Dear DPC2;
I have been a sports fan since I can remember and my Dad, your Grandfather, likes to point out that I saw Nolan Ryan pitch for the Houston Astros, against the Chicago Cubs, at Wrigley Field when I was three years old. I have no recollection of this game but according to history I was there.
I remember developing a taste for sports in 1987, when I was 9, my first loves were football and baseball. I grew up in Santa Rosa, CA which is a little over an hour from Oakland Coliseum (home of the Oakland A’s) and Candlestick Park (the dungeon home of the Giants) so your Grandfather took me and your Uncle Bryan to quite a few games. These were great times and they will always remain cherished memories from my youth. I consider myself lucky that my Dad took us to games. Not every kid gets that opportunity and when the time comes I hope you will go to football and baseball games wit
h me and your Grandfather.
For as long as I can remember your Grandfather maintained a pair of ideologies that he could never be swayed from. First: Sandy Koufax was the most dominate pitcher in the history of mankind. Even though his career was cut short, by debilitating arthritis in his throwing arm, his four years of dominance for the Dodgers was awe-inspiring and worthy of his Hall of Fame induction and a lifetime of admiration from all who saw him. Second: Gale Sayers was the greatest half back ever and like Koufax his career was cut short by injury. Though his career only lasted for four full seasons his work was unmatched as a running back and kick returner. Also he was immortalized in Bryan’s Song, with Billy Dee Williams as Sayers and Jimmie Caan as the doomed Brian Piccolo.
As time goes on and if you develop a love of sports you will realize that, like my Dad, I have an abnormal amount of love for an athlete whose career was cut short. For me, that man is Bo Jackson. An All Star in baseball for the 
Kansas City Royal and a Pro Bowler in football for the Los Angeles Raiders. (Yes, the Raiders moved from Oakland in the 80’s and then came back north to Oakland in the mid 90’s). Jackson was the best athlete of my lifetime and I believe he would have been the best running back ever if he hadn’t injured his hip against the Bengals.
Jackson was 6’1” 227 pounds and ran the 100-meters in 10.39 seconds. He was built for power but had the speed on a sprinter. In his football career, which was part time because he played baseball full time for the Royals, he played 38-games spread over four seasons. Essentially he would play the entire baseball schedule of 162-games and then move right into playing for the Raiders. The only other modern athlete to do this was Deion Sanders.
Jackson’s career numbers don’t compare to other athletes with transcendent careers that were cut short (like Koufax and Sayers) and he won’t make the Hall of Fame for the NFL or MLB. In total he had 2782 rushing yards, while averaging 5.4 ypc and he scored 16-touchdowns but on one special Monday night he won me over forever.
On November 30, 1987 I was a nine-year old football fanatic. I was just getting into the game but I already loved it like only a kid could. This was Bo’s fifth game in the NFL and he was taking on the Seattle Seahawks who were lead on defense by Brian Bosworth.
Then, a Ruben Rodriguez punt pinned the Raiders on their own 5-yard line. On third-and-six, Jackson took the handoff and went around left end. Eugene Robinson dived at him when he got to the corner but missed. At that point, Jackson turned upfield and, before anyone knew what had happened, Bo was gone. He had beaten defenders so badly it appeared as if he let up around the Seattle 30 and put it on autopilot from then on. He didn’t stop running until he emerged from the runway beyond the end zone, and then tossed the ball up and swung at it with an imaginary bat as if to show the world of his two-sport prowess.
Then-MNF 
analyst Dan Dierdorf exclaimed, “He might not stop ’til Tacoma.”
The 91-yard TD, which established a new Raider record and is second-longest on MNF, broke the game open. The Raiders tacked on a couple of field goals to cap a 20-point second quarter and hold a 27-7 edge at halftime. But Jackson was not done. On the Raiders’ initial possession of the second half, he sparked a 75-yard scoring drive with a 42-yard gallop, and completed the effort with a two-yard power run when he literally carried linebacker Brian Bosworth across the goal line. – http://espn.go.com/abcsports/mnf/s/classic/bojackson87.html
It’s been nearly 14-years since that game and I remember his 91-yard touchdown run like it was yesterday. As a matter of fact I re-watch it about once a week on YouTube. From that point on Bo wasn’t just another running back. He was the best running back I have ever seen, even if his career was so short. I have seen many great running backs since then. Barry Sanders, Terrell Davis, Adrian Peterson, Emmitt Smith (who I feel is overrated but that’s another story for another time), Chris Johnson, LaDanian Tomlinson and all the rest don’t do the same thing to me that Jackson did. It was a short career but it was magical.
If you become a sports fan you will likely have the sentiments about an athlete whose career was cut short but was transcendent in his limited performances. This notion of athletes whose careers were cut short is constant and you can look to any sport and find many examples but I hope that your favorite athlete enjoys a long career.
The shenanigans of Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and all the rest who had ties, rumored and real to PED’s have ruined baseball for me. Yes, Sosa’s run in 1998 got me watching again but the end results: Congressional Hearings, The Mitchell Report, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens facing perjury charges, they turned me off to the sport.
