In his story for Tuesday, ESPN.com writer Bill Barnwell set out to find the best American athlete for every year since 1912, awarding the Best American Athlete Championship Belt to the person who won the year.The results? Babe Ruth held the title as best American athlete for 10 years, while Tiger Woods came away with six titles, Michael Jordan had five-and-a-half, and Muhammad Ali had four. Check out the criteria and results here.Heres your chance to weigh in: Who is the most accomplished American athlete ever?For the record, here are Barnwells thoughts on the topic:Michael Phelps is the greatest American athlete of all time. Hes the greatest Olympian of all time and its not particularly close: Phelps has 23 gold medals and nobody else has more than nine. The idea that the number of events in swimming inflates Phelps statistics doesnt really hold much muster. If it were that easy, why havent any swimmers before or after Phelps come close to matching Phelps totals? Ian Thorpe, the best swimmer in the world in the era immediately preceding Phelps, won five golds. Matt Biondi ended up with eight. Jenny Thompson, the most decorated Olympic female swimmer in history, also won eight. Spitz won nine. He might have won more had he kept swimming after the 1972 Olympics, but he didnt.If Phelps was narrowly ahead of the competition -- if he had 10 or 11 gold medals -- maybe the inflation case would hold up. But 23 to nine is a landslide. Nobody has won four gold medals in a single Olympics more than once. Phelps has done it four times. Nobody won eight medals in a boycott-free Olympics before Phelps. He did it twice, both in these 2004 Olympics and again in 2008. To the extent that we can compare athletes across different sports, Phelps has dominated swimming in a way that no other American athlete has dominated his or her sport at the highest level over a longer period of time. And if youre not picking Phelps because its impossible to make those kinds of comparisons, you cant pick anybody else. Red Air Jordan 6 Retro . After a replay, the winner will meet Sunderland in the quarterfinals. Sagbo did well to control Sone Alukos right cross and fire past Brighton goalkeeper Peter Brezovan. Aluko was making his first start in four months after recovering from an Achilles injury. White Air Jordan 6 Retro . Aside from the trilogy main event title fight, there are a number of intriguing matchups in the heavyweight, welterweight and lightweight divisions. http://www.cheapairjordan6retro.com/ . Walcott is available for Saturdays home match against Southampton as Arsenal looks to extend its two-point lead at the top of the Premier League. The Gunners are currently the second highest scorers in the league but Wenger insists Walcott will add something extra to his team. Black Air Jordan 6 Retro . Scott Kazmir allowed four hits in seven shutout innings, Michael Brantley hit a two-run homer in a three-run first inning and the Indians maintained their hold on an AL wild-card spot with a 4-1 win over the Houston Astros on Saturday night. Air Jordan 6 Retro Outlet . The next step is a better finish. Bae played bogey-free Friday on another gorgeous day at Riviera for a 5-under 66, giving him a one-shot lead over Aaron Baddeley and Robert Garrigus going into the weekend. Now that the dust has settled after three days of competition in Anaheim, California, its time to look at some of the biggest takeaways from the Esports Championship Series Season 2 Finals. While Astralis ended up taking the win in a pretty lopsided grand final, there is still plenty to unpack from this past weekend.SK Gaming falters once moreOutside of Astralis winning the whole tournament, the biggest storyline has to be the fact that SK Gaming came up short yet again. Since winning its second straight major at ESL One: Cologne in July, its yet to win a tournament. Its made the grand finals twice in that span, but its been a challenge just to get over the hump. It tried to get things going by bumping Lincoln fnx Lau off the roster, yet, for at least this tournament, the results remain the same. That being said, with such talented players on the roster, you have to assume that the team will right the ship eventually. But as of now, its a bit tough watching it falter over and over. Especially when the latest falter was an absolute dismantling at the hands of Astralis. The silver lining in all of this is that despite these miscues, SK has now finished in the top four in each of the past seven tournaments it has played in since winning Cologne. It now has about a month and a half to practice up with stand-in Ricardo fox Pacheco before the ELeague Major at the end of January.North America is here to stayThere has been a lot of talk in the past few weeks about the surge of the North American Counter-Strike teams. It started with Cloud9 winning ESL Pro League Season 4 at the end of October, and continued with OpTic Gaming winning Northern Arena Montreal and ELeague Season 2. In each one of those grand finals the NA teams beat very strong teams, with Cloud9 defeating SK and OpTic taking down G2 Esports and Astralis. Prior to the North Americann momentum, the regional scene was more or less considered a joke, but thats just not the case anymore.ddddddddddddThe continuing resurgence of old favoritesMuch of the drama that took place throughout the ECS Season 2 finals was thanks to a handful of teams who had fallen out of the limelight in recent months. That starts with Astralis, the overall winners of the tournament. Shockingly, this was the first tournament of any kind they have won all year. Not only that, but theyve now made it to two straight grand finals, also finishing as runners-up at the ELeague Season 2 finals. Theyve already qualified for the ELeague Major by virtue of finishing in the top 8 at ESL Cologne, which means theyll be looking to make it to three straight grand finals appearances come the end of January.This tournament also saw Team EnVyUs insert itself back into the narrative. The Boys in Blue havent really been contenders for some time now, but after a strong performance at the ECS Finals, they certainly turned some heads. While they did run head first into the Green Wall of OpTic Gaming in the semifinals, they still put together big wins over Immortals and Team Dignitas to get into the playoffs in the first place. They will be taking part in the ELeague Major qualifier this weekend, and will be looking to build upon this top-4 finish to crack their way into the Major.Overall, the ECS Season 2 Finals was the perfect tournament to send off 2016. While the ELeague Major qualifier will take place at the end of this week, the ramifications of the qualifier wont be felt until the start of the new year. As a result, the ECS Finals certainly left the Counter-Strike community with plenty to chew on as they eagerly await the 2017 season. Cheap Jerseys China NFL Jerseys China NFL Jerseys Wholesale Discount Basketball Jerseys Cheap NHL Jerseys Authentic Cheap Baseball Jerseys Free Shipping Cheapest College Jerseys Sale Cheap Football Jerseys China Nike NFL Jerseys Canada Wholesale NHL Jerseys From China MLB Jerseys Outlet Canada Wholesale NBA Jerseys Canada Store Cheap Soccer Jerseys China Cheap Authentic Jerseys Canada ' ' '