Last night, I stayed up too late watching baseball. I'll
deal with the fatigue today, because it means that my beloved Boston Red Sox
are in the ALCS, still contenders for the World Series Championship. While I
could go on at length about Sunday night's game (and the game-tying grand slam
from Big Papi in the 8th inning), I would instead like to focus on the
off-field work of Jarrod Saltalamacchia, the Red Sox catcher (whose bottom of
the ninth base hit drove in the winning run.)
October is National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, and
a few years back, Saltalamacchia, along with several athletes from Boston and
across the country posted public service announcements against bullying, including Saints quarterback Drew Brees, featured above. As I watched the Red Sox pour out of the dugout at the end of the game to
mob Salty as he rounded second, I thought back to the video.
Saltalamacchia is a popular figure in Boston these days, and the hope (as with
all of these endorsements) is that his celebrity brings added credence to his
message. The video features Salty addressing the camera stating: "If
you're being a bully, you're not on my team." Boston vs. Bullies
Saltalamacchia goes on to say "Be a good teammate, help
stop bullying." This message flows directly into Play Like a Champion's GROW model. As a part of GROW, Play Like a Champion focuses on the
Relationships on the team--between coaches and the student-athletes as well as
between teammates. PLC applies the "family" model to a
team, and this should apply equally to all members of the team. Bullying
either within the team or by team members should not be tolerated.
The Detroit Tigers, (who played very well this weekend
against the Red Sox) have also been involved in the anti-bullying movement.
Detroit Tigers Strikeout Bullying included a letter from Tigers
first-baseman Prince Fielder and several of his teammates talk about their own
experiences being bullied, along with information on how to stop bullying. Tigers Strikeout Bullying
To learn more about what you can do to prevent bullying, or
to find public service announcements from celebrities ranging from Drew Brees,
President Obama, Anne Hathaway and (of course) Jarrod Saltalamacchia, these
websites have more information: StompOutBullyingor Pacer's National Bullying Prevention Center
