8RV #8: The 8 Greatest Athletes Of The 00?s

EVERY TUESDAY David Chalk, renowned, acclaimed and beloved baseball writer from 7th Inning Stache, Bugs&Cranks and occasionally Big League Stew throws up Eight Random Videos to entertain and/or enlighten right here on NESW SPORTS.

The calendar is starting to get all retrospectivical, so I give you the undisputable 8 Greatest Athletes of the past decade in this week’s 8RV, in alphabetical order by last name, accompanied by random videos of said 8 Greatest Athletes:

1. Barry Bonds

Barry Bonds is truly The Greatest Player On Planet Earth (The G-POPE), and certainly the greatest athlete of the last decade.� He broke the single-season home run record in 2001, then the career mark in 2007.� In the past year, he has been compared favorably to President Barrack Obama and Martin Luther King, to the Dalai Lama, and to Rosa Parks.� And he has been tattooed on the backs of his admirers:

2. Santana Moss

It’s been a rough decade-plus for fans of the NFL’s greatest franchise.� But one Monday night miracle made the second Joe Gibbs era worthwhile.

3. Shaquille O’Neal

The most dominant NBA player since Wilt Chamberlain, the most personable player ever, four rings in seven years.

4. David Ortiz

Sure his struggles since Manny was banished have raised questions, but Ortiz practically saved baseball all by himself with his heroics in the 2004 ALCS.� Two world titles and being one of the most personable players in baseball earns him a place on this list, as does his reggaeton video (translated lyrics here):

5. Alexander Ovechkin

The greatest player since Gretzky has restored Washington hockey to respectability after that awful Jagr debacle.

6. Carlos Pena

There are plenty of deserving Devil Rays, but El Gato Del Crimen may be the best of them all. And if you ask him nicely during spring training, he will glady sign your taco:

7. Manny Ramirez

Probably the best baseball player of the decade not named Bonds, Manny Ramirez is also a fine role model and a strong supporter of Dominican hip hop:

8. Michael Vick

If there is any athlete as great as Bonds who was more unjustly persecuted this decade, it would be the great Michael Vick. Before the gross miscarriage of justice that led to his unfortunate incarceration, Vick was the most exciting player in pro football for the first half of the decade. Now, Vick has earned the respect of his teammates in Philadelphia, who voted unanimously to award him the prestigious Ed Block Award for Courage. Hopefully the playoff-bound Eagles will come to their senses and let Vick lead them to their first Super Bowl title. (Because Donovan McNabb sure isn’t gonna do it.)