In which sport is it easiest for a single player to carry their team to a title?

[Vin+ 3,121]

Which player type is the hardest to overcome when they're on their game? A QB? A [insert whatever basketball position you consider to be most important here]? A pitcher? A goalie (both in hockey and MLS)?

[Sarge+ 3,436]

Pitcher and hockey goalie are probably the hardest to overcome when they are on their game because they can still dominate without any help at all from their teammates. It's hard enough to get a hit off a pitcher when they are on top of their game let alone score a run. And a hockey goalie can easily steal a win for his team when he's in the zone.

[Bay 2,003]

It's gotta be a pitcher or goalie. If you can't solve them that's it. You're done. You can get into a shootout with a hot QB and scorer in NBA. Since Pitcher and goalie are stopping scoring and obviously QB and shooters are doing the scoring.

 

If I remember right Carmello had a monster point night and the Knicks still lose because he was the only one doing anything.

Edited October 23, 2014 by Bay

[oochymp 2,393]

look at the US Belgium game if you want to see how much a goalie can do, without Howard's otherworldly performance we'd have been demolished in that game

 

given the framework of this thread I'd say a goalie because at least against a pitcher who hits fire in the playoffs you won't face him more than three times in a seven game series, if he's really on his game in one game you can just regroup for the next game, when a goalie catches fire you've gotta face the same guy night after night, that's beyond demoralizing

[Cherry 1,302]

I don't think Tim Howard is a good example for that. I'd say an NHL goalie is much tougher to overcome. In soccer, the goalkeeper can not physically cover everything. It's literally impossible to stop every shot ever. With an NHL goalie, it became a lot tougher. The shots come quicker but he only has to move a foot, not 10 feet. If I have a good enough goalie he can stop 100 shots (Nobody that good; but it's physically possible.) No goalkeeper is going to stop the perfect strike.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Chernobyl426

[Phins4life 271]

Really tricky...

 

If I have to pick the easiest...basketball. Fewest number of players in the playing area at a time, and if you have at least one guy who can score 25-40 points a game, you should realistically be able to contend (if not coast) game in and game out with a slightly better than average defense and solid effort from the bench. But I'm speaking in hypotheticals where everybody has a clone of Lebron on their roster. Even this isn't easy.

 

The hardest is incredibly subjective, but I went with MLB. Often 2, 3 or even more pitchers rotating through, all coming in with their own hot or cold streak, relying on their batters to overcome the not so favorable odds of hitting better than 1-4 or 1-3, and then actually making it around the bases thanks to the hitters behind them, and so on. The difficulty just keeps stacking up.

 

But then you have games like soccer and hockey, where the ability to even get one goal (or lack thereof) makes you stand out and can win or lose the game for the whole team. Then of course football has obvious issues, like no O-line, no time to get rid of the ball, no corners, you give up yards for days, etc. It's all preference.

[oochymp 2,393]

how much does Bumgarner's performance in this year's World Series factor in to this discussion? it's certainly an outlier, but he did almost singlehandedly win three of the games in the World Series, he definitely had some help getting there (I still think it's a great footnote to the run that the Nats only win was against Bumgarner) but did he provide a model for one pitcher carrying his team to a World Series win?