Towles Goes Deep

J. R. Towles hit his first home run of the season last night. This lead Chronicle columnist Richard Justice to pen the following about J.R.:

...there’s something special about a guy who keeps peeling himself off the canvas and getting up to try again. For three straight seasons, Towles has been summoned to the manager’s office and told he wasn’t good enough.

He must really love baseball if he’s willing to keep starting over in the minor leagues. Somewhere deep inside him, there must be both an inner-toughness and an inner-confidence.

Don’t you root for guys like that? Aren’t guys like J.R. Towles the ones we talk about when we try to define character and fight and resilience in professional sports?

This is exactly why I pull for J.R. and other players like him. Let's hope this year is his year.