It isn't easy to find good human interest news about professional sports these days. My two favorite leagues—Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Football League (NFL)—often seem to deliberately try to drive old-school fans away.
There is still some good to be had out there, however. One just has to look a lot harder for it. For the last six years, the Los Angeles Dodgers have been doing something that doesn't get enough media attention because it lacks sensationalism or an outrage factor.
The Los Angeles Dodgers made a quiet, yet notable move on Wednesday, renewing the contract of former outfielder Andrew Toles, according to the Associated Press.
Toles, 31, has not played in the majors since 2018. He's been on the restricted list since March 2019 because of mental health issues. (He was subsequently diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.) There's no reason to believe he'll ever take another swing, for the Dodgers or anyone else. Nevertheless, the Dodgers have continued to renew his contract each spring so that he maintains his health insurance. It's a shockingly decent act in an industry that too often loses touch with humanity.
I've been a lifelong Dodgers fan, and I remember Toles being fun to watch in his short time with the team. He had a great first year after being called up from the minors and, though not superstar material, seemed destined to have a decent career as a utility outfielder.
Although Toles reported to spring training in 2019, he didn't play. He hasn't been on the field for the Dodgers since the 2018 season.
His story since leaving the team for personal reasons in 2019 is tragic. As the CBS Sports article notes, his father now has guardianship of him. The Dodger organization has kept tabs on Toles since he left the team and has renewed his contract every year since so that he can have health insurance.
Toles is only 31, and for the first few years after he left the Dodgers many hoped that, with the proper help, he would be able to return to baseball. Sadly, that was just wishful thinking on the part of fans. Toles' father, Alvin, said that he doesn't think that Toles even "understands what's going on" when he watches baseball now.
Yes, it's true that the Dodgers can afford to do this, but that doesn't diminish the story in any way.
While those of us from another era still call baseball the national pastime out of habit and nostalgic yearning, the professional sport has, for the most part, become purely transactional and a buttoned-down business. The Dodgers do the business part of it better than most teams, which is one reason that they can afford to do this.
As I wrote in a recent VIP Column, I'm still in love with baseball. All of it, as messy and as heartless as it sometimes seems. I know there will probably be naysayers and complainers responding to this because that's the law of the internet. It's a story about some people doing something good for a person who truly needs it, though.
Most of us can agree that the world could use more of that.
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