De baseballwereld werd gisteren opgeschrikt door de dood van Gregory Halman. ‘Greg’, zoals hij in de Verenigde Staten wordt genoemd, was zeer geliefd. Niet alleen in Seattle, maar over de hele wereld. De reacties in Nederland en aan de andere kant van de plas waren indrukwekkend.
Een natuurtalent, atleet, warme persoonlijkheid, schat van een jongen, ‘five tool player’, leergierig, betrokken, extreem getalenteerd, energiek. Superlatieven te over. En terecht, want dit lot verdient niemand.
De mooiste in memoriam die ik tegen ben gekomen (voel je vrij om met meer suggesties te komen in de reacties hieronder) en die ik jullie niet wilt onthouden komt van Jeff Sullivan van Seattle Mariners weblog Lookoutlanding.com:
It’s insulting the way lives end up getting summarized. It’s understandable, of course – to truly capture a life lived would be to tell a story as long as the life itself – but Greg Halman was so much more than an outfield prospect for the Seattle Mariners. He was more than a guy with an age and a dad and statistics. We didn’t know a lot of the story, and few people did, but pay attention to the words of everybody who’s come out with a statement. To an individual, those who knew Greg, even just a little bit, were struck by his charm, his enthusiasm, his warmth, his infectious smile, which is one of those traits that many ascribe but few truly possess. One senses that Greg wasn’t living his life in pursuit of happiness; one senses that Greg was living a life driven by it.
I don’t even feel right referring to Greg as a baseball player. Obviously he was a baseball player, and that was how we knew him, but I don’t feel right giving him that label, that identity. Still, while “baseball player” wasn’t Greg Halman’s full identity, it was a part of it, so it’s worth noting how much Halman achieved, and what he came to represent. He wasn’t just a Mariners prospect on the brink of a big league career.
Ook de Minor League Baseball analyst van MLB.com, Jonathan Mayo, is in een video vol lof over Halman. Net als FOXsports analyst Jon Paul Morosi.
In dit artikel van MLB.com een uitgebreid overzicht van andere reacties op de dood van Halman, vooral van spelers die hem kenden.
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