Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (2024)

In a city with such a long, celebrated sports history as New York, the challenge of finding 25 individuals to select for an inaugural Hall of Fame seemed both daunting and easily approachable. There were the obvious choices, most of whom could be described with a word or nickname.

Babe. Jackie. LT. Broadway Joe. The Mick.

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We knew those five — plus a bunch of others — belonged on this list. But how do you organize a group that spans multiple sports, with candidates who in some cases played over a century apart? That was a tougher assignment.

So here’s how we went about it.

The only criteria given to us from The Athletic HQ was that each local Hall of Fame should be made up of athletes who spent the bulk of their careers there or at least were so impactful locally during their tenure with a local team that they would be a glaring omission. So that eliminates a lot of homegrown talent. Michael Jordan may have been born in Brooklyn, but he never played for a home team in the area. Prep superstars like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sue Bird and many others found college and pro success elsewhere. With that in mind, we needed to figure out how to equate for the fact that our panel of 14 voters — every writer on The Athletic’s New York staff plus multiple local editors — come from different age groups and often have more expertise in certain sports than others. How could we balance that out?

We decided to have each person submit a ranked ballot of their top 25 choices. The first choice would be worth 12.5 points, with the value of each selection dropping by a half point all the way down to number 25 (worth 0.5 points). We would add up the scores, ranking the group by cumulative points (as seen next to each entry).

In the spirit of transparency, we realized a few things about the group after our voting was complete. Team sports — particularly baseball — skewed heavily here, as did the figure’s ability to captivate a fanbase. While individual sport athletes such as Althea Gibson and John McEnroe were born in New York and primarily made their residences here during the length of their careers, they usually only competed in the area once a year. Since the list tended to be more historically team-oriented, there was also a glaring lack of female sports figures on the list. Gibson, whose 1956 French Open win made her the first African-American to win a Grand Slam event (she’d go on to win 10 more), is as impactful an athlete as anyone in this group and should have been included on achievements alone.

With all of that in mind, here’s a look at our results. What did we get right? What did we get wrong? We look forward to reading your thoughts in the comments.

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (1)

(Louis Van Oeyen / Western Reserve Historical Society / Getty Images)

1. Babe Ruth (171.5 points)

When the Yankees purchased Ruth from the Red Sox before the 1920 season, the club had recorded just three winning seasons in the previous decade, including one second-place finish, in 1910, when it was still the New York Highlanders. Ruth changed everything — for the Yankees, for baseball and for New York — and it almost doesn’t feel right reducing his impact to a few paragraphs. The Yankees became the dominant power in the American League, playing in six World Series in eight years, including titles in 1923, 1927, 1928, 1932. The franchise erected Yankee Stadium in 1923 — forever known as “The House That Ruth Built.” His slugging prowess changed the way the game was played.

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If Ruth set the bar for athletic success in New York, he also created the template for the celebrity athlete, a larger-than-life figure who became a cultural icon and the toast of the city. As historian and author Glenn Stout once wrote, “Ruth was New York incarnate — uncouth and raw, flamboyant and flashy, oversized, out of scale, and absolutely unstoppable.”

Sometimes, of course, it’s difficult to separate the man from the myth. In 1920, his first year with the Yankees, and 1927, the year he hit 60 home runs, he clubbed more homers than any other team in the league. This was true. In 1932, he allegedly called his shot during the fifth inning of Game 3 of the World Series. That story is more complicated.

But like his tumultuous childhood and the many nicknames that followed him throughout his career — The Great Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, the Colossus of Clout — the stories of Babe Ruth are unforgettable. —Rustin Dodd

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (2)

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2. Jackie Robinson (150.5 points)

Robinson remembered Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey once telling him: “Robinson, I’m looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back.”

Robinson’s major-league career with the Dodgers lasted only 10 years, though he became a six-time All-Star, Rookie of the Year, league MVP, and won the batting title and a ring in the 1955 World Series before retiring at the age of 37 to become a business executive. He finished his career with a line of .311/.409/.474 with 137 home runs, and one very famous, controversial-if-you’re-a-Yankees-fan steal of home.

It was a career that ran short after a late start in the majors at age 28. Robinson lettered in four sports at UCLA, then served two years in the military before playing a season for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro League.

