On Professional Athletes: A Response

"Sports don't build character...they reveal it."

                                        John Wooden

My last post didn’t offer much in the way of charity towards professional athletes, particularly professional basketball players and the Boston Red Sox.  So in the interest of fair play I would like to present a response of sorts to my recent pro bashing.  No this isn’t a post written by some outraged reader demanding equal time on behalf of maligned ballers nor is it a nod to someone who took me to task.  I rather wish someone would take me to task.  At least it would be an indication of an engaged readership.  Hell it would be an indication of a readership.  Hello! Is there anybody out there?  Read me. Pass me on.  Pardon the groveling.

So, you say, he’s rebutting his own post.  The writer is certifiable or wishy-washy at best.  No, no, this isn’t a rebuttal per se.  I stand by what I wrote about the seeming cluelessness and greed that professional athletes exhibit.  And I haven’t changed my opinion that behavior of that sort offends and angers a good many Americans.  But I do recognize that professional athletes represent a particular segment of society and that no segment of society is perfect; they all have their blemishes, good citizens, bad citizens and those that just want to do their job and get through life.  Athletes that seem to be slow on the uptake or detached from the reality of the everyday plebeian have either forgotten that their lives are subject to the scrutiny of the microscope that is the electronic media or they realize it and just don’t care.  Is that scrutiny fair?  Maybe not, but it’s a fact of their famous lives.  They opted for pro sports, worked for it and coveted it, in many cases since they were in their early teens.  And so with the fame, the riches and the ability to make a living playing a game that they love they’re forced to either be circumspect or deal with a media and public opinion that can bite and bite hard; those teeth leave marks.  Just ask any other public figure who fell from grace and landed badly because he thought he was immune to public scrutiny.  Ask a guy named Weiner who had his wiener published.  Ask Tiger Woods who let his own wiener make bad decisions for him and then watched just about every aspect of his life auger in; professional, personal, popular and financial. 

But enough of the negative.  This is supposed to be about the positive.  It’s popular to say that it’s easy to find negative stories about athletes but the good stories just get buried.  Not true.  It took no time at all to find some of these stories.

My favorite might just be Warrick Dunn and The Warrick Dunn Family Foundation and Homes for the Holidays.  I heard about this story some years back and it’s stuck with me.  Dunn’s charity helps single parents to achieve the American Dream of home ownership.  From the foundation website, The Warrick Dunn Family Foundation is dedicated to providing opportunities for economically disadvantaged single parents and children who have demonstrated a commitment to achieve financial independence and stability.  Dunn’s foundation has helped more than 100 single parents become homeowners and provide a more stable life for their children.  In 2007, he founded Athletes for Hope an organization that guides athletes in becoming involved in charitable causes.  Dunn, a running back with the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Bucs is out of football now but during his career was given awards for his charity work, including The Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.

Say what you will about Lance Armstrong but the man’s work in raising funds and awareness about cancer might just be without peer.  The Lance Armstrong Foundation has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research and the awareness campaign has been a resounding success.  If you doubt that, think about how often you see one of those little yellow bracelets.  A few years ago I rode in one of Armstrong’s Livestrong charity bike rides.  During the ride I was literally brought to tears when I saw people along the route, people who had been touched by cancer in some way, waving and hollering “thank you” as we rode along the 60 mile route.  Sometime later while walking through a parking lot I was stopped by a fire fighter who noted the T-shirt that I was wearing, the one I got from the ride, and thanked me.  Seems his father had died young of cancer.  And really all I did was to go on a bike ride.  I’m struggling with Lance.  I’m something of a bike rider and I was a fan of the sport until the doping got too pervasive to ignore.

Derek Jeter’s Turn 2 Foundation has awarded more than 8 million dollars in grants to afterschool programs and abuse prevention programs as well as providing money for college scholarships.  From the Turn 2 website, the foundation’s mission statement; To create and support signature programs and activities that motivate young people to turn away from drugs and alcohol and "TURN 2" healthy lifestyles. Through these ventures, the Foundation strives to create outlets that promote and reward academic excellence, leadership development and positive behavior. Turn 2's goal is to see the children of these programs grow safely and successfully into adulthood and become the leaders of tomorrow.  Turn 2 provided 500 thousand dollars to the Phoenix House in Tampa.  Phoenix House is an outpatient program helping teens and their families overcome problems associated with substance abuse.

Former NASCAR driver Kyle Petty’s mission is to help special needs children.  Petty organizes the Charity Ride Across America, a motorcycle ride that raises funds for children’s charities including Petty’s Victory Junction Camp for chronically and terminally ill children.  Victory Junction serves children who wouldn’t normally be able to have a camp experience; children with bleeding disorders, spina bifida, sickle cell disease, burn survivors, kidney disease, lung disease and heart disease among many more.

In the San Francisco Bay Area where I live pitcher Barry Zito’s struggles on the mound haven’t much endeared him to Giants fans.  But whatever they think about Zito’s pitching woes, his Strikeouts For Troops foundation has earned him praise and respect from both media and fans.  Zito and a number of major league ballplayers started the charity to raise funds for troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.  From Strikeout’s website; Strikeouts For Troops provides comforts of home and lifts the spirits and morale of wounded troops during treatment at military hospitals nationwide. Since its inception, Strikeouts For Troops has raised nearly 2 million dollars through contributions made by more than 60 professional baseball players, fundraising events, fan donations and corporate partnerships.

