I mentioned last Friday that I am a lefty and the effect that had on me writing things and my hand going over everything I just wrote and leaving a stain on my hand. Well that isn’t the only thing challenging about being a lefty. Try finding left handed scissors in the eighties. Everyone is used to teaching right handed people and so it was hard for coaches and teachers to teach me how to do things. It was a burden I had to overcome. The prejudice were many and the obstacles were plentiful. But I fought through it all and here I am, a somewhat functional adult. One of the challenges was finding sports heroes to connect with. I mean, you righties could go in the backyard and throw like Marino or Montana, pitch like Ryan and shoot like Jordan or Bird. But us lefties had to look a little harder to find players to imitate. So without further ado, here were my top 10 favorite left handed players from my childhood.

10. Boomer Esiason

You might be surprised to see a Bengal on the list but this was years before my hatred for the Bengals. I mean I have only hated the Bengals for 2 years so that isn’t really that hard. So why did I like Boomer? Well he was pretty much the only left handed show in town. Steve Young came along later but I was a Montana guy so I never embraced Young. Boomer was it. I was never a huge fan but he was pretty good and was left handed so that was enough for him to make the list. He’s the only football player to make the list because it really didn’t matter if a receiver, safety or running back were left handed.

9. Jim Abbott

If you don’t know who Jim Abbott is then stop reading and start googling. Abbott was a phenomenal athlete who overcame a lot to have a MLB career. Jim was forced to be a lefty because he was born without a right hand. So he literally had no choice. Abbott played every sport and was part of the 1988 baseball Olympic team that won a gold medal. He played most of his career for the Angels but bounced around a little as well. He threw a no hitter for the Yankees and just the fact that he was out there was impressive. Because he only had one hand, he would rest his glove on his right arm, pitch and then slide the glove onto his left hand to field. I may or may not have borrowed my brother’s glove occasionally to try it myself.

8. David Robinson

The Admiral was a great player and by all accounts a great guy. He served our country in the Navy and was part of the Dream Team. He is a hall of a famer and won a couple of championships. So why isn’t he higher on the list? Well he was a big guy and I wasn’t. I was your guard/small forward type. So it was hard for me to emulate playing like him.

7. Tom Glavine

Glavine was part of arguably one of the greatest pitching rotations in history joining John Smoltz, Greg Maddux and fellow lefty, Steve Avery. Glavine was phenomenal. And he helped a terrible Braves team be good. They were a great team to cheer for because they had been bad for so long. And they had a ton of left handed players, Sid Bream, David Justice, Deion was on the team. Former Royal and lefty, Charlie Leibrandt played for them for a bit. But of all the lefties, Glavine was the best.

6. Stacey Augmon

Augmon was never great but always a very solid NBA player. I became a fan before that though when he was playing for the UNLV Running Rebels. He was the only freshman to ever be on a US Olympic Basketball team in 1988. He was part of one of the greatest college basketball teams of all time joining Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony (another lefty) and Anderson Hunt. Augmon could score but was also a great defender. Augmon was drafted by the Hawks and joined Dominique Wilkins another one of my favorite players. He had a very solid career for the Hawks averaging double digits for about 5 years. He moved on after that and bounced around the league for several years without much success. But he was fun to imitate on the playground.

5. Danny Jackson

If you aren’t a Royals fan or maybe a Reds fan you might not even remember Danny. But if you were around in 1985, then you for sure remember him. He started 32 games for the boys in blue in 85 and went a 14-12. But it was the playoffs where he truly shined. Down 3 games to 1 in the first ever best of 7 series of the ALCS, Danny stepped up and pitched a complete game shutout. The Royals rallied to win the next two and make it to the playoffs. In the World Series against the Cardinals, Jackson again took the mound down 3 games to 1. Jackson actually started game 1 and pitched well giving up only 2 runs over 7 innings in the loss. In game 5, Jackson was awesome again and kept us in the series. He pitched another complete game only giving up 1 run. He also pitched the only immaculate inning in World Series history in the 7th striking out 3 batters on 9 pitches. In order to be nice to Cardinal fans on opening day, I’ll avoid talking about game 6 and game 7. Danny had trouble getting wins in 86 and 87 although his era wasn’t terrible. Unfortunately we shipped him off to the Reds after that for Kurt Stillwell and another player I think. Jackson responded in 88 by winning 23 games and 15 complete games. He threw more complete games in 88 than the entire league did last year. (this is a made up stat, I have no idea how many complete games there were last year, but it sounds right). Danny was always up and down, year to year, but he was part of the 1990 Reds that won the World Series and the Phillies team that made the World Series in 93. I wish he would have been a Royal longer. Saberhagen gets all the credit for our championship in 1985 and it is well deserved because he was great. But he only had an opportunity to be great because of Danny.

