from Amazon
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Josh Hamilton screams, fans support him
Josh Hamilton, in a rush to get to the birth of his child, allegedly screamed in the face of an autograph seeker in the lobby of his hotel. The comments in that thread, and in those of BTF, are filled with posts of support, saying that the girl “asked for it” with her pestering attitude.
I would suspect that if the girl were to replay the incident, she’d have handled it better. And I would suspect if you were to ask Josh that he would have handled it more politely. In this case, both were wrong, and the combination doesn’t make it right, just worse. Of course, both can be forgiven, if they wanted to act as decent human beings, but something got the better of them.
I don’t really want to talk about this particular incident.
But, I want to put you in his shoes. What would you do? And let me change the parameters. Say that you were not being pestered by a lady with a child, but by an unruly mob of 3 to 5 guys. Say you do not have your teammates with you, but you are alone. But, you do have a very pressing once-in-a-lifetime engagement, your mind is a bit clouded, and you really want to get out of there as fast as possible. What do you do? Do you size up the situation, and sign the damn autograph, or do you stick to your principles, and live with the consequences? And, if you stick to your principles, do you (initially or eventually) take a best-defense-is-a-good-offense approach, or do you remain unfailingly polite throughout, crushing them with kindness?