Every Fan

This is a lark I know, but I entered a contest sponsored by Major League Baseball called “Dream Job” where the winner gets to report on baseball every single day for the entire season. Don’t laugh too hard, here it is:

Hi, my name is Swavel and welcome to Major League Baseball’s first edition of Every Fan.

Baseball is a game of redemption. I know what it’s like to lose because in my first 2 seasons of Little League my team lost every single game. Then in my third year, I caught a fly ball in right field that won the game. As I watched the All Star game that same evening, I can remember feeling like a million bucks with the game ball still in my hand. For one night, I felt like an all star too.

Baseball is a game that brings families together. My first date, with my wife, was to Baltimore to watch Cal Ripken and the Orioles play the Detroit Tigers. I, also, fondly remember my dad taking the time to play catch with me and come to my games and now, I in turn, have taken every chance to do the same with my kids. If I am to win this dream job, it would go a long way in helping my family and I bring our third daughter home through adoption. I firmly believe that everyone and I mean everyone should have a family.

Baseball is full of stories: from the past, present and future. Who can forget Lou Gehrig’s “Luckiest man Alive” speech or Carlton Fisk waving his home run fair or George Brett going ballistic over the pine tar incident or my favorite moment form the past, Cal Ripken breaking Lou Gehrig’s consecutive game mark.

Baseball is full of current stories as well. Since I work and live in the Philadelphia area, my “Plead the Fifth” segment will chronicle every pitch the 2011 Phillies rotation makes. Then, there will be a piece called “Getting it Right” that will focus on a different player every day. And of course, there will be the daily highlights and scores from around the league, called “Need to Know.”

Baseball is full of stories waiting to unfold before our eyes. Who knows what could happen this year? Will Zach Greinke be unhittable again now that he is with the Brewers? Will the Giants defend their title? Will A-Rod regain his old form? Will the Phillies play the Red Sox in the Series? Will Miguel Cabrera be able to succeed despite himself? I don’t know, but I would love to find out all this and more, together with you every single night.

So, here at Every Fan I promise you this, a season you will not soon forget.

Sweet Inspiration

Junior High school was a cruel time for me. I did not fit in and often I felt lost in my own skin. But in the fall, at least on some Friday nights, I could find solace for one brief moment. After the high school football game, I would tuck my foam seat cushion under my armpit and run the two blocks home pretending to be Walter Payton. Inspired by the man they called Sweetness, for a brief moment, I felt like someone special as I crossed into my front yard scoring an imaginary touchdown.

I so admired Walter Payton and wanted to be like him. In his time, Payton who played running back for the Chicago Bears from 1975 to 1987 won a Super Bowl, went to nine pro bowls, once held the NFL all time rushing record and at the end of his career was voted into the Hall of Fame. However, the story I find most inspiring was the one about his lost Super Bowl ring.

In 1996 when Walter was coaching a high school basketball team, he was talking to them about the importance of faith and trust. So, as symbol of trust, he handed the ring to one of the players and told him to hold it for a few days. Reportedly, the players were in the young man’s basement passing the ring around and inadvertently it was lost. Payton eventually purchased a duplicate ring but then passed away in November 1999 from a rare liver disease.

Then in 2001, Phil Hong, a student at Purdue University, was looking for one of his dog’s toys in a couch and happened upon a discovery of a lifetime: Payton’s Super Bowl ring. The couch was from the basement where the ring was last seen. So, he did the right thing by contacting Walter’s family and personally taking it back to them.

Funny thing how a man named Sweetness inspired me to escape reality by pretending to be like him, while Phil Hong was inspired to embrace reality and do the right thing by doing something Payton himself would have done. Inspired by someone great we should always aspire to do something great.

“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.” — Isaac Newton

Swavel