Every once in a while, throughout the vast sporting landscape, there is an athlete that makes you stop whatever you are doing, and watch. Use any word you want, magical, hypnotic, enthralling, gripping; none of them are descriptive enough. It does not matter who is playing or what the score is. It does not matter where the game is being played or at what time. When this human has the ball, is up to bat, steps in the blocks, is in the ring, or is even simply shown on the screen, we collectively drop whatever chore the wife is making us do, and take a minute or two to behold this mesmerizing spectacle.

     Almost every sport has one of these athletes. Every generation has definitely had them. It does not matter what personal feelings you have towards this athlete, what transgressions they have had or what his religious beliefs are. It does not matter what kind of personality they have or how much money they make. It does not matter how involved with the community they are or where they call home. All fans care about is the moment, we want to see something special; a star shine bright. With this following group of athletes, more times than not, they deliver. They provide the goods. They make our jaw drop. They make us raise our eyebrows. They make us hold our collective breath as we stare in amazement. Don't blink.

      Love him or hate him, Barry Bonds was the king of this. When Bonds stepped into the batter’s box, baseball fans everywhere turned off the vacuum or put down the soapy dish that was in their hand or took a break from the load of darks that was being transferred from the washer to the dryer and turned up the volume on the TV or radio. Even the pitcher stopped and watched. The infielders and outfielders grabbed a bag of popcorn, pulled up a chair, sat down and got comfortable for the show that was about to be put on. We all know about the steroid controversy. Fans are over that. If you dislike him, it’s because of his personality. There is no denying though, that when he put on his batting helmet, choked up on his mahogany-handled, black, gold-leafed bat, and began to wave it over his left shoulder, waiting for that mistake a pitcher was sure to make during his AB, this was the most exciting moment in the game of baseball for years.

     El Hombre is the guy that grabs our undivided attention in baseball today, but still not to the extent that Bonds did. Every fifth day, for Giants fans especially, Tim Lincecum does it as well. Albert Pujols hits for incredible power. He makes no excuses, is an outstanding human being, and let’s his game do the talking; how many professional athletes can say that? For mere mortals, a slump is 20 or 30 at bats with one or two hits. For this guy, a slump is making two consecutive outs, and sometimes, that consists of a single double play. As for Lincecum… He may have three or four outings a year (in his short 2 ½ years) in which he yields more than four runs, max. Who does that? He leads the world in strikeouts. He leads that same world in ERA (well, he’s second, but Chris Carpenter is due to go on the DL anytime now). He is the reigning NL Cy Young winner. I wonder, in what world would he not dominate?

     The most recent, and maybe the single most exciting man in sports, performed within the last few weeks. If you blinked, you probably missed his incredible feet, er, feat. This man can outrun your car. The fastest man in the world is so fast, his Gatorade bottle is actually filled with strawberry-flavored jet fuel. He is tall, lanky, and runs faster than the wind. Remember when everyone around the globe was stuck in awe over the pure speed of Michael Johnson and his gold-plated shoes? This guy can walk 100-meters faster than Johnson could sprint it. Usain Bolt is the guy in track and field that people go out of their way to watch. He is the only guy in the entire sport that Sportscenter will break from its current broadcast for, to show “live” (or at all). He is a showman, he knows what he is doing is unthinkable, and he will let you know it. You couldn’t write a better script than the one this man scribbles when he steps foot on a track.

     The sport of snowboarding is not mainstream. Outside of the X-Games, it is considered nothing more than a hobby. The riders are not considered athletes. They may even be seen in a bad light, since the overriding stigma about them is they all smoke weed. This guy is above the sport though. If anyone can bring this sport to a higher level, it is Shaun White, the Flying Tomato (he is said to hate that nickname, can you blame him?). He has been competing for nearly ten years, and at the tender age of 22, is considered an elder in the sport. When he straps into his bindings, cranks up the volume on his IPod, hops a couple of times to get going down the hill, slightly bends his knees, essentially creating a springboard allowing him to soar through the air as he twists and flips his body in ways that should be illegal, you are witnessing greatness, pure and simple. Oh, and he rides a skateboard nearly as good as his snowboard. A 1080 is not out of the realm of possibility for this guy in a hardwood halfpipe; after all, he can do it in the white, fluffy stuff already.

