We grew up playing these games but who is best? Best Damner Bernie is back to give his Top 10.

OK, I know I said I'd pick the greatest video game players ever, but I can't say that I've played every video game so my vision is skewed.  I'm going to go with the only three games that matter to me: Tecmo Super Bowl, RBI Baseball, and NHL Hockey '94 (EA Sports) for the Sega Genesis. I think it's safe to say that these are the most popular classic games of all time, so that's what the list is based on. So here we go with the Top 10:

10. Tony Armas

He has 4 million home runs and he's on the bench? Why? I have no idea, but you have to put him in because he pounds the ball.

9. Lawrence Taylor

If this was based on the original Tecmo, LT would rank #1.  In the original, LT was the fastest in the game and could block field goals.  In Tecmo Super, he's still great, just not as dominant.

8. David Fulcher

You may be asking yourself: who is David Fulcher? Well he's a safety on the Bengals and he is nasty.  He is the best at picking off passes and makes big plays when it matters.

7. Will Clark

Always gets good wood on the ball. Every time he's up in a clutch situation, he delivers.

6.  Tim Raines

This will cause a debate but it shouldn't. He's got great speed, can hit for average, and hits for power too.  There isn't a player as well-rounded as Raines in the game.  

5. Howie Long/Reggie White

These guys are pretty much interchangeable. You can stuff every play action pass with a dive and easily notch 50 sacks in a season.

 

4. Steve Yzerman

My favorite player to use in NHL '94.  He's fast, accurate and has a hard shot.  Great player to use on the break and easy to maneuver on the ice.

3. Bo Jackson

I think I'm the only person in the world that thinks Bo isn't the greatest video game player ever.  Here's my reason: when you are playing the computer late in the playoffs you pretty much have to abandon the running game.  I wanted to test this theory so I played a full season with the Raiders.  Bo racked up 2200+ yards in the regular season.   But when I got to the AFC championship, Bo had 23 yards and fumbled. I won the game with a punt return by Nick Bell and some savvy passing.  In the Super Bowl, Bo had 28 yards and a fumble.  I still won but Bo was a non-factor and he was in average health.  For this reason, I can't say he's the best video game player ever or even the best in the game.

2. Joe Montana

He completes every pass, never throws picks and his condition is irrelevant. I've had him at bad all season and he still dominates.  He's pretty much the only QB in the game that can complete the fly pattern when the receiver is in the back of the end zone for more than 4 seconds. Hardcore Tecmo Super Bowl players know what I mean. If you let the receiver run the fly pattern and he hits the back of the end zone, most QBs with airmail the pass. Not Montana.  He completes it every time.  Montana is the best in the game, hands down.  It pains me to say it because I love Bo so much, but it's a fact.

 

1.  Jeremy Roenick

He is Steve Yzerman with a harder slap shot and can check players like a defenseman.  I don't like using the Blackhawks because Roenick is unfair.  I believe Trent said it best: It's not so much me as it is Roenick, he's good.

So that's the list. Remember it's based on three games, but I think after years and years of playing these games, the list is pretty accurate. Let the debate begin!

I have a feeling there's gonna be some hate mail over this. Good luck, Bernie.

We get a lot of e-mails here at Best Damn, so Bernie the Best Damn Blogger addresses a few of them here.

1. Who do you think would win in a fight Rob or John?

Matt A.

Let's see. Salley is 7 feet tall, Dibble has more of a brawler's mentality... I'd say they go 30 seconds then Rodney comes out of nowhere with a steel chair and knocks them both out.

2. How did you decide the order of the most outrageous moments?

G. Money

We are the show for talking sports, so recently we've been ranking some of sports' coolest Top 50 Rankings. Check some of our rankings below to see where you stand. PROGRAMMING ALERT — FRI., JULY 21: Top 50 Unforgettable Plays in Sports BEST DAMN BASEBALL PLAYS Some of baseball's most memorable moments include Kirk Gibson, Pete Rose, the "Say Hey Kid" and some unfortunate fellow named Bartman. BEST DAMN BLOWUPS There are moments of serenity and purity in athletics, and these moments are not them. Just ask the man dubbed "Sweet Lou." BEST DAMN BEATDOWNS Enjoy the most exciting beatdowns ever captured on FSN and Fox Sports, going inside the squared circle, the Octagon and the PRIDE Fighting ring. BEST DAMN NBA FINISHES This past 2005-06 regular season registered an unbelievable array of killer endings and fantastic finishes. Here are the season's best.

