Amidst all the sports conversation this week of dirty refs, dirty home run hitters, and dirty dogfighters (allegedly), i got to thinking about what was right with sports. I starting thinking back to when i was just a kid falling in love with sports, and i thought of the guys who were my favorite athletes in each of the major sports.
My favorite baseball player growing up was Jim Rice. #14 played left field for the Red Sox and could hit like nobody’s business. Dude should be in the hall of fame, period. He did seem to hit into a lot of double plays, but i loved seeing him roam left field in Fenway and smack homers into the old netting over the green monster.
We watched a lot of hockey growing up. Those Canadiens-Bruins games were huge events in the house. My favorite player was #16, Rick Middleton. I have no idea why, but he was my boy. My brother Josh liked Steve Kasper. I think he was #11. Why do we remember trivial details like that?
My Dad is a huge Cowboys fan, so i grew up cheering for America’s Team. (I know…you hate the Cowboys…let’s move on) My favorite player was #33 Tony Dorsett. He had legs the size of redwoods and an iron well stronger than the jaws of life. He was so fast, he once raced a snow leopard in the 40-yard dash and won. then he killed the snow leopard with his bare hands and ate it. (these facts may or may not be verifiable)
I was spoiled watching the Celtics in their glory days as a young kid. Like most kids born in the 70s, Larry Bird was the shizzle before anyone knew what shizzle had to do with nizzle. I still get goosebumps when i see highlights of #33 in action. Remember that game against Portland when he hit the insane 3-pointer to send it to overtime and then poured it on in the extra frames to help the C’s win? I still smile when i think of that. (You can see it at the 2:00 mark of this youtube clip if you have a spare 4 minutes for Larry Bird buzzerbeaters).
I’d love to hear which athletes you all looked up to as kids. Do you have any great stories about meeting them or cheering for them?
Posted by Bryan Allain
Baseball: I always loved Barry Larkin and Ken Griffey, Jr. That magical day in the 2000 offseason when Junior was traded to Cincinnati? Oh man. Ohhhhhh maaaaan. I floated above the ground all day.
Basketball: I, too, am a Celtics fan and love the Basketball Jesus. I also loved the Chief, though.
Football: Hey, I was a Bengals fan. Past Esiason and Munoz, it was pretty dim back in those days. I really love Anthony, though—great player, even better person.
Hockey: Ray Bourque. No one comes close.
I got to meet Rob Dibble and Norm Charlton in fall of 1989 at a baseball card show in Dayton. I brought rookie cards for them to sign [probably still have them somewhere], and as Norm was starting the next day, which we were attending, I told him that I was looking forward to seeing him pitch. That led to this exchange:
Norm: “Huh?”
Rob: “Kid’s right. It’s been up on the board all week that you were throwing tomorrow.”
Norm: “Get out of here.”
Rob: “You didn’t know? Seriously?”
Norm: “Well, kid, I don’t know if I’ll be any good.”
He lasted a couple of innings, got shelled, but the Reds won anyway.
[I should hit up Retrosheet and figure out when that was. I thought that maybe the game was in 1990, but my dad was with me at the show, and he'd moved down South by fall of 1990.]
Actually, it was in 1990 … but probably before Dad had moved, now that I think about it. I just looked up the game: 16 Sep 1990, Reds 9, Dodgers 5. Two years to the day after Tom Browning’s perfect game against the Dodgers, which I remember not even making it into the local papers’ first editions because the game was delayed more than two hours by rain.
i remember Tom Browning’s perfect game, if only for the Score baseball card released in the 1989 set with the caption “Tom Perfect Pitches”. (card #658 in that set apparently)
I remember the Browning game, and I remember thinking that one day I’d like to see a perfect game in person. I realized later how unlikely it was that I’d actually ever see one, but many years later Randy Johnson made it happen for me. I got to see his live, and it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in sports. Ever. I’ve still got the ticket stub and the Atlanta paper from the next day. I should have them framed.
Oh, and you know how I feel about the Red Sox and (most of) their players, but I’ll back you up on this Rice issue. He’s a HOFer for sure. (and Geof, just so you know, if it was up to me, Pete Rose would be in also).
I really don’t want Pete in the Hall, at least not while he’s living.