     The NBA is full of exciting players. None of them can hold a candle to the big dog in Cleveland though, and I’m not talking about the newly acquired Shaq. C’mon, let’s give credit where credit is due, LeBron James is a man among boys. A lion among zebras. A perfect physical specimen among fat, lazy slobs. Okay, the rest of the NBA players are not quite fat, lazy slobs, but they may as well be, compared to LeBron. He is faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Screw Dwight Howard, LeBron James is Superman. He rebounds with the best of them, he scores the best, and can dish it better than anyone since Magic. This guy may go down as the best in history, someday. When LeBron has the ball, it is poetry in motion, unless he decides to be an M-1 Abrams tank in motion, destroying anyone and everyone in his path, he can do that too. For anyone older than 25, Michael Jordan/Magic Johnson/Larry Bird was the guy that forbid you to take your eyes off of him.

     I honestly cannot think of a single player in today’s NFL who has the “can’t miss” quality to their game. Don’t get me wrong, there are great players around the league, but none of them will get you yelled at by the wife because you quit dusting the never-used china so you could watch this guy for a few moments. The NFL has had them in the past though. Michael Vick had this quality (when he ran). Bo Jackson had it. Barry Sanders was this way too. He made Thanksgiving Day watchable for Detroit fans, as well as every other dumbfounded football fan around the globe. The guy had no offensive line. He had no QB. He didn’t even have a defense. Everyone knew who was getting the ball when the Lions were on offense. We will probably never see another human being with rubber ankles and elastic hamstrings ever again, unless they are surgically enhanced. Whatever Barry Sanders was taking to be able to make professional defenders look just stupid silly, I want some of that. From everything I hear, Walter Payton was of the same mold, you know, minus the elasticity and ridiculous moves.

     Screw Sidney Crosby, hockey has Alexander Ovechkin. He is unbelievable with a puck. It doesn’t even have to be a breakaway. Go watch a few of his goals on YouTube; scoring goals on his back, pffft, that’s not fair. He is obviously from a different planet. Before him it was Gretzky. Even before Wayne, it was Bobby Orr. Swimming has Michael Phelps, or is it a dolphin, I can’t tell. Tennis has Andy Roddick’s 350 mph serve. Federer and Nadal are fantastic, but painfully boring to watch. Golf has Tiger Woods, who makes shots that other golfers wouldn’t even dare dream about. Boxing had Ali. Do I really need to explain about Ali? MMA has Anderson Silva. Is he ever going to lose again, to anyone, in any weight class, ever? Soccer has, um, nevermind.

(As you may have noticed, I focused on my generation’s athletes because I was unable to personally witness the athletes who did this before my time. Please, throw some more at me. These guys are what sports are all about. If you’re going to have your own example though, please have a specific time in which this athlete grabbed your undivided attention.)

     People should not be able to do what these freaks (in a good way) are capable of. It is inspiring. It leaves me in awe. Sometimes, I cannot fully understand how it happens. I can see it happening, but I just can’t comprehend why or how these people have these abilities that no one else has. It’s just not fair. Sure, practice helps, but a lot of what these athletes have is natural talent, something you cannot teach.

     We, as fans, are spoiled to have the honor of bearing witness to these athletes who are so good at their craft, it makes my jaw drop. I like being left scratching my head in bewilderment at what I just saw. It’s even better now with digital video recorders (that’s TiVo, for anyone who is uninformed). These athletes do things that defy the laws of physics. They defy gravity. They defy everything we have come to know and understand as reality. Yes, these are all just human beings like you or I and we should not praise them for their celebrity. But when I see something so impressive, so beautiful, that it even makes my wife stop doing her chore list that I gave her, what is there to do, but think of them, not as a human, but as a god. The Greeks worshipped a whole bunch of gods, why can’t I?