Sometimes you have to just Man Up

Do you think all the players should have attended the Walter Reed trip…or are we mad because of the particular players?  If David Wright and RA Dickey stayed behind would it have been OK?

In the spring of 2007, Fred Wilpon, the owner of the New York Mets, accompanied his team on a visit to the wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Wilpon was haunted by the experience, especially by a lieutenant who had just arrived at the hospital after being severely wounded in Iraq a week earlier. The doctors said the lieutenant would have bled to death in previous wars, but the efficacy of the battlefield medical care in Iraq and Afghanistan was remarkable. “I’d say it was a miracle that kid was still alive,” Wilpon says, but then he realized he was in a hospital full of miracles. As he thought about this afterward, Wilpon figured–as others involved in the care of veterans have–that there was going to be an unprecedented need for psychological counseling for the survivors of horrific wounds. “The other thing that struck me was how removed most Americans are from the troops,” Wilpon says. “Most people don’t think much about the war. When I was a kid during World War II, we were always being asked to do something for the troops. I wanted to reconnect the public with the military.”

Wilpon went to work, talking to military leaders about what the returning troops needed most–and to his fellow baseball owners about organizing a massive program to help out.

Read more: Time Magazine

“I have not spoken to anyone who didn’t go, but I do have feelings about it. Sure,” right-hander R.A. Dickey said when asked about the no-shows. “In our own way, it’s a way we can pay personal tribute to people who we take so for granted every day. (ESPN)

“I don’t answer,” Perez said, “anything about outside the stadium.” (Star-Ledger)

“I didn’t go because I didn’t want to see that,” Castillo said. (Star-Ledger)

Beltran said he had a meeting with his foundation to discuss plans to build a high school in his native Puerto Rico. Beltran runs the Carlos Beltran Foundation. (Star-Ledger)

“You’d like to see everybody. I don’t think it’s big enough until you get everybody.  But we made a good showing and I think it meant a lot for those guys and it meant a lot for us. It’s amazing to see how dedicated they are to this country. It makes your chest swell.” David Wright in the Daily News.

Beltran has attended similar events in the past.

“It’s not that I’m against it,” Beltran said. “Actually, I like it and I wanted to go. But I had my own things to do.”

For the Mets, charity work often piles up. Later this week, for example, Wright, Wilpon and pitcher Mike Pelfrey plan on making their annual pilgrimage to Engine 10, the firehouse located next to Ground Zero in Manhattan. (Mets.com)

The Official Site of Carlos Beltran:

My mission is to allow adolescence to become well-rounded individuals and teach them to take control of their future by way of sports and education. The principle means by which my mission will be accomplished is by supporting institutions that strive to promote teamwork, dedication, respect and hard work. All tools I used to achieve my dreams!