A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, athletes were role models for children to idolize. Fans could send mail to their favorite player and reasonably expect their hero to reply with a letter and autographed trading card. We didn't see athletes "bringing their talents" elsewhere - and if we did, it was done in the most dignified manner. In the past, athletes did not even have cell phones with which to send lewd pictures to co-workers. Today, we tend to celebrate athletes such as Barry Bonds and Manny Ramirez, who recently have found their way into the headlines because of perjury and steroid use.
It doesn't end with baseball players. Carson Palmer, quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, has threatened retirement if the team refuses to trade him. But of course, that's just Carson being Manny. When James Harrison - one of the best linebackers in the NFL - is fined more than $100,000 for illegal hits during the course of a single season, you know there is a problem with our children's options for role models in sports. The list goes on and on.
Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of athletes worth admiring - and I admire them myself. We need to recognize and commend those athletes that excel both as a player on the field and as a role model off of it. One of my personal favorite athletes is New York Mets third baseman David Wright. Like Bonds and Ramirez, Wright has been a multiple all-star, having tallied five appearances in the Midsummer Classic. He has finished in the top 10 of the National League Most Valuable Player voting three times and should break the Mets' franchise records for hits and RBIs during the next few years - so long as he remains with the team during its time of financial strife. The man is a star, yet he refuses to let the fame and fortune which inevitably follow an elite baseball player in the Big Apple go to his head.
Wright's image is one of the best in American sports, and he should be admired by other athletes as well as by fans. At last winter's holiday party, a popular charitable event held annually by the Mets, Wright dressed up as Santa Claus to entertain those who attended the event. In 2008, he was named Sports Humanitarian of the Year by the New Jersey Sports Writers Association, and in 2005 he founded the David Wright Foundation, which raises awareness and money for numerous multiple sclerosis projects.
Wright always has been known to show up early to games to interact with fans and reporters, but some of his recent actions really caught my attention. During batting practice before a game against the Atlanta Braves in Atlanta last week, Wright picked two kids out of the stands and began tossing a ball around with them. I don't care if you're a fan of the Mets, Braves, Yankees, Phillies, whoever - playing catch with a Major League Baseball player is every baseball fan's dream. These young Braves fans were fortunate enough to play catch with a professional baseball player - one of the best in the world, in fact. At the time, the Mets were mired in what eventually became a seven-game losing streak, and Wright surely could have been participating in more meaningful pregame workouts with his team. But he decided to give two kids the experience of a lifetime instead, and that made me respect him even more as a person than I already did.
In all honesty, Wright's beacon of awesomeness should not seem so special. But athletes make so much money these days, and many of them clearly have lost touch with the common fan. Every athlete has the means to be as charitable as Wright - and not only in the monetary sense. If other sports stars showed a fraction of what Wright brings to his game on and off the field, maybe there wouldn't be half as many kids believing that lying, cheating and disregarding the most important things in life are the right ways to play the game.
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