In an era of pampered and spoiled atheletes, this is a serious breath of fresh air:
Immediately following surgery Friday to repair a broken wrist that will sideline him for at least three months, Hideki Matsui apologized for getting hurt.
Matsui was injured trying to make a diving catch in left field during the New York Yankees’ 5-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night. The broken radius bone ended his consecutive games played streak that dated to August 1993 and included 1,250 games with the Yomiuri Giants in Japan and 518 with the Yankees.
“Due to this injury, I feel very sorry and, at the same time, very disappointed to have let my teammates down,” Matsui said in a statement. “I will do my best to fully recover and return to the field to help my team once again.”
Maybe folks in other sports, particularly basketball and football, could take a clue.
As Joe Torre stated:
“It’s all about responsibility — what he thinks his responsibility is to this team, this organization, because the Yankees committed to him and he feels it’s a two-way street in that regard,” Torre said. “He’s done that before here, where he’s made an error, he’s come up and apologized to me.”
