Blogocentric Formulations

Top 10: Sports Teams / Athletes

The following is a list of the teams and individual athletes that I consider myself enough of a fan of to follow semi-regularly. I'm not really much of a sports guy in general, so I don't have anyone I religiously follow, and the people and teams listed below are mostly hometown favorites or people who are so exceptionally good that I find myself fascinated by their accomplishments. This is active teams and athletes only; no one who has retired from their game of choice.

         1. Roger Federer (tennis)
         2. Team USA (Olympic Games)
         3. San Francisco Giants (baseball)
         4. San Francisco 49ers (football)
         5. Sacramento Kings (basketball)
         6. Rafael Nadal (tennis)
         7. Mike Trout (baseball)
         8. Clayton Kershaw (baseball)
         9. Serena Williams (tennis)
         10. Cristiano Ronaldo (soccer)

I know there's some overlap with #2 and other people on the list, but it's probably not difficult to tell from my responses where I grew up (Northern California), which sports I really like (tennis, baseball, the Olympics), and which ones I really don't like (basketball, football, and pretty much everything else. ).

I begrudgingly added Serena and Cristiano to the (bottom) of the list because they are undeniably talented and fun to watch, even if I think their egos are out of control and they're pretty obnoxious. Roger Federer, on the other hand, is the one athlete I will keep tabs on throughout the year, from the big Grand Slam tournaments down to the little qualifier events. Tennis is one of my all-time favorite sports and the man is a genius at the game. He makes some of the most difficult shots in the world look easy. Here's a highlight reel if you're interested:

And more than any other athletic event, I think I most look forward to the Olympics every two years. I'm partial to the Summer Games as they have more events that I get excited about watching, but I'll gladly watch the Winter Games too. The United States is fortunate to have very talented athletes in a wide variety of disciplines, so whether it's gymnastics or swimming or alpine skiing or speed skating, there's almost always someone to root for as they compete against the world's best.