First of all, as many of you already know, I have effectively begun my internship a little earlier than most, volunteering once or twice a week at the Fergie Jenkins Foundation, a non-profit organization in St. Catharines. Fergie is the one and only Canadian in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. and as far as I'm concerned, one of the great humanitarians in the world of professional sports. I'll be profiling his charitable contributions in my next post. Remarkably, Fergie's charitable contributions have exceeded his athletic accomplishments and in turn, inspired other current and former professional athletes to embark on similar initiatives.
I have been so amazed with his successes on and off the field that it inspired me to seek out other professional athletes who have shown similar altruistic tendencies.
Secondly, something that has struck me recently is that when non-sports fans are discussing "athletes in the news," it is usually casting these individuals in a very negative light. Who is Brett Favre "sexting" this week? How many ongoing affairs did Tiger Woods have? Which professional athlete is falling into the Kardashian web of failures today? (Though I wish Kris Humphries the best of luck as he continues to develop his relationship with Kim's winning personality)
Time and time again, it seemed that if professional athletes made non-sports news headlines, it was because they screwed up. And in turn, I'm taking it upon myself to try and educate people to understand that professional athletes aren't just a fraternity of adultery-obsessed jerks, and that many of them really do have good intentions.
For those of you who don't already know THIS is a boxscore. Using names and numbers, it tells a story of a game's statistics, but offers no subjective commentary. Boxscores tell you nothing of the individuals involved, and that's where I come in. The stories on this blog are about the individuals themselves, going beyond simple statistics, recaps and headlines.
Check in as often as you like, and please leave comments -- either on the individuals I write about or if they remind you of similar humanitarians. I'm looking at myself as an unofficial Public Relations practitioner on behalf of the people I write about. I'll try to inform each of you about what's going on in the world of sports, going beyond the boxscores.
