Not the Visanthe Shiancoe kind. No, I’ve been a bit down as of late and a bit on the negative side. So in reaction to my Five Most Hated Athletes post, I now bring to you the five athletes that I love unconditionally, forever.
- Ichiro
- Matt Hasselbeck
- King Felix
- Rickie Weeks
- BJ Upton
(I had a hard time figuring out #5, but then I looked at Rickie Weeks and knew it was him. I went and saw Huntsville play a Double A game against the Mobile BayBears. It was a loaded team with Rickie, Prince, Tony Gwynn Jr and Brad Nelson. Ever since then I’ve been into him and I will argue with just about anyone about his value to the team. Thinking back to those days I remember only one other game that I went to in Mobile and that was to see the Montgomery Biscuits because Baseball Prospectus told me they had the best prospect in all of baseball, BJ Upton. He didn’t have a great day and even then I knew he wouldn’t last on the infield, but he was only 19 and was probably the best purely talented players I’d ever seen in person. I’ve been following him ever since. I remember him getting called up that season and thinking Lou Piniella was screwing him up with random playing time. In retrospect, this was probably wrong as he was only 19 and not ready for the majors (he didn’t come back until 2006). Everyone remembers what he did in the playoffs this year and it awoken some fandom I had for BJ. I really want this guy to succeed because I think he’s awesome and he’s only going to be 24 in 2009. A full three years before his peak. This guy is going to be good, real good and I am pretty excited to watch it happen.)
