More often that not, I find professional and semi-professional athletes to be great oafish brutes possessing money, arrogance, and basic social ineptitude in the same quantity that they lack basic human decency. There are exceptions to this rule. I think, for instance, of the late Joe DiMaggio who left flowers at the grave of Marilyn Monroe every week until his own death. This week has brought to light a new athlete of virtue. With only two outs remaining in the bottom of the ninth Umpire Jim Joyce's bad call stole stole a perfect game from pitcher Armando Galarraga. Amidst the fury of America's baseball players, Galarraga's response was simply, "Nobody is perfect. He probably feels worse than I do."
This is Kyle, and if you are looking for athletes with virtue, look no further than the San Diego Charger's Quarterback, Phillip Rivers. He works extensively with Jason Evert. Listened to a talk of his. Google him sometime.
ReplyDeleteA footnote to this story: a couple weeks later, Major League Baseball players voted Joyce one of the best umpire in baseball. They know that 99.99% of the time, he'll give them a fair shake and make the right call.
ReplyDelete