SPORTS WEDNESDAY

i saw bo jackson play baseball once. i'd seen the great runs he'd made as an auburn football player. i'd heard all the stories. w/someone like lebron around nowadays, it's hard to remember that other "complete" athletes ever existed(who, someone might ask nowadays, was jim thorpe, my childhood hero). i saw him down in sarasota, during spring training. he was playing for kansas city, a team i never liked. he hit a bloop single to left that was fielded cleanly & quickly by whoever was playing leftfield for the white sox at the time. by the time the leftfielder had made his throw to second base(what should have been a perfunctory precautionary rote move), jackson was standing there on second, his trajectory around the base paths nearly invisible but certainly magical. there was a moment of utter silence & then the nearly reflexive roar of the crowd. it was quite a sight to not really see. bo jackson only lasted eight seasons in professional baseball & only a couple were really productive.

i thought about this moment of magical realism last night when i watched rickey henderson being interviewed on mlb network. henderson did what i saw jackson do countless times, over several decades. of course, henderson is known for being kind of nutty, speaking about himself in the third person & making odd non sequiturs. not last night. i wouldn't say he was eloquent but he was definately adequate in assessing his place in baseball history. he really doesn't have to say much though. he is simply the greatest lead-off hitter of all time. he is the most electrifying base stealer ever. he is a first ballot unanimous choice for the hall of fame. guys like this don't come up very often. w/all that baseball has gone through these last few years, having someone w/such astonishing natural physical skills going into the hall is a true blessing.

that he's going into the hall w/jim rice, the boston great whose talents & stats have been unbelievably ignored all these years, is just frosting on the cake.