12/04/24
August 05, 2005
Sometimes, baseball players get headlines for doing good things.:
Griffey has always seemed like a class act to me, even when he was squabbling with the Mariners at the end of his career there.
nice story. Thanks for posting it grum....You know, Griffey has stayed off the Radar during all of the Steroid talk. This kind of story always cracks me up emotionally as I often wonder how I would handle a similar situation....
posted by daddisamm at 10:59 AM on August 05, 2005
In several of Peter Gammons' columns that touch on steroids, he has made a point to note that Griffey's name has never come up in connection with steroids rumors and that Griffey never has taken steroids. Not sure how he is so certain, but the tone is always that Griffey is beyond reproach on that issue. I think Griffey is a lock for the Hall of Fame, but one wonders what could have been had he not been hurt so much after leaving the Mariners.
posted by holden at 11:35 AM on August 05, 2005
Great story. A really great story.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 11:40 AM on August 05, 2005
Stunts like this are totally going to keep Griffey out of the Hall of Fame. Do-gooders are not exactly the norm in Cooperstown. You know. He better knock over a liquor store or eat a child or something, quick. There's still time.
posted by chicobangs at 11:41 AM on August 05, 2005
Now this is something I can't picture the Yankees doing. The next time that boy loses a loved one though, I wonder if he'll find it harder to cope, what with not having a major league baseball team around to comfort him and all.
posted by cl at 11:43 AM on August 05, 2005
Being a softie such as I am, I have to admit that story made me feel good. With all the negativity in not just baseball but sports in general, this story makes it all seem easier to digest. This is exactly what Ryne Sandburg was talking about during his HOF speech the other day, RESPECT for the game, RESPECT for the fans. Griffey didn't need to get involved, nor did the players following his "lead", but did. Truly a web gem of the highest caliber.
posted by melcarek69 at 12:04 PM on August 05, 2005
It's a shame the good stories are rarely heard about but the bad ones are all over the news for days. How long did we hear about T.O.'s agent saving that kid in the pool? How many times have we heard that he is an asshole?
posted by dbt302 at 12:35 PM on August 05, 2005
Thanks grum. I'm an O's fan and now I can like baseball again. That is a refreshing post. Thanks.
posted by seansterps at 12:42 PM on August 05, 2005
How long did we hear about T.O.'s agent saving that kid in the pool? It does come up in most stories and features about him. And he laughs about it too. He may self-promote like crazy, but it's not his image he cares about, it's his clients'.
posted by chicobangs at 12:52 PM on August 05, 2005
The next time that boy loses a loved one though, I wonder if he'll find it harder to cope, what with not having a major league baseball team around to comfort him and all. Well, at the time, he didn't know that his grandfather was dead when he was hanging out with the Reds. They were going to let his grandmother/parents tell him instead. The reverse of this is that he might have some bad feelings about attending a baseball game because he knows that was the last time his "PawPaw" was alive. It would be nice for the kid's psyche to attend another baseball game and have some of the players stop by and say hi (or give him a bat). That would give him a purely "positive" feeling about baseball, instead of the potentially mixed feeling he might have as a result of this. However, when the boy gets older (teenager, young adult), he's still going to have this wonderful memory of how the Reds treated him, and the painful memory of his grandfather's passing will probably have faded enough to not leave a shadow by then.
posted by grum@work at 01:08 PM on August 05, 2005
Nice story. Thanks for posting it grum.
posted by squealy at 01:25 PM on August 05, 2005
So ... how long before all of the bats and goodies show up on eBay?
posted by wfrazerjr at 04:14 PM on August 05, 2005
Your right grum He will likely be reminded over and over about his grandfather dying when he hears about the Reds , watches a game or the name of a player . It's kinda weird they add him in a celebration right after having a loved one die . Maybe it took his mind off of it but still seems weird . Nice gesture though in a tough time .
posted by evil empire at 04:14 PM on August 05, 2005
Well, it's kinda weird, but take the Reds out of it and just think of a more ordinary situation, like if they'd been at a neighbors' house for a card party. The adults are playing bridge or whatever and the kids are playing kids' games, and all of a sudden Grandpa's clutching his chest. The adults get 911 for Grandpa and, given the kid's age, probably hustle him out of the room and keep him occupied while they call his parents to come get him and things go forward with his grandfather. With an older kid, maybe you'd maybe let him stay in the situation a little more, but with one as young as six, it would probably be less traumatic to take him into another room and get a quick game of Go Fish going, than to let him stay there and watch what they do to try and save someone with an MI. I think, given the context, it was just an example of the sort of common-sense impulse that any adults would have to try to manage the situation. Weird, yeah, but it would be weird no matter what.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:09 AM on August 06, 2005
Well, except that everyone at a party would at least know the kid (or his grandfather). Here, it's complete strangers who are in the midst of doing their job, and they take the time to make his world a little bit better. If they had simply let him sit in the bullpen until his parents arrived, that would have been normal. But to invite him out onto the field for high-fives with the other players, that's a pretty big step. Taking him into the locker room and giving him memorabilia was a nice touch as well.
posted by grum@work at 10:17 AM on August 06, 2005
Well, except that everyone at a party would at least know the kid (or his grandfather). Here, it's complete strangers who are in the midst of doing their job, and they take the time to make his world a little bit better. That too, grum. I was responding to what evil empire said, about the weirdness of them playing around with the kid when his grandfather had just died. It seems like a normal thing to do to take a young kid out of that situation and get him doing something else; the only "weird" thing here is, as you point out, that it was strangers who did it.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 06:32 PM on August 06, 2005
Griffey gives me goosebumps.