My online namesake and inspiration

For some reason, I have been thinking about Rusty Greer a lot tonight.

He's the former Texas Ranger who I developed a crush on after seeing/hearing him beat the Red Sox in 1994. He was my favorite baseball player basically his entire career. He's the Rusty behind my screenname, website and blogs. For my high school senior project, I wrote an Elizabethan sonnet about his crashing into the wall in Cleveland and separating his left shoulder. (Which I somehow didn't think about when the sports medicine doctor pulled my left shoulder out of its socket and it didn't hurt.) He was evidently the inspiration for my body's penchant towards having the same injuries as my favorite athletes, who are often injured.

I remember when I learned that Greer was hitting third, a position generally reserved for the best hitter in the order. That was before the term "squee" existed.

When ESPN switched its coverage to Kenny Rogers' perfect game, I ran upstairs from the basement to tell my father, and I was of course not watching when Greer made his famous catch.

I saw him play in Boston, New York, Toronto and Arlington, met him three times, and almost fell into right field at SkyDome (it is NOT the Rogers Centre!!!) trying to take pictures of him. Looking back on it, I was a bit obsessed.

I have an autographed hat, an autographed jersey and at least three autographed baseball cards, and I don't wear the hat or the jersey; they're both in my closet at my parents' house.

I think there's a point to this post, and I think it explains my favorite types of athletes. I've never liked people who drive in tons of runs or score lots of goals. I'm also not a fan of anyone who's particularly demonstrative (Cristiano Ronaldo, this means YOU!) I like players who play hard and do well on defense. This is the reason I give for choosing Khalil Greene as my new favorite baseball player four years ago even though I barely pay attention to him. Well, that and the picture from ESPN the magazine that was so smokin' hot it made me whimper.

Well, I just saw fairly recent pictures of Greer, from August 2007, and he has not aged well, though I've heard redheads go white quickly. And I also found out that Greene got married after the 2006 season, and Padres fans were wondering how the ring managed not to break his finger. I haven't been able to find any more smokin' hot pictures of him.

It's time to start following baseball again. More on Red Sox Nation later.