Would Bud Sponsor the God Puncher?

I don’t know why, but every once in a while a completely random player will become one of my favorite people in sports. Sandis Ozolinsh is the best example of this, but there are also Thomas Vanek, Vinny Testaverde, Rube Waddell, and others. Well, the newest is Brian Barton, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder.

As a baseball player, Barton isn’t especially remarkable; he played at the U, signed with the Indians, as an undrafted free agent, made it onto Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospect list, but then suffered a series of setbacks. At the 2007 winter meetings he was taken in the Rule 5 draft by the Cardinals, and spent the entire year in the majors. Not an especially remarkable career, but there is still some upside.

Anyway, none of this contributes to why I think he’s awesome. Brian Barton wants to go to space! He is an aerospace engineering major, interned at Boeing, and was passed over in the draft because teams thought he was going to go work for NASA. While he hasn’t flat out said that he would take a space shuttle trip if the opportunity presented itself, regardless of baseball, come on, who wouldn’t go?

Not only is Brian Barton one of my favorite baseball players (but he’s no Chase Utley), I would love to go to outerspace with him too. And maybe that will actually happen.