Charlie Buttrey

You are probably familiar with the concept of “six degrees of separation,” which posits that any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart. That idea eventually morphed into this parlor game, wherein movie buffs challenge each other to find the shortest path between an arbitrary actor and venerated Hollywood character actor Kevin Bacon, and rests on the assumption that any individual involved in the film industry can be linked through his or her film roles to Kevin Bacon within six steps.

Well, some sports-mad genius has extended the concept to the world of professional sports.  Specifically, there is now a web-site (where I will be spending the next several hours) that allows you to enter the names of any two professional athletes (NFL, major league baseball and NBA), and it will find the “six degrees of separation.”  Labron James and Babe Ruth, you say?  Easy.  Lebron James played on the 2004-05 Cleveland Cavaliers with Lucious Harris, who played on the 1996-97 Philadelphia 76ers with Mark Hendrickson, who played on the 2003 Toronto Blue Jays with Greg Myers, who played on the 1987 Toronto Blue Jays with Phil Niekro, who played on the 1964 Milwaukee Braves with Warren Spahn, who played on the 1949 Boston Braves with Elbie Fletcher, who played on the 1935 Boston Braves with Babe Ruth.

Ty Cobb and Tom Brady?  No problem.  Cobb played on the 1908 Detroit Tigers with Donie Bush, who played on the 1922 Washington Senators with Ossie Bluege, who played on the 1939 Washington Senators with Early Wynn, who played on the 1963 Cleveland Indians with Tommy John, who played on the 1989 New York Yankees with Deion Sanders, who played on the 1995 Dallas Cowboys with Eric Bjornson, who played on the 2000 New England Patriots with Tom Brady.

Next time, maybe I’ll tell you about how I’m related to Kenny Buttrey, who played percussion for Neil Young on his “Heart of Gold” album, and for Bob Dylan on his classic tune “Lay Lady Lay”…

 

 

 

 

© 2020 Charlie Buttrey Law by Nomad Communications