Rooting for the Good Ones to Succeed

I was at an Astros game last season and, prior to the start of the game, I was watching the players do their stretching and running and tossing and general loosening up. A group of elementary kids were coming in from right field to get into position to sing the national anthem. Tommy Manzella started messing around with the kids; teasing them by feigning running right over them and then peeling off at the last second; acting like he was going to throw a missile to one of them and then playing a game of toss. The kids were giggling and I think he was too.

Seeing that display and knowing a little of Tommy's history (having lost his mom to cancer a while back and having his family home devastated by Katrina) made me really want him to succeed. It makes me a little sad that he was never able to pull it all together for the Astros organization. I hope that he is able to do great things for the Diamondbacks (as long as he's not playing against any of the Astros teams).

With that said, part of the fun of watching baseball, for me anyway, is rooting for the good guys. Euris Quezada may be a terrific individual. He may come from a background where the pressure to succeed is enormous. He may have never used any PED's. He may have never intended to use that syringe. He may have just made a mistake. But it's not going to be easy for him to convince me that he deserves my support in the same way that Tommy Manzella did. But I'm willing to try if he is.

Soapbox ----> Exit stage right