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Hardly knew you

Full disclosure--I'm a news junkie. When I turn on the television, I will invariably change it to a news channel. I cannot walk pass a newspaper without taking a peek at the headlines. Now, with my Smartphone, I can constantly keep up to date with all varieties of news. It's so neatly arranged in categories, such as Top Stories, Entertainment and Sports.
Typically, the Sports section I breeze right through, be it television, newspapers or Smart Phone. It's not because I've never been a sports fan. Growing up in Southern California, I was a supporter of the Los Angeles Dodgers.   Back in that day, my parents were subscribers to the team's newspaper Dodger Blue. Within these pages, I could keep up with all the players, such as Steve Sax, FernandoValenzula and Mike Scioscia. 
However, after we moved to Las Vegas and later on to Idaho, I slowly lost touch with this team. Nowadays, if I see a game with the LA Dodgers, I am painfully reminded that I don't know any of the players and the ones I did know are now coaches, such as Rick Honeycutt and Steve Yeager.
Now back a week ago, a Sports headline on my SmartPhone caught my eye before I swept to the next topic. The cropped headline read: "Tony Gwynn, Hall of Famer..."
I remembered that name. It used to instill fear in me, a Dodger fans, when Vin Scully (or Jerry Doggett or Ross Porter) announced this powerhouse player was up at bat for the opposing team , the San Diego Padres.  As I clicked on the link, I thought "I haven't seen his name in the news recently, so this may not be good..."
Sadly enough, the article was about his untimely and tragic death from cancer.
As I read the article, I was impressed by the paragraph that told he took videos of himself at batting practice and had his wife video tape his televised games. He used these footage to study and observe ways of improving his batting skills.
I became intrigued and started searching other articles about Tony Gwynn. No longer did I see him as a baseball player threatening the Dodger's winning streak.  I found many writers giving personal stories about him, not just a tremendous player but a caring and genuine person.
I was saddened that I didn't learn too much about him until after he passed away. Then, I saw this as an opportunity: instead of breezing by the Sports section, I could start being a little more observant of the articles. There could be a gem of a person hidden in the columns.

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