NEW AND IMPROVED

This blog is now sugar FREE, fat FREE, gluten FREE, all ORGANIC and all NATURAL!!

Saturday, September 20, 2014

A SPECIAL ATHLETE


A SPECIAL ATHLETE
 
A Cranky Opinion for
CRANKY OPINION SATURDAY
 
The following is the opinion of a cranky old man with some expertice on the subject opined.  Opposing opinions will be considered rediculous and unreasonable and will be ignored by that same cranky old man.
 
Steroids, domestic abuse, child abuse, drugs, cheating, there is lots of bad stuff in the news about athletes today.  The news is full of stories which just make you want to beat up on professional sports in general and directly on professional athletes.

I would like to direct your attention to one professional athlete who is retiring from his sport after twenty seasons.  This baseball player has never been accused of taking performance enhancing drugs or even recreational drugs.  He has never been in a fight, disrespected a fan, or had a bad word for anyone.  There have been no arrests for drinking or peeing on a wall, no accusations of theft or vandalism.  He has not been pulled over for reckless driving, speeding or even given a parking ticket.

This athlete has played on five world championship teams and been on fourteen all-star teams.  I have never seen a negative story about him in the paper; he has never been thrown out of a game for arguing or suspended from playing for any reason.  He has never complained about being substituted out of a game, or batting in an order he didn’t like.  He has put his team first for twenty years. 

This player is pure class.  So while it seems that all professional athletes are taking a beating for the actions of a few, I want to take my hat off to one athlete who has the admiration and the respect of all the players on his team and of all the opposition players.  I want to salute one athlete who has the respect and admiration of every fan who has followed his career or ever seen him play. 

For twenty years this man has played the game of baseball and given it 100%.  He has never quit, he has never blamed a loss on another player, and he has never turned down an interview or denied a fan a reasonable request.

Twenty years in the public eye, and never a negative report, a negative comment, a negative news article…twenty years on the most famous sports team in the most famous city in the country.  Twenty years under the microscope and his career and life off the field is as clean as a whistle. 

The Yankee Captain has been a great player, a Hall-of-Fame player, a winner, a gentleman.  While we beat up on Ray Rice for beating up his wife, while we whip Adrian Peterson for whipping his four year old, and we are disgusted by whomever else is the athletic felon of the day, do not lump all athletes into the same boat.

Some athletes are like the Yankee shortstop, and Captain.  There are athletes that are pure class, athletes that are positive role models, athletes that do the right thing.

There is Derek Jeter!
 
Thanks for 20 years of class!

 
The preceding was the opinion of a cranky old man and not necessarily that of management (who knows nothing of the subject) Mrs. Cranky.  

14 comments:

  1. Am I this old? I remember when the Cleveland Indians stadium filled to see him, when the Yankees came to town. 80,000 that old stadium held. He was a legend in his own time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. well, if all you say is true, then i commend him as a rare jewel.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can think of a very few players who excited our admiration, David Robinson would be another. But Jeter was in a class of his own. He owned the space between second and third, and did it effortlessly. He wore the pinstripes with ease and grace.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yep, some don't take their positions in life and a free pass to be bad. Love this Cranky.

    Have a fabulous day. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I do not follow sport that much. It has become less then what it was been due to most sports news I here now days is more about the things going on off the field then on the field.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Baseball has been lucky to have had him!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have never been a Yankee fan but have always been a Jeter fan. He plays the game on and off the field the right way.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well, he was never a Cardinal, so I can't give my endorsement...but good for him!

    ReplyDelete
  9. It's a sad commentary that athletes like Jeter are the exception instead of the norm.

    ReplyDelete
  10. You should send this to newspaper and sports magazines!

    ReplyDelete
  11. This is proof that we tend to focus only on the bad...while the vast majority of athletes are good people. There are spouse/child abusers in every profession--not that this excuses it. But I think perhaps the media should remind people that most athletes are good, upstanding people who do their jobs, treat their families well, and don't use steroids. This makes me glad I'm not into sports!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Excellent tribute Crank.

    Stephanie makes a good point, though, that players of many sports get a raw deal over the nastiness of a few. The numbers say pro athletes are less problematic than the rest of us but they can't just hide in some alley while it blows over so it seems worse.

    Then again who know how many times a pay-off keeps it secret, eh?

    ReplyDelete
  13. I have always liked Derek Jeter, and have always been glad he stayed classy.

    ReplyDelete