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The privilege of manning second base for the Dodgers subjected Robinson to hostility on the field and death threats at home. Robinson’s rosy legacy now, as the man good enough to take that violence quietly and without ever truly fighting back, belies the passion Robinson felt for the advancement of rights for black Americans, and the fury he felt for the injustices levied against him.

Rickey found the right man in Robinson because he cared about the long-term stakes for his community, but Jackie wasn’t just a trailblazer — Jackie really could play. He entered baseball on the back end of his physical peak, and in 1962, he asked Hall of Fame voters to consider his candidacy only for what he achieved on the field. He was inducted into Cooperstown in his first year on the ballot. —Lindsey Adler

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3. Mickey Mantle (148.5 points)

“Somebody once asked me if I ever went up to the plate trying to hit a home run. I said, ‘Sure, every time.’” — Mickey Mantle

Mantle hit 536 career homers. He won the triple crown in 1956. He won three AL MVP awards and seven World Series, the first in 1951 and the final in 1962. Yet it was not just the raw numbers or the tape-measure shots that defined Mantle. There are few players who better embodied an era or influenced more young American fans during the 1950s and early ’60s. He took over for Joe DiMaggio in center field. He dueled with teammate Roger Maris in the summer of 1961, chasing Ruth’s record of 60 homers. He did it while playing nearly all of his career with a torn ACL. “On two legs,” the major leaguer Nellie Fox once said, “Mickey Mantle would have been the greatest ball player who ever lived.” — Rustin Dodd

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (4)

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4. Lawrence Taylor (147.5 points)

Bill Belichick considers Taylor the greatest defensive player in the history of football. Not much more needs to be said, but here goes: Taylor’s pass-rushing ability completely revolutionized the way the game was played. Offenses had to change the way they blocked outside linebackers, and Taylor’s combination of speed and power caused other teams to try to find similar players to terrorize quarterbacks.

Taylor was named the NFL’s MVP in 1986, becoming the first defensive player to win the award in 15 years after a league-high 20.5 sack season. Taylor won three defensive player of the year awards (tied for most all-time), was selected to 10 Pro Bowls and was an eight-time first-team All-Pro in a 13-year career spent exclusively with the Giants. His 132.5 career sacks ranked second all-time when he retired. Taylor led the Giants to the franchise’s first two Super Bowl wins in 1986 and 1990. —Dan Duggan

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (5)

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5. Lou Gehrig (138.5 points)

“For the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

For Gehrig, the earth seemed to extend no farther than the boundaries of New York City. Born on the Upper East Side, he was raised in Washington Heights, then attended Columbia before turning pro. Aside from a short stint as a minor leaguer in Hartford, Gehrig spent the rest of his playing career in New York. With the Yankees, Gehrig spent much of his career in the sizable shadow of Babe Ruth, whose stardom transcended sports. Gehrig nevertheless cemented his own place in history.

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In 1927, while starring with Ruth on the Murderers’ Row Yankees, it was Gehrig who won the American League MVP. The Iron Horse played 2,130 consecutive games, a record that stood for 56 years before it was eclipsed by Cal Ripken Jr. Two years before succumbing to the disease that now bears his name, Gehrig was honored by the Yankees in a ceremony between games of a doubleheader on July 4, 1939. That day, his No. 4 became the first number ever retired in the major leagues. But it would be remembered as the day that he delivered the “Luckiest Man” speech, one of the most famous in all of sports. His legacy has withstood the test of time.

In 1999, six decades after Gehrig’s final game, Major League Baseball asked fans to name the All-Century Team. No player got more votes than Gehrig. —Marc Carig

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (6)

6. Joe DiMaggio (137 points)

The great question of DiMaggio’s career is what more he would have accomplished in baseball if he had not lost three years of playing in his prime to enlist in the military (where he never went off to fight in the war). In 13 seasons as a Yankee, DiMaggio managed a .977 OPS, seventh-best in history for a right-handed hitter. He grew up the son of an Italian fisherman in San Francisco, and returned in retirement a hero with nine World Series victories, 13 All-Star nods, three MVP awards and a record-setting 56-game hit streak to his name.

The Yankee Clipper wound up with the type of fame bestowed only on those who spend their careers in New York, but DiMaggio flinched at the attention. He wanted only the recognition. — Lindsey Adler

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (7)

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7. Tom Seaver (127 points)

It’s neither as glitzy as Broadway Joe nor as simple as Babe or the Mick, but there’s no nickname in New York sports as accurate and as adulatory as The Franchise. Tom Brady can claim Tom Terrific, because in these parts Seaver is the man who established the New York Mets as an actual National League baseball team rather than a laughingstock.

