That's a tough question, especially for anyone who follows a lot of sports and has above average to superior intellect to be able to differentiate era's that had different rules and situations which greatly influenced the sport of discussion.
The first person who's name popped into my head was Dale E. Sr., "3".
Mike M. of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Lance Armstrong.
The William's sisters.
As another said, Babe Ruth.
One needs to keep in mind that different variables are involved in different times in history.
For his career, McGwire averaged a home run once every 10.61 at bats, the lowest at bats per home run ratio in baseball history (Babe Ruth is second at 11.80).[3] In 1987, he broke the single-season home run record for rookies, with 49. In 1998, McGwire and Sammy Sosa achieved national fame for their home run-hitting prowess in pursuit of Roger Maris' single season home run record; McGwire would break the record and hit 70 home runs that year.[4] Barry Bonds, who allegedly also took steroids, now holds the record, after hitting 73 home runs during the 2001 season. In 2010, McGwire publicly admitted having used performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career.
McGwire and Armstrong, like myself, had contact with what are labled as performance enhancing drugs. The difference between the three of us for example and some others, is that this contact was the result of long term therapy and rehabilitation of various injuries and treatment processes.
I will not under any circumstances say that such contact did not have a positive effect on play or possibly give any individual under the care of a doctor for legitimate purposes a possible advantage.
What I will say is that none of the three of us did anything differently then we had been doing pre-injury. McGwire and myself for instance, were both serious weight trainers in the gym prior to and after injuries and therapy. Unlike some, we didn't take the drugs and then go to the gym to make ourselves better then others, we were already top 1% of athlete's in our area's to begin with and therapies allowed us to continue in sports.
Other's who never had a chance, found corrupt doctors who prescribed them with such medications for the sole purpose of creating a competitive edge they did not already have to raise themselves above others.
When one looks at McGwire, and compares him to other athlete's, one see's a complete work out program that he was engaged in his physical body structure. Compare that to other's here and there where the complete work out program is not visible in the individuals body make up. In other words, you wouldn't really know that person trained hard as an athlete.
One also has to consider something I'm aware of, having begun weight training prior to 9th Grade, I like millions of others, followed difference advice from various sources on dietary supplements, ect.
Such things can't be classed as illegal or cheating until a particular substance's use is specifically prohibited inside that sport or by a particular sports governing body.
As a quick example, we have two baseball players using two different forms of additives, McGwire vs. Sosa to get an idea of what I'm beating around the bush at. I, for example, not only used a variety of over the counter dietary supplements as a part of my food intake, on a number of occassions prior to being hit by a truck on 10/16/91, had been put on prescription steriods at least 3 times due to long term problems with past injuries where the doctor's decided it was necessary to build new muscle's to compensate for muscle's that had been damaged and were beyond normal healing. In other words, with out the prescriptions, I was destined to try and get by in life with muscle's here and there that had been so badly damaged that permenant disability had been incurred. In such situations, the patient takes the prescription and goes about their normal routines. In my case for example, like Armstrong and McGwire and many other's following injuries, we hit the gym and engage in our normal sport activities to allow the medications to build new muscle's to replace damaged muscle's.
Trying to figure out who may have been the most dominant player in their sport, from what ever to dart's, one has to think about a lot of things.
I would surmise that historically, we forget about some great individuals from the past because their success is diminished by more recent players who may or may not have engaged in illegal activities to give them an advantage.
The same can be said about changes inside the sports themselves, to the playing fields on which those sports take place, equipment changes, ect.
Tennis rackets are half the weight they were 30 years ago. Swim suits have been altered, water in the pools is carefully controlled in some cases to make them faster pools. Composite equipment makes them faster, lighter, stronger and more able to produce greater results.
Robin Hood, for example, may have been the greatest archer we have ever heard legends about; but, we would never be able to prove it, if we could locate a real person from that point in history and have them use their equipment today, I would surmise that 90% of competitive archers would beat the snot out of him...simply because the nature of the equipment used now compared to then.
Personally, I have favorites from the past and modern day favorites.
What I don't do is forget about how things have changed and keep those things in perspective.
Billy Jean King, Dexter Manley, John Riggins, and so many other's....had been the most dominant players in their particular area's and time periods. Could any of them compete today?
I doubt it, not with the changes that took place. Dexter was leaving the sport at a time when I was hitting my peak before the accident, at the time, I was shorter then he was; but, out weighed him by 20-30 pounds and I had less then 8% body fat at the time. Physically, I was probably stronger then Dexter; but, on the playing field, I have no doubt he would have outplayed me on any given Sunday. Just as an example.
We can't even compare past NASCAR drivers to today's drivers, car's have changed, the tracks have changed...yesteryear's drivers could probably adapt; but, would today's drivers survive if they were sent back to say...1992 and made to compete with those drivers in that era?
