The greatest professional athlete in history?

[Rath]

TheRealMafoo said:

Samus Aran said:

Eddy Merckx has won almost everything there is to win in cycling(and that is a lot)

The second greatest cylist in history has only half the points Eddy Merckx has on a special list that gives points to what you've won in your carreer.

If that's not domination then I don't know :P

But that's just one sport. I am not sure I would give it to someone who is just better at one thing then everyone else.

If that's the metric, then hands down, the best would be Sir Donald Bradman.

His batting average is 99.94, the second highest is R.G. Pollock at 60.97.

There is no other statistic in sports where the best is that much better then the second best.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batting_average

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WG_Grace

Its not really the batting average that matters, W.G. Grace essentially invented modern batting - he totally dominated the entire game as a bowler, a batter, a fielder and a captain. Seriously just read up about him, he was so good that during his time playing he essentially was the game. The era when he captained the gentlemen was the only era in history where they dominated the players.