Greetings!
This
week I am going to touch on a few topics. Each actually hit on a nerve with me and literally to millions of others around the
country! Hopefully these stories will show you just how powerful a spoken word,
a gesture or even your actions as a human being can be viewed by others!
Sometimes the end results can be polarizing!
This
first story is about a 12-year-old boy name
Lee Eddins from Sacramento, CA. Six months ago, sadly, he was diagnosed
with stage four leukemia. Doctors determined that his illness was terminal and
announced to the family that their son had a limited time remaining at best.
The
family moved Lee to a local hospice home in recent weeks. The boy loved
basketball and football and in recent years had come to idolize Indiana Pacers’
basketball center Roy Hibbert. He
told his family and doctors that his one last wish before he left this earth
was to meet the NBA star. Word quickly got out to Hibbert. Even though the
Pacers are knee deep into the playoff season, Hibbert was emotionally touched
by the call-out and made a decision in the last week to fly out to Sacramento
to see his young fan with the team’s AOK.
“I
was very saddened and distraught," Hibbert would say in a TV interview
with CNN when first learning of the young boy’s health situation. "I
wanted to keep that boy’s spirit and memory alive and be part of his
cause." Then the worst news of all took place. As Hibbert was heading to
the Indianapolis airport last Thursday he received word that Lee had suddenly
passed away. He still made a commitment to board the flight to Sacramento and
went out to meet Lee’s family. "Once I heard he had a dying wish, I knew I
had to do something more than just send him presents and Skype with him on the
computer. He touched me without me even meeting him," Hibbert said of his
12-year-old fan. "The way he fought, his strength, I’ve dedicated the rest
of my season to his cause."
The
next story you may have heard – this involved Los Angeles Dodgers' outfielder Matt Kemp who gave his hat to a young
fan. And his jersey. And his cleats. It was an act of kindness by Kemp that ended
up being seen by millions of YouTube viewers around the world.
The
story began with a 19-year-old Dodgers’ fan – who lives in San Francisco – that
has been battling brain cancer for the last three years. The boy’s family put
their money and resources together to latch onto front row seats for the May 5th
game when the Dodgers would visit the Giants. Wearing a bright Dodgers’ blue
hoodie, the young man’s attire caught the attention of Dodgers’ third base
coach Tim Wallach who came to learn
that the boy’s favorite player was Matt
Kemp.
Wallach
told the boy’s dad that he'd try to see if he could get Matt to stop by and say
hello after the game ended. Not only did Kemp come by, personally shake hands
and sign a baseball for his young fan but Matt surprised the thousands of
onlookers nearby in their seats when he took off his cap, pulled his team
jersey off his back and leaned over the seat railings to give them both to the
boy as he wished him the very best! Then, Kemp undid his game cleats and passed
them over to the boy as well.
“All
professional athletes should take a lesson. This is what class looks like!”
wrote Shawn Dempsey, a YouTube viewer
of Kemp’s unplanned moment of human kindness!
Fellas, keep in mind that this all took place in a visiting team ballpark
and right after a night in which the Dodgers lost their third straight one-run
game to the Giants, their bitter cross-state rivals.
And
then there was another form of public relations that caught many by surprise especially
from a player that needs no apologies. It was Philadelphia Phillies’ pitcher Roy Halladay who made headlines by the
‘spoken word’ when he decided to hold court with the media last Friday prior to
a game with Arizona (and just before he was to depart the team and undergo
surgery to remove bone spurs and repair a frayed labrum and partially torn
rotator cuff in his pitching shoulder).
This
was a rare moment in professional sports that you never see. A player that
decided to give a heartfelt apology to the fans over his poor season-long performance
this year. According to Ryan Lawrence of the Philadelphia Daily
News, Halladay spoke uninterrupted for several minutes, He published
a brief excerpt of his talk:
“I've
been thinking the last couple of days. That I just felt like I should
address the fans. I know there are
people who are disappointed about how I pitched the last two years. I know
there are a lot of people who are very supportive. So, one, I just wanted to
thank them for their support. And my heart goes out to all of the people who
spend all of their money and go out to the games and don't get to see what they
want to see. I know I'm not the whole team. There are still a lot of guys out
there and it's a fun team to watch. But I feel bad for the fans that I'm
missing the time that I am. It's tough. You feel an obligation to the
organization, to your teammates, to the fans to try to go out and pitch.”
I
tip my cap to Halladay for taking such a rarely seen stand-up approach and for
his honest, forthright and refreshing candor! He spoke from the heart and it
was non-scripted. It was a different type of PR that was applauded by all
members of the media and appreciated by the Phillies’ fan base!
As
good of a teammate that you are on the field, do your best to be an even
greater teammate to your community! There are thousands of kids with unique
causes from all walks of life that would treasure just a minute of your time!
All
the best!
Jim Loria
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“The
highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they
become by it” - stated by John Ruskin,
leading English art critic from the 1800’s Victorian
era
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“When
I wake up in the morning, I have to decide to either be an example or an
excuse" – stated by an unknown author
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“The
whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were
intended to be” – stated by Oprah Winfrey
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“WHEN I
PASS AWAY, IF ALL I’M KNOWN FOR IS A ‘FOOTBALL PLAYER’, THEN I FAILED IN LIFE” – stated by Reggie White, an NFL Hall of Famer and
one of the greatest pass rushers ever seen in pro football
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