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Joe McDonnell is one of 13 HOFMAG.com Senior Staff to contribute a list of the Top Ten Most Influential People in Sports History. How does it compare with your own choices or the lists of the other HOFMAG.com writers in the box to the right? Find out all the results, from Who's #1 to "also ran" in HOFMAG.com's Top 10 Most Influential People in Sports History. 10. Chick Hearn and Vin Scully – Were the keys to selling their sports to the city of Los Angeles – Hearn with the Lakers and Scully with the Dodgers. Without these two HOF broadcasters, both franchises might have failed, and it would have slowed down western professional sports expansion for years. 9. Pete Rose – Showed how baseball can still persecute its own. Rose was one of the greatest baseball players ever. As a manager, he bet on baseball, which is against baseball rules. Yet he's not allowed to enter the Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as a player. Huh?. 8. Marvin Miller – The first director of the Baseball Players Association fought for--and won--free agent rights for players. Imagine that. You play out your contract and you're allowed to ply your trade elsewhere. Wherever you want. Sounds fundamental, but it wasn't allowed in baseball until the three men listed number seven hooked up with Miller. 7. Curt Flood, Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally – Three players who risked their careers to rid baseball of its slave-like reserve clause. Every baseball player who slips on a pair of cleats should have picture of these guys in their lockers. 6. Pete Rozelle – Took football from a major sport to the major sport in the United States. Billions of dollars for TV contracts would never have happened without Rozelle. 5. Muhammad Ali – The most popular athlete in the world for most of his adult life, his at-the-time unpopular and controversial stance against the Vietnam war verified his status as a great man. 4. Earvin "Magic" Johnson – We all know his Hall of Fame playing credentials. However, his admitting that he had contracted HIV took the basketball star to another level. He put a face on the disease and forced governments around the world to start dealing with it. Especially the United States government. 3. Babe Ruth – The greatest all-around baseball player ever. He might have been a Hall of Fame pitcher. The Babe saved baseball with his bat and personality following the 1919 Black Sox fiasco. 2. Wilt Chamberlain – The most dominant individual performer--offensively and defensively--in the history of sports. The NBA changed rules to try and stop him! Enough said. 1. Jackie Robinson – He was the man who changed the social landscape of the United States by allowing himself to be the instrument of integration in baseball. And he did it with as much dignity as possible in an impossible situation. Joe McDonnell is an award-winning radio talk show host and investigative reporter.
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