I guess we’re going there now. From the Philadelphia Daily News:
The story is fine enough. One of many focusing on Trout’s return to the Philly area yesterday. It’s framed by a couple of interesting Raul Ibanez quotes. One in which Ibanez talks about how his own son took Trout’s lead on physical fitness more than his own dad’s -- the hook for the idea that, sometimes, non-parental role models are necessary -- and ends with Ibanez talking about Trout “respects the game” and respects lots of other things.
I obviously have no issue with Mike Trout -- I’m a pretty big fan boy if you haven’t noticed -- but I really wish we wouldn’t play the “role model” card with him or any other athletes. I have no reason to suspect there’s anything wrong with Trout, but if at any point he shows himself to be human and has a moment of human frailty or fault in the next, oh, 20 years or so, he’s going to be hit harder than he should be simply because some reporters decided that he was a good role model once.
I realize I’m always going to lose this fight -- those people are always going to want autographs and will always put them on pedestals of one form or another -- but I wish we could just let ballplayers be ballplayers.
