My Wish..

[doubledown68]

I know ESPN often sucks... but has anyone been watching the My Wish segments?

I'm a sentamental fool, so I can only watch them in the apartment, where it suddenly becomes amazingly dusty. Anyway, its as an enjoyable as five minutes as any on the WWL.

 

[DanOregon]

I'm allergic to Chris Connely and treacly piano music. It is nice though to see athletes shown as being compassionate.

 

[BYH]

This was discussed during a minor threadjack here:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/43591/

(not saying DD68 should have known this from the subject title, just bringing the My Wish convo from there over here)

 

[Bubbler]

My head tells me this is the worst kind of exploitive television, the kind of thing that generally makes me have the same gutteral reaction that Jones had to KFC. ESPN really has no shame.

But my heart tells me who cares if it's exploitation if these kids get to live a dream because of it?

The athletes? To an extent, **** 'em, this isn't about them. And definitely **** ESPN/Disney and their promotional motivations.

But those kids getting to be on SportsCenter is a massive thrill for them in an otherwise awful time, so I can't knock it.

In the end, I've only watched part of the Jimmie Johnson one and none of the others. Forced sentimentality just doesn't do it for me.

But if it's someone else's cup of tea, I can't by any rights stand on a mountain and rail about it.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

I'm a sentamental fool, so I can only watch them in the apartment, where it suddenly becomes amazingly dusty. Anyway, its as an enjoyable as five minutes as any on the WWL.

This reminded me of the scene in Ocean's 13 where Brad Pitt goes to Clooney's room and when he gets there, Clooney is sniffling. Pit says, "Are you watching .... Oprah?"

This in some ways is a cheap off-shoot of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (which, when I have occasion to watch it -- because my wife wants to -- makes me wonder where all that dust came from, as well. Probably doesn't cost ESPN anything to do it.

 

[Football_Bat]

I wish I was white, uptight and out of sight. (With my luck, the genie would turn me into a tampon.)

 

[alleyallen]

It's a little overdone at times, but it's still a decent feature. One nice one from a couple of days ago had a girl and her mom get pulled over by two cops who then "escorted" her to meet Jimmy Johnson. That was kinda neat.

 

[Mayfly]

I read the other day that a kid wanted to have his wish be to kick Barry Bonds repeatedly in the groin. It was quickly denied.

 

[doubledown68]

I read the other day that a kid wanted to have his wish be to kick Barry Bonds repeatedly in the groin. It was quickly denied.

Considering what the steroid regimen must've done to Barry's groin, they probably didn't want the poor kid wearing himself out.

And I like the segments because kids who survive **** like that damn sure deserve something to smile about. The little girl in last night's segment learned to walk and talk again after having a tumor removed from her brain stem.

Unfortunately, I'm sure there are hundreds of more like her. It' just good to see, that's all.

 

[Ashy Larry]

I read the other day that a kid wanted to have his wish be to kick Barry Bonds repeatedly in the groin. It was quickly denied.

Considering what the steroid regimen must've done to Barry's groin, they probably didn't want the poor kid wearing himself out.

And I like the segments because kids who survive **** like that damn sure deserve something to smile about. The little girl in last night's segment learned to walk and talk again after having a tumor removed from her brain stem.

Unfortunately, I'm sure there are hundreds of more like her. It' just good to see, that's all.

DD.....I like the segments for the same reason, it's great to see kids that have gone through too much finally have a reason to smile.

****...I was watching something similar a few years ago and a little girl needed a bone marrow dono, I drove to the Dana Farber the next morning, registered and now I'm on the donor's list.

 

[The Backyardigan]

I like the SportsCenter segments, but I have a problem with something else. Yesterday, on ESPN.com, they had brief chats with some of the kids featured. How can these kids (most aren't even teen-agers) respond to questions like, "How did meeting Dwyane Wade help you fight your illness?" That seemed pretty tacky, to say the least.

 

[Football_Bat]

My grandpa used to say, "Wish in one hand and [crap] in the other, and see which one fills up first."

 

[Just_An_SID]

I am a firm believer that you don't do community service for the good press that you are going to get. If you ar doing it for the press, then you are doing it for the wrong reason.

Had a football coach who wanted to make sure that everybody knew he was sending the team to the local children's hospital. So, on one day in the preseason, he sends 50 players over. I told him that if he really wanted to have an impact, he should send five players over 10 different times during the season. He looked at me like I was stupid (but then again, he was just doing it for the press).

If the press comes, then great. But don't be an attention ***** screaming "Look at me, look at me" every time you do something nice.

As for the ESPN stories, I saw the preview about a five-year old who wanted to meet his favorite player. All I could think is, what five-year old knows enough about sports to have a favorite player? It is probably his dad's favorite player.

 

[Big Game]

I've actually seen most of these segments and, while exploitive, they are great for the kids and always stir my emotions up.
To be fair to the athletes, a lot of these guys do this kind of thing even when the cameras aren't around.
I know for a fact that Kobe Bryant (I think his was the first "My Wish" aired) and Dwyane Wade are very active in this sort of endeavor and each prefer not having the media notified. I'm not sure about the guys from the other sports.

Are these segments self-serving? Definitely, but as someone said earlier, as long as it puts a smile on a kid's face, it's all worth it.

 

[crusoes]

I'm allergic to Chris Connely and treacly piano music. It is nice though to see athletes shown as being compassionate.

I won't watch anything on ESPN anymore that has a piano track.