Pyle of List

I am not too proud to say that I develop man crushes on athletes very easily. I don’t know what it is, or what sets off the spark, but when it happens, look out! In middle school Ken Griffey Jr. was my obsession. Posters, t-shirts, cards, balls, anything with Griffey’s name and likeness on it had to be mine. I still have most of that stuff, just now it’s in a box in a closet. I moved on from him to guys like Jay Buhner, Shawn Kemp, and Ken Caminiti. I can’t tell you why for the most part. I’ve always had a longing for Nolan Ryan too. But lately, my sports love life has been as barren as a sports bloggers love life (hadn’t you heard? We all live in our mother’s basements and, uh, “don’t get out much”).

I can’t explain it, but no one playing today has really grabbed my heart like in the mid 90s. Chad Johnson comes the closest, but then he got all grumpy about his contract and my fandom wanned. Is there something different about today’s sports world and today’s sports stars? Am I just too jaded and sarcastic to not become a superfan? It’s quite puzzling. Now, I’m not saying I don’t like certain players in each sport, because I do. I don’t know how you could call yourself a sports fan and not hold some players in higher regard than others. But there is a different between like and love.

And as a fairly new Dodger fan (that’s what happens when you move a mile from the stadium) it’s been especially frustrating to find a player to grasp onto. Someone who’s jersey I had to have, that I would wear to every game. The person I would scream like a kid for when they took the field, and defend to the death when they had a poor performance. But the current Dodger roster just didn’t have anyone for me. Furcal is very skilled, but not really dynamic enough. Andrew Jones is a bust (so far), Nomar is getting/has gotten old, and Jeff Kent is a racist. I thought about making it Matt Kemp by default, just so I could rock a Kemp baseball jersey and a Kemp basketball jersey on back to back days (I have two Shawn Kemp Sonics jerseys from when I was younger). I just wanted someone to jump out and grab me, to suck me in like a child (hmm, that doesn’t sound so great does it…).

Then I read this article this morning.

Then I watched this video.

*swoon*

I heart him.