In the almost 60 years since the Mets first took the field, no expansion team has stumbled more comprehensively at their start. And no team, regardless of its heritage, has ever picked itself off the floor and pulled off the year-over-year metamorphosis that the Miracle Mets of 1969 did behind Seaver.

During his first 11-year tenure with New York, Seaver was the best pitcher in baseball. He dropped and drived his way to 10 All-Star teams and three Cy Youngs. Had Yogi Berra waited one day to throw him on normal rest in 1973, the Mets may have pulled off an even more stunning World Series upset, this time of Oakland. Seaver’s battle with M. Donald Grant and ultimate trade to Cincinnati ushered in another dark period in club history — six straight losing seasons much like its expansion days.

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Seaver remains not only the best player in franchise history but its lodestar. He established its culture and its identity as an organization built around the pitcher’s mound. The Mets play their games on Seaver Way and will, finally, honor him with a statue outside Citi Field soon. He is, after all, The Franchise. —Tim Britton

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (8)8. Yogi Berra (114.5 points)

Berra relayed the origin story of the quote in a 1998 book. One day, he was giving his friend, Joe Garagiola, directions to his longtime home in Montclair, N.J. “When you come to a fork in the road,” Yogi quipped, “take it.” With that, Berra added to his lore.

Of course, the resonance of his Yogisms has rivaled his accomplishments on the field, all of which came in New York. He won 13 World Series championships with the Yankees. Berra managed the Yankees to a pennant in 1964 before capturing another flag in 1973, this time as manager of the Mets. Born and raised in St. Louis, New Jersey became his adopted home. These days, that famous fork in the road, where Edgewood Road and Edgewood Terrace meet, is adorned with a pinstriped sign that reads Yogi Berra Way. It’s not far from the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center. —Marc Carig

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (9)

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9. Walt Frazier (111 points)

There may not be any better Knicks player ever than Frazier. There definitely is no cooler Knick than Clyde. No one has bridged the generations, first as a smooth operator at point guard and, for the last two decades, as one half of the voice of the franchise on its TV broadcast. Frazier has been stylin’ and profilin’ for generations now. He helped lead the Knicks to two championships — the only two in franchise history — as a high-scoring playmaker who also defended at a high level. While Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals will always belong to Willis Reed, Frazier propelled the Knicks with 36 points and 19 assists. Frazier belongs on any list of all-time greats in New York. —Mike Vorkunov

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (10)

(Brian Babineau / NHLI via Getty Images)

10. Martin Brodeur (103.5 points)

The best way to finish a career in sports with a spot in any kind of Hall of Fame is to win a lot. No goaltender in the history of hockey won more than Brodeur. He ended his NHL career with 691 wins, which is 140 more than second-place Patrick Roy. He won more championships in a nine-year span with the Devils from 1995-2003 than their rivals across the Hudson River have won in the past 86.

Brodeur was remarkably durable, playing in 70-plus games 12 times in a 14-year span. He was also so ruthlessly effective at one part of his job — handling the puck — that the NHL changed the rules about where goaltenders are allowed to do it. Brodeur became the face of the youngest NHL franchise in the market, and his willingness to be a spokesperson for the club became as legendary as his play on the ice. — Corey Masisak

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (11)

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11. Derek Jeter (92 points)

Derek Jeter created a model of consistency and professionalism for the baseball players who would play alongside him and after his retirement, but particularly in New York. For 20 years, Jeter gave Yankees fans a known, reliable face when they turned on the game each night, and he gave aspiring players all over the country a role model, someone whose number to wear when they themselves matriculated to the majors.

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Jeter will be known for “playing the game the right way”— his buttoned-up, persistent but restrained approach. That adherence is the undercurrent to his march to 3,000 hits, a World Series MVP, and a cavalcade of other trophies for his achievements that could fill a room in his Florida home. There are elements of Jeter’s game that are worthy of continued examination — defensive, primarily — but the shortstop’s impact on the Yankees and the game at large will always be considered in the aggregate. He was The Captain, and he delivered a consistent example for his style of play on and off the field. — Lindsey Adler

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (12)

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12. Joe Namath (85 points)

No one stops the room like Namath.

