THAT CANO GUY'S ALRIGHT WITH ME

This picture was put out by Robinson Cano the other day. It's him on a day off. He sent it out on his Instagram (HERE):

I like it.  I mean, I think maybe it's alittle weird that he has to tell everyone what he does on his day off and everyone sees the dude buying ice cream for a bunch of kids, but at the same time, it's a sweet gesture and if he didn't send that picture out, who knows if anyone else would have done it. It's real, I dig it. Back in the day, this type of stuff happened alot and slowly but surely, things changed. So this brings it back to a simple time. Let's face it, it's not every day that a New York Yankee comes out and hangs with with the fans before their "people" whisk them away. 

We published an interaction between player and fan. We heard about for the first time on BYB. It came from our piece titled WHAT I SHARED WITH MY DAUGHTER ABOUT PHIL RIZZUTO.  In it, Phil's niece wrote: "...We were close to the house when Uncle Phil drove down a neighborhood street and saw kids playing stick ball.  Even in 1994 kids were still playing stick ball in Queens.  My Uncle, without hesitating, stopped the car, got out, and started playing stick ball with those kids.   Here are these kids, on a random Tuesday afternoon, playing stick ball on a Queens street when a car stops and Phil Rizzuto gets out to play with them for five minutes.  Those kids are probably still telling the same story to their friends and family today."

It's those moments you really miss today. We have talked about the disconnect between fans and players for a while now on BYB.  Read LET'S GET "REAL" BETWEEN PLAYERS & FANS AGAIN.  We wrote: "...fans can’t run on the field anymore. Fans can't walk on the field of Yankee stadium out to the monuments to exit the park after the game.  All that is gone.  But what about when Babe Ruth used to just sit with kids and chat it up?  Sure, it was as photo op, but it was still real...what about when you could just sit there and wait for players to sign a card for you before a game, and the players stuck around and did it... maybe even interacted with you. Remember that?... 

It’s big business now, bigger than ever and these are big athletes, but so were Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle.  Hey, you know what I’d like to see happen and maybe even start a trend? I’d like players to just “show up.” Let's get back to these players being real again.   We just saw it with CC Sabathia and his wife Amber were in Hoboken to help rebuild for people who lost everything in Hurricane Sandy. "

At the end of the day... seeing Robinson Cano handing out ice cream... it makes it real and dare I even say, it makes bringing your kids to the ballpark to root for their heroes worth it.  I really like it and I wanted to share it and say once again... I hope we can get back to this. These are sweet times and a kid, or a fan will never forget it.

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