These charities are just a smattering.  Athletes have stepped up and used their fame and their fortune to promote charities that benefit numerous causes for children, the poor, the disadvantaged, education, the sick, the elderly and many of the marginalized who these days are ignored by politicians and their corporate cronies.  As out of touch as athletes seem to be they can always be outdone in that department by politicians.  So here I’ve gone and dispensed a measure of the fairness doctrine to professional athletes.  Don’t expect the same when it comes to politicians. 

This post has links to all of the charities mentioned.  I would encourage a visit to their websites and if you can bring yourself to skip a few lattes or that 12 pack of Bud you might consider making a donation to one that strikes your fancy.  

Derek Jeter, Three Thousand Hits and a Christian

     Yesterday Derek Jeter got his 3000^th hit which just happened to be a home run.  He was only the second player to achieve that mark with a dinger, the other being Wade Boggs.  When a ballplayer’s milestone hit just happens to be a long tater it creates something of a logistical problem; a problem that leads to anything from an informal negotiation to a court battle.

     There was a time when a fan would settle for a short meet and greet with the player and an autograph or two in exchange for a home run ball.  That sort of behavior is now frowned upon.  Nowadays it’s expected that the fan will enter into hard negotiations with the player, the team or both.  Shockingly (he said with tongue firmly in cheek) a cottage industry has developed around home run balls.  Called ball hawking it is capitalism on steroids, pun intended.  In simple terms the ball hawk snags the ball and then tries to take the player to the cleaners (Yes I know what you’re going to say and I’ll take that up later).

     A few cases in point here.  In 2008, A’s rookie Carlos Gonzalez hit his first major league homer.  A ball hawk named Tom Snyder caught the ball and asked for a jersey and two signed bats.  The A’s rejected the offer saying that uniforms take too long to replace.  So in what I would consider a bizarre bit of negotiating, Snyder asked for $10,000 which the A’s also rejected.  Snyder left with the ball and Gonzalez probably figured his souvenir 1^st home run ball was gone.  Not so, as Snyder traded the ball a week later for a signed photo with Gonzalez (a fair deal he should have taken in the first place).  The “gentleman” who caught Ken Griffey’s 600^th home run ball asked for, as Griffey put it, “a few things that were out of hand.”  The imagination sort of reels over what “out of hand” means.  Griffey never got that ball which eventually sold for $42,000 at an auction. The stories about the McGwire and Bonds “record breaking” home run balls are now legend.  McGwire’s 70^th in the ’98 season sold for $3 million and the Bonds 73^rd single season ball went to court over who actually caught the ball.

     Returning to Jeter’s 3000^th; it was caught by a fellow named Christian Lopez.  According to the folks who are supposed to be experts in the matter, the ball would be worth about $250,000.  As the ball sailed over the fence the Yankee brass were probably opening the safe and pulling out the checkbook.  Lopez was located and asked his price.  Nothing; Lopez wanted nothing.  Well the Yankees weren’t going to accept an outrageous offer like that so they gave Lopez four front-row Legends seats for the remainder of the season, including the playoffs and a gaggle of signed Jeter memorabilia.  In addition he had his photo taken with Jeter and met with Reggie Jackson and other Yankee stars (and I would imagine, got their autographs as well).

     Now, back to that “cleaners” thing.  Yeah, yeah I know, Jeter’s salary will average $16 million dollars over this season and the next two, and the Yankees are one of the richest franchises in sports, so between the two a couple hundred thousand is nothing.

      A quick review of the comments section of any article on Lopez/Jeter says that in the eyes of many of his fellow Americans, Lopez is a bloody fool.  A few choice samples from Yahoo Sports for your reading pleasure:

                “What a fool!!!!! He looks like he eats a lot. Will regret that he didn’t take the money.”

                “Christian did a STUPID thing, nothing admirable about it. His girlfriend should dump him.”

                “The right thing was to get paid so your family will be set....just sayin”

     And here’s one of my favorites, “All you people who talk about morality, integrity, the right thing to do, etc. when it comes to this make me sick. Since when does anybody who catches a ball have a moral obligation to return it?”

     A couple of thoughts.  To be fair, a number of commenters commended Lopez for what he did, citing integrity, moral obligation and honesty.  None of those really apply here.  The ball was not stolen property.  According to Major League Baseball rules, the ball belonged to Lopez free and clear so there was no compelling reason, legal or moral to give the ball to Jeter.   So why did he do it? I would like to think it’s because he’s a good guy.  I also would like to think that I would do pretty much the same thing.  I’ve often posed that same question to myself and my answer has always been that I would probably ask for an autographed ball and an autographed picture of me with the player.  And I think that’s a fair deal.  As a baseball fan those would be some nice mementoes for the mantle.  I seriously could not see myself asking for a horse choking bankroll.  It isn’t in my makeup and apparently it isn’t in Lopez either and if that makes us chumps then fine, we’re chumps. 

     As it worked out, in my opinion anyway, Lopez got a pretty nice little package.  Had he gone into a hardball negotiation session, I doubt that he would have been offered that deal and may have ended up settling for less.  He could also have opted to auction the ball.  As to the comment that Lopez’s girlfriend should dump him, it’s quite likely that the quality that made him give the ball to Jeter is just what she is looking for in a mate.  Maybe she just isn’t in to opportunists.

     This story might also say something about Derek Jeter.  With the possible exception of some Red Sox and Mets fans Jeter is seen as one of the classiest guys in sports.  A milestone hit by A-Rod, or the aforementioned Bonds might not invite the kindness shown by Lopez.

     And so this leads me to a final comment on the whole affair.  In a short time Derek Jeter will retire and when he does it will leave one less in a meager pool of classy athletes who would invite the kind of goodwill shown by Christian Lopez.