In
this day and age the word " Hero " is a word that should be carefully
used. Heroess can come in all shapes and sizes and can be found in all
arenas of life. People's hero's are different for different people, they
can be a teacher, a soldier, a father, mother, brother or sister, just
to name a few. Every crisis we deal with as a Society always identifies
new ones. One of our great escapes as a Society is sports, and there are
hero's there as well. Where ever they are found hero's all fit the same
definition. Simply put, they go the extra mile, they make the great
sacrifice for the greater good. Our hero's in sports are a reference
point " for all that is good and can be again " ( Field of Dreams ),
their deeds stay with us forever. Some athletes are embraced by everyone
no matter who there home team is, Michael Jordan, Lou Gehrig, Jim
Brown, Arnold Palmer, etc. Please add to that list Derek Jeter. No one
is respected more by friend or foe than Derek Jeter. The biggest Sawx
fan I know likes DJ. It's hard not to, no one sets a standard higher
than Jeter on how to play the game, how to handle the press, how to
respect your opponent, and how to carry yourself both professionally and
personally. But his biggest and best character trait is his commitment
to the greater good, his team, his organization, and to winning in
general. He doesn't know the word I he only knows the word we. All
throughout his career he has been known as someone who will sacrifice
anything and do whatever it takes to win. That's why Derek Jeter is in
his current situation, he played on a bad ankle he should have been
healing for the future. There's no question he was putting his career at
risk knowing his ankle at the very least was terribly fragile and at
the very worst fractured, but he did what heroes always do, they
sacrifice themselves for the greater good and unfortunately he's paying
the price for that now. Jeter had an opportunity to possibly set all
time records in baseball history for hits and other statistics, but that
meant nothing to him, sacrificing to help his team win did. His Hall of Fame career speaks for itself, the sad thing is, his career
will be shortened, but as Hero's so often do they save their best for
last. Let's hope there is a last hurrah. Here's to our hero's ...
