the pulp list

Every year, writers and fans, alike descend onto their computers in an attempt to highlight and comment on the “year’s best” in sports. Those athletes have a special distinction of being MVPs, MOPs or what ever other acronym the sporting world uses to define the best. Taking this a step further we have decided to anoint the very best across all sports for the last decade. Here are the true MVPs of the sporting world.

10. Mariano Rivera

You can have a debate about who the greatest hitter of all-time is, or who the greatest outfielder, catcher etc. But when it comes to who the greatest closer of all-time is, there is no debate — it’s Mariano Rivera. With a World Series ERA of 0.75 and 39 World Series saves, Rivera has dominated baseball in the last decade. Since 1999 “The Panama Express” has played in nine All-Star games, captured three World Series rings, won the Rolaids Relief Man Award five times, and led Major League Baseball in total saves three times.  No closer has come anywhere near that kind of dominance in the last ten years.

9. Michael Schumacher

Although he has been retired for a few years, Schumacher is still the stick by which we measure Formula One drivers. He won seven F1 championships, including five in a row from 2000-2004. Schumacher was one of the highest paid athletes in the world during the past ten years, second only to Tiger Woods, and many credit him with being the world’s first billionaire athlete. There is talk of him making a comeback next season, possibly with the Mercedes team, if this takes place count on him adding more wins to his already sterling legacy.

8. Jimmie Johnson

With 47 wins, 179 top ten finishes, and 23 pole positions, Jimmie Johnson has dominated NASCAR over the past decade. Johnson just won his fourth straight NASCAR points series title, but only the most die-hard NASCAR fans even know who he is. Perhaps if he got into fights like Tony Stewart, he would garner more respect from NASCAR fans. Instead, Johnson just quietly dominates his sport one race at a time.

7. Serena & Venus Williams

OK, so technically Venus and Serena are two separate athletes, but they are sisters, and let’s be honest these two have defined women’s tennis over the last ten years. Over the past decade only two women not named Williams have managed to win Wimbledon. When she is not being fined $80k for doing her best John McEnroe impression, Serena Williams dominates the tennis world. She has won the Australian Open so often that it might as well be named after her. Venus in like manner has managed to win 41 total titles and has dominated Wimbledon over the past decade. Don’t forget the two have combined to win 16 doubles titles as well.

The Williams sisters are the two highest earning female tennis players of all-time, and when they are finished with their careers, they may also be equally regarded as the two greatest tennis players of all-time.

6. Sebastien Loeb

Since 2004 anyone in the World Rally Championship not named Sebastien Loeb has been driving for second place. Loeb has simply dominated the top spot in the sport. Driving a car around a track at high speeds is difficult enough, but take away all that nicely laid tarmac, throw in rocks and dirt, add a little snow and you have a recipe for disaster, but that is what the WRC is all about. The man dominates year in and year out with seemingly little effort. One year Loeb broke his arm while mountain biking, subsequently he missed the last four races of the season, but he still managed to win the championship because he was so far ahead in points.

5. Ryan Giggs

When it comes to soccer one franchise stands above the rest as the pinnacle of excellence: Manchester United. Ryan Giggs has spent his entire career with Man U, and is the most decorated player in English football history. Giggs has won seven Premier Leagues, two F.A. Cups, two UEFA Champions League Cups, and a FIFA Cup all in the last ten years. Other players may be more popular for dating former pop stars or filling highlight reels, but none have won as much hardware as Giggs has. Ryan Giggs plays international soccer for the Welsh national team, so he has not been very visible on the international stage, but he has dominated the English Premier League like no one else.

4. Shaquille O’Neal

Out of the last ten NBA Finals Shaq has played in five, won four, and been the Finals MVP three times. The only person who comes even close to that kind of dominance in the NBA over the last decade is Tim Duncan.  Shaq led the league in field-goal percentage seven times and led the league in scoring once during the last ten years. He has also managed to do something neither Michael Jordan nor Kobe Bryant have ever managed- win a championship without Phil Jackson.

3. Tom Brady

Tom Brady does one thing better than any other QB in the NFL- win games. Sure, perhaps Peyton Manning is technically a better QB, and Brady may have benefited from the whole “spygate” scandal, but Brady has managed to win three Superbowls and play in a fourth. He also lead the Patriots to an 18-1 record two years ago and only Jim McMahon and Joe Montana can claim that kind of a record in the annals of pro football. Brady has also set several NFL records including: Most passing touchdowns in a single quarter (5), most passing touchdowns in a single season (50), and largest touchdown to interception difference (42).

2. Roger Federer

Over the past ten years Roger Federer’s dominance has faced only two challenges: Raphael Nadal and mononucleosis. With 61 career titles and an 81% career winning percentage, Federer has been destroying his competition on a consistent basis since turning pro in 1998. He held the top spot in world tennis rankings for a record 237 weeks, which is almost five years of pure dominance.

Raphael Nadal has made a name for himself as being the one person who can consistently beat Roger Federer (on clay mostly), but once you get past Nadal there really is no player that has challenged King Rog. Wimbledon and the US Open belong to Federer, having dominated both events since 2003. Finally, given the history of superstars in tennis it is impressive to note that Roger has become the all-time career earnings leader as well.

1. Tiger Woods

Why does anyone care about Tiger’s marriage and personal life? Whether you are in the most exclusive country club in the world, or you are at a fast food joint in a sketchy neighborhood, you will find someone who is a Tiger Woods fan, no other athlete on this list has that sort of universal appeal. Thus, when Tiger has marriage problems and wrecks his Escalade it is literally international news.

To begin to understand how much Tiger Woods means to golf, all one has to do is look at TV ratings. After wining the US Open in 2008, Woods had season-ending knee surgery; the TV audience for golf dropped a staggering 55% for the PGA Championship with Woods gone. No other athlete in sports has that kind of influence on audience size…period!

Tiger is third on the all-time list for PGA Tour wins. Sam Snead had 82 Tour wins in 30 years, Jack Nicklaus had 73 Tour wins in 25 years, Tiger has 71 Tour wins in just 14 years. As dominant as every other athlete is on this list, Tiger is easily twice as good as anyone before him. Barring any major injury, or an even stranger car crash, Tiger will hold almost every Golf record in the book by miles when he retires. Tiger WoodsIS golf. If he were to retire tomorrow the PGA would be in a full-blown crisis.

Tiger has also dominated Forbes list of highest paid athletes for the past ten years. When you look at all his achievements there is no doubt that he is the most dominant athlete of the decade.