THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Ah, lists ... there's always that one person who got left off

So, you want to be a sports journalist?

Cool idea.

Lots of fun days and nights, you’ll meet fascinating people and attend all sorts of terrific events.

You’ll never know when you’re going to see history made, either.

I witnessed the first of Nolan Ryan’s seven no-hitters, and hung in through every nerve-wracking pitch of Catfish Hunter’s perfect game.

But that’s nothing.

My first EVER assignment as a sports reporter was a high school track meet for the newspaper in Topeka, Kan. — and a kid broke the national record in the javelin throw.

No kidding, that heave almost reached the runners who were blithely trotting along in a boys’ distance race.

Tragedy was barely avoided.

You see what I mean, though.

Almost anything can happen in this gig.

However, there’s one word that can make a sports columnist’s blood run cold.

List.

Yes, list.

This is the nightmare in our universe.

Whenever a journalist tries to rank the top 10 or most memorable 25 of anything (or anyone), it’s an invitation to hear from an endless stream of people who, ah, politely disagree with your list.

I’m guessing that Jon Wilner is getting a lot of that feedback this week.

WILNER is an accomplished reporter who has covered the Pac-12 Conference almost forever.

(Sorry, Jon. He’s not THAT old.)

Anyhow, Wilner has done a great job, and right to the end, too.

He had all the inside scoop on TV rights and schools departing and everything else as the Pac-12 fell apart.

Oh, but Jon toyed with the golden rule for journalists.

He’s created a list.

And brother, this one has some MEGA errors.

Wilner’s idea was good enough — he combined the recent death of Bill Walton with the pending dissolution of the Pac-12 (Aug. 2) and decided to do a list.

Or, as Jon put it: 

“Combine Walton’s death with the Pac-12’s looming demise, and this seemed like the ideal time for a stroll through history.

“The challenge wasn’t selecting the athletes; it was defining greatness.

“Should we consider professional success or limit our scope to college careers? What about societal impact and mainstream fame? Does the sport’s popularity matter?

“In the end, we evaluated competitive success (at all levels) and societal impact, and crafted an entirely subjective ranking.

“Readers will undoubtedly take issue with the names, the order of selections or both. And that’s fine.

“There is no right answer (except No. 1).”

Wilner was correct about the top spot on the list, Jackie Robinson of UCLA, who was all-world in football, baseball, basketball and track — later changing American sports by breaking baseball’s color barrier.

Now I’ll give you rest of the top 10, without comment.

There will be plenty to say after that.

Starting with No. 2, his list ran this way: Walton, Tiger Woods (Stanford), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (UCLA), Barry Bonds (Arizona State), Steve Prefontaine (Oregon), Annika Sorenstam (Arizona), Cheryl Miller (USC), Arthur Ashe (UCLA) and Pat Tillman (Arizona State).

That list is fair enough.

Jon obviously was moved by the type of people involved, perhaps even more than their athletic accomplishments.

He ignored O.J. Simpson, perhaps the best running back of all time, and selected Pat Tillman, a tough but not spectacular defensive back who left the NFL for military service and was killed in Afghanistan.

WHERE JON tumbled into the bramble bushes was failing to stop with his top 10 — all outstanding athletes who had major impact on sport and society.

He didn’t want to ignore dozens of great Pac-12 alums, so he added 27 more under the category of “Also Considered.”

Now that was a problem, mainly because so many worthy athletes got ignored — and unfortunately, most of the obvious candidates who weren’t mentioned came from the Northwest.

One who DID make it was Oregon State high jumper Dick Fosbury, who could (should?) have been in that top 10 for revolutionizing the entire jumping discipline.

Now, the REAL problem — athletes who didn’t even make it to “Also Considered.”

Start with the fact that Jon mentioned the different iterations of the conference (Pac-10, Pac-8, so forth), but not the PCC.

So, right away you have Idaho — PCC member from 1922 through 1959 — tossed into the bin.

That left out a couple of football players with well-known careers after the gridiron, Wayne Walker and Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer.

There were plenty of other stars left out, as well, starting with UW running back Hugh McElhenny, who’s in every Hall of Fame ever invented; Wazzu’s Klay Thompson in hoops; Mel Hein, college and pro football, and one of only two Cougs whose number is retired.

Finally, we get to the all-time miss.

Oregon State’s Terry Baker remains the only athlete to win the Heisman Trophy and play in basketball’s Final Four.

He was the Beavers’ point guard on the last team to beat John Wooden’s UCLA juggernaut in a regional, and he won the Liberty Bowl 6-0 with a 99-yard run.

Sorry, Jon.

It was a great effort.

But?

Terry Baker?

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”