The 76-year-old —who infamously guaranteed the Jets’ first (and only) Super Bowl title —still can’t get two steps at red carpet events in New York without someone stopping him. Men, women and children flock to him for pictures, an autograph, or just to shake his hand and regale him with a memory. Namath, with his signature smile, hangs on every word, reflecting with whoever can grab him for that brief moment until he’s ultimately ushered inside.

Namath hasn’t played a snap in 44 years. Yet he’s still the star of the show.

To understand Namath’s impact on football, you need to look beyond the stats. He never completed more than 52.9 percent of his passes. Although he threw for 3,000-plus yards three times (including 4,007 in 1967) in a ground-and-pound era, he had more interceptions (220) than touchdowns (173). He finished his 12 years in New York with a 60-61-4 record. He led the Jets to a winning record just once between 1970 and 1976.

But he was Broadway Joe. He was as impactful off the field as on it. You can’t tell the story of New York sports without that guarantee or Namath’s larger-than-life persona. —Connor Hughes

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (13)

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13. Mark Messier (71.5 points)

In a little room across a hallway from the Rangers’ locker room, some VIP congratulated GM Neil Smith on June 14, 1994: “Those trades you made at the deadline won the Stanley Cup!” Smith shook his head. “No,” he said, “the trade for Mark Messier won the Stanley Cup.”

The blockbuster deal with Edmonton that brought Messier to New York —made between the first and second games of the 1991-92 season —changed the franchise, as Smith had predicted, and resulted in the Rangers’ only title in the last 80 years. Messier immediately set the goal on one singular sight: The shiny silver championship trophy. He would win the Hart Trophy in his first season in New York and two Presidents’ trophies, but he will forever be remembered for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announcing, “Captain Mark Messier, come get the Stanley Cup.”

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Before that, of course, Messier promised victory in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final, the Rangers down 3-2 in the series, with a hat trick and an assist in New Jersey to force a Game 7. He would then score the winning goal in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final against Vancouver. Messier, a Hockey Hall of Famer, played 698 regular-season games over two tours with the Rangers, scoring 250 goals and 691 points. —Rick Carpiniello

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (14)

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14. Patrick Ewing (69 points)

An 11-time All-Star. Six times on the All-NBA second team and once on the first team. The centerpiece of six 50-plus win teams. All that’s missing from Ewing’s resume is an NBA title. For years that was a big weight on him, one of many stars who were shut out during the Jordan era. But in hindsight, it’s easier to see Ewing’s brilliance.

He averaged 23.6 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game over the first 12 seasons of his career, playing in a generation stocked with dominant centers. Ewing stood mostly toe-to-toe with them. And maybe, just maybe, he was one game away from a title himself. His time in New York has aged even better. For many fans, the ’90s are now considered a golden generation in Knicks history. —Mike Vorkunov

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (15)

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15. Mariano Rivera (53 points)

Hitters knew what Mariano Rivera would serve them when they stepped up to the plate, and they knew they still had virtually no chance against him. The Panamanian right-hander closed an all-time record 952 regular season games for 652 saves, and did so thanks to his even-keeled temperament and a gift from God: his cutter.

Rivera’s success can be quantified through his career statistics, but what is left off his baseball cards is the comfort and relief he brought his teammates for 19 seasons. They knew that if Mo was in the game, they could almost certainly go home happy. He put their minds at ease as the dependable closer, as everyone around him knew that no matter the results, Mo would be the same. Rivera set a new standard for what a closer could do, and five years after his retirement, what any player could do. The Sandman was the first unanimous Hall of Famer in history, a kid who ascended from a rural fishing village to become one of the greatest Yankees in history, and one of the greatest players the game has ever seen. —Lindsey Adler

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (16)

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16. Christy Mathewson (47.5 points)

Before the Highlanders became the Yankees, before the Superbas became the Robins then became the Dodgers, before anyone else established themselves as a baseball star in New York, Christy Mathewson was a Giant. The centerpiece of New York’s first great baseball team and franchise, Mathewson pitched the Giants to a World Series title in 1905 and three more pennants from 1911-13.

