There are still so many mistakes to be made!

August 15, 2012 8:19 AM

Who is the world's greatest athlete? Is it Kelly Slater? Is it Jesse Owens? Maybe. If you ask Josh Wilker, proprietor of Cardboard Gods, one thing is certain, it will be a player from his childhood baseball card collection

Since 2006, CardboardGods.net has been providing the finest in "whiny self-absorption, hackneyed nihilism, and pitifully desperate supplication" (though some would say instead "touching, clever approbations of lost baseball heroes") in an ongoing attempt to hang on to a shoebox full of decaying baseball cards for dear life.

via The Classical

posted by Potomac Avenue (13 comments total)

Cardboard Gods the book version available as well.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:19 AM on August 15, 2012

I've only read a couple of them so far, but this seems pretty great.
posted by Secretariat at 8:48 AM on August 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've got Dave Kingman, Champ Summers, Craig Jeffries (Topp's Future Stars '88), Candy Maldonado, Jose Uribe, Jack Clark, Ozzie Guillen.
posted by parmanparman at 8:49 AM on August 15, 2012

I'm surprised it wasn't Ken Griffey Jr's brother, based on the criteria.
posted by pxe2000 at 8:51 AM on August 15, 2012

Based on similar metrics, my personal pick is either Rogie Vachon or Gerry Cheevers.
posted by "But who are the Chefs?" at 9:48 AM on August 15, 2012

Phil 'The Power' Taylor has won 15 world championships. Eat it Slater.
posted by biffa at 9:58 AM on August 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

Travis Pastrana
Joey Chestnut

I really liked the concept of commenting on all your old baseball cards. I have most of the ones he does. But, his writing style is a little disjointed for me.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:04 AM on August 15, 2012

Oh man, my dad bought a shitton of Joey Meyer cards back in the day, and handed them out as presents telling people "trust me, you're gonna get rich on this!"

Oh dad. He also bubbled on the beanie baby market and ended up with a huge inventory when the bubble popped :(
posted by symbioid at 11:45 AM on August 15, 2012

Smithsonian makes a strong argument in favor of the greatest athlete ever being Jim Thorpe.
posted by old_growler at 11:47 AM on August 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

Who's Joey Meyer, you ask?

Exactly.
posted by symbioid at 12:01 PM on August 15, 2012

Who is the world's greatest athlete?"

Who is the world's greatest athlete competing for a title/prize? (FTFY)

cheers to soul surfers and athletes who don't need to compete to be great
posted by Surfurrus at 1:10 PM on August 15, 2012

If you apply any objective metric, the greatest athlete of all time is Ron Hextall. That is all.
posted by "Elbows" O'Donoghue at 1:30 PM on August 15, 2012

Wilker is great and I'm still rueing that I lost my copy of the Cardboard Gods book. That said, I do find that he's best in smallish doses because, after I read a lot of his stuff in one go, wave after wave of nostalgic melancholy wash over me and I start to feel like I'm in a Wes Anderson movie or something.
posted by Copronymus at 2:52 PM on August 15, 2012 [1 favorite]