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The Greatest Athlete of All Time
And its not really close.
I wanted to write about the greatest athletes I’d personally seen play, basically players from the last 50 years regardless of the sport. But because one person was so dominant, it just became a way to talk about 1 person who was truly a freak of nature. Becasue if raw athleticism was the standard there isn’t a #2 on this list so why bury the lead?
This is about…..
BO JACKSON
I had the amazing fortune to see Bo play both baseball and football in person.
My first time seeing him as a pro was his first full year in major league baseball. The Royals were playing the A’s on a Tuesday night in the Oakland Colusseum. Which was basically empty as both teams sucked.
It was tied in the 9th and Bo lead off the inning.
He hit a cue ball that spun to about halfway between 3rd and home plate. It was an out for 98.1% of the players who ever played baseball, and 99.8% of right-handers, but Bo legged it out.
The pitcher keeps Bo close with throws to first, then comes home and Bo gets a good jump and steals 2nd easily. The next pitch he steals 3rd. The one after is a groundball to short and Bo scores easily. I don’t remember if the ball was hit hard enough to make a throw home, but I do remember the…
