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Beyond Fonzie and concession stands: This is caring for a fanbase

From an appreciative Nats fan named Eric:

My 15 year old daughter who became a Nats fan with me had a brain tumor succesfully removed on Monday at UVA. Prior to her surgery I had emailed [a Nats beat writer] by clicking on a link at the bottom of one of his [washington]post.com pieces. He replied in under two minutes. He forwarded the email to people in the Nationals organization and this morning a package showed up in my daughter's hospital room addressed to her. Inside was a baseball signed by Nick Johnson, a Nationals Teddy bear, visor, Zimmerman dog tag, etc. etc. She had no idea about this and the look on her face...I'll never forget it. She is sleeping with the baseball right now. We are at home now and it looks like she is going to be fine.

Obviously, this is a very nice story, and I wish Eric's daughter good health and a continued successful recovery from a very serious condition.

There's an interesting aspect to this, which is I doubt this kind and timely act will be mentioned otherwise. Occasionally, Nats.com or the Post or Times will publish stories on Nationals doing good deeds; for instance, I specifically remember this June 2005 story about Jose Guillen visiting veterans at Walter Reed. These stories are occasional because they provide context that professional athletes can be caring people; they aren't published any more than occasionally because if they occur too frequently then they will seem self-serving. We live in a cynical world these days, but it has to be true that good people aren't good people just for the headlines heralding them as good people. They're good people because they do good things to make other people feel better, no matter who else heralds the good deeds or not.

And, on those occasions, these stories aren't written by journalists. No, it's even better than that.

They're written by appreciative parents.