Jimmy Rollins Shifts Focus to Helping Underprivileged Ugandan Children

If you’re one of the people who watched a child open a $300 Christmas gift this year, only to have their face drop and spend the rest of the day moping because it “wasn’t the right color” or “asked for Arkham City not Arkham Asylum, stupid!!” than you are also probably one of the people who is able to discern that some American children are painfully conceited and ignorant to the rest of the world crumbling around them.

But unlike you, Jimmy Rollins is not ready to give up on “children” as a concept.  With his future secured, Jimmy has shifted his focus from getting paid to helping young baseball players in a different land learn new aspects of the game.  

This past summer, when Willaimsport was lit up by the hopes and dreams of hundreds of Little Leaguers, a team of kids from Uganda was planning to join in the fun.  Naturally, the U.S. State Department denied them visas, and succeeded in defending America from the extremely threatening group of adolescent baseball players.

Had America not been feeling especially heroic that day and the Ugandans made it stateside, their first round contest would have been against a team from Langley, Canada.  Upon hearing their competitors weren’t permitted to play, the Langley team found a group called Right to Play and filmmaker Jay Shapiro, and began putting together a plan for them to travel to Uganda and play the game that never was.

J-Roll will be a part of the proceedings, as Shapiro asked him if he was interested in being involved and Jimmy gave a “yes” that was probably accompanied by that roguish smile we all know and love.  In three weeks, the shortstop will be charming people internationally, while bringing baseball lessons to an area that doesn’t always get them and kicking in $10,000 of his own to help fund Right to Play,  just because.

Joining Jimmy will be Derrek Lee and a couple of Canadian umpires who are paying their own fare to go over and train officials.  Not being asked to train a new generation of umpires are Joe West, Angel Hernandez, and Scott Barry, who are idiots.

But now is not the time to dish out needless, accurate insults.  Jimmy and Derrek are setting an honorable precedent, one hopefully that can be taken up by even further Major Leaguers in the future as baseball spreads its influence across the globe, and maybe even one day give spoiled American brats some perspective.

I DON’T CARE IF YOU WANTED AN XBOX ALL WE CAN AFFORD ARE USED TAMAGOTCHIS.