I have a dream that I don’t really share with anyone because it’s stupid and will never happen, but one day I would love to play in a celebrity pro-am golf tournament with Bill Murray. My dream used to be to make the Senior PGA so I don’t have to worry about rotting in a nursing home hellhole, but I really suck at golf, so that dream was crushed like a beer can under one of John Daly’s ass cheeks. Nevertheless, I play golf because I find peace and inspiration in it, and that’s before I was even aware of amateur golfer Manuel de los Santos’ existence.

A former prospect for the Toronto Blue Jays, de los Santos has been pursuing a career as a professional golfer for the last 9 years or so. But why on Earth would he give up a shot at Major League Baseball for the PGA?

“I was a baseball player and the first time I see the little ball on the floor, I didn’t have anything in my mind to hit this ball,” the Dominican Republic native said.

“I had to find a way to hit this ball. He was on the floor waiting for me. He do nothing and I had a problem. I only had one leg.” (Via the Herald Sun)

Ah yes, one leg. It turns out that de los Santos lost his left leg in a motorcycle accident when he was just 18, thus ruining his once-promising baseball career. But instead of being a mopey crybaby about it, he did what any inspired, motivated athlete would do – he watched The Legend of Bagger Vance. Wait, what?

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You will read this line in every Adam Greenberg story, including this one.

This is a great story for anyone who believes in second chances!

In the film Field Of Dreams, as in real life, Archibald “Moonlight” Graham who appeared as a right fielder in a single major league game for the New York Giants, but never got an at-bat. Through some combination of Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones and time-traveling magics, a young Archie gets a second chance to play against some of the best players of his day. After some sage advice from Shoeless Joe Jackson, Graham hits a sac fly to right, scoring a run and jogging back to his bench to a chorus of “AWRIGHT, KID,” or whatever dead people from the 20s would say.

Adam Greenberg got an at-bat, but it wasn’t something he’d like to remember. The then-Chicago Cub was blasted in the head with a 92-mph fastball during the first pitch of his MLB career. Through some combination of gusty determination, six years in the Independent Leagues and a generous opportunity from the Miami Marlins, Greenberg was given a one-day contract to appear in Miami’s game against the New York Mets on Tuesday. The video is below. Cue the Field of Dreams music.

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Sandwiched between Gangnam Style parodies on The Daily What is the inspirational story of high school goalkeeper Daniel Cui, a kid who turned soccer futility into 10th grade popularity, and eventually into an advertisement about how Facebook changes peoples’ lives.

After freshman goalie Daniel Cui became the scapegoat for a losing season, the whole high school rallied to defend him. More than 100 students changed their profile pictures to a photo of Cui making a save and with newfound confidence, Cui returned the next season to play the game of his life and lead his team to a win.

An outpouring of support on social media isn’t exactly a bunch of kids helping a kid with spastic CP conquer Field Day or anything, but it’s heartwarming as hell, and a step in the right direction for everybody. And sure, it could be a pure marketing campaign and as legit as those FACEBOOK’S GONNA START CHARGING YOU IN NOVEMBER, CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF chain letters, but I like to think we live in a world where seemingly-isnignificant but personally-amazing stuff like this happens on the reg.

I also hope this predates Linsanity, because I don’t want this poor kid walking into 11th grade wearing an ExCUIsite! t-shirt.

This is one of the best (and certainly one of the most inspiring) fan signs from an MLB game this season — a woman who skipped chemo therapy to see Chipper Jones during one of his final appearances at Turner Field. ‘I skipped chemo to see Chipper.’ At no point should my learned snarkiness make you think this didn’t choke me the hell up and make me want to go outside and run around in the fields and appreciate life, but two questions:

1. Is that a good idea? Because, really, and
2. Chipper’s been around since 1993, was this your only shot at seeing him?

That’s my new screenplay, the story of a baseball fan who has been trying to see her favorite player play at home for two decades but keeps getting pulled out for emergencies and weddings and acts of nature, and it all builds to that final weekend of his career where she’s either got to bail on cancer treatment or miss seeing him forever.

Regardless, here’s to hoping Chipper Jones types “Chipper Jones” into Google and finds this picture, because if I was a 20-year millionaire, my hobby would be finding people who sincerely give a shit about my existence and making their lives happier. Baseball is awesome, and sometimes its fans are, too. Good luck, Chipper Sign Lady.

[original photo via @hgielatan, h/t to Last Angry Fan]

Last December, Woodberry Forest School quarterback and college prospect Jacob Rainey made the news when his career was (we assumed) tragically cut short by a mishap on the playing field.

Well, “mishap” is a pretty light way to put it. He got tackled and lost his leg. Here’s the most psychologically terrifying description of events possible from a recent profile in the New York Times:

Rainey went left and cut back to his right. A tackler dived and grabbed his legs. Rainey tried to shed him, fighting for more yardage, and then he went blank. “I feel like I blacked out for a second,” he told me. “I just heard a pop, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground.”

Jeff Johnson, Woodberry’s athletic trainer, knew it was bad even before he laid eyes on Rainey. “The screams were just overwhelming,” Johnson told me, recalling the moment months later. “I still hear them.”

Rushing to Rainey’s side, Johnson quickly realized that the injury was unlike any he’d seen. Rainey’s lower right leg was dislocated at the knee and cocked at an impossible angle — “an obvious deformity,” in Johnson’s words.

He asked the quarterback not to look at it. Rainey didn’t listen. He asked him to take deep breaths. Rainey was inconsolable. “My season,” he kept saying. “My season.”

The upside to the story is that Rainey got outfitted with a prosthetic and chose to keep playing high school football instead of becoming a Paralympics athlete, a move that inspired everyone (including Tim Tebow, who I guess just goes around getting inspired by things). With football season starting back up, the next chapter of Jacob’s story begins, and a full piece on his story in the Times isn’t a bad way to start it. I definitely recommend giving it a read, because not only is it inspirational, it features wonderful out-of-context quotes like this:

“Maybe my skin’s just not ready,” Rainey suggested.

My girlfriend works at an orthotics and prosthetics company that makes a lot of the artificial limbs you see on athletes like Jacob (and Winter, the real-life dolphin from the movie Dolphin Tale), so stories like this have really been brought into perspective for me. If you need more of a reason to check out the article, take a look at some of the awesome photos that go along with it …

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After years of the ‘Florida Or Ohio?’ game making criminals and ridiculous people easy to geographically identify, it looks like the people of Ohio are getting it together — on the heels of the most inspiring Ohio elementary school field day of all time comes the story of West Liberty-Salem High junior Meghan Vogel, a state champion in the 1,600 meters who turned her burned-out 3,200 meters performance into the best acts of sportsmanship you’re likely to see.

Vogel was last, the 15th runner on the track, with about 200 meters to go when she noticed the runner directly in front of her, Arden McMath of Arlington, was struggling.

McMath, a sophomore, fell to the track, got up and began to fall again when Vogel picked her up and carried McMath across the finish line, making sure to keep McMath ahead of her.

“I don’t really remember much about it,” Vogel said. “It was kind of a blur. I just remember picking her up and trying not to injure her as I crossed the line. She deserved to be in front of me.” (via USA Today)

Video of the finish is below. Keep it up, Ohio.

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