Heroes

Hero.  That word gets thrown around a lot, especially when we look at the men who wear the uniforms of our favorite sports teams.  We want to believe that the super-talented players that grace the field of play before us are also good human beings that we can look up to, admire, and believe in.  We put our faith into them to continue to be someone that our children can desire to grow and become.

On Yahoo! today, I took a look at how Ryan Braun and Mark McGwire have both let fans down and how Cardinals’ fans can identify with Brewers’ fans on the subject.  You can read that article by clicking here.

But heroes fall.

We fail to remember that they are, in fact, human.  They make mistakes.  Some bigger than others.

As humans sometimes do, our heroes make a mistake and then attempt to cover it up.  They try to deflect the blame, sometimes bringing other people, honest people, down in the process.  They do all they can to ensure that the people that love and adore them continue to do so.  They do not want to let us down any more than we want to let down someone who loves us.  They want to stay on top and be the hero that we all so desperately need in our lives sometimes.

But heroes fall.

They fall into the pratfalls of life on this earth.  Sometimes it is due to substance abuse.  Sometimes it is greed.  Other times it is blatant dishonesty.  True, their are times that encompass all three and many more.  We watch players that have been a part of our team for many years depart for more money, claiming a level of disrespect that turns a fan’s stomach.  We watch a player adamantly deny the use of performance enhancing drugs, despite all the facts compiled against them, just to watch them be proven wrong and have to issue apologies for their actions.  We watch a young player make a poor decision and lose his life driving drunk.  Yet another player comes along and we find reason to place him on the now empty pedestal vacated by the last.

But heroes fall.

The lesson is simple, it would seem.  Allowing our children to aspire to hold the job of these men is one thing.  Allowing them to aspire to be these men is another.  We want to tell our children to look up to a person, the way they live their life, the way they handle themselves, but it opens them up to failure.  They are then forced to learn the harsh realities of life and the fact that humans make mistakes.

How they handle the mistakes, how they recover and atone for their errors, can still provide a chance to learn.  A person’s acceptance of responsibility, repentance of their wrong doings, and sincere apologies to all those that were affected by their wrong doings can go a long way in helping them restore their character.

Far too often we have seen athletes simply turn the page without taking ownership of the situation.  Far too often they don’t want to “talk about the past” and simply want to move on.

Ryan Braun has the chance to step up right now and do just that.  For many fans in the Milwaukee area, many of which are young fans who look up to Braun, the next few weeks will speak volumes about the man.  It will give him the opportunity to salvage a small portion of his reputation.

But heroes fall.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at i70baseball.
You can follow him on Twitter by clicking here.