Teachable lessons from the sports world

Newsflash: Manny Ramirez has been traded to the Dodgers. This may not seem like a big deal to most - even to those of you who know who Manny Ramirez is. But in our house, this was a very big deal. Manny Ramirez is one of the best players the Boston Red Sox had, and they traded him this week in a last minute deal to the LA Dodgers. Now my oldest has been a huge fan of Manny since seeing him play at Fenway Park in Boston last year. When news of this trade broke, so did my son's heart. Being a girl, I didn't understand the full weight of this trade until I watched my son sit on the couch and cry - stating he would never be fan of the Red Sox again. So as my son sat curled up next to his dad and listened to Rick talk about how his heart broke when his hero, Reggie Jackson got traded from the Yankee's many years ago, I did what any good female mom would do - I went looking for the oreos to soothe my son's pain. The shock of this trade is slowly wearing off. The lessons from it, however, have not. You see, the reason Manny was traded was due to his lousy behavior. Trying to explain to an 8 year old that his hero isn't all he's cracked up to be is delicate area to tread on. Manny was traded because he just didn't want to play for the Red Sox - and he showed it every day. He was sick of them, and they were sick of him, and in a world where players can beat their girlfriends, get arrested for DUI and call Madonna their "soul mate" while still married to their wife won't get you traded, much less fired - the trading of Manny based solely on his behavior was a big deal. We tried - in "G" rated terms, to explain that to him. I don't know if our 8 year old got the whole significance of this - as a matter of fact - I'm sure he did not. But this week has provided lots of opportunities to put our sports "hero's" in their proper place. No sooner had we tackled the Manny trade when along came Steve Smith of the Panther's busting another team mates nose during scrimmage. His children attend our school. He was keynote speaker to the dad's last year. You get the picture. All in all, I think our son has a better understanding of professional sports, how the teams work, and that players - even Christian players, make big mistakes that need to be forgiven and hopefully learned from. But most importantly, my son realized again that his hero this week was the man sitting on the couch with him, arm wrapped tight around him, understanding how he felt, and reassuring him that it would be ok. As the only girl in this house, I am truly thankful for that moment - when Daddy did something I couldn't do as a Mom. He's my hero as well.