I was reading Joe Poz’s awesome piece on Bob Gibson today on the shitter and deeply wished I was around to watch him in his prime.  From what I can gather, Gibson had some of the sickest stuff, the meanest disposition and the will to win…but it was this quote that stuck with me…

So Bob Gibson looked bigger than 6-foot-1. Yes, by the numbers he only hit 10 or so batters a year, but those 10 never ever forgot. He threw his 95-mph fastball and savage slider by unfolding into a wind-up that screamed ancient violence — Bill James would say that Gibson “sort of looks like he is attempting to fly.” This was a wind-up without guile, it was all business, David used this wind-up when smiting Goliath. Yes, Gibson didn’t look like he was trying to strike out batter. He looked like he was trying to smite them.

“That’s a whole lot of (expletive),” Gibson says. “I wasn’t trying to intimidate anybody, are you kidding me? I was just trying to survive, man.”

Bob Gibson was a gunslinger, not because of the aforementioned stuff, but because he dared people to beat him, and MUCH more often than not, they failed.  It wasn’t that he was mean, it’s that he knew he was better and didn’t accept failure.  It wasn’t that he was the best, it’s that he knew how to play the game.  A gunslinger isn’t Brett fucking Favre, a dude who is careless and lucky, or Roger Clemens who’s aura is nothing more than beer muscles…it’s the display of supreme confidence, the visual affirmation of that oft-used quote, “he knew he was better, you knew he was better and he knew YOU knew he was better.”

In my opinion, the real gunslingers in sports are the guys who go out there and collect their scalps and move on with their business like it was a foregone conclusion.  It’s not confidence manifesting itself in an egosplosion like LeBron or Tiger or a supremely talented guy throwing caution to the wind like Favre or Phil Mickelson, no…a gunslinger is a supremely confident individual that garners nothing but the utmost respect from their peers, is unaffected by that respect, and only goes out there to make their opponent feel pain.

In my opinion (and experience…as I can only recall the guys I’ve seen), the ultimate gunslinger was Michael Jordan.  Forget all the commercials and shit, he was out there to win and carried himself as such.  In football, it was John Elway.  In baseball, Manny for hitting and Randy Johnson for pitching.  Yes, these guys are all-time greats, but that’s important, if you ask me…if you want to be a true gunslinger, you have to be great for a long ass time.

After the jump…my list.

NFL – Marshall Faulk: I know it seems sacrilege to put a running back on a list of gunslingers, but Faulk, in his prime, has to be the best.  Marshall wasn’t the biggest, fastest or strongest RB in football, but he was, without a doubt, the smartest.  Faulk knew football, be it from intense study or natural gift (probably a combination of both), and he knew exactly what he needed to do in order to get the job done.

Four consecutive years of over 2,000 total yards from scrimmage is just absurd, and yet, we took it for granted from Marshall because he made it look so easy.  Absurd versatility on offense and a knack for eluding defenders, Faulk was the ultimate weapon on the football field, and carried himself as such.  It was just confident domination, and that’s the sign of a true gunslinger.

NBA – Tim Duncan: No need for pretense and flash when you can just make your ring-filled career out of nothing but bank shots and positioning, right?  I mean, what’s more gunslinger than going about your business in the most efficient way possible?  A gunslinger isn’t defined by all that bullshit with twirling guns and shooting cards, it’s the split second draw and Duncan built his legacy on making sure his draw had the least wasted movement in it.

And have you ever heard anyone trash talk Duncan (I can’t really recall…maybe Shaq did back in the day)?  It just wouldn’t matter…you were getting the same thing from Duncan if you said something or not, and it’s that stoicism in the face of opposition that paints Duncan in a gunslinger’s fashion, even if he didn’t have the flash and charisma of some of his contemporaries.  But if you’re questioning Duncan’s gunslinger status compared to KG or Shaq or someone else, let me ask you…would they have the nuts to pull this shot off?

Baseball – Manny: Yes, it’s still Manny because baseball sucks ass and today’s stars have the charisma of a piece of cardboard paper.  Pujols probably qualifies, based on his heart removal of Brad Lidge, but I really don’t give a shit.  MLB sucks.

Golf – Anthony Kim: Golf is a little different than most other sports because there’s such a slow flow to the action that keeping that quiet demeanor is the norm.  You don’t get high after highs or low after lows, you just deal with it, so by it’s very nature, the golfer is a gunslinger (unless you’re one of those robo-golfers who has a fucking pre-shot checklist…fucking queers).

The difference with golf, however, is that you have a reasonably good sense of what the consequences are going to be because there’s so much time to think.  It takes a lot of balls to go up to a hole, see a landing spot only 20 yards wide that has to carry water and deal with hazards on either side, and pull out your driver.  And, for better or worse, this is what defines AK as a golfer…no fear, no second guessing, just going full out and getting as close to the hole as possible.  And when you’re done, move on like it’s no big deal…that’s a gunslinger.

Hockey – some foreign dude: More like cumslinger, amirite?

Feel free to add to the list in the comments.

Oh, and I feel like this post needs a gigantic disclaimer…

/no homo