Sunday, June 14, 2009 | Sports, "Hunt's Grunts"
A league of their own
Hitting a baseball isn’t easy—but compared to what these pint-sized champs go through, it might be the easiest thing in the world
Tim Hudson and Bobby Cox pose with some true heroes.
Hunt Archbold By Hunt Archbold
It’s been said so often that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports that it has almost become accepted as fact. The truth is, whether you’re talking about executing shots on Sunday’s back nine to win the U.S. Open, draining game-changing treys in the NBA Finals or finding the net for the Stanley Cup-winning goal in Game 7, none of it is what you would call easy.
Of course, one variable is the level of competition. While many adults can hit a baseball at, say, 50 miles per hour, hitting well enough to play on the Major League level is a different matter. Just ask Michael Jordan, who learned that lesson firsthand 15 summers ago, when the world’s greatest basketball player was humbled on the diamond, batting .202 with three homers, 51 RBI and 30 stolen bases for the Class Double-A Birmingham Barons.
Or ask former Westminster Schools and Georgia standout Gordon Beckham, who began this season with the Barons. Earlier this month, just one day shy of the one-year anniversary of the White Sox making him the eighth overall pick in the 2008 draft, Beckham was in the starting lineup at third base for Chicago. It had been 28 years since a Sox player made a faster debut, and there has been much hype in Chi-town surrounding Beckham.
Alas, despite his meteoric rise to the big leagues (he did hit .322 in 59 minor league games, although just seven at the Triple-A level), Beckham went hitless in his first 13 official major league at-bats, and was hitting just .100 with no RBI in his first 22 plate appearances.
And while Beckham possesses great upside potential, with his impressive bat speed and understanding of the strike zone, he learned quickly that hitting the baseball in the majors is not an easy thing to do.
As did the Braves’ opening-day rookie centerfielder Jordan Schafer, who in his first 167 career at-bats batted .204 with 8 RBI and a whopping 63 strikeouts before being demoted back to the minors.
No, hitting a baseball isn’t easy. But compared to what the kids from the Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorder Service of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta go through every day, it might be the easiest thing in the world.
Last Monday, I watched Braves manager Bobby Cox and pitcher Tim Hudson sign autographs and share laughs with more than 75 of those children and their families at the 15th Aflac Cancer Center Night at Turner Field.
“These kids provide me with inspiration,” said Hudson, who along with wife Kim has been very active with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, among other causes. “I have been blessed with so much, including three healthy children, so when you see these kids and you understand what they’re going through, how they’re fighting just to stay alive, it really makes you realize that they’re the heroes.”
These pint-sized champs wearing infectious smiles aren’t staring down an All-Star-caliber pitcher such as Hudson, but they are digging in and taking on the likes of brain cancer, lymphoma and bone cancer. And when you see a chemotherapy-weakened boy, with “Braves Rule” face-painted near the top of his hairless head, gleefully high-five the Braves’ mascot, Homer, your eyes well up with tears.
Life is hard. But when you think about these beautiful children, who deserve so much better, you realize how easy you have it, and, hopefully, maybe even begin a proactive quest to help these kids and others not have it so tough.
Happy times … and if you’re interested, volunteers are needed at the recently established Hudson Family Foundation. For more information, visit www.hudsonfamilyfoundation.com.
SP
Sportopia Workout Partners of the Week: Jim Mora and Roger Goodell
Mora, the former Atlanta Falcons coach who begins his second NFL head-coaching stint this year in Seattle, and NFL commissioner Goodell announced last week that on July 5, they will climb to the peak of 14,411-foot Mount Ranier. Led by mountaineering great Ed Viesturs, the 47-year-old Mora and the 49-year-old Goodell, who both stay in great shape, are undertaking the trek for the United Way. During the three-day climb, one would imagine the topic of a certain suspended former NFL quarterback, soon to be released from house arrest, might come up. Mora (who’s already indicated that Vick won’t be playing under center for the Seahawks) and Goodell intend to plant a flag at the summit. As of yet, no word on whether it might read “Free Michael Vick.”