Using his trademark screwball, Mathewson dazzled the National League for 17 years. The stats on his Baseball-Reference page boggle the mind; we’d look at the back of his baseball card if only we had an extra $1,000 or so lying around to buy it. Of course there was no Cy Young Award then — only a Cy Young — but Mathewson would have won it a good four or five times, at least. Even in the era of low ERAs, Mathewson stood tall: Over one 10-year stretch, his ERA climbed over 2.12 only once. He won 30 games four times. In 1908, he threw more than 390 innings while yielding an on-base percentage of .222. —Tim Britton

17. Willis Reed (46.5 points)

“Here comes Willis and the crowd is going wild!”

When there is a game named after you, you know you’re going to be an all-timer. There is no history of New York sports without Reed and Game 7 of the 1970 Finals. He took 200 ccs of cortisone to play through a torn thigh muscle and then toughed out two big jump shots to start the game. The Knicks won the title and Reed became a hero. Reed made the All-Star team in each of his first seven seasons, averaging 20.1 and 13.8 in that time, and ensured he would live on as one of the best bigs in league history. —Mike Vorkunov

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (17)

18. Willie Mays (40 points)

If Horace Stoneham hadn’t gone west, Willie Mays might well have been at the top of this list, right behind Babe Ruth. It’s a tight race between him and the guy playing his same position a mile away across the Harlem River in Mantle. Mays made this list even though he played parts of only eight seasons in New York, two of which we’d rather overlook at the end.

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The Say Hey Kid was the ultimate five-tool player. He won a batting title and hit better than .300 for his career. He mashed 660 home runs. He stole as many as 40 bases in a season. He possessed as good an arm in center as anyone in his day. And, oh, yeah, he made what is almost certainly the most famous defensive play in baseball history to help spark a World Series upset. There was nothing on a baseball field Mays couldn’t do, which is why it remains a shame he couldn’t do it all here. —Tim Britton

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (18)

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19. Henrik Lundqvist (34.5 points)

With the 205th pick (seventh round) of the 2000 NHL draft, the Rangers selected Lundqvist. That didn’t work out too terribly. One day, when Lundqvist retires, his number will go to the Garden’s ceiling and he’ll go into the Hockey Hall of Fame. And, yeah, people will lament that he did everything but win the big one. But what a ride the Rangers took on Lundqvist’s proud, competitive shoulders.

Lundqvist ranks fifth in the NHL in all-time wins (459) and holds more than 50 team records, including games played by a goalie (887), shutouts (64) and save percentage (minimum 75 games — .918). Only seven NHL goalies have played more games than Lundqvist, and only Martin Brodeur has won more with one team. He has played a team-record 128 playoff games and is one of seven players to play 15 seasons as a Ranger.

Lundqvist made his mark in big games during a run of excellence in the previous decade — a stretch in which he went 801 consecutive games before playing in one with his team eliminated from playoff contention. From the start of the 2012 playoffs through Game 6 of the 2015 Eastern final, Lundqvist had a 15-3 record, a 1.47 goals-against average, a .954 save percentage and two shutouts in 18 games facing elimination. In Game 7s during that span, he was 6-0 (the only goalie in NHL history to win six straight Game 7s), 0.81, .973 with one shutout, allowing one goal or fewer in all six games.Rick Carpiniello

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (19)

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20. Eli Manning (33 points)

Manning is a polarizing candidate for the Pro Football Hall of Fame after a rollercoaster 16-year career, but his triumphs cemented his status among New York’s all-time greats. Manning led the Giants to two improbable Super Bowl victories, earning MVP honors in each championship game. His “Helmet Catch” connection with David Tyree in Super Bowl XLII and the perfect dime to Mario Manningham in Super Bowl XLVI are the enduring memories for a quarterback who raised his play on the game’s biggest stage.

In addition to his Super Bowl heroics, Manning’s performances in the preceding conference championship games were even more legendary. Manning ranked seventh all-time in passing touchdowns, passing yards and completions when he retired in January. Ranking 20th on this list bodes well for the more significant Hall of Fame debate in Manning’s future. —Dan Duggan

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (20)

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21. Denis Potvin (32.5 points)

With all due respect to the captain listed eight spots above, no hockey player in New York history led his team to the success that Potvin did. He was the top pick of the 1973 draft, stepped right into the second-year Islander roster and became an instant mainstay on defense, producing 1,052 points in 1,060 games, all with the Isles.

