back to the minors and and questioned whether he would ever make it or not.

cardsnbeads

Dan Fouts had a terrible Rookie Year did he did not win one of his first 6 stars and threw 6 TDs and 13 Ints and Steve Young was so Terrible in Tampa his first 2 Seasons that they ran him out of town in favor of Steve DeBerg. Young went 3-16 his first 2 Seasons before becoming one of the greatest Quarterbacks of All-Time.

scashaggy

Steve Young in his first 2 seasons threw for 11 td's and 21 ints and had 15 fumbles.

Over these 2 seasons TB's record was 4 wins and 28 losses.

saucywombat

In hindsight maybe it was because of steroids but Phil Nevin went from overhyped bust for the better part of 6-7 years to a real star for the latter part of his career.

Tabe

Ty Cobb hit .240 with a .300 SLG% his rookie year.

Babe Ruth was such a terrible hitter, the Red Sox had him PITCH his first few years

Tabe

Tabe

Troy Aikman was 0-11 as a rookie with 9 TDs and 18 INTs on a team that went 1-15.

Tabe

stopthetrain

Ahmad Abdul Rahim of the Bad News Bears.

OckhamsRazor

I have to nominate Robin Ventura. He started his rookie season in 1990 going 0 for 41 with 25 errors. Which was extremely ironic given that he has reknowned for being a hitting machine at Oklahoma State. He still holds the NCAA record hitting streak record at 58 games. If he hadn't been a 1st round draft pick, I'm sure the White Sox wouldn't have stuck with him that long.

MattyC

Nolan Ryan wasn't a stud early on.

Sportsamerica

Johnny U didn't make the Steelers Team when he was younger.. (The 60's the steelers were not good!)

Tabe

<< <i>I have to nominate Robin Ventura. He started his rookie season in 1990 going 0 for 41 with 25 errors. Which was extremely ironic given that he has reknowned for being a hitting machine at Oklahoma State. He still holds the NCAA record hitting streak record at 58 games. If he hadn't been a 1st round draft pick, I'm sure the White Sox wouldn't have stuck with him that long. >>


He didn't start the season 0 for 41. The hitless streak started with game 8, before which he was actually hitting .333. He then went 16 games without a hit before having back-to-back 2-hit games.

And he certainly didn't "start the season" with 25 errors. I know what you're trying to say, it's just worded kinda funny. And he actually won a Gold Glove (first of 6) the following year.

Ventura eventually became a decent hitter but never really lived up to his college promise. Career .267 hitter, just one .300 season (.301) and multiple seasons under .250. He had a couple excellent years like .287/34/105 and .301/32/120 but never the sustained excellence that had been forecast.

Tabe

SanctionII

Look at many of the players who were on the rosters of the Golden State Warriors NBA team over the past 30 years. Many of them were average at best during their time wearing a Warriors uniform. After they left the Warriors many, many, many of these players had great and long careers in the NBA including multiple All Star game appearances; starting roles on playoff teams and championship teams; and really good statistics.

These players include Robert Parish, Bernard King, Mitch Richmond, Chris Weber, Latrell Sprewell [he of the "choke my coach wanting to kill him" school of hoops], Joe Smith, etc., etc., etc.

jdip9

I don't have the stats, but it seemed like Peyton Manning threw a Pick 6 every other game as a rookie.

lanemyer85

the majority of hockey players take 3-4 years to get fully acclimated to the NHL (esp defensemen) and case in point.

Ryan Kesler

03-04 - 28 GP, 5 Points, -2
05-06 - 82 GP, 23 Points, +1
06-07 - 48 GP, 16 Points, +1

GP = games played

Connecticoin

Troy Aikman.

digicat

<< <i>It took Satchell Paige decades to make his first appearance in Major League Baseball. >>



His performance and stats didn't have anything to do with that.

scashaggy

<< <i>

<< <i>It took Satchell Paige decades to make his first appearance in Major League Baseball. >>



His performance and stats didn't have anything to do with that. >>



That's true.

Estil

<< <i>Mickey Mantle started so poorly in 1951 that he was sent back to the minors and and questioned whether he would ever make it or not. >>



And it was his father's tough love that persuaded Mickey not to quit. By that I mean when Mickey called his father saying he was done with baseball, his father came over packing his bags saying that he thought he raised a man and that if Mickey didn't have any more guts than that then he can work in the coal mines with his father. It was then Mickey decided to give baseball another chance. Think of how differently the baseball card hobby might be today if it had not been for Mantle's father's tough love that day.

Estil

<< <i>Ahmad Abdul Rahim of the Bad News Bears. >>



That's a movie; make believe. That doesn't count.