In my youth, there was no baseball player who infuriated me more than Kenny Lofton.
While the Orioles were regularly playing big games against the Cleveland Indians, their center fielder was regularly making the types of plays that would make you experience every stage of baseball grief in a span of seconds. His robbery of B.J. Surhoff in August 1996 (happy 20th anniversary, nightmare fuel!) was perhaps his most famous, but it was far from the only baseball crime he committed against the Birds.
But a funny thing happened as I matured as a baseball fan (and later a baseball analyst). At some point, my hatred for Kenny Lofton dissipated, and it was replaced by a respect I had for getting the opportunity to watch a very good player perform at a high level -- even if it happened to be against my own favorite team. In fact, when Hall of Fame voting comes around every year, I regularly ask something along the lines of "why does Tim Raines get so much Hall of Fame attention but Kenny Lofton never did?" -- mostly because of my memories of Lofton playing absolutely ridiculous baseball against the Orioles.
