Teddy Kremer and the Exploitation of Disabled Persons in Sports

This week, Sports Illustrated ran an interesting piece about how positive media responses toward feel-good stories in sports have sometimes led to athletes and teams exploiting persons with disabilities for the sake of garnering positive media attention. The focus of the article is last week’s heartwarming story about Teddy Kremer, a 30-year old man with Down syndrome who was chosen to be an honorary batboy for the Cincinnati Reds. Kremer reportedly asked Reds third baseman Todd Frazier to hit a home run for him. Frazier delivered, hitting a homer in the sixth inning to put the Reds up 11-1. Teddy bounded exuberantly toward home plate where he met Frazier and offered his congratulations in front of the home crowd. You can’t script a better story.

It’s true, we love tear-jerking stories like this, and we love organizations like the Cincinnati Reds for their acts of kindness. But is there a point where it becomes exploitative toward those with disabilities? Does our well-meaning intent to be charitable toward the less fortunate become a self-serving means of stroking our own ego and making the headlines? Perhaps. But this does not mean we should be hesitant to show kindness. Rather, we should be all the more thoughtful to ensure, as far as we are able, that our charitable gestures are both genuine and actually helpful. This is true in sports and all other areas of life.

Read the entire Sport Illustrated article here.

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Ovie Nets a Beauty Against Ottawa

Watch this…

Alex Ovechkin, captain of the Washington Capitals, scored this ridiculous goal last night against the Ottawa Senators. Hockey fan or not, you’ve got to appreciate this kind of athleticism. Of course I am biased, but it’s good to see that Ovechkin is back to his old self.

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Top 10 Dunks of the NBA Playoffs – First Round

Full disclosure: I’m not a huge fan of the NBA. But I do love some good, violent dunks. Here are the NBA’s Top 10 dunks from the first round of the playoffs.

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