My first favorite baseball players:

I have been a baseball fan my entire life. Something about the beauty of the game, the crack of a bat, the smell of bratwurst and beer have conspired to fill me with joy whenever I watch the game, whether it be my hometown Royals or some random minor league team. 

Some of my earliest memories are watching the Royals at The K, catching a glimpse of the Cubs and their ivy-covered outfield on WGN and seeing Dale Murphy bat for the Braves on TBS. After accidentally crashing my mom’s car into a shed at the end of our driveway when I was 6 or 7, I ran inside and immediately turned on a Cubs game in hopes that she would think I had been busy watching the game. I lost some interest in the game during high school when girls became more important, but I have rekindled my interest in recent years and wanted to share who my favorite players were growing up because that would be more fun than discussing the Royals terrible loss yesterday.

My first favorite player was Ryne Sandberg, the greatest second basement to ever play. He played 16 years, winning 9 Gold Gloves and making the All Star game 10 times. He is a huge reason I am a Cubs fan today, even though they will never win the World Series. To this day, I model the way I play after “Ryno,” focusing on playing stellar defense on my recreational softball teams.

My second favorite player was Dale Murphy. He played 18 years in the MLB, mostly for the Braves. He won 5 Gold Gloves and 2 MVP awards. He wore #3 on his uniform, which became my preferred number whenever I played baseball (my high school baseball # was 3). 

My third favorite player was Jim Abbott, who defied all odds by pitching in the MLB with only one hand. He was a first round draft pick in 1988 and was sensational to watch. He had been born without a right hand, and thus was a left-handed pitcher. Upon throwing a pitch (where he would cradle his glove over his right arm), he would shift the glove to his left hand in case he needed to field a ball. He could deftly swap the ball back into his left hand to throw a runner out, and he even threw a no-hitter in 1993. His life is such an encouraging and inspiring story, and it is too bad that he played for the Yankees. 

After these guys, I became way more interested in the Royals, such as Mark Gubicza, Jeff Montgomery, Brian McRae, and Tom Gordon. This year’s Royals team has more stars than they have ever had on one team, so go vote for them to be All-Stars: