The Red Sox had a player who was like Ripken with fans and other players alike: Sean Casey. A few years ago, some magazine (it might have been The Sporting News, but I can't remember for sure) surveyed more than 400 players and asked them who the nicest guy in baseball was, and Sean won hands down. Before he came to the Sox, he played for Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Detroit. He's famous for getting up early the morning after games and going to help serve food at a homeless shelter that he founded. He would always come out and talk to kids waiting around after games at Fenway. And a friend of mine told me that he ran into him at a restaurant in Florida during Spring training and started up a conversation with him that lasted 2 hours, where they talked about baseball, families, etc., as if they were old friends ... and then Sean insisted on paying for everyone in the entire restaurant because, he said, "it was such a nice real night" and he was sure he made far too much money to "play a game."
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01-14-2010
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