Mike Bordick, Dr. J and Freddie Baseball — A list that could have included 100 more

When Rob Adams calls, I usually answer.

And vice versa it seems.

My friend over at Exit 55 joined me back in 2019 (remember that year?) taking part in Project 364/365, where one of us (not me) posted every single day for a year.

He’s still going and yesterday’s posting on Exit 55 was a tribute to the “Ten Athletes I’ve Enjoyed Watching—though he only listed nine. His 10^th is coming out today.

“I realize part of the challenge is to then forward it onto others,” Adams wrote. “So, if anyone wants to dive in, have at it. You know who you are. Go for it.”

I don’t hear voices.

I read them.

So here it is, thanks to Rob.

“Ten Athletes I’ve Enjoyed Watching” in no specific order.

• • •

• Fred Lynn — In the summer of 1975, when I truly fell in love with the Boston Red Sox, a rookie center fielder took the region by storm. He had a cup of coffee in the league in 1974, hitting .419 in just 15 games. The next summer, roaming Fenway Park’s vast center field—where he made some of the greatest defensive plays I’ve ever seen—Lynn won the Rookie of the Year Award, was the American League MVP, and a Gold Glove. He remains one of my all-time favorite athletes.

 

• Michael — As in Jordan. This is a no-brainer. When my love for basketball was at its peak, Michael was the best there ever was. Sorry Kobe and LeBron and (Enter the next great player here), but that remains true. Michael Jordan might have been the greatest GOAT in the history of sports.

 

• Fran Tarkenton. There is a generation of sports fans out there today who might ask, “Who?” At his best, Francis was one of the best. I grew up a fan of the Minnesota Vikings and he was the quarterback who handed off to Chuck Foreman, or passed the ball to John Gilliam or Jim Lash, or scrambled away from a plethora of mouth-foaming defenders. He’s one of the best quarterbacks to have never won a Super Bowl sadly, going oh-for-three in 1974, 1975 and 1977. He is still 12^th all-time in NFL’s career passing yards. He was that good.

 

• J — Julius Erving. He’s 70 years old and, man, that makes me feel old. I grew up a fan of the Philadelphia 76ers and he was one of the best players in the NBA at that time, a high-flying, high-scoring 6-foot-6 guard out of East Meadow, N.Y., and the University of Massachusetts. Growing up, basketball was my favorite sport and the Dr. was one of my favorite players.

 

• Bobby Orr — I didn’t become a true hockey fan until much later in life, but growing up in New England I knew who Bobby Orr was. He was a legend on skates.

 

• Luis Tiant — Returning to the baseball diamond, while Fred Lynn was my favorite field player for the Boston Red Sox, Tiant was my favorite pitcher. His unique delivery, turning his back to the hitter, was copied every time I played Wiffle Ball growing up.

 

• Billy Ray Bates. This one is going to be a head scratcher to most of you, no doubt. If grew up a basketball fan in Bangor, Maine, in the 1970s and 80s, though, you remember Billy Ray Bates as the star player for the Maine Lumberjacks of the Continental Basketball Association. I had the honor/pleasure of knowing that team really well as a friend’s mother worked concessions at the Bangor Auditorium where the Lumberjacks played and we got into a lot of games for free. I can’t say I knew Billy Ray personally, but I had met him multiple times and talked to him. So in 1980, when he was signed a contract with the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers, and proceeded to drop 40 points in 32 minutes against the Clippers, I looked on with a huge sense of pride.

 

• Mike Bordick. This is one of two personal connections I have to athletes who made it big and I always enjoyed watching. The first is my former double-play partner, Mike Bordick, who played shortstop with the Oakland A’s, the Baltimore Orioles and New York Mets. Mike was the star pitcher/shortstop for the Bangor-Brewer Bowling Lanes team in the Orrington Recreation Association’s Little League program. I was his second baseman. You knew there was something special about Mike in those days. He was smooth and fluid and had a gun. I had the pleasure of watching Mike play high school ball at Hampden Academy and the University of Maine, and the night my son was born, I got to watch him play in the World Series with the Oakland Athletics.

 

• Ricky Craven. I’m guessing not a lot of NASCAR drivers would end up on anybody’s Top 10 list of athletes, but I had the pleasure of watching Ricky grow from a high school classmate (he was actually a year behind me, but we took a Sports Literature class together) who loved racing to a two-time NASCAR winning driver and Rookie of the Year. For part of that journey, I got to chronicle Ricky’s career as the motor sports writer for the Bangor Daily News.

 

• Nolan Ryan. In coming up with this list, so many of the athletes named touched me in a personal way. One of my favorite athletes I ever got to watch play that wasn’t attached to one of my favorite teams, however, was Nolan Ryan—the fire-balling pitcher for the New York Mets, California Angels, Houston Astros and Texas Rangers. He threw 100 miles per hour and pitched seven no-hitters in his career—one of which I seem to remember watching live on NBC’s Saturday afternoon game of the week.

• • •

 I could have added another 100 athletes to this list, easily.

That’s the impact the world of sports has had on me for as long as I can remember.

These were the 10 that jumped out at me, but brought back a plethora of memories.