Monday, August 28, 2017

The Catcher and the President

Tim McCarver is a seventy-five year old former Major League Baseball catcher who spent most of his playing career for the St. Louis Cardinals.  Donald Trump is a seventy-one year old United States President. Both men have been on my mind lately. The President has been in the news more than any President in memory. I suppose the President's news frequency is driven by his propensity to send out multiple daily 'tweets.'  The catcher, McCarver was recently inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum, which placed him in regional news coverage.

A very superficial study of the two men's personalities and individual comportment reveals glowing and distinctive differences. Let me offer the following for a profile comparison.

When a notable sports' personality is inducted into any 'Hall of Fame, ' they routinely spend about 10% of their acceptance speech time thanking those people who helped them along their early journey while spending 90% of the time talking about them self. At his induction, McCarver spent the entire time praising former mangers, teammates and thanking those who taught him the game. McCarver commented on each of his teammate's contributions to the team. His praise was specific and sincere.

Donald Trump has publicly bragged about his 10 billion dollars worth, he has boasted about taking  liberty to touch women in inappropriate ways, he has told the nation he bought off numerous politicians, he exaggerates the size of is crowds, claims how he used  'the system' to avoid paying taxes, boasted to foreign officials about his firing FBI Director Comey, maintains having the highest IQ cabinet ever, erroneously claims singing more 'bills' than any other president in the first six months (note: they were executive orders not legislation) and he has stated that he (Donald Trump) is second only to Abraham Lincoln as America's greatest President.

McCarver's Hall of Fame induction remarks made me feel good about the 'human-family-connection.'  Donald Trump's comments frequently make me feel nauseous.

I remember vividly 'making' my first sports team...a 10-to-13 year old Little League baseball team. I ran into my house excited to show my parents my UNIFORM. They smiled and said good job. Not all kids made the teams back in 1950. Then my dad spoke: "If I come to see you play, I expect you to always hustle. Don't ever show bad sportsmanship or showboat or brag about yourself. If you do, I will make you give that uniform back to your coach."
(Touch)
Humility

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