Some ball players really do care.

Unlike the last post, some baseball players do care about others. Tim ‘The Freak’ Lincecum, as pictured above is one of those players, and I’ll get into why in just a moment.

Bryan Stow, 42, a San Francisco Giants fan  was beaten senselessly on Opening Day in Los Angeles by two men dressed in Dodgers garb. He was left for dead in a dimly lit parking lot, all because of a game. This kind of stuff is not good for baseball, especially in an age where steroids are being broadcast in every aspect of the media, shining an already large spotlight on the flaws of the MLB. One of my buddies at work had an interesting idea when relating to steroid use in the majors. If you’re caught, you should be banned for life, on the other hand, MLB could just allow it all together and let all players juice up equally. I don’t ever foresee the latter happening because drugs are in fact, illegal, and a professional organization like the MLB will never go for something like that.

Anyway, I like that the Dodgers brass is trying to do something about the Bryan Stow situation (increased LAPD presence, more parking lot lighting, etc.), but something should have been done earlier, and I’m sure the McCourt divorce case isn’t helping the situation. I also just read today that the Dodgers had to borrow $30 million from Fox Corp to help pay for their players contracts. Needless to say, the Dodgers fan base looks terrible right now, and they definitely look worse than the Phillies fan base who took the spotlight last year for an idiot inducing vomit onto a child in the stands. Do I need to remind people that baseball is a GAME, some people take it entirely way too seriously. Sure, I may be a culprit of taking the game a little too seriously sometimes, but I’m also not ‘knocking out’ my friends who are Red Sox fans.

Back to Tim, he is a class act. Let alone the fact that he has only been in the league since 2007 and has already won 2 Cy Young’s and a World Series title. This should really say something about his abilities as a player, but the fact that a 26 year old cares enough about one of his fans to donate $25,000 to the Bryan Stow Fund is phenomenal and really shows Lincecum’s good character. One person donated $25,000 while a whole organization (LA Dodgers) also donated $25,000. I’d like to put that into perspective. Yes, a donation is a donation and anything that can be given is fantastic, but Tim Lincecum made $650,000 last year. No, this isn’t chump change, but it’s also not the $10-$20 million dollars you’d see a normal ace make on many other organization. Meanwhile, Lincecum has since signed a 2 year $23million contract and is set to make $8million this year. In hindsight, an organization that is worth roughly over $700million, whose fan base caused this heinous crime donated the same amount. Lincecum’s donations was almost 4% of his salary from last year, whereas the Dodgers donation was only about .004% of their estimated net worth. Again, I don’t want to knock a donation, and I’m sure Stow’s family can use any of the help they receive, but I think you get the point I am trying to make.

I’ve always like ‘The Freak’, he has been on many of my fantasy teams since 2007, and he is a class act. He quite obviously cares about his fans, and most definitely cares about his team, helping propel them into the World Series and ultimately helping them win a world championship in 2010. More players should be like this guy, and less like that last bum that I wrote about.

What do you think about this whole situation in regards to fans beating up other fans? What do you think about Lincecum’s donation? Do you think the Dodgers organization has ‘stepped up to the plate’ in regards to countering this type of bad behavior?

Comments are appreciated!