4. Barry Bonds

This might be controversial for some but remember this is from when I was a kid. I was an adult or at least legally an adult when the controversy came. I am not saying Bonds was on anything but before Bonds got huge, he was already arguably one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He was a consistent 20 and 20 guy (20 home runs and 20 stolen bases) and often a 30 and 30 guy. He could field, run the bases and obviously hit for power or contact. I know many baseball purist hate him, most of which are baseball writers that were drooling while writing stories about McGwire and Sosa and only later looked down on them all. There has always been cheating in baseball. The fact that this guy isn’t in the hall of fame is stupid. But then again, hall of fames are stupid. If you took away all his stats from 1998 on, he is still a shoe in. He is the all time leader in home runs, a career batting average of .298 and is the only guy in baseball history to have 500 homeruns and 500 stolen bases. And he never actually got caught doing anything illegal. We can assume what we want but he never was busted for anything. Anyway, as a kid he was great and fun to watch except when he was trying to throw out Sid Bream at home in the playoffs.

3. Chris Mullen

Mullen was actually a very good player. He was part of two Olympic gold medal winning teams in 84 and 92. The dude could flat out shoot. He played my position and of course was a lefty. I love the guy. From 88-94 which was prime kid fandom for me, he was one of the best players in the league. He was the reason I became a Warriors fan. He had some injury issues after that and ended up with the Pacers for a few years. But the guy could flat out shoot. He is a career 38 percent shooter from behind the arc before shooting 3 pointers was all the rage. He was the guy I pretended to be when I was at the playground by myself shooting around. He never won a championship, besides the gold medals of course. In 98 with the Pacers he got close as Indiana lost in 7 games to Jordan and the Bulls. Since retiring he has bounced around coaching a bit but to this day he is one of my top 10 favorite basketball players of all time and as a kid he was #1.

2. Tony Gwynn

I don’t know if there was ever a nicer guy in sports than Tony. He entered the league as an athletic right fielder. His rookie year he batted .289 in 1982. He would never bat under .300 again from 1983 to 2001. That is insane. He led the league in batting 8 times. In the hated strike year he was batting .394 when they shut things down. His inability to chase .400 because of the strike still angers me today…stupid baseball. The guy is a career .338 hitter. His career batting average is higher than most guys bat at any point in his career. In 20 years he struck out 434 times and never struck out more than 40 times. That is an average of 21.7 strikeouts a year. There are so many crazy stats around his batting career. He actually is also the all time assist leader for the basketball team at San Diego State. Over time, Tony got a little out of shape. And by a little, I mean a lot. But before that he won 5 gold gloves. He had some injury issues and later health issues, but one thing never changed. The dude could flat out hit. He was a 15 time all star and was voted into the hall of fame with 97.6% of the vote. The 2.4% that didn’t vote for him is what is wrong with the baseball hall of fame. Stupid Baseball writers. Tony passed away a few years back and he is greatly missed in the baseball world.

1. Ken Griffey Jr.

Does it get cooler than Ken Griffey Jr.? Dude was a young phenom. He wore his hat backwards. He smashed the ball all over the park. His swing was pure and beautiful. I was 10 years old when he entered the league and in full kid fandom mode. It is hard to put into words how fun it was to watch Griffey play. He was awesome. He could hit for average. He could hit for power. He could run the bases. He was phenomenal in centerfield. He could do it all. He is my all time favorite non royal. I have a booklet of Ken Griffey Baseball cards. If I could create my dream outfield of non Royals, He would be in center with Gwynn in right and Rock Raines in left. Speaking of which, my wife read my blog of top 10 expos and then got me a Tim Raines autographed card for my Birthday. It was an awesome gift. But now I am writing blogs to motivate her for future gifts. So I am fully expecting an autographed Ken Griffey Jr. card for Father’s Day.

Anyway, Griffey is the best and had so much fun doing it. He rarely made the playoffs because back then only 4 teams made it and the Mariners weren’t very good most of the time even though he was awesome. He even got to play with his dad for a little bit. How cool is that? He was the MVP in 97. He made 13 all star games. He won the homerun derby 3 times. He won 10 gold gloves. He had 630 home runs. He is top 20 all time in home runs, RBI’s and total bases. He was the hitting coach on the WBC team this year. He is even teasing a comeback because he can still hit. And my most recent finding is that he is in the top 5 paid players for the Reds this season because he signed a Bobby Bonilla deal and the money was deferred over a bunch of years. Genius move. Everybody loved Griffey but if you are lefty you love him a little bit more.

Don’t miss the top 5 for Friday tomorrow as I discuss the start of baseball, the final four, Lamar Jackson and more.