Day 277, Oct. 4: "Other" Athletes

 My Top 10 Favorite Athletes

Not in Baseball, Basketball or Football

There is no other sport that I like enough athletes to make a top 10. So I've got to combine all the rest of the major sports into this list. Should be interesting as I think it over.

1. Wayne Gretzky, hockey: I liked everything about him. He was modest, quiet and so much better than anyone he played with, it was like watching Babe Ruth hit HRs when nobody else hardly could.

2. Bjorn Borg, tennis: Everything is the same as with Gretzky, except he wasn't necessarily that much better than McEnroe, Connors, Nastase and a few others from that great era of tennis.

3. Muhammad Ali, boxing: I didn't like him when I first was old enough to follow his braggadocio ways. But as he aged, I was able to appreciate his skills and his personality.

4. Andy North, golf: He graduated from Monona Grove HS, from my conference, which is very cool. And winning two Green Jackets was unbelievable. Great commentator, too.

5. Andy Rein, Olympic wrestler: He was a classmate (year younger) of mine at Stoughton High. Starred in college at Wisconsin and won a silver medal in 1984 Olympics. Not quite the "major" sport as the others or he'd be No. 1 (nice guy on top of everything else).

6. Matt Kenseth, auto racing: Another Wisconsin native, from Cambridge near Stoughton, he's my mom's favorite driver in the sport she most likes to watch on television. I once took my young son, 

Jay, to a NASCAR race in Michigan.

7. Steve Stricker, golf: Believe it or not, another Wisconsin athlete from our rival town, Edgerton. He's my brother Jeff's favorite golfer, 

so I follow him closely, too.

8. Chris Evert, women's tennis: She was an awesome player who also seemed like a very nice person. And she was pretty cute!

9. Pele, soccer: I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I was amazed as a youngster when I saw highlight films of soccer's 

most famous ambassador.

10. Sugar Ray Leonard, boxing: Man was he quick, and he seemed smarter and more with it than a lot of his peers. 

Plus, he had a great smile.

Note: Had this list been created a couple of years ago, golfer Tiger Woods surely would have been on it. But, though I can forgive his failings, I've lost too much respect for him to make it.