When Al Arbour named Potvin captain prior to the 1979-80 season, it gave a team that had been among the best in the league for two years a needed boost. Three Norris Trophies, four Stanley Cups —the dynasty doesn’t happen without Potvin leading the way. —Arthur Staple

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (21)

(Dennis Schneidler / USA TODAY Sports)

22. Brian Leetch (29 points)

If ever there was a lifetime Ranger, it should have been Leetch, arguably the greatest homegrown player in franchise history. Alas, that dream ended on his 36th birthday in 2004 during an attempted rebuild. That arguably is the only negative on Leetch’s resume, or in his memory.

When he arrived as a first-round draft pick in 1986, he and Mike Richter would fantasize about what it would be like to win a Stanley Cup in New York. In the biggest moments, Leetch and Richter would play the best hockey of their careers — the defenseman becoming the first U.S.-born player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoffs MVP minutes before lifting the Cup.

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Leetch played more games (1,129) and posted more assists (741) than any other Ranger ever, trailing only Rod Gilbert in points (981). In that 1994 run, he had 11 goals, 23 assists and 34 points in 23 playoff games —again, this is a defenseman we’re talking about. Of all the Rangers’ 10 retired numbers, only Gilbert and Richter played their entire careers as Rangers.Rick Carpiniello

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (22)

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23. Mike Bossy (27 points)

As we wonder whether Alex Ovechkin can catch Wayne Gretzky as the top NHL goal scorer of all time, we can also wonder this: What if Mike Bossy’s back hadn’t given out after a decade?

We shouldn’t wonder — Bossy would be there, right above or just below Gretzky. The best pure goal scorer of his era, or maybe any NHL era, posted 573 goals in 752 games before hanging up his skates at age 30. He squeezed in four Stanley Cups, one Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1981-82 and his .76 goals per game is best all-time, just ahead of another Quebec-born legend, Mario Lemieux. — Arthur Staple

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (23)

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24. Michael Strahan (22.5 points)

Hard as it may be to believe now, Strahan was actually a better football player than television personality. The ubiquitous TV host set an NFL single-season record with 22.5 sacks in 2001 and ranks seventh all-time with 141.5 career sacks. Strahan won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award in 2001, earned seven Pro Bowl selections and was a four-time first-team All-Pro. The 2014 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee spent his entire 15-season career with the Giants, riding into the sunset with a win in Super Bowl XLII in his final game. —Dan Duggan

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (24)

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25. George Steinbrenner (21 points)

“Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing,” — George Steinbrenner

The only owner to crack this list, Steinbrenner and a group of investors purchased the New York Yankees in 1973, forever changing the franchise and offering a prototype for the modern sports owner. One of the most colorful characters in the industry, The Boss never shied away from the public or his club’s fans, keeping the Yankees in the headlines and the expectations high. His persona became a caricature on “Seinfeld,” and led to some wild sagas, but the results were clear: He presided over seven world championships, including the franchise’s modern dynasty, survived a ban in the early 1990s and helped build a new stadium in the Bronx, which opened in 2009, just more than a year before he died. — Rustin Dodd

Others receiving votes

Duke Snider (20 points),David Wright (17 points),Mike Piazza (13.5 points),Julius Erving (12.5 points),Bill Parcells (11.5 points),Casey Stengel (11 points),Joe Torre (11 points),Jacob deGrom (9.5 points),Lou Lamoriello (6.5 points),Reggie Jackson (6.5 points),Scott Stevens (6.5 points),Jason Kidd (6 points),Darryl Strawberry (6 points),Dwight Gooden (6 points),Frank Gifford (5.5 points),Don Maynard (5.5 points),Spike Lee (5 points),Marv Albert (5 points),Pee Wee Reese (4.5 points),Althea Gibson (4 points),Don Mattingly (4 points),Whitey Ford (4 points),Phil Simms (4 points),Billy Smith (4 points),Bryan Trottier (4 points),Earl Monroe (3.5 points),Bill Torrey (2.5 points),Clark Gillies (2.5 points),Emlen Tunnell (2 points),Curtis Martin (2 points),Tina Charles (1.5 points),Mel Hein (1.5 points),Joan Payson (1.5 points),John McEnroe (1.5 points),John McGraw (1 point),Mel Ott (1 point),Teresa Weatherspoon (0.5 points).

Introducing The Athletic’s inaugural New York Hall of Fame (2024)
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