Tuesday, August 07, 2007

The Washington Nationals on the wrong side of history?

Today, in about 45 minutes, the Nats go up against the San Francisco Giants for the beginning of a four game series in SF. Waiting for them, of course, is Barry Bonds and the possibility of breaking Hank Aaron's home run record.

There are a few things going on for this game. First of all, I hate the Giants and despise Barry Bonds. The Barry Bonds issue comes for all the obvious reasons regarding his ethics and personality; none of which need to be rehashed here.

My dislike for the Giants as a team stems from a game 10 years ago when J.T. Snow hit a line drive foul ball which blasted my then 6 year old nephew square in the eye. After he was hit, my nephew was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery with a crushed orbital bone. Now every team in the league has, on their game tickets, a clause that says the team is not responsible for any fan injuries sustained while at the stadium. I understand this and don't have a problem with it. However, the minute the game ended, the home plate umpire arrived at the hospital to check on Gabe. The manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates, whom the Giants were playing that day, called every hour from the team plane to get updates on Gabes condition. Fans from the stadium and some watching on TV - complete strangers - sent cards and candy to the hospital. The Giants did nothing. J.T. Snow, who was so upset he had to leave the game, did nothing. When my sister's insurance wouldn't cover all the costs for the operations needed, the doctors at the hospital passed a hat to help defray the costs. The Giants did nothing. My mother thought that the Giants, who when called spouted legalease about not being responsible for whatever, should at least make a gesture to a six-year-old boy who loved baseball and was now going through countless surgeries to repair his face. The Giants did nothing.

To make a long story short, the Giants eventually succumbed to threats by my mom to go to Hard Copy and other tabloid news shows over the Giants lack of compassion for a little kid (no one was looking for money, just a kind gesture from the team) and sent a limo to my sister's house to take Gabe to a game in the owners box, get him an autographed jersey, and hats for his first grade class.

The other issue is that the Nats are sending up a guy to pitch today that has three, count 'em, three, major league starts....sigh.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good words.

8:10 AM  

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