Sean Widmer of
Spokane's Sports Show of 1510 KGA had a ongoing topic today about the coolest athlete in sports. It went back and forth and there were several ringers like Peyton Manning (seen his commercials? that guy would be a hoot at the party) and Lebron James (I do his chalk routine at the bowling alley. Old people don't like me.).
The Spokane Shock's own Kevin Maloney even suggested Kobe Bryant, which was quickly shot down by Sean. I'm thinking that a night at a Colorado hotel may be the reason for that.
My vote for the coolest athlete: Sean Casey, former three-time all star who played part-time for the Red Sox last year.
This guy seems like he would be someone you'd throw down a case of Keystone Light with and play beer pong. Nicknamed "The Mayor" Casey was one of those glue-clubhouse guys, and was named the friendliest players in all of baseball.
He's going to shoot the breeze with you at first base. With the media he'll tell it to you with some candor and not throw the canned "banana in the tail-pipe" comments at you like MJ or Kobe. But he's not going to be one of those guys that flies off the handle and completely pisses off his entire clubhouse. And he's just interesting to listen to.
And he's one of the slowest running baseball players the game have ever seen. Look it up on Wikipedia. In the 2006 World Series, he overcame a torn calf muscle to hit 2 home runs and finish the postseason with one of the best performances at the plate for a Detroit Tiger.
I'm mean, what else do I have to say here? Sean Casey is the kind of guy that comes to a party and get to pick which girl he's making out with that evening. And then he's going to get too drunk to even remember who he made out with because he's having too much fun.
He retired after the 2008 season and he's now on the MLB network, so if you want to understand where I'm coming from with the semi-man crush, catch him in the broadcast booth.
