Others: for your halloween enjoyment....

Top 10 most frightening sports figures
Story Tools: Print Email
Dayn Perry / Special to FOXSports.com
Posted: 6 hours ago



Yes, it's Halloween week, but for a fright fest in the sports world, there's no need for ghouls or goblins.

Photo gallery ...
Scary sports figures




When you have scary figures like Bobby Knight, Mike Tyson or some frightening fans like those in Oakland or the Yankee Stadium bleachers, Halloween could be almost any day on the sports calendar.

But with Oct. 31 just around the corner, here's a look at the top 10 scariest sports figures:


10. Dennis Rodman
There's certainly something frightening about this gender-bending novelty act from the 90s. He marries himself, looks for any pretense to take his clothes off in public, he pierces places surgeons fear to tread, and he's got more artwork on him than in the Louvre. He's probably more creepy than scary, although it's quite unsettling when he decides to show up on Blind Date.


9. Lou Piniella
They don't call him "Mount Piniella" for nothing. Whether it's throwing bases he's wrenched from the ground, kicking dirt on umpires, grappling with half-naked relievers or generally flirting with a coronary any time there's a close call, Lou's perpetually on the verge of coming unhinged. Think Joe Pesci's character in Goodfellas without the rap sheet.


8. Albert Belle
It's one of life's happy coincidences that this thoroughly frightening sports figure one Halloween night almost ran over some trespassing kids with his SUV. Back in his college days, he went after some hecklers in the stands. He's leveled Fernando Vina on the base paths, hummed a baseball at a reporter and corked his bat. And he'll flip out if you call him ""Joey." Mercurial? To say the least. Big enough for it to lay a whoopin' on you? Most def.


7. Yankee Stadium "Bleacher Creatures"
They yell, they throw beer, they favor mob justice, they roam in packs. Yes, the cheap seats at the Boogie Down happen to constitute the roughest neighborhood in the Bronx on game nights. Yankee handlers let the "Bleacher Creatures" into the ballyard only through back entrances. They take up 2,385 seats (backless benches, to be perfectly accurate) in right field. The rest of Yankee Stadium drinks beer until the end of the fifth innings, but if you're in the Bleacher Creature section you can't buy beer at all. At opposing players, they've thrown coins, batteries and — you guessed it — even a knife. Fear them. Better yet, avoid them.


6. Tie Domi
We all know hockey is an opera of violence. Body checks, sticks to the face, crashes against boards, cessations of play so guys can duke it out. By definition, you have to be somewhat rough around the edges to even step on the ice. But Tie Domi, even by NHL standards, is one bad dude. That's "baaaaaaaaad," like the kids say. Domi is the "enforcer" for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He holds the team record for penalty minutes. Domi's not the biggest guy on the ice, but he rarely loses a fight — and he's the guy who always mixes it up with the other team's enforcer. He also incurred one of the longest suspensions in league history (11 games) for knocking out Scott Niedermayer with an elbow to the head in Game 4 of the 2001 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Call him a tough guy, call him a thug. Just don't make him angry.


5. John Rocker

If you're not a white guy from rural Georgia, Rocker's probably got a beef with you. New York City can be a pretty intimidating place, but Rocker seemed to relish in the fact that he was hated there. Even after unleashing a hateful torrent against immigrants, minorities, gays, single mothers, urbanites, puppies, etc., he still carried himself with the brash and cocksure manner than made him Gotham's public enemy number one. He's certainly got the eyes of a maniac. Anyone who takes such joy in being despised is one to steer clear of. Halloween costumes to avoid if you live in Rocker's neck of the woods: immigrant, minority, gay, single mother, urbanite, puppy ...


4. Bill Romanowski
You never know what's going to raise Romo's hackles. He punches teammates, he bites opponents, he spits on opponents. Blame it on his intensity, or just blame it on the steroids. He already looks a little crazy, and if you've seen him ply his trade on the field, you know he's crazy. Now that he's retired, he's probably cooled off a bit. But I still wouldn't umpire his kid's Little League game. And if you live in Romo's neighborhood, don't dress up as J.J. Stokes for Halloween.


3. Mike Tyson
Criminal convictions aside, is anyone crazier than Mike Tyson? Ask Mitch "Blood" Green, whom Tyson beat the stuffing out of in a 1986 street ball. Ask Evander Holyfield's ear. Ask Lennox Lewis' children, whom Tyson once threatened to eat. Ask reporter Josie Karp, who was victim to a Tyson tirade so profane that it would make a longshoreman demure. Or just ask anyone who's ever trained him, fought him or married him. One of these days, he might just fade into Bolivian ...


2. Bobby Knight
Over his volatile yet impossible to ignore coaching career, Knight has (allegedly in some instances), thrown a chair, head-butted a player, choked a player, joked about rape, terrorized assistants, dropped f-bombs left and right during press conferences, crossed swords with school administrators, dressed down NCAA officials on live TV and generally treated the media like a cancer diagnosis. Big dude, bigger 'tude. Fear the sweater.
The Black Hole is not a friendly place for non-Raider fans.


1. Oakland Raider Fans
They've certainly got the costume part now. The sartorial tastes of Raider Nation range from garden-variety face paint to all-out "Mad Max" garb that makes pro wrestlers look like Franciscan monks. They're frightening, and they're angry even when winning. Perhaps you've read about them in the Book of Revelation. If you see one coming your way, you're on the wrong side of the Bay, or it's the Rapture. I'm not sure which is worse. They pretty much have the same act as the Bleacher Creatures except every once and a while, to keep things fresh, they'll stab a Chargers fan. Raider games: made for TV.