Little Leaguer Hit By Pitch Consoles Pitcher

See story, video clip at ESPN

Well, it doesn’t get much more inspiring than this. If you pay attention to news or sports, you probably have seen this moment, when Texas East Little League pitcher Kaiden Shelton becomes visibly upset after hitting Oklahoma Little League batter Isaiah Jarvis in the head. In a lesson many can learn from, Isaiah shows incredible sportsmanship by walking to the pitcher’s mound from first base to console Kaiden.

Isaiah noticed Kaiden was upset by the errant pitch and was crying. Isaiah walked over and started talking to Kaiden and embracing him trying to let him know he was OK. Others, including Kaiden’s coach came to the mound to show support and the coach, who was miked up for the game could be heard saying, “Look at me. You’re alright …” Kaiden can be heard sobbing.

We’re inspired by Isaiah’s sportsmanship, and his actions in trying to comfort Kaiden. That’s why we’re memorializing this little story.

As far as the game went, Texas East ultimately won, 9-4. But that’s not the important part of this game. It’s the display of sportsmanship by Isaiah. Way to go, Isaiah.

Rocky Bleier: Four-Time Super Bowl-Winning Fullback With the Pittsburgh Steelers,
Notre Dame Grad, Wounded War Veteran,
Purple Heart and Bronze Star Recipient,
2020 NCAA Inspiration Award Winner

Rocky Bleier Receives NCAA Inspiration Award. Click above image to watch video

Wounded with shrapnel from a grenade, hospitalized for months, doctors told him he’d be ok, he would be able to perform “normal” activities. They told him not to expect to play football again. Rocky Bleier had a different vision.

The Tragic Impact of the Loss of His Father Inspires Titans Center Ben Jones

Ben Jones, Center, Tennessee Titans (Photo: Tennessee Titans media guide)
When he was only 10 years old, Tennessee Titans center Ben Jones experienced tragedy that no boy ever should have to endure. Ben’s father was killed in a helicopter crash.

Steve Jones, Ben’s dad, worked as a forester in Brent, Ala., and was traveling on a helicopter inspecting timber when his aircraft went down. The crash killed both Steve and the pilot.

The Brent community came together to help support the Jones family in their time of need, and it’s something Ben has never forgotten. The Jones family also began to work in the community to give back as well. The acts of giving Ben witnessed made a lasting impression on him. Jim Wyatt, Senior Writer/Editor of TitansOnline.com, quotes Ben as saying, “You learn from experiences like that and it makes you want to help when you get a chance.”

To read all of Wyatt’s story, go to: Titans Center Ben Jones Gives Back.

Wide Receiver Joe Anderson’s Dream

Joe Anderson / Instagram
Joe Anderson / Instagram

Joe Anderson has a dream, and he has been relentless in trying to follow it. He is a wide receiver who went undrafted out of Texas Southern University in 2012 but was able to catch on for a little while over the past few years with the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles. But he’s now a free agent, unsigned, and he wants a job badly. His old wide receiver job. So he went to the Houston Texans’ facility with a cardboard sign that read, “Not homeless … but STARVING for success. Will run routes 4 food.”

He posted a photo of himself (top) on Instagram, and it got picked up and went viral. It’s a great story, with many inspiring elements as told by SB Nation:

Joe Anderson Is Following a Dream, and It Took Him to the Texans’ Doorstep

Tim Tebow – Inspirational or Offensive?

Denver Broncos quarterback, Tim Tebow.
A story on Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow is low-hanging fruit for us. It’s a little too easy to line him up as another athlete with an inspiring story on this website and write an article about the man who to us is such an inspiration and a great story that should make everyone smile, at least just a little, and feel good inside. So we didn’t do our own piece, we waited for the other media to write one. And we waited all season. We waited while the Tebow-bashing and criticizing played out in the mainstream media.

Frankly, it confuses us that anyone could watch this athlete, understand his back story, and come up with the conclusion that his is anything but an inspiring story. Most of the media doesn’t seem to get it. Which just goes to show you how out of touch most of the mainstream media is with mainstream America.

Eighty-five percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians. So you’d think that Tebow giving praise to his “Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” very publicly after every game would be no big deal, not news, not a “man bites dog” story, but the opposite. Other football players at every level get on bended knee for a brief moment, bow their heads, cross themselves when they’ve scored a touchdown. Not all of them, of course, but enough to notice. Maybe Tebow, whose kneeling pose in prayer has become known as “Tebowing,” holds his prayer a little longer than the others. Or maybe it’s that he’s been so open about his faith, that when he points his finger to heaven reflecting the cheers and applause that shower down upon him when he scores up to a higher power, everyone knows exactly what the gesture means. Other athletes do it constantly. But maybe there’s some ambiguity in their gestures because they don’t talk about their faith as openly as Tebow does.

A little background on Tim Tebow, just in case you didn’t know (and you might not, because most of the media doesn’t focus on the back story):

• Tim was born to Baptist missionary parents in the Philippines.
• While she was pregnant with Tim, his mother, Pam, suffered a life-threatening infection. She went into a coma. She also suffered from dysentery. She was treated with an array of drugs as a result – drugs that shouldn’t be used on a pregnant woman, because of the danger to the fetus. She pulled through her illness, but doctors warned her to expect her baby to be stillborn. They said if Tim went to term and survived, that he could be severely disabled as a result of the drug treatments she received. They asked her to consider an abortion. Pam refused.
• In a high school game as a sophomore, Tebow hurt his right leg on a play in the first half of a game. His coach told him to toughen up, that it was probably just a bruise. Tebow continued to play and in the fourth quarter, ran for a score-tying 29-yard touchdown. After the game, x-rays showed a broken fibula. And not just a hairline fracture – a “jagged break of his lower leg,” as his coach described it. He didn’t play the rest of the year.

You’ve probably seen this drink commercial, “Appreciate That,” where Tebow outlines the things people have said he couldn’t do:


Overcoming adversity? Yeah, just a little. Inspirational? We think so.

We wanted to highlight this piece of commentary by the Miami Herald’s Linda Robertson: Inspirational or offensive, Tim Tebow’s no phony. Unfortunately, however, her column is no longer accessible through the Miami Herald website, so we’ve had to link to the only place on the web we’ve been able to find it. It’s poorly copied and pasted — there are no paragraphs and some sentences run into the next, but it’s still readable. We hope you enjoy it.