Crystl Bustos: Enormous Softball Talent With a Personality to Match

The best article I've read during the Olympic Games is this one by John Branch of the New York Times, profiling U.S. softball designated hitter Crystl Bustos.

If you've seen even a moment of softball highlights, you've probably noticed Bustos, who is listed at 225 pounds, appears to weigh significantly more than that, and packs serious power at the plate. Branch's profile goes much deeper, examining the way softball transformed a person who, as a teenager, didn't look like she was going anywhere:

"My whole life, people were telling me I wasn't going to go nowhere," she said. "My own parents told me I was going to end up on the porch drinking beer with my grandfather."

Bustos - and that is what her teammates call her, or Boo, but rarely Crystl - is 30, a two-time gold medalist who plans to retire from international competition after the Beijing Games. For years, she has been painted in one dimension, as a bruising basher, the Babe Ruth of softball, a top-heavy woman wielding a wicked stick. She is an attention grabber, mostly because of her towering home runs and partly because she stands out among teammates that generally look as if they could have belonged to the same sorority.

Bustos is smart, funny and the most popular player on Team USA. And after reading Branch's profile, she's one of my favorite Olympians.