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Foundation Helping
Marginal Players Feel Good
Feigned devotion by terminally ill brings star treatment to also-rans
“I want to meet [Mariners reserve
outfielder] Eric Simmons!” chirps 12-year
old Multiple Sclerosis sufferer Rickey
Alvarez, reading from a typed script into
the telephone.
On the other end of the line Simmons, a
career minor leaguer with only 13 games of
major league service, is smiling.
“Hey kid! You’ve been watching the M’s? You’ve seen me there on the bench? That’s
great!”
The truth is no--Alvarez had never heard of
Simmons until today. But after some amiable
chatting--for which Alvarez has been paid
$250--an agreement is reached to have
Simmons visit Alvarez in the hospital the
next time the Mariners come to Kansas City,
should Simmons still be with the team. It’s
all part of the two-year old Fake-A-Wish
Foundation’s plan to improve Simmons’
confidence, without Simmons’ knowledge. The
program is quietly being paid for by
Mariners management.
“We’ve tried everything with Simmons—winter
ball, personal hitting coaches, you name
it--but he still struggles against major
league pitching,” said one team official. “Deep down, he doesn’t feel like he belongs
in the bigs. But granting a wish for some
random kid with a life-threatening medical
condition and who, with his one last
request, ‘just wants to meet the great Eric
Simmons?’ That can really help a guy’s
swing.”
“We make dreams come true,” says Fake-A-Wish
founder and CEO Barry Goldstein. “Big league
dreams.”
According to Goldstein, his thriving
enterprise has enhanced the on-field
performance of dozens of professional
athletes.
“We’re in the self-esteem business,” he
says. “We work with 10 day-ers, waiver wire
weevils, practice squad meat puppets, and
other fringe players forever on the bubble. Most of these guys, they don’t have the
groupies, the bestselling jerseys, and the
boxes and boxes of fan mail. You see it in
their play: no mojo. We give ‘em the star
treatment, for a fee.”
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