So I'm not sure if you heard about the Todd Frazier home run story from a little while back but whether you have or haven't its getting told again. So the Reds have a bat boy who happens to also have down syndrome, which in my mind is fantastic giving an opportunity to a guy like that is great in my mind. Now one day this bat boy, who apparently talks fairly often with Todd Frazier and considers him a good friend as does Todd, says to him 'C'mon hit me a homerun, I love you' and what does Todd proceed to do but belt a long ball into the stands and it just left me with a happy feeling seeing the face of those two. With a world where so much crap goes on, Todd Frazier, a top notch baseball player, who really isn't obliged to pay attention to fans or others who like his play, goes out and is a stellar human being.
Now if you think thats all I got, your dead wrong because something I got a little watery eyed over happened this week. So at a Dodgers game in San Francisco there was a boy in the crowd at the ground level on 3rd base side named Joshua Jones, a die hard Dodgers fan. Now to the naked eye theres nothing out of the ordinary about Josh but that is wrong, and thats because Josh has been battling cancer and a little while before the game was informed by doctors that he likely wouldn't live more than 3 months. Now that would get anybody down in the dumps, so being the caring people they are, his parents and friends pooled together some money to get those ground level tickets to the Dodgers game to cheer him up a bit. Now what happened next started as expected but got overwhelming. So at the end of the game Steven Jones, Josh's dad, spoke with the third base coach to see if he would come over and talk to Josh, since Josh loves Matt Kemp. And it over comes Matt Kemp, he motions to sign the ball that Josh has as he exchanges some words with him and thats when the unexpected happens. Kemp, who I figured was more mentally preoccupied with his recent struggles at the plate, take off his cap and gives it to Josh. Now at this point I'm thinking well thats really nice of him, then he literally gave him the shirt off his back. Thats right Kemp took off his game Jersey and handed to Josh, oh but thats not all because he then proceeds to take off his cleats and hand em over as well, he then shakes their hands talks a bit and heads off.
Now all I can think is WOW now that is an athlete who has his head on straight, even when he's having problems of his own he goes out and makes the day of a 19 year old kid with not much time to live. Very classy Matt and it's again nice to see that even the real high end players care a great deal about their fans. Overall after reading these two stories and watching the associated videos I can say I'm feeling a little more upbeat. (links to the videos below)
-Eric
Matt Kemp Gives Ill Fan Some Souvenirs
Frazier Clubbing a HR for the Batboy
Post-Game Interview With Todd And Batboy Teddy
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