My Favorite Athletes of All Time

So...my post from yesterday got me to thinking about some of my favorite athletes of all time...thought I'd try to name them.  (Most favorites are in bold).

Boxers 1st.  When I was growing up, we had boxing on, on a regular basis - before pay per view.  Here are a few I was really into...

Marvin Hagler - without a doubt, my most favorite fighter of all time.  Bad to the bone.  Macho Camacho - fast as lightning.  Donald Curry.  Mike Tyson - probably the baddest fighter (& biter (sorry)) ever.  Loved watching how intense he was.  No one fought him without being intimidated.

UFC - leaves boxing in the dark ages IMO.

Matt Hughes.  Randy Couture.  Condit.  Hamill.  GSP.  But the baddest dude on the planet - Anderson Silva.

Strongman

To me the greatest dude ever in the Strongman Comp was Pudzianowski.  Stud bolt.  No one like him - period.

A great manly game to follow all that up with - Tennis.  A game actually I played for about 1 month...but there was a guy that had my attention none the less.

His name - John McEnroe.  I loved watching him explode on the court...I mean go totally off...breaking racquets...going off on some judge about a call...showing where the ball went out...something.  Anytime he was on the court - all hell could break loose at any time.  No etiquette at all.  Yes.  Another, though a distant 2nd, was Jimmy Connor.

Basketball - the game with too many moving parts for me.  When it came to dribbling the ball & moving at the same time - that was the end of "my game".  That doesn't mean there weren't a few players I liked though.

Of course, MJ.  Poetry in motion.  Dennis Rodman seems like a great follow up to him.  No poetry - just free expression.  I liked watching him take everyone he faced out of their game.  I could have done without him donning the wedding dress though.  Larry Bird.  Dr. J.

Can't stand Charles Barkley at all...lost me when he spit on somebody.  Don't like Mr. Kobe either.  Sorry, I digress.  That might be another blog...

Baseball - probably my most watched sport of all.

Some old school players.

The Bird Fidrich.  He actually talked to the baseball...too cool & too crazy.  Oilcan Boyd...so animated to watch.

Name any of the 86 Mets & I'm there.  Carter...Gooden...Knight...Strawberry...Backman...HOJO.  However, Lenny Dykstra is one of my most favorite athletes of all, but man he has messed his life up big time.

Bash Brothers...Canseco & McGwire.  McGwire is def one of my favorites of all time as well.  Ricky Henderson.  Ripken Jr.

More current players...

Jeter - talent & class.  The only Yankee you'll ever be able to say both about.  Pedroia - the new Dykstra.  Manny - but has a really bad wrap going right now & a bad attitude when he left the game.  Pujols.  Johnson...killed a bird pitching.  Not too many can make that claim.  Schilling...the real red sock.  Thome.  Martinez - slammed an old guy like a champ.  Papi.  Beckett.  Hamilton.

NASCAR

My earliest sporting event...the Dover 500.

I can still picture 'em driving the old 70's model cars.  There are several drivers I liked back then.  However, I'm not sure why - but my favorite driver was Pearson.  More current drivers - Dale Earnhardt of course.  No one badder than he was.

Football

Without being redundant from my prior blog, Barry Sanders will always be near the top for me - Fluid.  Jerry Rice.  Reggie White - intimidation.  Lambert - see preceding.  Dickerson.  Seau.  Dent.  Long.  There are more, but they are on the blog before this one.

Horses.  I'm not sure they are athletes, but I love watching 'em run.

Secretariat - no brainer here.  Seattle Slew would be an other I remember.

What about Michael Phelps...like a fish & a bowl.  hah - that's funny right there.

Golf

I really hope Tiger gets his game back...but it's not looking good.  Without question, he is the best player ever.  Payne Stewart was probably one of my all time fav's...died in a freak plane accident.  There are a couple others, but they are periphery players for me.

I do not like Mickelson at all.  Master of the choke IMO.  Digression again.

Women Athletes...no list would be complete without them.  I realized in writing this - I really don't watch any sports with women as the predominate athlete in them.

But there is 1 or 2, or 3, that I like.

1st & by far the way above #2 would be Serena Williams.  I cheered for Retton.  I remember Evert.  Sorry, coming up with 3 was a challenge.

My favorite athlete ever - Ashton.  There was nothing better than watching him play.  I'd rather see him play than any other athlete on the planet...anytime...anywhere.

K...well there it is.  This is one of those lists that you could work on forever...as you remember names.  But, in an effort to just do this list, if I couldn't think of them, apparently they weren't as popular for me as they were for someone else.  So, I'm sure your list would be different & I'm sure mine would be too as soon as I think of another athlete...but I'm not updating it.  It is what it is.

Hope it took ya down memory lane...

Oh, and I like curling too - just don't know any famous curlers out there.

b