1) Being a great player on a terrible soccer team. (Current Drogba on Ivory Coast made me think of this last night vs. Mexico) 2) Being a great pitcher who never seems to get run support. (Kershaw, the promising start to Cosart, etc) 3) Being a great quarterback on a team with terrible defense. (Drew Brees last year, Peyton Manning for most of his career) 4) Being a great player on a terrible basketball team. (T-Mac in Orlando, Lebron with Cavs, currently Kevin Love) I'm thinking either soccer or pitcher because in basketball and football you can still enjoy some level of success (winning record, playoffs), with one great player or quarterback, but you're SOL if they rest of the team sucks for soccer or baseball.
David Carr was arguably the best QB in the league for about 3-4 seasons when he was with us. Unfortunately his own offensive line wanted to sack him.
Tough between those choices. Were I able to select "Great RB on a terrible team" like Adrian Peterson, I would select that. His body is getting destroyed and he's getting no help from teammates. I'll go with pitcher from the choices you gave. To go, say, 8 innings and give up 2 runs yet get an L or no decision would have to suck.
Yes he can...and he can still lose if he dominates because if his team can't put any runs up then it's all for not. A pitcher can only carry the team so much for so long. Exactly what I was thinking. Of the options, I would go with #2 since in the other options the players can at least help score (granted NL pitchers can do that too, but it's not quite the same). RB on a bad team would be another good option...see Barry Sanders
I would say #1 if it applies to a national team. For club teams players can move pretty easily, so if a player is really good he's only going to be on a bad team for a year or two. But you have world class players from small countries that never get to play in a World Cup or make it just to have their team run off the field.
For a RB on a bad team, I nominate Steven Jackson. Not only did he take a pounding behind bad offensive lines for all those years, but he has been one of the more productive backs in the league for the last decade and no one really knows that because he played for the Rams. With a pitcher, at least there's a part of the game that he can control. If he shuts down the opposition, it won't really take any run support. Even though I know less about this sport than the others, I went with soccer player on a bad team, particularly if that player is a forward. If your team can't keep possession and you can't get the type of service you need, you could end up basically just spending 90 minutes running around the field with nothing to show for it.
Yeah that's kind of more of what I was thinking. Every World Cup there are a lot of world class players missing because of where they were born. It's a shame.
I'm going to say being a great QB on a crappy team defensively. In the NFL it's almost impossible to force your way out of a team. You get franchised and are basically forced to stay. In baseball you hit free agency and can leave same as basketball. In soccer teams usually have an interest in selling their players for the right price.
But international soccer, especially the World Cup, is the most popular form of that sport and it's impossible save a few very special cases, where players can change countries.
But a player only plays for his country 5% of the time. I guess Drogba could feel upset but I'm sure he never thought he'd ever win a World Cup. Unless your born in Germany, Italy, France, Argentina or even now Spain you won't think your chances are high. US players aren't goings to resent it (accept for Rossi).
Your question is "more frustrating", so I picked QB. The QB can never play defense, NOR can he ever tell the defensive players what schemes or defensive plays to run. For all other sports, it's not the same. The pitcher can also hit home runs or make great offensive plays, or at least get on base to help his own cause. EDIT: "Terrible"?? This isn't a fair assessment. Ivory Coast had only lost ONE TIME, and that was against Nigeria in the Africa Cup of Nations, in the entire last year dating back to August 15th. Is that terrible to you?
Not in AL ball. My vote goes for the pitcher. He does his job, which is solely on him to pitch. Having no production to go with it and take a loss or a ND after a spectacular performance is beyond frustrating.
