Minoso Honored

Minnie Minoso won the Jackie Robinson Lifetime Achievement at the Legacy Awards in a ceremony on Saturday in Kansas City. I think that's wonderful.

There may be baseball players as deserving of this award, but there's no one more deserving than Minnie Minoso. He lives and breathes baseball. Really, what more could you expect from a man who played professional baseball in 7 different decades!

As Jerry Reinsdorf has pointed out, Minnie is a player that people love whether they've seen him play or not. I wholeheartedly agree. There's something about a man who has such enthusiasm for the game of baseball that's refreshing in today's atmosphere. This is what the game needs more of.

I see some players starting to get clued into being more accessible to the fans. This will be the thing that will seduce younger people into a lifelong love affair with baseball. The more baseball fans there are, the more fans turn to cards to get closer to the game. There was a long period after the '94 strike, where baseball players seemed to be more distanced from the fans. This probably came to fever pitch around the time where the umpires and coaches were getting attacked by fans.

If the players shield themselves from the fans who help pay their salaries, chaos is surely to follow. But a kind gesture of a wave, taking time out for pictures and autographs, a smile and chatting up fans about baseball during downtime in a game are all ways to brings fans into the game and get them hooked. Minnie Minoso has done all of these things throughout his life and Saturday, he was honored for that.