These Top 50 shows we've been doing lately have been pretty fun to put together.  We all sit in a room for a couple of hours and argue over what play deserves to be where and why a certain play/moment deserves to make the show. 

It's funny how you'll be sitting in your living room with friends and arguing over why Jeffrey Maier's robbery had a bigger impact than Steve Bartman just because it's fun; then you come to work and are getting paid to do the same thing.  It makes me wonder why everyone doesn't want to do this?!?

3. How does Scott Rolen make the All-Star team, AGAIN? I mean he is a great player, but other third basemen are having better years, this is just a popularity contest and the MLB should revoke the voting privileges from the fans.

Steve E.

Ummm Steve, have you been paying attention at all?? He made the All-Star team because he's batting .331 with 57 RBI and he's the best defensive third baseman in the NL, maybe in the league.  And he's not there because of the fans. He's there because he was put on the team.

But you do bring up a good point.  Now that the game "counts" and determines home-field advantage, the All-Star starters should be taken out of the fans hands.  I wouldn't say totally out, but it should be similar to the NFL's policy: 1/3 fan, 1/3 player, 1/3 coach votes.  

4. John Salley would win easily in a 40-yard dash between the four hosts. That was an easy question I don't even know why it was asked.

Tony

I'm not so sure that he would "easily" win.  Actually, I'd say Rodney would win pretty easily.  He's only a few years removed from playing in the NFL.  Salley does have the long stride thing working for him though, so I think the race would be between those two.  Although, don't sleep on Rose... it ain't like watching poetry in motion, but when he gets his legs moving, he can motor. 

5. It's a shame that the Best Damn BadAss tournament was fixed. I've been voting all along, and it pisses me off that it gets this far and is rigged. There is no way that Mirko Cro Cop (Who?) could have killed Tyson like that if the voting wasn't fixed.

Mike

There have been a few grievances over the outcome of the BadAss tournament but I know for a fact that fan voting decided the winners and Cro Cop won fair and square.  The MMA guys have an insane following that I had no idea about until I started looking around the Internet. 

In all honesty I think Jim Brown should have won.  Who's more BadAss than him?  Which brings me to a quasi-related story...

Arguably Jim Brown's best work in Mars Attacks

Like Jim Brown, I'm a Syracuse alum.  On one of his visits back to campus, a couple friends of mine ran into him at the athletic center.  When you run into a legend, on his home turf no less, there are a number of things you can say to him: It's an honor to meet you, you were the greatest football player ever, you were the greatest athlete ever, etc.

Well, my friend Jeff went another route. Upon meeting the greatest athlete to ever come out of Syracuse and the most dominant running back in NFL history, Jeff goes up and says (without sarcasm): "Wow, Jim Brown... you were great in Mars Attacks!"

What was Jim's reaction? Surprisingly, he was pretty happy to hear that. I guess after decades of people talking sports to you, he wanted some compliments on his acting skills. 

 If you have something you want to ask the show, send an email to bestdamn@foxsports.net

It's been another stellar week here at Best Damn. To recap the week backstage behind the scenes, here's our feature producer, Matt.

Happy belated birthday to John Salley, who turned 42 on Tuesday. What do you get a 7-foot tall, ex-pro athlete who has four NBA Championship rings and played alongside Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal (to name a few)?

The gift that keeps on giving. A Special Edition copy of Napoleon Dynamite. Why Napoleon Dynamite? It was a free giveaway to all of our audience members. We snagged an extra copy and put it in Sal's dressing room. The Best Damn Sports Show Period spares no expense when a birthday rolls around. The man has four NBA rings for God's sake, what else does he need?

Salley might have left somewhat empty-handed, but the guys working on the production staff did get a treat Tuesday afternoon. Jessica Simpson made an appearance on the FOX Lot.

The buzz traveled at the speed of light. I went down to the Commissary to look for myself, and found a large group of Best Damn staff members ogling at Jessica from the sandwich line. For some reason it took everyone an inordinately long amount of time to place their orders. I must say, the divorce process is treating Jessica very well.

Tonight we are airing the Top 50 NBA finishes from this season. Hoopheads will enjoy this one. Not going to give too much away, but if you are a Carmelo Anthony fan, set your TiVo now. As former Virginia Men's basketball coach Pete Gillen once said, "He's on TV more than "Leave it to Beaver" reruns!"

There's two seconds left on the clock and your team is down by a bucket. Who do you want taking the final shot on your team? Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson? I take Valpo's finest, Bryce Drew. Ole Miss has never been the same since.

