Best athlete you played with or against

Played rec league baseball with Jordan Newton, a friend of mine who's a catcher in the Detroit Tigers' organization.

He was a two-sport athlete when we were in high school, but baseball was obviously his best. With college and pro scouts looking on one day at a practice, he was clocked at 3 seconds (I believe...it may have been quicker) on a throw to second without getting up out of his stance.

He went to Western Kentucky and helped get them to the College World Series as a freshman. He was drafted by the Mets the next year, but went back to college and was then drafted by the Tigers the next year.

He was playing Class A ball with the West Michigan Whitecaps. I don't know if he's been called up yet or not.

 

played in a high school football scrimmage against 49ers OT Kwame Harris and played one-on-one with former LaSalle star and Sacramento Kings player Lionel Simmons at a basketball camp in my pre-teen years.

 

Basketball: 2 of them, I suppose.

Zach Randolph...the one and only Knicks knucklehead. I grew up just south of where he played high school ball and we played in the same summer league.

Dominic James...the current starting PG at Marquette. I played college ball in his hometown and we had a lot of mutual friends. He'd come in every night to play with us in open gym.

And in baseball..... I suppose J.D. Closser. Some baseball beat guys might know him...he's been a catcher in a few different organizations, getting some decent playing time with the Diamondbacks and Rockies the last few years, though I don't think he played at all in the major leagues last season.

I played football, too, though against no one of note. I did play basketball a few times against guys who went on to be Big Ten starters in football, however.

 

Miami's Lorenzo Booker. An absolute beast of a freak of a manchild in high school.

 

Played high school hoops against J.J. Redick (he was a couple of years younger than me). He's not much in the pros, but he was unstoppable in high school. He would pull up from anywhere.

 

In the rec center in college I played in a pick-up game with some of the guys from the college's team including Greg Grant who went on to have a short career in the NBA.

 

I played golf with Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward. I was kind of wound up, hit a good opening drive, said, "Take that, bitches," and three holes later, Gatti walked off the course. Good times.

As a kid, I played baseball with Jason Gooding, a pitcher who got drafted by the Royals but didn't make it, I don't think.

Another guy from high school, Brian Thompson, got drafted by the Florida Panthers, but he didn't make it either.

I drycleaned Steve Yzerman's shirt once, if that counts for anything.

 

Played road hockey against Mike Palmateer, Leaf goalie of the 70s. He lived on the street behind me and we'd go over sometimes and see if he wanted to play. On the odd occasion he would. He wouldn't play goal, obviously, but it was tough to get the tennis ball by him when he was on D. His relexes were incredible.

 

Schoolyard hoops with and against Magic Johnson. Much more fun to be on his side than not.

 

Only the Canucks will get this.

I played hs football with Tony Gabriel who went on to have a rather distinguished career in the CFL.

I'm not sure why I played hs football since I never really liked it and wasn't very good. Oh, yeah, cheerleaders.

I played hs hockey with Ron Sedlebauer who had a few good seasons with Vancouver in the late 70

 

I played youth-league softball with Vonda Ward, who went on to play hoops at Tennessee and is now some kick-ass chick boxer. She was about three feet taller than any of us, and she was really all we had on our team. Every time she went up to bat (manager pitch) we'd all scream from the bench "Show 'em where you live, Vonda!" and nine times out of 10, she'd knock it out of the park. I played right field, sadly, and couldn't hit for shit.

 

I got advice on go-kart racing from Bobby Rahal. Worked, too.