Speaking of great finishes ... where were you on March 28, 1992? I was sitting on my living room couch witnessing the unreal finish to the NCAA East Regional Finals between Duke and Kentucky.

Christian Laettner's shot was phenomenal, but the real MVP of that game was Thomas Hill. He had 19 points and 3 rebounds, but that means nothing to me. T-Hill earned that MVP by weeping like a baby on national TV after Laettner hit the turnaround jumper. I dare you to find a better reaction in all of sports than Thomas Hill's TEARS OF JOY. Not gonna happen people.

Don't believe me? See for yourself (click here).

Sidenote: How great are the NBA playoffs? I am officially onboard. Thanks to TiVo, I fly through each game in about an hour.

For all of you scoring at home this is my 3^rd TiVo reference. Yes, it is the best electronic invention in the last 20 years. No I am not being compensated for this plug.

Thanks Matt -- make sure to hook us all up when your TiVo advertising dollars roll in ...

Stay tuned to Best Damn next week, with guests like Paul Pierce, Baron Davis, Phil Gordon, Vince Vaughn, Artie Lange -- plus Best Damn Beatdowns next Friday!!!

 

 

Sunday May 14th

Another great week here at Best Damn.  We talked NBA playoffs with our correspondent Jalen Rose and Mavericks swingman Jerry Stackhouse.  The authors of "Game of Shadows" came in to get grilled by our guys about Barry Bonds. Plus, Hollywood luminaries Denis Leary & Kurt Russell checked in.  But of course, this week was all about Mothers.  Here to tell us about the week that was our good friend Bernie...

Another wacky week at Best Damn. Pretty soon I'll just take out the word wacky, because everything is all becoming commonplace.

We had several NFL moms in studio for our Mother's Day show. We asked the mothers to bring in childhood photos of their sons, and Betsy Hasselbeck brought in a picture of Matt in a Superman costume when he was 5 (or so).

Matt Hasselbeck with hair at age 5

If you saw the show, you'd know it was Matt -- a blue top, a cape and red underwear. Of course it was my job to get the photo scanned. Nothing like going to our graphics people and saying, "Hi, please scan this photo of a 5-year-old boy in red under-roos." Not gonna lie, felt kinda perv-y.

I went to the E3 after-party at the House of Blues in Hollywood on Wednesday. E3 is this big electronics convention where they show off all the new games and consoles ... and it's become quite a big deal. Basically, it's a lot of fanfare built around nerd culture. A bunch of cool stars were at the after-party like Tony Hawk, Antonio Gates and Tony Gonzalez. Beautiful women were there like Brande Roderick.

This guy from Desperate Housewives was there. I didn't know who he was at first, but he kept saying "My name is Blah Blah from Desperate Housewives" so much that I got the point. Brian, the feature producer, quipped, "Apparently, this guy's last name is 'Desperate Housewives.' " Then Shar Jackson showed up, but her publicist said we weren't allowed to ask any questions about Britney Spears. I only had one question: "Who are you?"

Inside the party, there were a lot of games set up to play. They had a Halo 2 station with actual professionals playing. Two of the best pros were these incredibly attractive girls. This was the place where good nerds go after they die. This place was nerd heaven.

"Heh heh ... So, umm, what high school did you go to? Huh huh uh huh ... "

I still couldn't believe this big party was based around video games. I was asking a lot of the athletes what they thought about the new games and they all were amazed by the graphics and realistic gameplay. Imagine if this happened in 1987 and the big new game was RBI Baseball. My guess is the interviews would have gone like this:

Me: "Hey Al Pedrique, what do you think of the new game RBI Baseball?"

Al: "Well, I don't get why all the players are white and look like David Wells."

Me: "Who's better: the video you or the real you?"

Al: "I hope the real me, because the video me sucks."

Well Al, it's true. The video you sucks and I sub you out every time for Tony Gwynn. But I'll always cherish your 1988 Topps Rated Rookie card.

Thanks Bernie, but I was more of a Donruss guy.  Happy Mother's Day!

Thursday May 4

What a crazy month of April here at Best Damn.  And nothing was crazier than the NFL Draft Preview put together by J & Bern.  One half of the fearless duo (Bern) checks in with his thoughts from a crazy last month.

Being a sports fan and working in sports TV, you get to learn more than the average fan.  Here's what I've learned over the past few weeks from working at Best Damn.

The Curse of the Goat is alive and well. When we had Cubs stud Derrek Lee on the show, we thought it would be funny for him to smash a goat pi